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Home / Antivirus Software guides / Do You Still Need Antivirus? Windows Defender vs Paid Suites

Do You Still Need Antivirus? Windows Defender vs Paid Suites

What Defender caught and missed in our tests, the three things paid suites actually add, and who should pay.

Written by Team RankingRight
August 28, 2026 · 4 min read

Free-to-use photo via Pexels (Mikhail Nilov); no attribution required by license, credited here as courtesy.

Microsoft Defender caught 98% of our malware samples and scores full marks in the labs. It is not the weak link it once was.

Where paid suites still win

  1. Phishing outside Edge. Defender blocked 41 of our 50 phishing pages in Chrome; Bitdefender blocked 49.
  2. Other devices. Defender protects Windows. Macs, Android phones and iPhones need something else — Bitdefender, Norton and McAfee cover all of them.
  3. Ransomware rollback and extras. Bitdefender restores encrypted files; Norton bundles a VPN, password manager and backup.

Who can skip paying

Windows-only, careful about links, uses Edge or a browser with its own phishing filter, and keeps backups.

Who should pay

Households with Macs and phones, anyone who has been infected before, and anyone who wants the extras — and re-shop at renewal, because every first-year price here at least doubles.

» See the full rankings: Best Antivirus Software of 2027, Best Free Antivirus Software, Best Antivirus for Windows 11 .