TotalAV is a popular antivirus product, with over 30 million users and counting. One of its biggest selling points is its affordable pricing relative to other antivirus software. If you’re looking for an antivirus program for personal use, check out our TotalAV review to see if it is worth your money.
Our antivirus experts have put TotalAV under the microscope, examining it based on five main categories: security, speed and system load, privacy, ease of use, and customer service. Overall, we give TotalAV a score of 8/10. Read our comprehensive TotalAV review to find out if it fits your needs.
TotalAV Short Review
What We Like
- Easy to use
- 99.9% malware and virus detection rate
- Up to six simultaneous connections
- Quick scans
- Affordable plans
What We Don't Like
- Customer support is difficult to reach
- Your system could be impacted during full scans
After hours of examination and testing, we’ve concluded that TotalAV is a good antivirus program that is right up there with the best antivirus software. Its plans are more affordable than the likes of Norton and Kaspersky. However, it doesn’t skimp on features.
TotalAV provides a suite of security and privacy features, including real-time protection, a built-in VPN, a password manager, an ad and tracker blocker, and system tune-up utilities. TotalAV’s apps are user-friendly, and they can scan thousands of files in minutes without slowing down your system. Our main issue with the TotalAV app is that its customer support agents are difficult to reach.
Read on to learn about how we reached the conclusions above.
TotalAV Specifications and Subscriptions
TotalAV offers three paid subscription plans and one free plan. Their more affordable plan is the Antivirus Pro, which is TotalAV’s basic plan and comes with several handy features. It includes real-time protection, zero-day cloud scanning, phishing scam protection, system tune-up tools, and a browser manager and cleaner. This plan covers three devices.
The Internet Security plan adds a virtual private network (VPN) on top of all that the Antivirus Pro plan offers. Plus, you can protect up to five devices. This plan is best if you’re looking for an antivirus with built-in VPN protection. At $29 per month, it’s cheaper than most of the vendors on our best antivirus software with a built-in VPN list offer.
As you may have guessed, the Total Security plan offers a little more than the Internet Security plan. First, it includes Total Adblock to ward off ads and a password vault to help you manage all your passwords. What’s more, this plan protects six devices. We recommend this plan if you want a comprehensive security suite for multiple devices.
TotalAV does offer a free version too, but it has very limited features and can be used only on one device. Moreover, if you want to use any of the features in the paid plans, you can only do that for 48 hours before having to subscribe to a premium version of TotalAV.
If you’re still on the fence regarding TotalAV’s plans, we’ve broken them down for you in the table below. To help you compare the subscription packages, we’ve placed them side-by-side alongside all their features.
| Feature | Free | Antivirus Pro | Internet Security | Total Security |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $0 | From $29 (first year) | From $39 (first year) | From $49 (first year) |
| No. of simultaneous connections | 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| Real-time antivirus | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Anti-phishing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| System tune-up tools | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Eliminate viruses, trojans & malware | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| VPN | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Zero-day cloud scanning | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Potentially unwanted application (PUA) protection | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Ransomware protection | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Disk cleaner | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Browser manager and cleaner | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| iOS and Android protection | ✖ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Total Adblock | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Password vault | ✖ | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ |
| Download link | Get TotalAV Free | Get TotalAV Antivirus Pro | Get TotalAV Internet Security | Get TotalAV Total Security |
Security: Can TotalAV Be Trusted?
TotalAV antivirus is a trusted antivirus that offers top-notch protection against security vulnerabilities online. After testing all the security features the antivirus offers in this TotalAV review, we gave it an 8/10 for trustworthiness. Here’s a snapshot of our findings:
- TotalAV is effective at detecting malware and viruses.
- Independent security tests from AV-Test reveal that TotalAV has a 99.9% malware detection rate.
- The report from AV-Comparatives shows that TotalAV has zero false positives.
- TotalAV’s real-time protection is effective in spotting harmful files.
Security testing: How does TotalAV measure up?
TotalAV has some excellent security features that can detect malware and offer you real-time protection against online threats. We checked TotalAV’s ability to detect dangerous files by introducing a dummy virus file into our computer. The file we used was an anti-malware test file from Eicar.
