. Pros Top scores in our malware protection and malicious URL blocking tests. Powerful, self-sufficient firewall. Suite for macOS. Full-featured Android protection. New mobile security for iOS. Virus protection promise.
Cons Some mediocre scores from independent labs. Poor score in our antiphishing test. Bottom Line Symantec's very capable Norton Security Deluxe includes a firewall and supports all popular platforms, but its big brother, Symantec Norton Security Premium, is even better. Antivirus protection is a must for your digital security, but you get even more protection from a full-blown.
Where the basic Norton AntiVirus is Windows-only, Symantec Norton Security Deluxe includes protection for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. For Windows users, it adds a two-way firewall that doesn't bother you with annoying popups.
It nearly merits an Editors' Choice, but gets edged out by Symantec's own Norton Security Premium, which is even better. If you sign up for automatic renewal, you get a Virus Protection Promise from Symantec. That means if you get a malware infestation on any of your devices despite Norton's protection, a tech support expert will remotely log in to your system and remediate the problem. In the unlikely event the support expert can't fix the problem, Symantec will refund the price of your subscription. Note that this guarantee does not apply to the standalone antivirus; its support is limited to self-help and community forums.
The Norton Secure VPN is a super easy to use VPN solution for all your devices. Its price tag reflects the trust in the Norton brand when it comes to security, but that may be a little off putting for some. If you can afford it though, the software is fantastic, and you should use a VPN if possible.
McAfee and offer similar guarantees. As with previous versions, you manage your Norton subscription through the online My Norton portal. Once you've registered your license key, you can immediately install protection on the device you're using, or you can send yourself an email to install on other devices. You manage Android anti-theft directly in the My Norton portal, and you can log in to access your passwords. The product's main window looks a lot like that of the standalone antivirus. It features four panels devoted to Security, Online Safety, Performance, and More Norton.
Clicking a panel slides down the whole panel row, revealing additional icons related to the panel you clicked. You won't find an icon for the firewall component—to configure the firewall, you go straight to Settings. Norton offers quite a few configuration settings, enough that you may not always know where to look for the one you want. If that's the case, you can just click the search icon at top right and start typing. It scans the many pages of settings to find ones that match what you've typed. You can toggle simple on/off settings right in the search results list. ESET offers a similar settings search.
Shared Antivirus Features Of course this suite includes all the features of. Please read that review for my detailed analysis; I'll summarize here. All four independent antivirus testing labs that I follow include Norton in their regular reports. Scores range from good to excellent.
For example, Norton achieved AAA certification (the best of five certification levels) from, but didn't earn any Advanced+ scores from AV-Comparatives. Norton's aggregate lab score of 8.8 points is decent, but others have done quite a bit better.
Kaspersky tops the list, with a perfect 10 points, and Bitdefender is a close second with 9.9. Isn't far behind, with an aggregate score of 9.7 points, gathered from all four labs. Norton scored very well in my hands-on tests. With 9.3 of 10 possible points in my simple file-based malware defense test, it's tied for first place with Cylance, F-Secure, and McAfee (though products tested with previous malware collections have done better). Challenged with 100 malware-hosting URLs, Norton defended the test system by blocking all access to about one-third and wiping out the malware download for another two-thirds. Its overall 99 percent protection rate is the best among current products. For many years, Norton was my touchstone for antiphishing tests, with a detection rate typically in the high nineties.
This time around, its score tumbled to a dismal 40 percent detection; Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer all scored substantially better. The result was so peculiar that I repeated the test using Norton in Chrome rather than Internet explorer, but there was no improvement. I even repeated the test one more time under, with exactly the same results.
After that review came out, my Symantec contact let me know that 'the team' had discovered the reason for the low score, and fixed it. That left me wondering what would have happened had I not reported my findings. I didn't really want to test Norton a fourth time, but I found a way to streamline the process, testing it in tandem with and AVG. Its score came out slightly better, but not enough to move it higher in the ranking. Other Shared Features. Norton AntiVirus includes some useful bonus features that you might not expect in a simple antivirus. Its Intrusion Prevention system totally aced my exploit test, which uses exploits generated by the penetration tool.
Norton detected and blocked more exploits than any other product I've tested, and it caught the attacks at the network level, before they even reached the browser. Shortly after installation, Norton offers to install several tools in your browser, and it walks you through the installation process. These include Norton Safe Search, which marks dangerous search results; Norton Home Page, which puts Safe Search and a collection of quick links on your home page; and Norton Toolbar, which rates the pages you visit and includes a search box.
