The Best Online Security Tools, Tested: Antivirus, Encrypted Email and Identity Protection

Most people’s security is a patchwork: whatever antivirus came with the laptop, a password used on nine sites and an inbox that a tech giant reads for advertising. We have reviewed five tools that close those gaps, from a top-rated antivirus suite to encrypted email, private cloud storage and US identity theft insurance, and set out what each costs once the introductory year is over.

Our Top Security Picks at a Glance

• Best overall: Bitdefender, maximum AV-TEST scores and a free Windows antivirus with no time limit.
• Best encrypted email: Proton Mail, a free, advert-free inbox from a Swiss company that cannot read your stored mail.
• Best for VPN users: NordVPN Threat Protection, an always-on antivirus that costs little more than the VPN alone.
• Best private cloud storage: Proton Drive, 5GB of end-to-end encrypted storage free, with no card.
• Best identity theft insurance (US only): Coveron, up to US$2 million of cover from Nord Security.

The 5 Best Security Tools, Ranked

Security Tools Side by Side: Price, Free Plans and Reach

Rank	Tool	Rating	What it does	Price from	Free option	Money-back	Available in	Based in
1	Bitdefender	4.5	Antivirus suite	US$59.99 (£45.02 / €53.43) first year	Free Windows antivirus; 30-day trial, no card	30 days	Worldwide (ID insurance US only)	Romania
2	Proton Mail	4.4	Encrypted email	Free; US$3.99 (£2.99 / €3.55) a month	Free plan, 1GB	30 days	Worldwide	Switzerland
3	NordVPN Threat Protection	4.0	VPN with antivirus	US$4.49 (£3.37 / €4.00) a month	DNS scam filter on every NordVPN plan	30 days	Worldwide (Prime extras aimed at US)	Panama
4	Proton Drive	4.0	Encrypted cloud storage	Free; US$3.99 (£2.99 / €3.55) a month	Free plan, 5GB	30 days, pro rata	Worldwide	Switzerland
5	Coveron	4.0	ID monitoring and insurance	US$4.99 (£3.74 / €4.44) a month	Free leak scanner; no trial	30 days	US only	Nord Security, Netherlands

Antivirus or VPN Threat Protection? What Each One Actually Stops

VPN companies keep adding security features, but the two products still do different jobs. A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the internet. An antivirus watches what lands on the device: the attachment, the dodgy download, the ransomware that encrypts your photos. NordVPN’s product sits between the two, and it comes in two strengths.

The lighter one, which NordVPN now calls scam and phishing protection, is DNS filtering. It stops your device reaching known malicious domains, it comes with every NordVPN plan, and on a laptop it only works while the VPN is connected. The stronger one, sold as Threat Protection Pro and now marketed as a next-gen antivirus, scans and quarantines downloads, blocks ads and trackers, and keeps running with the VPN switched off. It runs on Windows and on the Mac version downloaded from NordVPN’s site, not the App Store one. Phones get the lighter protection.

The lab record is where the two approaches part. Bitdefender Total Security scored the maximum 6 out of 6 for protection, performance and usability in AV-TEST’s July and August 2026 Windows test, as did Norton 360, McAfee Total Protection and Malwarebytes Premium. NordVPN’s antivirus was not in that test. It has, however, passed AV-Comparatives’ anti-phishing certification three years running, and in May 2026 it caught 96% of 275 phishing URLs without flagging any of 200 clean ones.

So the honest answer is that a VPN’s threat protection is a strong extra layer against phishing and bad downloads on a computer, but not yet a replacement for a full suite on a family’s phones and tablets. Bitdefender comes at it from the other side: its suites include a VPN, but Total Security caps it at 200MB per device per day, about 6GB a month. Premium Security removes the cap. If the VPN is the main purchase, start with our VPN rankings.

Worked example: a bookkeeper with one laptop

Take a self-employed bookkeeper in Leeds who works from one Windows laptop, wants a VPN for hotel Wi-Fi and opens invoices emailed by clients all day.

On NordVPN’s 2-year Complete plan she pays US$121.23 (£90.97 / €107.97) for 27 months. The same term on Basic, the VPN without the antivirus, costs US$94.23 (£70.71 / €83.92). For US$27 (£20.26 / €24.05) more over 27 months she gets the always-on scanner, the ad blocker, NordPass and 1TB of cloud storage. The gap widens at renewal: Complete goes to US$219.48 (£164.70 / €195.47) a year, Basic to US$139.08 (£104.37 / €123.86).

Encrypted Email and Cloud Storage: Keeping Your Inbox and Files Private

Gmail encrypts your mail in transit and at rest, but Google holds the keys. Proton Mail stores your messages with zero-access encryption, which means Proton itself cannot read them, and mail between Proton users is end-to-end encrypted automatically. For anyone outside Proton, you can send a password-protected message they open in a browser.