We ran a TotalAV custom scan of the folder containing the malware, and it detected it right away, just like our System Mechanic Ultimate Defense and Surfshark One did during our tests.
TotalAV’s swift detection of the malware was impressive, and we had the option of either quarantining or deleting the file. This is an indication that if there are any suspicious files on your system, TotalAV is likely to flag them.
Although using the Eicar file is a good place to start, it doesn’t quite tell us how the antivirus will respond to new and complex threats. To get an answer, we looked at reports from a few anti-malware labs, namely AV-Test and AV-Comparatives.
According to AV-Test’s evaluations in February 2023, TotalAV scored a 99.99% detection rate of “widespread and prevalent malware.” However, the industry average is around 100%, as you can see in our Norton 360 antivirus review and Kaspersky review.
AV-Comparative’s March 2023 tests reported the following about TotalAV:
- Offline detection rate: 96.8%
- Online detection rate: 98.8%
- Online protection rate: 99.97%
- False positives: 0
This is an excellent performance all around. For perspective, Avast Antivirus, one of the top performers, scored an offline detection rate of 96.9%, an online detection rate of 99.5%, an online protection rate of 99.97, and two false positives.
It’s good to see that TotalAV doesn’t have any false positives. This means that there’s very little chance that it can flag a file as a virus/malware when it actually isn’t.
Real-time threat protection
TotalAV antivirus provides real-time protection, which runs in the background and detects any suspicious files or activity. It’s great at spotting a wide range of cyber threats, including viruses, malware, scareware, adware, and ransomware attacks. The feature scans all files you have opened or used, and it’s a must-have if your work involves research and visiting many websites.
Also, if you download lots of files each day, make sure that TotalAV’s real-time protection is enabled since it scans downloads to make sure they don’t contain any harmful software.
In TotalAV’s settings tab, you can set real-time protection to delete or quarantine suspicious files automatically. This is key if you’re not tech-savvy and wouldn’t want to know what to do with each shady file. You can also enable real-time protection as soon as your computer boots.
Total Adblock
As the name suggests, Total Adblock is TotalAV’s ad blocker. It’s designed to block ads, browser notifications, and trackers and includes features that several of the best ad blockers have. At the time of writing, Total Adblock is compatible with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge browsers. Note that it’s not available on the TotalAV app; we had to install it separately on our browser.
System tune-up
TotalAV antivirus offers a host of system tune-up tools to clean up your system and help it perform at an optimum level. It’s a handy tool if you find your computer unusually slow and full of clutter. Here are the five tools TotalAV’s system tune-up offers:
Junk cleaner
The junk cleaner scans your system for junk files such as recycle bin files, temporary files, and thumbnails. You can delete those files to free up disk space and help your computer perform better.
During our testing of TotalAV’s junk cleaner, we noticed that the software was very thorough at picking up junk files on our computer.
Duplicate file finder
This duplicate file finder inspects all your files and spots duplicate ones taking up precious space. Be sure to double-check files before deleting them, as you might have named different files with the same name. That way, you won’t end up deleting important files.
We were very pleased with this feature when we tested it. TotalAV picked up several duplicate files on our computer and gave us a detailed description of each one.
Application uninstaller
TotalAV’s application uninstaller scans your system, shows you all installed apps, and allows you to remove unwanted ones. We found this tool very handy when testing TotalAV, as it was easier for us to see all the apps installed on our device instead of looking for these apps using our computer settings menu.
Startup manager
The startup manager shows you the autorun apps that start automatically when your system boots. It gives you the option to stop them and increase your boot time.
We were very pleased with TotalAV’s startup manager when we tested it, as it quickly presented us with all the programs that start when we switch on our computer. It was also easier for us to use this feature instead of trying to find these programs on our device.
Browser clean-up
The browser clean-up checks your browsers for files that can be deleted. Be sure to double-check before deleting any files. For instance, deleting your web history will affect your browsing experience since your browser won’t autofill your favorite URLs.
TotalAV’s browser clean-up was easy to use and presented us with the results from the scan quickly.
Privacy: How Does TotalAV Handle Your Data?
