Kaspersky Review 2025 – Is Kaspersky Safe To Use?

NOTE: As of September 29, 2024, Kaspersky Lab is prohibited from providing its services to US companies and citizens. Following this, US users can no longer purchase or update Kaspersky Lab products, meaning it is advisable to remove the software from devices.

Is Kaspersky safe to use? In this Kaspersky review, I’ll share my testing results to help you decide whether this antivirus is for you – presuming you’re outside the US and are comfortable with using it.

My Kaspersky review will also explore the full details of its pricing plans, pros and cons. I’ll share how it compares to the best antiviruses in the market. Given that Kaspersky is banned in the US today, though, an alternative like TotalAV will be a better solution for many users.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

What is Kaspersky Antivirus?
Is Kaspersky Safe?
Kaspersky Plans & Pricing
Kaspersky Security Features
Kaspersky Antivirus Performance
Kaspersky Compatibility and Ease of Use
How Does Kaspersky Compare Against Other Antiviruses?
FAQs
References

Table of Contents

What is Kaspersky Antivirus?
Is Kaspersky Safe?
Kaspersky Plans & Pricing

Show Full Guide

Kaspersky Security Features
Kaspersky Antivirus Performance
Kaspersky Compatibility and Ease of Use
How Does Kaspersky Compare Against Other Antiviruses?
FAQs
References

What is Kaspersky Antivirus?

Kaspersky is a cybersecurity product that can tackle malware, ransomware, spyware, and similar cyber threats. It offers real-time protection and is able to remove malicious files from your devices, no matter their source.

In addition, Kaspersky provides web protection features that can shield you from phishing attacks, store your passwords, and stop you from downloading malicious files. Besides its antivirus features, the company offers parental controls, a secure VPN solution, and dark web data leak monitoring.

While the antivirus gets great testing results, it’s now banned in the US due to suspicions about its connections to the Russian government and Russian intelligence services.

Kaspersky has pricing plans for personal and business use on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.

Is Kaspersky Safe?

It’s debated whether Kaspersky is safe. Kaspersky antivirus protection is provided by Kaspersky Lab, a cybersecurity company founded in Russia by Eugene Kaspersky – a former Russian military intelligence agent – and it has its headquarters in Moscow today.

Allegations of collaboration with Russian intelligence agencies led the US Department of Homeland Security to ban its use by government agencies in the US in 2017. Senior staff at Kaspersky have included former KGB agents, so these seem like plausible claims.

This action led to a steep decline in Kaspersky’s reputation. In response, Kaspersky moved key operations and servers out of Russia. The company’s data processing and storage resources are spread around the world and are subject to third-party inspections to ensure the firm respects user privacy.

An additional issue, however, is that many businesses and consumers have begun to boycott Russian firms since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Eugene Kaspersky has refused to condemn the conflict.

Following the invasion, the US government began to warn American companies involved in critical infrastructure not to use Kaspersky software. Then, in 2024, the US government banned Kaspersky Lab products in the US, meaning American residents cannot purchase or update the software.

Is Kaspersky Russian? It’s a global company with headquarters in Moscow and a Russian founder.

Is Kaspersky safe? The antivirus provider offers premium features and performs well under testing. However, negative publicity has made users wary of using its services, and it isn’t available to Americans.

Check out our guide to the best Kaspersky alternatives for more antivirus solutions.

Kaspersky Plans & Pricing

Kaspersky isn’t the most affordable antivirus on the market, but few competitors have more features. In this section of my Kaspersky Antivirus review, I’ll break down the product’s pricing plans and what they offer.

Kaspersky splits its personal protection plans into three tiers, allowing you to just pay for the features you need. All its core antivirus features are available with the cheapest plan, meaning you only need to upgrade to the more expensive plans if you want extra features.

Check out our guides to the best antivirus software and the best business antiviruses for more information.

Plan	Starting Price	Best Features
Standard	€17.99/year for 3 devices	Real-Time Antivirus, Online Payment Protection, Performance Optimization
Plus	€22.99/year for 5 devices	+ VPN Service, Data Leak Monitoring
Premium	€23.99/year for 10 devices	+ Identity Theft Protection, Expert Virus Checks

Standard Plan

Kaspersky Standard Plan – €17.99/year

Kaspersky’s cheapest antivirus plan, Standard, comes with fairly basic features, like malware protection, safe web browsing, ransomware protection, anti-phishing feature, webcam protection, online payment method protection, and crypto threat protection.

The plan is best suited for users looking to simply stop viruses and malware from harming their stationary and mobile devices. The most notable features for that would be Kaspersky’s two-way firewall and a quick scan.

Plus Plan

Kaspersky Plus Plan – €22.99/year

Plus adds a reliable VPN service to the Standard plan features, which is a great addition for protecting your security and privacy.

The Plus plan also includes one of the best password managers around, which will help you create strong passwords, and a data leak monitoring feature that continuously scans the internet for personal data breaches, allowing you to protect your online identity and accounts.

Premium Plan

Kaspersky Premium Plan – €23.99/year

Premium (also known as Kaspersky Total Security) has extra security features and lets you install Kaspersky on ten devices, so it’s an excellent pick for families. The identity protection features are particularly strong and let you store encrypted documents, synced across devices.