The free plan is permanent rather than a trial: one address, 1GB of mail storage, 150 messages a day and 5GB of Drive. Mail Plus adds 15GB, 10 addresses, a custom domain and Proton Bridge for Outlook or Apple Mail.

Proton Drive applies the same thinking to files. Documents, file names and photos are encrypted on your device before upload, and share links can carry a password and an expiry date. The price per gigabyte reflects privacy rather than scale: iCloud+ charges US$2.99 a month (£2.99 in the UK) for 200GB, against US$3.99 for Drive Plus on annual billing. Apple encrypts end to end only if you switch on its optional Advanced Data Protection.

Two caveats apply to both. Encryption protects content, but email metadata, such as who wrote to whom and when, is harder to hide. And because Proton cannot open your account, it cannot rescue it either: save your recovery phrase on day one.

Worked example: a couple in Bristol

A couple each want a private inbox, a VPN for travel and somewhere to keep holiday photos. Two Proton Unlimited accounts paid monthly would cost US$311.76 (£233.95 / €277.65) a year, or US$239.76 (£179.92 / €213.53) on annual billing. One Proton Duo plan covers both for US$179.88 (£134.98 / €160.20) a year, with 2TB of shared storage rather than 500GB each, saving US$59.88 (£44.93 / €53.33) on the annual Unlimited pair.

Identity Theft Insurance: Who Can Buy It, and What UK Readers Get Instead

Identity theft protection is a mature market in the United States and a thin one elsewhere, and the products reflect that.

Coveron, which launched as NordProtect and took its new name on 26 May 2026, is a US service. It watches the dark web, your credit file and, on higher plans, your bank transactions for signs of misuse, and if the worst happens, a master policy from HSB Specialty Insurance Company pays towards the clean-up: legal fees, lost wages, childcare and counselling among them. Coverage reaches up to US$2 million for identity theft, plus US$100,000 each for cyber extortion, home title fraud and online fraud.

To be clear about who can buy it: Coveron is sold in the United States only. Its insurance covers residents of the US, its territories and the District of Columbia, except New York, and credit monitoring needs a valid Social Security Number. Readers in the UK and Europe cannot buy it.

The same is true of Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus, which adds up to US$1 million of identity theft insurance on Standard and up to US$2 million on Extended but is sold only to US citizens with a Social Security Number. NordVPN’s Prime plan includes identity theft insurance of up to US$1 million, aimed at US residents.

What can UK readers do? Bitdefender’s Ultimate Security plan, below the Plus tier, adds continuous dark web monitoring, an Identity Protection Score and breach alerts. Nord Security has said that NordVPN customers in the UK, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Germany and Italy can get scam loss and online shopping fraud recovery as cyber insurance benefits in some NordVPN bundles. Neither is the same as a US-style policy, so read the terms of the bundle before you rely on it.

Password Hygiene That Survives a Data Breach

A reused password turns one leaked database into a key for every account that shares it. The fix is dull and effective: a different password for every account, kept in a password manager, with two-factor authentication on email and banking at the very least.

You may already be paying for a password manager without knowing it. Bitdefender Total Security includes one, NordVPN’s Complete plan includes NordPass, and every Proton account, free ones included, comes with Proton Pass, with two vaults on the free plan. Bitdefender also offers a free password generator anyone can use.

Hide-my-email aliases help too. Proton’s free plan includes 10, and Unlimited makes them unlimited. Give a shop a throwaway address that forwards to your inbox, and if that shop is breached, you delete the alias rather than change your email.

Two habits matter more than any product. Switch on multi-factor authentication wherever it is offered; Coveron, for one, requires it when you set up your account. And store recovery codes somewhere offline. Encrypted services such as Proton Mail and Proton Drive cannot reset your data without them, and losing access to years of mail is a high price for a forgotten password.

Spotting Phishing: Scam Texts, Fake Shops and Poisoned Links

Phishing is where these tools earn their keep, because it relies on you doing the damage yourself. A message creates urgency, a link leads to a convincing copy of a real site, and you type in a password or card number yourself.

The tools on this page tackle it at different points. NordVPN’s protection blocks known phishing and malicious sites before they load, including fake shops, and its crypto wallet checker flags addresses linked to known scams. Bitdefender’s Scam Protection Pro, on Premium Security and above, uses AI-powered checks on suspicious links and messages, and Bitdefender offers Scamio, a free chatbot that checks suspicious messages, plus a free link checker. Coveron’s free “Have I been hacked?” scanner, and Bitdefender’s Data Breach Detection, show whether your email address has appeared in known leaks.

Worked example: the missed-parcel text

A text arrives: a parcel could not be delivered, pay £1.45 to rebook. Before tapping, ask three questions. Were you expecting a parcel from that courier? Does the link go to the courier’s real domain, or to something close to it? And does a £1.45 fee justify asking for your full card details?