After reviewing its privacy features and policy, we concluded that TotalAV is a decent-enough service for protecting your online data. Overall, it earns a 7.5/10 for privacy. Here are our observations about the provider while conducting this TotalAV review:
- TotalAV offers multiple privacy-focused features, including a VPN, data breach monitoring, and malicious site blockers.
- TotalAV’s privacy policy is straightforward, indicating that the company collects lots of user data and might share them with third parties.
- You can request removal or edits to TotalAV’s data about you.
- There has been no record of TotalAV antivirus suffering a data breach.
Safe Browsing VPN
Safe Browsing VPN is a virtual private network that will protect your information and internet traffic while using the internet. It will give you access to 48 servers in popular destinations like the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and France. It features a kill switch, which blocks your internet connection if your VPN disconnects.
Safe Browsing VPN offers the OpenVPN protocol, which is best for a mix of speed and security. There’s also the IKEv2 protocol which works best with mobile devices since it has great reconnection abilities.
However, when we used the Safe Browsing VPN service, we noticed a few problems. First of all, it took a long time to connect, and sometimes the VPN disconnected by itself. Moreover, if you manage to connect, get ready for slow speeds while using the internet. This is obviously not great if you want to use the VPN for streaming and watching movies online, as you may experience a lot of interruptions and lag.
If you need a reliable VPN, we recommend NordVPN. It has a massive server network of more than 5,000 servers in over 60 countries. Plus, you can connect to any server within seconds. If you intend to use a VPN for unblocking, streaming, and torrenting, NordVPN is an excellent choice since it can unblock virtually any platform and has lightning-fast speeds to boot.
Want to find out more about NordVPN? Read our full-length NordVPN review to discover all the features it boasts.
- Fast and large worldwide network of VPN servers
- Perfect for privacy and streaming
- Trusted by many, with over 14 million users
Data breach monitoring
TotalAV’s data breach monitoring tool can help you find out if your passwords have been compromised in data breaches. To check if our data was part of any data breach, all we had to do was enter our email address.
The TotalAV app will check public data breaches as far back as 2007.
We tested the service with multiple emails, and for one of them, the data breach monitor flagged two breaches. Thankfully, TotalAV provided information on each data breach, including what information had been compromised.
To avoid such issues, your best bet is to use a data removal service like Incogni. As we explained in our Incogni review, the service provider rides on privacy laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to force data brokers to delete your data. That way, even if some companies suffer a data breach, your data won’t be compromised.
WebShield
WebShield is designed to detect and block fake and malicious websites often used by cybercriminals to steal your personal information, especially financial data. It also stops malicious files from installing on your website.
Another good thing that WebShield does is that it prevents crypto-mining URLs from accessing your PC. These websites can use your PC to mine cryptographic coins, consuming PC resources and slowing down your device.
We experienced this while browsing the internet and had TotalAV’s real-time protection enabled.
We opened a seemingly safe website, but it tried to redirect us to a fishy site. WebShield identified the site as a crypto-mining URL and blocked access to it.
TotalAV’s Password Vault
If you’re bogged down by the number of passwords you have to keep track of, TotalAV’s password vault can remember your passwords and login credentials, so you don’t have to. All you need is a master password, and you can access all your passwords in one go, much like with many of the best password managers.
In addition, the password vault can help you create unique and hard-to-crack passwords for as many accounts as you want. It also integrates with Chrome and Firefox web browsers, so you can auto-fill your login details and save them directly into your vault.
TotalAV’s privacy policy
When we examine the privacy policies of antivirus companies, we’re primarily concerned with two things: the kind of information they collect about users and how they take care of that information.
According to TotalAV’s privacy policy, the antivirus provider collects the following details about users:
- Account information: Name, email address, telephone number, password, and payment information
- Personal information as you use the service: Updates of information in your dashboard, communications by telephone or email, registering licenses, forms completed on the website, and information on support tickets
- Device information: IP address and geographical location
- Cookies: To track your preferences
Most of the above information is personally identifiable information. In other words, they can be traced back to you in the event of a data breach or when a government or law enforcement agency asks for your data.
It’s also worth noting that TotalAV antivirus is willing to share user data with several third parties, including customer and technical support operators and regulatory authorities.
