I switched from a free antivirus to a paid one and the difference was huge

For years, I just used whatever free antivirus program came with my computer, thinking it was good enough. Then my cousin, who works in IT, convinced me to try a paid version for a year. The first thing I noticed was the real-time scanning was way faster and didn't slow down my computer like the old one did. The paid software also caught a tricky phishing email that my free program completely missed, which could have been bad. It has extra stuff like a firewall manager and a password vault that I actually use now. I spent about $50 for the year, and it feels worth it for the peace of mind. But I know some people say free options are fine if you're careful online. What do you all think? Is a paid security suite really necessary for a regular person?

2 comments

2 Comments

michaelnguyen1mo ago

My free antivirus is basically just a pop-up generator at this point (honestly, it's more of a threat than the viruses).

the_blair1mo ago

Ugh, my old one kept trying to sell me a VPN every five minutes.