If you are unsure, paste the message into a checker such as Scamio rather than opening the link. If you have already entered card details, call your bank on the number on the back of the card, then change any password you typed in and check that two-factor authentication is on.

What a Sensible Security Kit Costs: Three Setups Priced

Security software is priced like a gym membership: cheap to join, dearer to stay. These are first-year prices from each brand’s own store, for one person.

• Free: Bitdefender Antivirus Free on Windows, Proton Mail Free and Proton Drive’s 5GB. Nothing to pay, and a respectable start.
• Antivirus-led: Bitdefender Premium Security, with its unlimited VPN, at US$79.99, plus Mail Plus at US$47.88: US$127.87 (£95.95 / €113.88) for the first year.
• Privacy-led: Proton Unlimited at US$119.88, covering email, Proton VPN on 10 devices, Pass and 500GB of storage, plus Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for 3 devices at US$29.99: US$149.87 (£112.46 / €133.47).

The privacy-led setup costs US$22 (£16.51 / €19.59) more and adds a password manager, encrypted storage and aliases across the board. The antivirus-led setup has the fuller malware suite. Either way, set a reminder a month before the year ends: Bitdefender’s renewal price may be higher than the first year, and it emails you 30 days before expiry.

How We Test and Score Each Tool

Every tool here has a full review, scored on the same weighted criteria:

• Protection and privacy (30%): independent lab results, encryption design, jurisdiction and the company’s record.
• Price and renewal (25%): the introductory price, what you pay afterwards and how clearly both are shown.
• Features for the money (15%): what each plan actually includes, from VPN caps to storage and insurance limits.
• Free options and refunds (10%): free plans, trials and how easy the money-back guarantee is to use.
• Availability and platforms (10%): which countries and devices are covered, and what is held back by region.
• Support and user feedback (10%): support channels, and what customers say on Trustpilot and the app stores.

We check each offer against the brand’s own pricing page, convert US dollar prices into sterling and euros, and note where a feature is limited to one country.

Online Security Questions Answered

What is the best security software overall?

Bitdefender tops our ranking at 4.5/5, with maximum AV-TEST scores, a free Windows antivirus and family plans covering 25 devices. Premium Security is the plan most people should consider, because it removes the VPN cap.

Do I need antivirus if I have a VPN?

A VPN protects your connection, not your device. Some VPNs, including NordVPN on its Complete and Prime plans, now include antivirus features, but full malware protection there is desktop only. For phones and tablets, a dedicated suite still does more.

Is NordVPN Threat Protection a real antivirus?

The full version scans and quarantines downloads and blocks malicious sites, and it works with the VPN off. It has no firewall and has not been through AV-TEST’s main malware test, so treat it as a strong extra layer.

Is Bitdefender Antivirus Free good enough?

For a Windows PC on a budget, yes. It offers real-time malware protection, ransomware protection and Advanced Threat Defense with no time limit, but leaves out anti-tracking and the privacy tools of the paid suites.

Is Proton Mail more secure than Gmail?

For privacy, yes: stored mail is encrypted so Proton cannot read it, and there is no advertising. Gmail is ahead on storage, search and price per gigabyte.

What is zero-access encryption?

Your data is encrypted in a way the provider cannot unlock. Proton Mail and Proton Drive use it, which is why Proton cannot read your messages or files, and also why it cannot recover them if you lose your password and recovery method.

What is the best free encrypted cloud storage?

Proton Drive gives 5GB free with no card, encrypting files, file names and photos on your device. It is enough for passport scans and contracts, not a whole camera roll.

Can I get identity theft insurance in the UK?

Not from the services we review. Coveron and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus are for US residents only. Nord Security says some NordVPN bundles offer UK customers scam loss and online shopping fraud recovery instead.

Is Coveron available outside the US?

No. Coveron is sold in the United States only, and its insurance excludes New York residents.

How do I check if my email has been in a data breach?

Coveron’s free “Have I been hacked?” scanner and Bitdefender’s Data Breach Detection both check your email address against known leaks. If it appears, change that password and any others you reused.

What should I do if I clicked a phishing link?

If you entered card details, call your bank straight away. Change any password you typed in, switch on two-factor authentication and run a scan with your antivirus.

Which security plan is best for a family?

Bitdefender Total Security Family covers 5 members and 25 devices for US$79.99 (£60.02 / €71.24) in the first year, with parental controls. For email and storage, Proton Family covers up to six people with 3TB.

Do these plans include a password manager?

Bitdefender Total Security does, NordVPN Complete includes NordPass, and every Proton account includes Proton Pass, with two vaults on the free plan.

Is there a Promo Code for Bitdefender, Proton or NordVPN’s antivirus?

None of the five tools here needs a Promo Code. Discounts apply automatically at checkout, and Proton also runs a Black Friday sale most Novembers.