Your Norton installation gets you, also available for free as a standalone product. The password manager can sync across all your devices and now includes an actionable password strength report, with automated password updates for selected popular sites. Norton Antispam integrates with Microsoft Outlook to divert spam into its own folder; those using a different email client must define a message rule to toss the marked spam messages. Other bonus features shared by this suite and the antivirus include a tool to manage files that launch at startup, a disk optimizer, and a simple file cleanup tool. Self-Sufficient Firewall As noted, Norton's antivirus product includes an intrusion prevention system, a feature usually associated with firewall protection. The suite includes a full-scale firewall, which both protects against outside attack and prevents misuse of your internet connection by local programs. As expected, the firewall correctly stealthed all ports and fended off port scans and other web-based attacks.
Given that the built-in Windows Firewall completely handles this task, this test is only relevant if a third-party firewall doesn't pass. Back in the early days of, users drowned in confusing queries. MetroNet.exe wants to connect with 123.4.5.67 on port 8080—allow or block? Norton is smarter than that.
To start, it uses a vast online database to assign network permissions for known good programs. Known bad programs are already gone, of course, zapped by the antivirus component. That leaves the unknowns. For those, Norton cranks up the sensitivity of its behavior-based malware detection.
If it determines that the program is misusing its network access permissions, Norton cuts that connection and quarantines the program. This isn't the full journal-and-rollback functionality that uses to manage unknown programs, but it does the job. The firewall in also handles program control internally, but it uses a somewhat different system. It uses its own online database to assign a trust level to each program, and allows only restricted system access to those programs that aren't fully trusted. Firewall protection, or security suite protection in general, isn't much use if a malicious program can disable it. I always run a simple sanity check, trying various methods to shut down protection, focusing on techniques available to a malware coder. Norton doesn't expose important settings in the Registry, so I couldn't just set protection to disabled.
I got an Access Denied message when I tried to terminate its two processes. Likewise, I couldn't stop or disable its single Windows service. Protecting essential processes and services makes sense, but not all products manage it. I had no trouble disabling protection by and adaware, for example. Varied Performance Results A dozen or more years ago was the age of the dinosaur, as far as security suites go. Popular suites, including Norton, deservedly got a reputation for chewing up system resources and stomping on performance. In truth, performance problems quickly become security problems, as disgusted users turn off protection.
We're well out of the dinosaur age, but I still run some performance tests to see which suites have the lightest touch. Real-time on-access protection systems necessarily keep an eye on file-system operations, so they can scan any suspicious files before they have a chance to launch. There's a possibility this vigilant monitoring could put a drag on file operations, which could be problematic. To check for this kind of system drag, I start by timing a lengthy script that moves and copies a varied collection of files between drives. I average multiple runs, then install the security suite and average multiple runs again, comparing the averages. I didn't find any slowdown with Norton installed; the script ran just as fast as with no suite. For another look at file operations, I time a similar test that repeatedly zips and unzip the same collection of files.
Here again, Norton had no measurable effect on performance. A security suite's antivirus service and other essential components must load early during the Windows boot process, to make sure no malware weasels into the system before they're ready. There's always a possibility that getting these important systems running will slow down the boot process itself.
To measure a suite's effect on system boot time, I use a script that runs at startup and checks CPU usage once per second. When 10 seconds elapse with no more than five percent CPU usage, I deem the system ready for use. Subtracting the start of the boot process (as reported by Windows) yields the boot time. As with the other tests, I average multiple runs before and after installing the security suite. Norton slowed the boot process by 55 percent, which is on the high side, and peculiar given that in my last test it didn't exhibit any slowdown at all. The result was unusual enough that I uninstalled the suite, restored a clean disk image, and repeated the test.
However, I got the same result. On the plus side, you probably don't reboot very often, and needing an extra half-minute for the process may not be a bother. Almost all current security suites have a light enough touch that you shouldn't notice any drag on performance.
Admittedly, some are lighter than others. For example, Webroot, and adaware didn't show any measurable slowdown in my three simple tests. Top-Notch Android Protection Norton's standalone antivirus runs only on Windows. With the suite, you can cover your macOS, Android, and iOS devices as well. Click More Norton in the program's main window, click Add Devices, and then click the Show Me How button to start the process.
Sign in to your Norton account and enter the email address used on the device you want to protect. Unlike the similar feature in, you don't have to choose the platform. Clicking the emailed link on the device automatically selects the proper download. On an Android device, you get the multi-faceted Norton Mobile Security. Immediately after installation, the antivirus runs an update and a scan. You also must activate the app as a Device Administrator to make use of its anti-theft features, and give it Accessibility permission so it can scan apps on Google Play. On an, you can block unwanted calls and messages.