Kaspersky’s Premium plan also includes an Expert Virus Check, an in-depth inspection of your device by a Kaspersky expert, and a remote access detection, which scans for any potential unauthorized accesses, and stop them.

Kaspersky’s Premium plan also includes an Expert Virus Check, an in-depth inspection of your device by a Kaspersky expert, and remote access detection, which detects whether any malicious actors got an unauthorized access to your device.

Can I Get Kaspersky for Free?

Besides its paid plans, Kaspersky offers a limited free version to protect your devices from viruses. However, the free version lacks most of the features that make Kaspersky one of the best antivirus solutions, so its premium version is a much better option.

You can’t get the free Kaspersky antivirus on Mac, as it’s only available on Android, iOS, and Windows, but I encountered no performance or security issues using it on those platforms.

The full device scans are quick, and I saw no performance issues, meaning Kaspersky performs better than most of its competition Plus, I didn’t see anything concerning during my hands-on testing or receive excessive prompts to upgrade.

But is Kaspersky safe to use for free for all-around protection? Kaspersky’s free plan is seen as being safe, but I suggest using its 30-day free trial to test the product risk-free and get access to the full feature set.

Kaspersky Security Features

Although Kaspersky is best known for safeguarding devices from malicious websites and files, it offers a much broader range of features. In this section of my Kaspersky review, I’ll explain how its features help address your security needs.

Scanning

Although Kaspersky monitors your devices in real-time, looking for malware and online threats, periodically running either quick or full scans is a good idea. Kaspersky offers seven different device scans, giving you complete control over which files you want it to scan and a sense of how long the scan will last.

During my hands-on testing, Kaspersky’s Full Scan took just 20 minutes to scan over 100 installed apps on a Windows PC. That’s generally faster than the average time taken by antiviruses I’ve tested.

Its other scans allow you to scan a single folder or removable drive or run an application vulnerability scan, which lets you see which apps lower your device’s security. One of my favorite additions from Kaspersky is that you can right-click on any file or folder on your PC and scan it for viruses from the drop-down Menu.

I wasn’t surprised that AV-Test gave Kaspersky a 6/6 score for malware detection in its latest tests, as I observed very high detection rates during testing.

Password Manager

Kaspersky’s password manager is easy to use and allows you to automatically log into your accounts. This means you’ll only have to remember the master password needed to log into your Kaspersky Password Manager app.

You will need a browser extension to allow Kaspersky to auto-fill your passwords online, though. I tested the Firefox Kaspersky password manager extension and noticed no issues. The only drawback with this Kaspersky feature is that it requires a separate app since it isn’t a part of its antivirus suite.

Performance Optimization

Keeping your PC free of viruses will help it run faster, but Kaspersky also offers another feature to speed up your device. The Performance Optimization feature can help you address problems that slow down PC startup and impact performance when you perform resource-heavy tasks.

For example, clicking “Quick Startup” will show you a list of all the apps your PC automatically opens when you power it up. Kaspersky will highlight which apps use the most resources, and it allows you to stop them from automatically launching with a single click.

PC Speed-Up is my favorite Kaspersky performance-related feature. It can help you de-clutter your PC by showing you unused system files, and it can find Windows registry issues you can remove with a single click.

VPN

Kaspersky offers an excellent VPN service with its Plus and Premium plans, and it’s also available as a separate product. I ran a series of tests to see how it compares to the best antiviruses with a VPN, and Kaspersky doesn’t disappoint.

It’s able to bypass geo-restrictions when browsing foreign websites and streaming services, for example, which makes Kaspersky an excellent pick if you want to access overseas content libraries for Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+.

So, is Kaspersky VPN safe? While it may not offer as many advanced features as Surfshark and other top VPNs, Kaspersky’s VPN solution has a strict no-logs policy that prevents it from recording or sharing your browsing history. It’s also beginner-friendly and affordable if you opt for the Plus and Premium plans.

Although antiviruses often have a small VPN server network, Kaspersky offers more than 2,000 servers in 100+ locations, which is more than many VPN-only services offer. In addition, its servers are peer-to-peer (P2P) friendly, making it a great choice if you torrent large files.

Web Protection

Besides detecting malicious programs on your devices, Kaspersky will also block malicious websites. The feature isn’t unique, with many of its competitors hosting their own databases of malicious websites, Kaspersky impressed me with its Safe Money feature.

Safe Money is a secure browser that scans payment systems for invalid certificates and suspicious processes. This can save you from having your credit card details stolen.

Whenever you’re about to enter your credit card details on a website, the software will prompt you to continue in Safe Money instead of your regular browser – and I found the feature to be very easy to use.

Additionally, Kaspersky also has an ad-blocker, which to stop intrusive ads from loading and third-party trackers from collecting your information online.

Kaspersky Safe Kids

Kaspersky can also help you monitor your kids with its Safe Kids feature, designed for parents. From tracking the physical location of your children to monitoring their online activity, Kaspersky’s parental control features contend with the best parental control apps today.

