How to choose antivirus software

Reviewed by the Aries Portal editorial team · Last reviewed 21 September 2026

By this point you know how protection software works, what its features mean, and what it is defending against. Now comes the practical question: if you have decided a paid product is worth considering, how do you choose one calmly and on your own terms? This step lays out a criteria-based method — a checklist you can apply to any product, including the one we cover as a worked example in the next step.

First, decide whether you need to buy at all

It is worth pausing here, because the honest answer for some readers is that they do not need to spend anything. If you keep Windows or macOS updated, leave the built-in protection on, use unique passphrases with multi-factor authentication, and back up your files, you already have a solid baseline at no cost. Consider a paid product when you want specific extras it bundles, when you are protecting several devices and want one place to manage them, or when you simply prefer the reassurance of a dedicated tool and its support. Any of those is a legitimate reason; “an advertisement frightened me” is not.

The criteria that actually matter

1. Detection quality. The core job comes first. Rather than trusting a vendor’s own claims, look to independent testing laboratories that assess detection and false-positive rates using consistent methods. AV-TEST (av-test.org) and AV-Comparatives (av-comparatives.org) publish results you can read yourself. Treat their data as far more reliable than any marketing.
2. Effect on performance. Good software protects without noticeably slowing your device. The same testing labs measure performance impact, which is useful if you have an older computer.
3. The features you will actually use. Map the product’s list against your real needs, using step three. Pay for what you will use; ignore the rest.
4. Number and type of devices. Households often mix Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. Check that a plan covers the devices you own and enough of them, and confirm the product genuinely supports each platform rather than offering a token app.
5. Total cost, including renewal. This is where care pays off. Introductory prices are often much lower than the renewal price a year later. Find out what you will pay on renewal, not just the first-year figure, and check the vendor’s current pricing directly — in Australian dollars — because it changes.
6. Refund and cancellation terms. Read how to cancel and whether a refund is available before you subscribe, not after. Clear, fair terms are a good sign; terms that are hard to find are not.
7. Privacy and data handling. Security software has deep access to your device, so how a vendor handles data matters. Read its privacy policy for what it collects and shares. Under Australian Consumer Law, claims a company makes about its product and practices must be accurate, which gives its written statements real weight.
8. Support and reputation. Consider how you would get help if something went wrong, and look at how the company handles billing and cancellations, not only detection.

A simple scoring approach

If you are weighing two or three products, a small table keeps you honest. List your criteria down one side, weight the ones you care about most, and fill in what you find for each product from independent sources and the vendors’ own pages. The point is not mathematical precision; it is to make sure you decide on the things that matter to you rather than on whichever advertisement was loudest.

Free versus paid: a fair comparison

Because the built-in protection in Windows and macOS is free and genuinely capable, any paid product is really competing against a solid free baseline, not against nothing. That reframes the question helpfully. Instead of asking “is this product good?”, ask “what does this product give me that the free baseline does not, and is that difference worth its yearly cost to me?” For some households the answer is clear — they want the bundled password manager, coverage across many devices in one place, and someone to call for support. For others, the free baseline plus good habits is plenty. Neither answer is wrong; the point is to make the comparison honestly rather than assume paid automatically means safer.

Questions to ask before you pay

When you are close to a decision, a short list of direct questions keeps you grounded:

• What will this cost me on renewal next year, in Australian dollars, not just for the first term?
• How do I cancel, and can I get a refund if I change my mind?
• Does it cover every device in my household, and does it genuinely support each platform?
• Which of the bundled features will I actually use, and would I have paid for them separately?
• What do the most recent independent lab reports say about its detection and performance?
• What does its privacy policy say it collects, and am I comfortable with that?

If you can answer those six questions, you are deciding on substance rather than on marketing, which is exactly the position this guide is trying to put you in.

A note on privacy specifically, since it is easy to skip. Security software, by its nature, can see a great deal of what happens on your device, so the vendor’s data practices deserve a moment’s attention. A short read of the privacy policy tells you what is collected, whether anything is shared, and where the company is based. You are not looking for perfection — every product collects something to function — but for practices you are comfortable with and stated clearly. A vendor that explains its data handling in plain language is showing you something useful about how it treats customers generally, and under Australian Consumer Law the accuracy of those statements can be held to account.

Applying the method

The next step puts this method to work on a single product, TotalAV, as a worked example — showing what can be described responsibly, what should be checked directly with the vendor, and how to keep the same critical eye you would bring to any option. Because our link to that vendor is a paid one, we will say so plainly there, just as we do here.