That said, it’s good that TotalAV is transparent about the data it collects. Also, the antivirus company encourages users to take measures to protect their privacy. For example, in line with the GDPR, you can request access to your data and ask for correction or deletion.
Usability: How User-Friendly Is TotalAV?
TotalAV is a very user-friendly antivirus provider. During our TotalAV review, we examined its website, installation process, customer support, and how easy it is to cancel a subscription. Based on our findings, we gave TotalAV a score of 8/10 for user-friendliness. Here’s a sneak peek of our observations:
- TotalAV is easy to install, although it might take a little longer than usual.
- The antivirus apps are intuitive, organized, and easy to navigate.
- TotalAV offers multiple options for canceling your account.
- The knowledge base offers slim pickings, and the live chat is hard to access.
How do I install TotalAV?
We found TotalAV’s website clean, professional, and easy to navigate. All the important buttons are available on the homepage. Simply click on the “Get Protected Now” button, and you’ll be directed to a page where you purchase a subscription and download the client for your device.
TotalAV is a good choice whether you’re using mobile or desktop devices since it has apps for Windows, Android, iOS, and macOS devices.
Installing TotalAV antivirus is a breeze, and here are the steps to follow on a desktop device:
- Go to TotalAV’s website and click “Get Protected Now” to purchase a subscription.
- Enter your payment details to complete the payment.
- To download the software, scroll to the bottom of TotalAV’s website, and under “Apps,” click the client you want. For this example, we chose Windows.
- Download the TotalAV app, click on the executable (.exe) file, and follow the installation prompts.
- Once the installation is complete, the software will launch automatically.
It’s worth noting that you don’t need to purchase a plan before downloading the TotalAV software. Instead, you can create a free account on the website and access the antivirus for free for seven days. To do that, Click the “My Account” tab on the top right corner of the homepage and enter your email address and password.
One minor gripe we had with TotalAV was that it took about five minutes to install. For about three minutes, our screen was stuck on the “Downloading” stage. In contrast, most of the antivirus we’ve tested, including Kaspersky and Surfshark One antivirus, only took a couple of minutes to install.
You can pay for a TotalAV subscription using credit cards, including Visa, Amex, Discover, and Mastercard. You can also pay through PayPal. We noticed that the available payment options might differ based on your location.
For example, when we spoofed our location to some countries in Africa and Asia, PayPal was the only available payment method. If you encounter such a scenario, use a VPN to change your location, say to the US, and purchase a subscription.
TotalAV installation on Android
Installing the TotalAV mobile app on Android is equally easy.
Simply head to the Android Play Store and search for “TotalAV.” In case different software pop up with similar names, the thumbnail of TotalAV’s software has a black background with a red and black shield in the middle.
Click on the “Install” button and wait for the software to download and install on your device. In our experience, the Android app took about two minutes to set up on our device.
After the installation process, open the TotalAV app and start using it. To gain access to all the features, you’ll have to purchase a subscription.
TotalAV’s software
When you open TotalAV’s software, you’ll be met with a beautiful and user-friendly dashboard. Although the antivirus has many tools and features, they are well-organized, making it easy for beginners to find their way around.
We’ve summarized the various tools and under which tab you can find them in the table below.
| Feature/Setting | Tools |
|---|---|
| Malware protection | Protection status Malware scan Quarantine |
| Internet security | VPN WebShield Total Adblock Data breach checker |
| System tune-up | Junk cleaner Duplicate file finder Application uninstaller Startup manager Browser cleaner |
| Password vault | Password storage |
| Share protection with family and friends | License sharing |
We also like that TotalAV antivirus has descriptions underneath each feature, explaining what it does simply. That way, you can understand what tools like WebShield and Startup Manager can do for you before activating them.
One thing we’d like to see is TotalAV offering a quick tour of the app after the installation process, as Norton Antivirus does. This will help new users gain a bird’s eye view of what the software offers and how to use it. Curiously, a tour is available on TotalAV’s Android app but not on Windows.
At the time of writing, TotalAV was available in 12 languages, including Spanish, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Turkish, and Portuguese.
How easy is it to cancel TotalAV?