So, is it safe to use Kaspersky Safe Kids? Everything I’ve seen suggests parents can happily use Safe Kids on their child’s devices. Kaspersky can also detect any other spyware apps on your devices, allowing you to remove them.

Unlike most of its competition, Kaspersky Safe Kids lets you track your child’s activities on all major platforms, including Windows, Android, iOS, and Mac devices. You can use it to set daily screen time limits, schedule device usage, remotely block inappropriate apps and websites, and more.

Kaspersky Antivirus Performance

Since Kaspersky offers a wide range of security tools, let’s see how well these features protect your devices.

Based on an independent assessment by AV-Test, Kaspersky got the highest score: 18 points out of 18. This evaluation included three different factors: security, performance, and usability. And Kaspersky showed perfect performance at each one.

Additionally, the antivirus caught 100% of zero-day threats and stopped numerous malware attacks with 0 false positive warnings.

Due to its Performance Optimization feature, the software was very fast. Also, even though Kaspersky has numerous security features, the dashboard is very simple and easy to navigate.

Kaspersky Compatibility and Ease of Use

Kaspersky is compatible with numerous operating systems. I tested the Kaspersky app on Windows and Mac computers and Android and iOS mobile devices. Here are my findings:

WindowsmacOSAndroidiOS

Kaspersky for Windows

I had a very smooth and pleasant experience when using Kaspersky on a Windows device. The interface is fairly minimalistic, which is makes it easy to use and navigate.

You can expand your list of features on the screen; however, the main 6 will always be displayed on your screen first. Which makes running a quick malware scan that much easier.

Overall, Kaspersky has a very good Windows app, making it a strong candidate for one of the best antiviruses for Windows.

Kaspersky for macOS

Kaspersky’s Mac app interface looks a little different, compared to the Windows one. However, the functionality and ease of use remains the same for Mac users.

You can expect to find the quick scan and update options right on your screen. It’s that easy. However, one downside does exist: compared to Windows performance, Kaspersky showed slower results.

Kaspersky for Android

When it comes to Android devices, Kaspersky has a very sleek and functional app to offer.

From its core security technologies, you can expect additional features like a VPN, a password manager, privacy protection, and more. It’s also very modern looking.

Overall, the Android antivirus app is very functional, enabling users to quickly scan their phones for viruses, connect to a remote VPN server, and store unlimited passwords securely.

Kaspersky for iOS

Kaspersky Security Cloud for iOS looks fairly similar to the Android app. However, unlike its counterpart, the iOS app displays only the antivirus scan results on the home page.

All other features, like a VPN, a password manager, and more can be found in the Menu at the top left corner.

And while Kaspersky can’t scan iOS phones for malware, a vulnerability check can still be performed. That will typically notify you about any unconfigured built-in security measures, like a FaceID.

How Does Kaspersky Compare Against Other Antiviruses?

To help you determine which antivirus service best fits your needs, the table below compares Kaspersky and its top competitors so you can see their key features and their main differences with Kaspersky.

Of course, TotalAV, Bitdefender, Norton, and Surfshark are all legal and available in the US, immediately making them a better choice for US consumers and those who may be concerned about Kaspersky’s reputation.

Antivirus Software	Starting Price	Max Devices Supported	Real-Time Protection	Firewall	Antivirus Lab Testing Results
Kaspersky	€17.99/year	10	✅	✅	18/18 (Protection: 6/6, Performance: 6/6, Usability: 6/6)
TotalAV	$19/year	8	✅	❌	17/18 (Protection: 5.5/6, Performance: 5.5/6, Usability: 6/6)
Bitdefender	$23.99/year	25	✅	✅	18/18 (Protection: 6/6, Performance: 6/6, Usability: 6/6)
Norton Antivirus	$29.99/year	Unlimited	✅	✅	18/18 (Protection: 6/6, Performance: 6/6, Usability: 6/6)
Surfshark	$34.86/year	5 (Unlimited for VPN)	✅	❌	17.5/18 (Protection: 6/6, Performance: 5.5/6, Usability: 6/6)

Kaspersky vs TotalAV

One noticeable advantage Kaspersky has over TotalAV is with the extra features it offers. TotalAV lacks Kaspersky’s parental controls, and its VPN offers far fewer servers and features than Kaspersky’s solution.

However, if you’re only looking for antivirus features, TotalAV is more budget-friendly, as its cheapest plan costs just $19/year, and it also offers excellent protection.

Kaspersky vs Bitdefender

Kaspersky is available at a similar price point to Bitdefender and both providers get perfect testing scores under independent assessment. They also both offer real-time protection, a VPN, and a password manager.

That said, Bitdefender allows you to protect more devices and comes with a wider range of identity theft protection features, including real-time breach notifications and visualization of your digital footprint.

Kaspersky vs Norton

These two antivirus providers have similar features and strong testing results, making it tough to pick a winner. However, Norton has a far wider range of plans and excellent identity protection features, putting it ahead of Kaspersky in these categories.

TotalAV, Bitdefender, Norton, and Surfshark are all excellent choices if you’re looking for a comparable solution to match Kaspersky’s features. See our guides to the best antivirus for gaming PCs and the best antivirus for servers for additional personal and business use cases.