Best Antivirus for Android in 2021 – Better Be Prepared

Avast is one of the most popular desktop antivirus solutions on the market, and Avast for Android aims to extend its popularity to mobile devices as well. The company offers a great ad-supported free version and two premium ad-free options.

The basic Avast mobile app performs regular scans to detect malware, detects malicious apps early, scans potentially unsafe Wi-Fi connections and URLs, and tracks your phone’s location in real-time. It also comes with performance-boosting tools such as RAM boost, battery life optimization, a junk file cleaner, and more.

For the company’s best mobile antivirus features, you’ll have to move to the Pro or Ultimate tier plans. Prices vary depending on where you are, but both subscription options offer a discount of up to 40% the first year. The Pro plan retains all features from the free version (minus the ads) while adding robust anti-theft tools such as the ability to secretly take pictures of people who steal your phone, remotely lock your phone, and remotely delete files. You also get tech support directly from the experts at Avast.

If you’re a heavy internet user on your phone and want to protect yourself with a VPN while browsing, your best bet is the Ultimate version. In addition to the best Android virus protection that Avast can offer, you’ll also get access to Avast’s Secureline VPN service. Other useful features found in all versions of the app include an Android firewall, call blocking, a photo vault for encrypting photographs on your device, and insights into app usage. 

To conclude our Avast antivirus for Android review, we should mention that the app runs very smoothly on every version of Android from Lollipop onward and doesn’t hog system resources too much – speed is compromised by less than 10% during full scans. We also think the ads in the free version take away from the professional feel of an otherwise well-designed mobile interface.

Considered by many the best cell phone antivirus solution for any OS, Bitdefender for Android has a serious reputation to live up to, especially with no free version available. What does $14.99 per year get you, and how does it stack up to the competition?

First of all, Bitdefender Mobile Security offers much more than just a virus cleaner for Android. You also get effective privacy protection and anti-theft tools, first-rate reporting features, and a powerful VPN service. 

Let’s start with why many think it’s the best malware removal for Android: In professional tests, Bitdefender’s malware scan for Android devices got perfect scores, detecting every possible malware listed in the procedure. This includes tests from the well-respected German IT security institute, AV-TEST. 

Admittedly, the app is one of the slower Android antivirus scanners, but the good news is that it hardly slows down the performance of your phone even in full scan mode (4.42%). Scans are automatically performed when you install or update apps, and web protection keeps your browsers safe from malicious attack pages.

In addition to some of the best virus protection for Android, you can also make use of excellent account privacy features. After verifying your email address, for example, the software will automatically notify you of possible security breaches through services using your address.

The Mobile Security feature allows you to set a PIN on all of your mobile apps, while anti-theft features let you remotely locate, lock, or even completely wipe your device. You can also create trusted Wi-Fi zones where apps can remain unlocked.

Finally, a standard subscription gives you access to Bitdefender’s VPN service. Users without paid subscriptions are limited to 200 MB per day and won’t be able to pick which VPN server they want to connect to.

Kaspersky is a well-known cybersecurity company with distinguished anti-malware apps for a variety of operating systems. One of those is arguably the greatest free antivirus for Android. In addition to an outstanding free app, the company is currently offering affordable deals for premium paid subscriptions.

Kaspersky has a very simple pricing scheme: You either pick the free version or you pay a yearly fee that depends on how many devices you want protected. Currently, one-year protection for a single device amounts to $14.95 at full price, while two or three devices will set you back $15.96 or $19.96. That’s a discounted rate for first-time customers. 

So what makes Kaspersky the best free Android antivirus in 2020? In a nutshell: a great set of features and an app that is completely free of annoying advertisements. That’s right: While companies such as Avast and McAfee support their free software with omnipresent advertisements, no such annoyances are to be found here.

Instead, you get superb malware detection and protection, manual scanning, fantastic anti-theft tools, Android Wear support, and call filtering. You can remotely locate, lock, or wipe your device, trigger an alarm on it, and even capture photographs of the would-be thief using the device’s front-facing camera.

However, to truly make Kaspersky’s app the best security app for Android, you’ll have to switch to Premium. This adds automatic malware scanning (real-time protection) as well as a wonderful app-locking feature. The company also adds great anti-phishing tools that protect you against dodgy sites and suspicious links sent through SMS.

The software is easy and quick to install but is middling in terms of scanning speed and system impact. In our tests, full scans took between 30 and 50 minutes, and the system performance toll was about 7%. Also, the app isn’t uniformly supported across Android versions for every device, so you’ll have to check to see if you can run it at all. 

It would be silly to have a competition for the best Android virus scanner and not mention another giant in the world of cybersecurity: McAfee. While it faces tough competition from other phone antivirus solutions, McAfee’s app comes with unique and interesting features that make it a strong contender.

Despite its ad-supported model, the free version of the McAfee Android virus cleaner boasts more features than most of the competition. It has very quick malware detection, unique anti-theft tools, Wear OS integration, memory boosting and storage cleaning tools, an app privacy checker, and a Wi-Fi scanner.

As one of the best phone antivirus apps, McAfee boasts some incredibly thorough anti-theft features: remote locating, locking, wiping, and even a factory reset are all available when your device is stolen. The company also brings a clever twist to the traditional thief cam: Creating a fake alert on the phone, it snaps a photograph of the would-be thief when they try to dismiss the notification.

While the free plan offers lots of useful features, moving to the Premium subscription truly unlocks McAfee Mobile Security’s potential as a contender for the best antivirus on Android. For $29.99 per year per device, you get everything we’ve mentioned plus versatile app-locking features, a backup system for your device’s files, and 24/7 phone support (an upgrade from free chat support). 

You also get access to the unique McAfee Guest Mode feature. While most of the company’s competitors are content to enable PIN locking on specific apps, McAfee Mobile Security lets you create an entire Guest account with customized app privileges.

If you want the very best security for Android devices, McAfee’s VPN Guard will drive the cost up another $50 to $79.99 per device per year. Too expensive, if you ask us.

In terms of speed, McAfee Mobile Security is similar to Kaspersky’s offering. It scans a little faster, and it’s slightly more depending, imposing a performance drop of just over 8%.

Perhaps the best-known cybersecurity company on our list, Norton unsurprisingly makes one of the most impressive antivirus apps for Android. Unfortunately, there is no free version, the software has no anti-theft features, and VPN has to be bought separately. That said, Norton Mobile Security has what is arguably the best virus scanner for Android – on par with Bitdefender Mobile Security – as well as a class-leading app advisor.

Norton offers its regular plan at $29.99 per year for up to three mobile devices, with occasional discounts to $14.99, which is certainly the best premium deal on the market. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to test all the features before committing.

What’s included in the package? Anti-theft protection got axed in 2019, but Norton Mobile Security still offers an automatic SIM lock, call blocking, spam call detection, a system security advisor, privacy reports, and unsecured Wi-Fi detection. Most importantly, it’s the best antivirus app for Android bar none when it comes to advisory features regarding smartphone apps.

Norton monitors not only unusual app behavior but also battery and data usage, sorting apps into groups based on how they rank across all three categories. System and privacy advisors give you an idea of how safe and private your apps are.

Like Bitdefender, Norton’s virus scan for Android catches 100% of the most common viruses on AV-TEST regularly. It has failed to hit 100% only a couple of times since 2017.  

A top antivirus for Android, it has both the fastest quick scan and the least hobbling deep system scan (just 4% impact) of any software we’ve tested.