The Best Server Antivirus Software in 2024

• Business Security Features – Thanks to its network security features, TotalAV will help you rest easy, knowing your database files are safe from online threats. The antivirus offers robust protection from malware attacks and serves as a file shield. Alongside automatic scanning, which will stop viruses in their tracks, you can also schedule regular scans for an additional layer of security.
• Cloud Scanning – The software also performs zero-day cloud scanning, monitoring programs for suspicious behavior and safeguarding you from threats with cutting-edge technology, including novel threats that have never been spotted before.
• Phishing Scam Protection and Dark Web Monitoring – I rate TotalAV as the best antivirus for companies using Windows. TotalAV’s Phishing Scam Protection feature is an invaluable asset for businesses to protect against the threat of phishing scams. The Data Breach Monitoring feature, meanwhile, will notify you if your details get exposed anywhere on the internet.

TotalAV’s cheapest plan costs $19/year. If you want to unlock the full potential of TotalAV, you can upgrade to the Total Security plan. You can also take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee to test TotalAV’s services.

TotalAV is a great security tool for providing comprehensive protection for your device and your network. It offers impressive real-time security and in-depth scans, and it’s also surprisingly affordable. All in all, it’s a great antivirus for businesses.

• Usability – Surfshark’s intuitive antivirus app is easy to customize and provides protection for up to five devices, in addition to unlimited VPN connections. Like TotalAV, Surfshark One has a frequently updated database of zero-day threats to protect your business from emerging threats and help you avoid financial losses and loss of access to your business systems.
• Performance – During testing, I found that Surfshark has less system impact than TotalAV or McAfee and won’t slow your devices down, making it a superb choice for office devices that run resource-heavy programs.
• Malware Scanning – Besides keeping you safe from malware, ransomware, and viruses in real time, Surfshark is an excellent tool for scanning your devices. Its scans are quick and have near-100% malware detection rates. Surfshark One can also protect the privacy of your employees and your business with its webcam security feature, preventing hackers from remotely spying on in-office activity.
• VPN and Dark Web Monitoring – The security bundle includes one of the best VPN services around, which can help safeguard your employees from phishing attacks, intrusive ads, and third-party trackers. There’s also a data breach monitoring feature that’ll alert you if it detects a leak containing your online account credentials, credit card information, personal documentation, or passwords. This means you can update your security settings to protect yourself.

The Surfshark Antivirus product comes as a part of the Surfshark One bundle, which also includes a VPN. The two-year plan costs $2.69/month, and comes with a 30-day guarantee. Annual and monthly subscriptions are available at higher rates.

Surfshark is ideal for users who are focused on priority. The package includes one of the best VPNs on the market, with support for unlimited bandwidth and unlimited devices, alongside a solid antivirus solution.

• Malware Detection Rates – McAfee’s starter plan will keep your business devices safe from malware, including ransomware and zero-day threats – and AV-Test has given McAfee full marks for virus detection in the last six sets of its tests. It’s also an excellent pick if your employees work on ChromeOS, as it’s one of the best Chromebook antiviruses.
• Business Protection Account – Once you sign up, you can also upgrade your McAfee account to a business protection account, which allows you to protect five employees with a single subscription, including cover for smartphones and desktop devices.
• Server Security – The wider product family also includes McAfee Server Security Suite Advanced, a service that safeguards company servers. This can protect physical and virtual servers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), VMware vSphere, OpenStack, and Microsoft Azure environments.

McAfee has a wide range of plans, which make it easy to find a solution for your needs. The Essential plan provides all the core features needed for five devices, but upgrading to Premium extends McAfee’s coverage to unlimited devices.

Higher-tier plans, such as McAfee Premium and McAfee Advanced, add identity theft protection features and up to $1 million in identity theft coverage. McAfee Ultimate raises the level of identity theft coverage to $2 million and also provides $25,000 in ransomware coverage.

McAfee can also monitor your business bank accounts and alert you to suspicious activity. Unlike Surfshark, it offers a Security Freeze feature, which lets you freeze your bank accounts with a single click to stop unauthorized access or withdrawals.

McAfee offers a huge range of features, but its strongest offering is for identity theft protection, where it excels. It also has a wide range of plans, and its support for unlimited devices makes it a great antivirus business solution.

