Scanguard Antivirus Review (2026): Is it the right choice?

Full Review

Scanguard offers a user-friendly antivirus solution with a customizable interface. Its malware scanner uses Avira’s highly rated engine, ensuring excellent detection rates. However, accessing premium features like the VPN and ad blocker requires a significant price increase beyond the starting plan. The annual plan starts at €29.00, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee (14 days for monthly plans).

Anti-Malware

Scanguard’s anti-malware system is powered by Avira’s award-winning antivirus engine, offering real-time and on-demand scanning capabilities. Users can choose from four scan types: Quick, System, Smart, and Custom. The Quick Scan checks running processes and temporary files in under two minutes, while the System Scan conducts a full device inspection in roughly an hour. Smart Scan focuses on performance optimization, and Custom Scan allows for targeted file or folder analysis.

During performance testing, all scan modes performed efficiently, detecting every test malware sample placed on the device. Scanguard’s real-time protection successfully blocked harmful downloads and flagged suspicious compressed files before execution.

This combination of speed, accuracy, and comprehensive coverage makes Scanguard’s malware protection system highly reliable. However, while it competes with leading antivirus solutions in detection performance, it lacks the advanced ransomware defenses found in top-tier brands like Norton and Bitdefender.

Anti-Phishing

Scanguard’s WebShield delivers competent phishing and malicious site protection. It blocks access to unsafe websites, including those hosting phishing schemes designed to steal personal data. The system also includes a cache cleaner, ad blocker, and automatic detection of ‘Low Trust’ domains that may contain deceptive or harmful content.

In testing, WebShield effectively intercepted most phishing and malware-hosting sites, though a small number managed to bypass its defenses. While adequate for everyday use, competitors such as Bitdefender achieved higher detection consistency across all tested links.

Scanguard also offers a browser extension—Safe Site—for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari, integrating WebShield directly into the browsing experience. This tool allows quick clearing of browser data, removal of tracking cookies, and blocking of unwanted pop-ups. Although performance is strong, web protection coverage could still benefit from further refinement.

Password Manager

Scanguard’s Password Vault provides a secure but minimalist approach to password management. Setup is straightforward, and the vault integrates seamlessly with major web browsers once the desktop app is installed. Core features include password generation, auto-fill, and auto-save for login credentials.

Despite these conveniences, the absence of two-factor authentication and secure sharing options reduces overall security potential. Users also lack additional features such as breach alerts, note encryption, and secure file storage found in leading managers.

While adequate for storing passwords safely, Scanguard’s Password Vault remains basic compared to advanced alternatives like Dashlane or 1Password, which deliver superior protection, synchronization, and multi-platform functionality.

VPN

The Safe Browsing VPN included with Scanguard provides strong encryption and robust privacy protection. It supports IKEv2 and OpenVPN protocols, offers a kill switch to prevent data exposure during connection drops, and provides access to over 100 servers across multiple continents.

Performance testing revealed stable speeds suitable for browsing, streaming, and torrenting, with smooth playback on services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. However, torrenting is restricted to servers outside the United States.

While security and usability are strong, the VPN’s pricing model is a drawback. It costs more than several standalone VPNs—such as CyberGhost—despite offering fewer advanced features. As a result, it is a capable but overpriced addition to Scanguard’s package.

Other Security Features

Beyond core protection, Scanguard includes a suite of optimization and identity protection tools. The System Tune-Up utility offers junk file removal, duplicate file detection, startup management, and browser cleanup. These features improve performance by freeing disk space and optimizing resource use. Although effective, the absence of tools like disk analyzers and performance boosters leaves room for enhancement.

Scanguard also provides identity theft protection as an optional add-on for U.S. users. This service includes dark web monitoring, social media monitoring, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. It can track up to 10 individuals, making it suitable for family use. Notifications are delivered when personal data, such as Social Security numbers or credentials, appear on the dark web.

The platform partners with Experian to manage remediation and insurance claims, ensuring reliable support in cases of identity fraud. The dark web scanning component proved effective during testing, identifying exposed credentials from previous data breaches.

Overall, Scanguard’s additional tools provide meaningful value for privacy and performance maintenance. While some add-ons are costly, the combination of optimization, monitoring, and insurance services makes it a comprehensive, if not premium-priced, security solution.

Test score comparison

We conduct in-house anti-malware tests and review the results from AV-Test, a German lab renowned for its objective evaluations. Below is the average of the last 10 AV-Test results for Windows. Their scoring criteria are:

• Protection (1-6): Effectiveness in blocking malware.
• Performance (1-6): Impact on system speed.
• Usability (1-6): Frequency of errors like false alarms.

We calculate a final score using this formula:

Final Score = 60% Protection + 20% Performance + 20% Usability.

While these results influence our choice of the best antivirus for Windows 11, other factors like privacy and identity protection also play a key role. For a similar analysis for Android or macOS, visit our other comparisons:

• The best antivirus for Android.
• The best antivirus for Mac.

Note: Brands not listed in the table either do not participate in AV-Test trials or are tested too infrequently, such as Surfshark Antivirus.

Source: AV-Test (Last updated: November 2025).

Price comparison

We’ve compared the prices of the top antivirus products for Windows. To make it a fair comparison, we looked at what it would cost us, to protect a  single Windows PC with the most essential features:

• Anti-malware
• Anti-phishing (web protection)
• Firewall
• Password manager
• Unlimited VPN (no data limit)

A few notes:

• Some brands are missing features, lowering their value for money.
• Prices are second-year prices in the USA, without first-year discounts.
• Prices are rounded up for readability (e.g., $99.99 becomes $100).

Brands have different prices outside the USA. See those on their website.

User reviews

We’ve compared the user reviews of all antivirus brands. We’ve used the scores and review count of TrustPilot, a leading user review platform. 

We consider scores above 4.0 very good. Lower scores indicate that the brand might have a poor product or customer service. McAfee’s scores, for instance, are worrying.

Source: TrustPilot. Last Update: November 2025.