Trend Micro Antivirus Review (2025): Is it the right choice?

Full Review

Trend Micro offers strong malware detection and real-time protection, with solid privacy tools that enhance both online and offline security. While its extra features may not rival top competitors, Trend Micro’s intuitive interface and reliable core functionality make it a good choice for most users across its various plans.

Anti-malware

Trend Micro’s anti-malware capabilities are highly effective, using a blend of signature-based scanning and machine learning to identify both known and emerging threats, including zero-day malware.

It offers three scan options: Quick Scan, Full Scan, and Custom Scan, allowing for flexibility in protection. In our tests, the quick scan was notably fast at 5 minutes, and the full scan, which took 45 minutes, detected nearly all malware samples without slowing down the system.

Trend Micro also allows for fine-tuning, such as adjusting protection sensitivity and automatically deleting unsafe files. Its real-time protection is robust, preventing malicious downloads and blocking exploits, performing even better than the scanner in our tests.

It offers customizable settings like scanning USB devices and compressed files. Overall, Trend Micro delivers fast, resource-efficient, and highly customizable anti-malware protection.

Anti-phishing

Trend Micro’s anti-phishing protection is highly effective, consistently blocking access to malicious and fraudulent websites by cross-referencing them with an updated blacklist. In our tests across Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, it blocked most phishing attempts, even outperforming the built-in protections of popular browsers. Although it missed one phishing site that Norton caught, its performance is still very reliable.

We found it user-friendly, with simple options to whitelist safe sites directly from the blocking dialog. Additionally, the Shell Shock Detector extension for Chrome adds valuable protection against the Shell Shock vulnerability, particularly useful for Linux and macOS users. Overall, Trend Micro’s anti-phishing feature is robust and easy to manage.

Password manager

Trend Micro’s password manager provides secure storage with 256-bit AES encryption, offering key features like unlimited password storage (premium), a password generator, two-factor authentication, and auto-fill. However, its usability is lacking, with a confusing interface and syncing issues between the app and browser extension.

While the password manager supports useful tools like biometric logins and secure notes, the lack of a passphrase generator and limited account recovery options, due to its zero-knowledge protocol, are drawbacks.

Overall, it handles the basics—password storage and autofill—efficiently, but it falls short compared to more feature-rich and user-friendly competitors like 1Password or LastPass.

VPN

Trend Micro’s VPN, VPN Proxy One Pro, offers fast speeds and an easy-to-use interface, but it has several limitations. It’s only available with the Premium Security Suite or as a standalone purchase. The VPN supports WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols, ensuring quick connections, especially on local servers, with minimal speed loss even on distant servers.

Security-wise, it uses 256-bit AES encryption and includes an ad blocker. It can automatically activate on unsecured networks, and leak protection was reliable in our tests. However, it lacks a kill switch, which is a significant security omission, and its privacy policy is vague, logging session data and websites visited.

The VPN struggled with streaming services, only working with Netflix, and has a limited server network with only 17 countries. It also lacks advanced features like split tunneling or obfuscation. While VPN Proxy One Pro performs well for basic needs, its shortcomings make it less competitive compared to standalone VPNs like ExpressVPN or those bundled with other antivirus packages.

Other security features

PC Health Check-Up

Trend Micro’s PC Health Check-Up is a system tune-up tool for Windows that optimizes your PC in six ways:

• Fix Security Vulnerabilities: Ensures your OS is up to date and firewall settings are secure.
• Remove Potentially Incompatible Programs: Uninstalls software that conflicts with Trend Micro.
• Reduce Computer Startup Time: Manages startup programs to improve boot time.
• Restore Disk Space: Cleans the recycle bin, duplicate files, and temporary folders.
• Clean Privacy Data: Removes personal data from web browsers and applications.

However, we found this feature underwhelming. It didn’t save significant disk space compared to Windows’ built-in tools, and many of its features are already available natively. Trend Micro also offers a more comprehensive cleanup tool, Cleaner One Pro, at an additional cost. For users looking for better system optimization, competitors like TotalAV and Avira offer more robust solutions.

Privacy Scanner

Trend Micro’s Privacy Scanner helps users manage privacy settings on web browsers and social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. It scans for privacy concerns, such as who can access your personal information or whether your social media profile appears in search engines, and provides quick options to adjust these settings.