• Server and Endpoint Protection – With its easy-to-use platform, Avast boosts your server security and lets you protect your business’s endpoints, data, and applications from even the most advanced cyber threats.
• Email and Web Protection – Besides keeping your Windows PCs and servers malware-free, Avast will scan your company emails for malicious files, prevent your employees from accessing potentially dangerous websites, and immediately report on suspicious activity.
• Cloud Sandbox – In addition, the server antivirus software provides a Cloud Sandbox feature, which lets you run apps in a safe environment before you launch them on company devices.
• Domain and Content Filtering – Avast offers web domain and content filtering to help you stop your employees from accessing malicious or inappropriate websites, and its Real Site technology will block phishing websites and Domain Name System (DNS) hijacking.
• Cloud Security – Avast is also one of the best choices for companies with remote and hybrid work models. Avast uses a cloud-based approach for protecting your devices so your company files will be kept safe regardless of the device used to access them.
• Patch Management – Avast Ultimate Business Security, the provider’s top-tier business protection plan, includes Patch Management. This feature automatically detects app vulnerabilities and limits your business’s exposure to attacks by ensuring software is patched and up to date and running the latest version.
• External Drive Protection – Unlike the other providers I’ve mentioned, Avast also provides USB protection. This reduces the chance of your business being exposed to data theft or endpoint malware infections by external hardware, as it will block unrecognized USB storage devices from connecting to your company hardware.

The Avast Essential Business Security package will protect servers and includes an online management platform, device and data protection, and tools to combat ransomware and phishing, starting at $24.15/year with a three-year subscription.

Upgrading will get you advanced endpoint protection, web controls, USB protection, patch management, and personal VPNs for your staff.

Prices decline steeply on a per-device basis as you add more devices and subscribe over longer periods.

For B2C customers, Avast offers a free plan as well as two premium solutions with its core antivirus plans, with prices starting at $49.99/year for a single device and $69.99/year for ten.

Avast is an excellent option for small businesses needing server security and endpoint protection. It comes with a dedicated antivirus server edition with a wide range of customization options and comprehensive reporting – but it nevertheless remains easy to use.

Given its excellent mobile security apps, I also rate Avast as one of the best Android antiviruses around.

• Threat Identification – The Trend Micro server antivirus uses machine learning for pre-execution and runtime analysis to ensure accurate threat identification. Its detection and response features can also automatically remove potentially dangerous files from your network.
• Control Console – Like Avast, it offers a centralized console for administrative tasks, which allows you to manage security at every level. You can also access comprehensive data and threat analysis for your environment.
• Performance Impact – During testing, I found Trend Micro to have less system performance impact than Avast and ESET, making it an ideal pick for companies running resource-heavy programs that can’t afford slowdowns.
• Managed XDR – Thanks to the optional Managed XDR feature, Trend Micro can manage itself automatically, minimizing the admin required to keep it running. This feature provides 24/7 threat monitoring and investigates the source of active threats, making the product one of the best server antiviruses for small businesses.
• Reports – Trend Micro also provides incident reports along with actionable insights. This covers server workloads for physical, virtual, and cloud operations. One slight drawback about the product, though, is that it lacks the pricing transparency of providers like Avast and ESET.

Pricing for Trend Micro’s server plans is available on request. Consumer plans start at $19.95/year, and you can upgrade for coverage for additional devices. Higher-tier consumer plans include a wide range of tools, such as a VPN, password manager, and data breach monitoring.

Trend Micro makes the internet safer for your whole team and is excellent when it comes to reporting. From email and web browser protection to mobile security, the antivirus can detect and remove malware, ransomware, and viruses and stop your employees from falling victim to phishing scams.

• Server Protection – ESET will protect your general servers, network file storage, and multi-purpose servers. It keeps your servers stable and conflict-free, minimizing your company’s restart and maintenance windows so you can avoid disrupting your business operations.
• Complete Business Network Protection – ESET offers affordable server antivirus security for firms requiring endpoint security and server protection. Some of its features include ransomware protection, fileless malware attack prevention, real-time server monitoring, and data breach prevention.
• Advanced Security Features – Its advanced solutions also provide advanced threat defenses and cloud app protection to minimize your exposure to zero-day threats. Unlike Avast, ESET doesn’t offer email protection with its entry-level plan, but you can add this feature by opting for one of its more expensive packages.
• Cloud Sandbox Testing – ESET quarantines all data passing through your servers and tests it in a cloud sandbox environment before allowing it to reach your devices, ensuring you’re protected from malware and ransomware breaches.
• File Encryption and Security Policies – The server anti-virus software product also lets you encrypt files using the AES-256 encryption algorithm to keep them secure. In addition, the software allows you to set company-wide password policies to ensure your employees’ accounts are immune to brute-force attacks.
• XDR – Compared to Trend Micro and Avast, ESET has a steeper learning curve, but its extended detection and response features impressed me in hands-on testing as they allow your security team to quickly perform in-depth root cause analysis, so you can promptly respond to threats.

