I wanted to find the ones that would offer the best protection for laptops in 2020.
But it was not easy. Many antivirals are not good and only provide basic protection. And many antivirus programs that provide good virus protection are not necessarily well protected against cybersecurity threats such as phishing and ransomware.

If you only surf the internet with your laptop at home, you may not need more than a simple antivirus. However, if you use your laptop for online shopping and banking, for example, or if you travel frequently or connect to public Wi-Fi networks, you need something more advanced.

I spent several weeks testing a ton of different antivirus programs on my Windows 10 and MacBook Air laptop. I analyzed the security of each individual, what features they contain and if they offer a good value or not. This is what I found out.

1. Norton 360: The Best Laptop Antivirus of 2020
Norton 360 is my favorite laptop antivirus of 2020; it performed exceptionally well in my tests, blocking 100% of malware samples on my PC and MacBook. Norton's antivirus engine is excellent. It uses advanced heuristics, known malware databases, and machine learning to detect all types of new and emerging malware.

2. McAfee Total Protection - Ideal for web protection
Mcafee Antivirus 1 PC cheap has one of the fastest and most comprehensive antivirus scanners - it detected all my malware samples in a full system scan without slowing it down. McAfee's real-time antimalware engine is also very effective, blocking all malicious files and scripts I've run, including spyware, ransomware, rootkits, and Trojans.

I also believe that McAfee has the best web protection out there. I was impressed by McAfee's anti-phishing protection, which intercepted more fake websites in testing than Chrome or Safari's built-in phishing protection tools. Also, the McAfee VPN was surprisingly fast and barely slowed down my internet connection while encrypting my web traffic and hiding my IP address.

3. Avira Prime: ideal for optimizing data protection
Avira is a beginner antivirus with an excellent cloud-based malware scanner. Since Avira's scanner runs in the cloud (not on your laptop), the software is fast, lightweight, and requires very little system resources. During my tests, Avira's malware engine achieved 100% perfect detection and removal of all my test malware.

Avira's basic antivirus suite, Avira Antivirus Pro, comes with a malware scanner and web protection. By upgrading to Avira Internet Security, you also get a password manager. However, Avira Prime is the best deal and offers VPN and a wide range of system optimization tools for up to 5 devices.

4. TotalAV Internet Security: the most complete device optimization
TotalAV is really good at detecting viruses - it uses the same cloud-based antivirus scanner as Avira. However, during testing, TotalAV missed some zero-day malware samples found by Avira. While TotalAV still offers excellent virus protection, it lacks some of Avira's advanced web-based malware technologies.