The browser scanner cleans cookies and blocks trackers, but these features are easily accessible in most browsers without additional software. Compared to services like McAfee’s Privacy Protection, which helps remove user data from data brokers, Trend Micro’s Privacy Scanner lacks comprehensive privacy management tools.

ID Security

Trend Micro’s ID Security monitors the dark web for breaches of personal information, including email addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. It sends real-time alerts if a breach is detected and provides guidance on securing compromised accounts.

In our tests, the email breach scanner worked well, identifying leaks on numerous sketchy websites. While ID Security is more comprehensive than many competitors, it’s only available on Android and iOS, with PC and Mac users limited to a basic email scanner. Although it’s not as advanced as Norton’s AI-powered identity protection, Trend Micro’s ID Security is still a valuable tool for monitoring compromised data.

Parental Controls

Trend Micro’s parental controls are intuitive but somewhat limited compared to standalone solutions. Key features include:

• Website Blocking: Filters content by category (e.g., adult, shopping, or communication media).
• Time Limits: Restrict device usage or app access based on schedules.
• App Blocking: Prevents access to specific programs.
• User Activity Reports: Provides basic reports on blocked websites.

Setting up is easy with a startup wizard, and you can choose preset age filters. In our tests, web filtering blocked inappropriate content for categories like adult websites, but it struggled with others, such as weaponry or YouTube content. Additionally, the image search filter didn’t work effectively, allowing access to adult images on Google.

Time management works well, enabling customizable device limits and temporary extensions with a password. App blocking was reliable, preventing access even after renaming or reinstalling blocked programs. However, the reporting feature only tracks attempts to access blocked websites and doesn’t provide insights into other browsing or app usage, limiting parental oversight.

Compared to top parental control tools like Qustodio, which offers more detailed tracking, Trend Micro’s solution is basic. It’s easy to use and offers reliable app blocking and content filtering, but its inconsistent filtering and limited reporting leave room for improvement.

Identity Theft Protection (US Only)

Trend Micro’s identity theft protection suite offers a range of tools, including:

• Credit Freeze Assistance: Helps you freeze your credit to prevent fraudulent activity.
• Lost Wallet Assistance: Provides support if your wallet is lost or stolen.
• Dark Web Monitoring: Scans for personal information like email addresses and passwords.
• ID Theft Affidavit Assistance: Helps with filing reports if your identity is stolen.
• 24/7 Anti-Fraud Hotline: Access to specialists for fraud-related support.
• Anti-Fraud Insurance: Up to $1 million in coverage, including legal fees.

The insurance, handled by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida, is limited compared to Norton 360 with LifeLock, which offers more comprehensive options, including stolen funds reimbursement. While Trend Micro’s identity tools are easy to set up and use, the lack of credit monitoring and stolen funds reimbursement makes it less comprehensive.

Overall, Trend Micro’s identity theft protection is decent but lacks some key elements offered by competitors like Norton LifeLock. The tools are helpful, especially the 24/7 support, but the insurance is only available to US customers and could be more extensive.

Other Features

Trend Micro includes several additional security features:

• Pay Guard: A secure browser for online banking and shopping.
• Data Theft Prevention: Blocks transmission of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers.
• Folder Shield: Protects selected folders from ransomware by restricting access to trusted apps.
• Trend Micro Vault: A password-protected folder for storing sensitive files.
• Secure Erase: Permanently deletes files, preventing recovery (available on select plans).
• Firewall Booster: Enhances Windows’ built-in firewall and defends against botnets.
• Wi-Fi Checker: Alerts users to unsecured network connections.
• Camera & Microphone Protection (Mac only): Notifies you when apps try to access your camera or microphone.

Pay Guard is especially useful for protecting online transactions, offering easy access to a secure browser when navigating banking or financial sites. Folder Shield provides robust ransomware protection by allowing users to lock down specific folders. Both tools are effective and work as advertised.

Overall, Trend Micro’s extra features add valuable layers of security, with Pay Guard and Folder Shield standing out as particularly useful for enhancing online safety and data protection. However, other features, while beneficial, are available from many competitors in more feature-rich packages.

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: December 2024).

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: December 2024.