ESET’s business plans are as follows and offer discounts for adding devices, up to 99 devices, and subscribing for longer periods.

ESET offers a range of consumer plans that scale from basic security to include features like a VPN, data breach monitor, and identity theft protection.

ESET is a great option for protecting multi-purpose servers against cyber threats – and it comes at a great price. Going beyond robust endpoint security and server protection, ESET also has plenty to offer small businesses and home users.

• Cloud Backups – Norton’s Deluxe plan offers 50GB of cloud backup storage, which increases to 500GB with its top-tier plans.
• Identity Theft Protection – Like McAfee, Norton provides comprehensive identity theft prevention features that will help your business reduce the chances of financial losses.
• Spyware Detection – Thanks to its advanced AI machine learning algorithms, Norton excels at detecting and removing spyware from devices to prevent surveillance and data theft. This capability also helps Norton detect malware, ransomware, and viruses faster than most competitors.
• Business Security Features – Norton also offers excellent business cybersecurity plans. These add utility tools to help you optimize your workplace devices by cleaning out junk files, unneeded apps, and obsolete data.
• Password Manager – Each Norton plan also comes with a password manager, which can detect weak passwords and automatically suggest strong, uncrackable alternatives. This provides an additional layer of security for your employees and your business data.
• Virus Protection Guarantee – Unlike most of its competitors, Norton also offers a virus protection guarantee. The provider will issue a full refund for your plan if it fails to remove a virus from your devices.

Norton Antivirus Plus is the company’s cheapest plan, starting at $29.99/year. You can upgrade to the Norton 360 Deluxe plan for additional identity theft protection solutions – and there’s a 60-day money-back guarantee to protect you.

Norton offers a superb set of tools at an affordable price, but it really shines when it comes to system optimization features.

The antivirus solution makes it easy to clean up your devices and boost their processing power, whether on home systems or business machines.

• Web Protection – This lightweight antivirus solution will warn your staff if they visit a potentially dangerous website that may carry malware, keeping your company’s devices safe from infection.
• Download Scans – NordVPN Threat Protection also automatically scans download files and blocks malware and other threats. These are logged in a dashboard, which you can review to identify sites and files your employees should be wary of in the future.
• VPN – NordVPN Threat Protection is a separate service from NordVPN and doesn’t require a VPN connection unless you’re on a mobile device or Linux. However, the VPN plays a significant role in keeping you safe from online threats, and it can block intrusive ads and third-party trackers. It also effectively secures and anonymizes your connection, allowing you to pick from 6,400+ servers in 111 countries around the world.
• Identity Theft Protection – Nord can also help stop data brokering firms from collecting sensitive information about your business. In addition, NordVPN Threat Protection’s data breach scanning feature can track and inform you if any of your information is leaked online. This can help ensure the security of your passwords, emails, and credit card details.
• Identity Theft Recovery – NordVPN Threat Protection also provides up to $1 million in coverage for identity theft recovery and up to $100,000 of cyber extortion protection, which can help you recover from a ransomware attack.

The cheapest Nord Threat Protection plan costs $52.68/year on a two-year plan – and there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

NordVPN Threat Protection combines robust security tools with one of the best global VPNs available today. Given this, it’s great for browser protection and using the internet securely and anonymously with a choice of server locations around the world.

• Antivirus Scans – All Intego’s products include automatic and scheduled scanning to monitor devices, real-time protection from viruses and malware, and anti-phishing protection. You can also scan an iPhone by connecting it to your Mac and treating the device as an external drive.
• Mac Firewall – In addition, Intego’s firewall, NetBarrier, can identify devices trying to access your business network, letting you decide which ones can connect. NetBarrier is a two-way firewall, so it can also prevent malware from extracting company files from your business devices, keeping your data safe.
• Backup Storage – More advanced packages include backups for your Mac devices. You can store and back up all your essential files so that they can be ported to an external drive or another Mac in case of loss, damage, or data theft.
• System Optimization – In addition, the Mac Washing Machine feature can help you optimize your devices. With a single click, you can remove junk files, duplicate files, and unnecessary apps from your company devices.
• Windows Solutions – That said, while Intego offers more features for macOS protection than my previous picks, its Windows antivirus solutions don’t match the likes of TotalAV, McAfee, or Surfshark.

Intego offers a variety of paid plans for Windows and Mac, starting at $37.50/year with a two-year subscription. The company also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all its products.

If you plan to use the antivirus software on more than one device, Intego offers plans that cover up to five devices at a higher cost.

Intego is the perfect solution for securing Mac devices. It comes with a wide range of tools, and the ability to scan connected iOS devices is an added bonus.