Norton can automatically add numbers to the block list if you decline the call multiple times, and by default it blocks known fraudulent and spam calls. You can block calls from private numbers, calls from anyone not in your contacts, and calls from specific regions. You can invoke Norton's extensive set of anti-theft features via the web console or by sending coded SMS commands.
At setup, it generates a passcode that you'll need to invoke anti-theft features. You can use the app to locate, lock, or wipe the device, and the scream feature helps find a misplaced device at home. When you lock the device, it displays a contact message of your choice, so someone who finds your lost device can arrange to return it. The Sneak Peek feature lets you remotely (and silently) snap a photo of whoever is holding the device. When you lock a lost or stolen device, it automatically snaps a photo every 10 minutes, and reports its location every five minutes.
Sneak Peek also triggers automatically on suspicious actions such as entering the wrong unlock code multiple times. In addition, you can remotely back up your contacts before resorting to the Wipe command, which performs a factory reset. If your phone is well and truly lost, putting it in Lost Mode combines several anti-theft features to help you find it.
It locks the device and displays a custom message. It sounds an audible alarm, even if the device's sound is muted. It also reports the device's location every five minutes.
Finally, it takes a Sneak Peek photo whenever it detects activity on the phone. A page of links lets you easily install: Norton App Lock, which locks selected apps behind a PIN code; Norton Clean, which removes junk files to free up storage; and Norton Snap, a QR code decoder. There's also a link to install a trial of the VPN (Virtual Private Network. Suite for macOS Security A common pattern with cross-platform suites is to give Windows users a full security suite with tons of features, but just a plain antivirus on macOS.
Goes beyond basic antivirus, adding a full two-way firewall, a password manager, and a cleanup utility to eliminate junk files. It supports the current macOS version plus the two previous, meaning that with the release of macOS Mojave it goes back to macOS Sierra (10.12). You can read my review for full details; I'll hit the high points here.
The macOS antivirus earned certification from AV-Test Institute, with 100 percent detection of Mac-centered malware. In my phishing protection test, it scored the same as on Windows, meaning it did quite poorly.
The Mac firewall blocks unsolicited incoming connections and warns when you connect to an insecure network. Like the Windows antivirus, it blocks exploit attacks. If you enable application blocking, it goes old-school, asking you what to do each time it sees a new program attempting network access. As noted, you get a file cleanup utility, and you can install Norton Password Manager and sync it with your other devices. Revamped Security for iOS When I last reviewed this suite, iOS device support was limited to the Norton Mobile Security Lost Device Finder. This app allowed you to locate your device from the My Norton portal, sound a loud alarm to find a misplaced device, and remotely back up contacts. Given the Find My iPhone feature built into iOS lets you locate, lock, or wipe a lost device, Norton's app didn't add much.
The just-released Norton Security for iOS is quite a different product. It doesn't attempt to duplicate the existing Find My iPhone functionality, and does add some useful security features. On the Security tab, Norton checks your Wi-Fi connection and reports any problems. This report identifies hotspots that aren't secured, but also flags 'compromised networks and networks under attack.' If it says your current network isn't secure, you should probably shut down Wi-Fi temporarily. Apple is diligent about pushing operating system updates out to users, but if you've missed one, you get a notification on the Device page.
The that I use for testing sits idle when not needed; not surprisingly, Norton reported that it needed the latest iOS update. Perhaps most impressive is the Web Protection component. Norton leverages technology to run all websites through a local filter before allowing access.
It's not a full-scale VPN; there's no server at the other end. But the result is that no matter what browser or internet-aware app you use, Norton can filter out dangerous and fraudulent websites. I fed it some known bad sites from my malicious URL blocking and antiphishing tests, and it correctly blocked access. Excellent but Overshadowed Norton's standalone antivirus shares the top score in our malware protection test and has the best score in our malicious URL blocking test. Beyond the usual antivirus components, it includes a straightforward spam filter, powerful protection against exploit attacks, and several other bonus features. That's a lot of security packed into a 'mere' antivirus utility.
Norton Security Deluxe adds an intelligent firewall and security for Android, macOS, and iOS devices, along with full-blown tech support the basic antivirus lacks and a virus protection guarantee. The only problem with this suite (besides its antiphishing deficiencies) is that it suffers by comparison with its big brother, Norton Internet Security Premium.
Premium costs $20 more, but it doubles the number of licenses and adds a powerful local and online backup system, with 25GB of hosted storage for your backups. It also comes with a full subscription to Norton Family Premier. It's just a better deal all around, which is why Premium is our Editors' Choice for cross-platform multi-device security suite.