Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus (opens in new tab) is an attention-grabbing Home windows and Mac app which takes an uncommon strategy to malware searching.
Whereas different suites have a heavy deal with detecting recognized malware (opens in new tab) (normally requiring stacks of background processes and common downloads of cumbersome signature definitions), Webroot spends most of its time on sensible habits monitoring, permitting it to detect even the very newest threats.
This makes for an amazingly compact app – 15MB on our overview PC, vs. 1GB+ for a lot of suites – and since it isn’t checking each doable file for recognized threats, scans are sometimes accomplished in seconds. (The Webroot web site claims it is 60x sooner than some opponents.)
- You possibly can join Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus right here (opens in new tab)
Regardless of its small dimension, Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus nonetheless manages a prolonged characteristic record: antivirus (opens in new tab), real-time antiphishing, an additional anti-ransomware layer, a easy firewall (opens in new tab) and community monitor.
An Identification Safety characteristic features a assortment of instruments designed to forestall web sites and malware from accessing your knowledge. There’s safety from keyloggers, doubtful browser add-ons, cookie and web site knowledge stealing, unauthorized display screen grabbers, and extra.
Upgrading to Web Safety Plus with AntiVirus will get you Android and iOS help, together with a easy password supervisor.
Web Safety Full with Antivirus provides automated deletion of your net actions, and an internet backup service with 25GB of safe on-line storage.
Plans and pricing
Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus (opens in new tab) is priced at $24 to guard one gadget for the primary yr, rising to $40 on renewal.
There is not any possibility so as to add further units to the license. Webroot affords a second yr for $36, however that is such a small low cost it is unlikely to tempt most customers.
Webroot Web Safety Plus with AntiVirus (opens in new tab) protects three units for $36 in yr one, $60 on renewal.
Webroot Web Safety Full with AntiVirus (opens in new tab) covers 5 units for $48 in yr one, $80 on renewal.
This is not excellent worth, however it’s within the vary we would anticipate. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is cheaper in yr one at $15, as an example, however it renews at an an identical $40.
Bitdefender has extra billing flexibility, although. You are in a position so as to add extra units and years to your license, making huge financial savings long-term. If you happen to’ve a houseful of {hardware} to guard, as an example, a three-year, ten-device license prices solely $180, or $6 per gadget per yr.
Setup
Webroot would not require bank card particulars to make use of its trials, however you’ll have to register along with your identify and e-mail tackle. The web site then gives you with a obtain hyperlink and 14-day license key.
Set up is speedy, which is not any shock when the bundle is so light-weight that there is virtually nothing to do. Webroot can run alongside most different antivirus apps, too, with not one of the traditional conflicts or hassles.
After setup is full, Webroot launches and runs an preliminary system scan. This took below a minute on our check PC, however nonetheless discovered a few adware-related gadgets on our check system which different antivirus merchandise sometimes ignore. You possibly can overview or cope with any leads to a click on or two, then depart Webroot to get on with defending your PC.
No matter you are doing, it would not seem like Webroot could have any actual affect in your system assets. The bundle added solely two background processes to our PC – one consumer software, one service – which generally consumed below 10MB RAM, nearly as undemanding as an antivirus could be.
Antivirus
Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus has a extra cluttered interface than a lot of the competitors, full of panels, icons, switches, tiny buttons and loads of textual content.
If you happen to want to go away your antivirus alone, this may not matter very a lot. The app protects you robotically simply as quickly because it’s put in, and in case you’re ever anxious a few doable an infection, the console’s massive and really apparent ‘Scan My Pc’ button makes it clear what you must do.
Finding different options could be extra tough. The app has a number of scan sorts, as an example, together with Fast (RAM solely), Full (native exhausting drives), Deep (search for rootkits, Trojans and extra) and Customized (scan particular information or folders), however they’re buried so within the interface chances are you’ll by no means notice they exist (click on PC Safety > Settings > Customized Scan to see what’s on supply).
No matter scan we selected was speedy within the excessive. The Fast Scan lived as much as its identify, finishing in 15-20 seconds; the intensive Deep Scan took two minutes 15 seconds, and the remainder have been someplace in between.
Detection charges have been good, with this system choosing up all our pattern threats. It even blocked one among our check apps, a instrument we use to run numerous exploits: no different antivirus has picked up on its potential risks, earlier than we might even launch it.
