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

Full Review

VIPRE offers solid antivirus protection with some unique privacy tools, such as personal profile protection and a local document scanner to find unsecured sensitive information. However, its structure across three separate applications—Advanced Security, Privacy Shield, and Internet Shield VPN—makes it less user-friendly compared to competitors like Norton 360, which offer all features within a single app.

Key features include real-time malware detection, ransomware protection, a firewall, and a VPN with unlimited data. VIPRE also has privacy features like login credential removal, dark web scanning, and webcam/microphone blocking, though it lacks performance optimization tools and parental controls.

Despite its higher renewal pricing and fragmented interface, VIPRE provides a strong level of security and privacy, with a 30-day free trial and money-back guarantee offering a risk-free trial period.

Anti-malware

VIPRE offers a range of scan options, including full, quick, and specialized scans for running programs, the Windows registry, rootkits, and archived files. In testing, VIPRE’s Quick Scan detected a malware sample and recommended a Full Scan to check for further threats. The Full Scan, which took about 4 hours, identified 94% of malware samples, including hidden threats, with minimal impact on system performance (only 20% CPU usage).

However, VIPRE’s ransomware protection underperformed, blocking only 70% of simulated ransomware attacks, compared to top competitors like Norton, which offer more reliable protection in this area. While VIPRE excels in detecting other malware types—viruses, trojans, and rootkits—its weaker ransomware defense leaves room for improvement. Overall, VIPRE’s anti-malware scanner is solid for most threats but lacks the advanced ransomware protection found in top-tier products.

Anti-phishing

VIPRE’s web protection is highly effective, blocking 100% of malicious websites during testing by comparing visited URLs against its online blacklist. This strong performance puts VIPRE ahead of competitors like Malwarebytes in phishing protection. It successfully blocked risky sites across multiple browsers, including Edge, Firefox, and Chrome, even when other browser protections were disabled.

VIPRE also offers clear instructions for whitelisting trusted sites and encourages sharing blocked sites to help protect others. Overall, VIPRE’s anti-phishing capabilities are excellent, making it a top choice for users seeking robust web protection.

Firewall

VIPRE’s firewall offers enhanced protection against network-based attacks with a wide range of customization options, making it ideal for advanced users. It allows you to manage incoming and outgoing traffic, customize rules for apps and services, and enable features like Stealth Mode (to prevent your device from responding to certain requests) and Boot Time Protection (activating the firewall during startup). Intrusion detection and process protection, via its Host Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS), add further security by blocking unauthorized system changes.

The firewall is user-friendly, with clear explanations for each feature and default settings that work well right out of the box. However, it’s disabled by default, which could lead to users overlooking this key protection. While this is a drawback, overall, VIPRE’s firewall is a strong improvement over default Windows and macOS firewalls, offering both robust security and flexibility.

VPN

VIPRE’s Internet Shield VPN offers strong privacy and security features, making it a solid option for users seeking anonymous browsing. Key features include a zero-logging policy, unlimited browsing data, support for up to 10 devices across major platforms, and the ability to bypass ISP throttling. It also works well with popular streaming services like Netflix, providing a smooth experience without noticeable slowdowns.

The VPN’s interface is user-friendly, with a clear list of server locations (over 80 in more than 50 countries) and their traffic loads. The “Best Available” server option is a standout feature, automatically connecting users to the fastest server. Speed tests showed minimal impact on both download and upload speeds, allowing for lag-free streaming in HD.

While VIPRE’s VPN doesn’t quite match standalone services like ExpressVPN, it performs well for most users, offering robust encryption, fast connections, and seamless streaming. It’s one of the better VPNs included in an antivirus package.

Other security features

VIPRE’s Privacy Shield offers some unique security features, making it a standout tool in protecting personal information:

1. Personal Profile Protection: This feature scans for hidden personal information stored on your PC—like email addresses, passwords, and credit card details—and assigns a risk score based on sensitivity. While it accurately detected real personal data in tests, including unexpected items like friends’ emails, it lacks detail on where this information is stored, making it harder to manage what to delete or keep.
2. Local Document Scanner: VIPRE scans for unprotected documents containing sensitive data. It allows users to move these files to an encrypted vault, providing a secure way to manage private documents. This is a unique feature that works well, offering more control over sensitive data compared to competitors.
3. Anti-Tracking: VIPRE’s anti-tracking feature, available as an Edge browser extension, blocks both trackers and ads, preventing websites from monitoring user activity for targeted ads. While effective in testing, its browser-specific limitation (Edge only) makes it less convenient than built-in solutions like those in Norton’s VPN.
4. Dark Web Scanner: VIPRE scans for personal details, like email addresses and passwords, on the dark web. It provides detailed breach reports with actionable steps to secure compromised accounts. While its global availability is a plus, it doesn’t offer the in-depth live monitoring services of Norton’s dark web scanner, which is available only in certain regions.

Overall, VIPRE’s privacy features are robust, offering solid protection and some innovative tools that go beyond what most antivirus programs provide. However, some limitations in detail and availability of certain features could be improved to match top competitors.

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.