However Webroot had an unusually excessive variety of false positives, too. We use the wonderful PCMark Skilled to measure any efficiency affect of an antivirus, for instance. However Webroot flagged a completely harmless PCMark part as a risk, apparently simply because it is written in Autoit (a scripting language typically utilized by malware.) That is additionally one thing we have not seen from some other antivirus.
Options
URL filtering combines Webroot’s huge database of malicious web sites with real-time anti-phishing to maintain you protected from hurt. And this did a strong job for us, often blocking malicious websites which Chrome and Home windows missed.
Sadly, Webroot was solely capable of defend us in browsers the place its net extension was put in (Edge, Chrome, Firefox on our check system.) We have been capable of entry URLs from different apps with none issue.
This system affords what Webroot calls a firewall, however it would not have any of the configurability we see with Norton, Bitdefender or different firewalls. As an alternative, SecureAnywhere AntiVirus does a lot of the exhausting work, searching for brand new and untrusted processes connecting to the web, warning you about new connections made by untrusted purposes and asking you to approve or deny them.
Consultants will not be impressed by the dearth of management, however in any other case this can be a welcome and weird addition to any antivirus bundle.
Elsewhere, a background Identification Defend hardens browser periods to guard you from keyloggers, display screen grabber assaults, clipboard snooping and different makes an attempt to steal your knowledge.
To check this, we ran a easy freeware keylogger whereas shopping with Chrome. When Identification Defend was off, the keylogger might file URLs, usernames, passwords and the rest we typed. When Identification Defend was on, it efficiently blocked recording of the alphanumeric and image keys, leaving our log containing solely references to the spacebar, Enter and Ctrl.
Though Webroot would not boast about them, SecureAnywhere AntiVirus additionally has some stunning bonus instruments.
The SafeStart Sandbox permits you to run doubtful packages in an remoted surroundings, making it tougher for them to change your system.
An Antimalware Instruments dialog gives a utility to take away suspect packages manually, together with their related Registry entries. It is not a full uninstaller, however it might be useful, and this is not a characteristic we have seen from different distributors.
Handy system restore options embrace an choice to ‘Set system insurance policies to defaults’. If malware or the rest has disabled Activity Supervisor, Regedit, or imposed different policy-type restriction, Webroot will repair it with a click on.
Safety
SecureAnywhere AntiVirus aced our easy malware detection assessments, however that solely provides us a fundamental thought of this system’s virus-squashing chops. To see the larger image, we study how an antivirus is ranked by the most important impartial testing labs.
Sadly, Webroot hasn’t been coated by AV-Comparatives and AV-Checks for years. We had extra luck with SE-Labs, which incorporates Webroot in its House Anti-Malware assessments (opens in new tab), however the outcomes have been blended at greatest.
Webroot’s greatest efficiency over the past yr was a fifth place out of 9, with a Complete Accuracy Ranking of 97%. That is not unhealthy – SE-Labs awarded the bundle its prime AAA ranking – however Webroot was nonetheless outperformed by three free merchandise: Avira Free Safety Suite, Avast Free and Microsoft Defender.
That was Webroot’s peak. In its worst efficiency, SE-Labs Q2 2021 check (opens in new tab), the corporate rated ninth out of 9 with a Complete Accuracy Ranking of 94%. (To place that in perspective, each different product within the check scored 100%.)
Anti-ransomware
To spherical off our image of Webroot SecureAnywhere’s skills, we determined to match it in opposition to our personal customized ransomware simulator. As we developed this ourselves, the bundle would not be capable to spot it from any predefined signature or sample, making it an attention-grabbing check of Webroot’s habits monitoring.
The outcomes, sadly, weren’t good. SecureAnywhere ignored our simulator fully, permitting it to encrypt 1000’s of information and gigabytes of information.
Some distributors rating a lot increased on this check. Pattern Micro, Bitdefender and Kaspersky’s engines, as an example, not solely killed our simulator inside seconds of launch, but in addition recovered the handful of information it managed to encrypt.
We won’t mark Webroot down considerably for this, as our check risk wasn’t actual malware, and we won’t make certain why Webroot did not choose it up. Think about SE-Labs comparatively low scores, although, and we’re left with some questions on Webroot’s reliability, making the product tougher to advocate.
Closing verdict
That is an amazingly light-weight antivirus with correct URL blocking and highly effective bonus options, however check outcomes present it isn’t as correct as one of the best of the competitors. Webroot runs fortunately alongside different antivirus merchandise, although, maybe permitting you to run it alongside Microsoft Defender, and the mixture ought to do an important job of preserving you protected.
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