Most of the antivirus tools we’ve reviewed make it easy for you to cancel your subscription and get a refund within a specific period. TotalAV is no different. In fact, you have several different options to cancel your account if you don’t like the service:
- Send a cancelation request to cancel@totalav.com.
- Call 833 201 8681 and ask for your account to be canceled.
- Log into your TotalAV account and use the live chat feature to request a termination of your account. We’ll walk through how to use the live chat feature in the next section.
If you’re interested in a refund, be sure to request it within 14 days of purchasing the monthly plan. The refund window for the one-year plan is 30 days.
Total AV’s customer support
If you have any issues while using TotalAV antivirus, you can check out their knowledge base to see if you’ll find answers. We looked over the knowledge base, and it does offer some useful resources. It covers everything from setting up your account to billing issues. It’s also great that there are articles that cover each of TotalAV’s tools.
The setup guides come with annotated screenshots that are helpful for anyone facing an issue while installing the service. However, we believe it would have been even better if it had video guides.
If you need to talk to a TotalAV customer support agent, you’ll find that it’s unnecessarily complicated. First of all, there’s no clear email on the website for sending tickets. We had to reach out to customer support through live chat to confirm where we could send our queries.
Surprisingly, according to a live chat agent, the email to send concerns to is billing@totalav.com, which looks like a dedicated email for billing issues, not technical issues.
TotalAV offers live chat support for paid users. Oddly, we needed to answer several questions to confirm our account before we could access a live agent.
After clicking the “Contact Us” link in our dashboard, we had to choose the kind of support we wanted.
Next, we were asked to confirm our account name and email.
We were asked to enter our account name and email, even though we had confirmed it in the previous step.
We waited for about two minutes before being connected to a live agent.
Since we had already logged into our account, these hoops seemed unnecessary.
The consolation, though, was that the live agent provided insightful answers to our queries.
Speed and Performance: Will TotalAV Slow Down My System?
TotalAV will not slow down your system. During our testing for this TotalAV review, we were impressed with TotalAV’s speed and performance, and we gave it an 8.5/10, which brings it very close to the best antivirus scanners ratings. Here’s why:
- TotalAV can scan thousands of files in minutes, making it one of the fastest antivirus scanners we’ve ever used.
- You can run a TotalAV full scan while using your computer normally, although your computer might get slightly warm.
How long does a scan take?
A scan can take anywhere from a few seconds to several hours, depending on multiple factors, including your RAM, the type of hard drive you’re using, and CPU performance. The number of files you’re scanning also comes to play.
TotalAV antivirus offers two scan options: a smart scan and a full system scan. We attempted both scans on our computer with the following specifications: Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a solid-state drive (SSD), and a Windows 11 64-bit operating system.
The smart scan took about a minute and checked over 20,200 files. This was quite fast compared to other antivirus software we have tested. For instance, in our Sophos review, the antivirus combed through over 1,100 files in one minute.
The full scan looked through over 400,000 files in about 15 minutes. For perspective, Surfshark One needed about three hours to scan over 470,000 files. That tells you just how fast TotalAV is.
How does TotalAV impact my CPU?
Luckily, the TotalAV app barely impacts computer working memory, even during a full scan. When we ran a full scan, it took just about 120MB of our working memory and 2-3% of CPU resources. This is similar to how Kaspersky, one of the most popular antivirus software, affected our system during our Kaspersky review: 110MB and around 2% of CPU usage.
We opened several browsers and streamed a movie while TotalAV’s full scan was running. We didn’t notice any delays, and although our computer got slightly warm, it didn’t affect our system.
Final Verdict: Is TotalAV a Good Virus Scanner?
Based on our TotalAV review, we can confidently say that TotalAV is a good choice if you’re looking for an antivirus scanner for personal use. It can detect harmful files in seconds and has real-time protection to ensure no virus sneaks into your system, whether you’re browsing or downloading files.
Luckily, all its apps are easy to use, making it a good choice for beginners. As an added benefit, TotalAV includes several tools like a built-in VPN, password manager, and an ad blocker in its package. TotalAV’s Achilles heel is that its customer support is hard to reach.
If you’d like to shop around before making a choice, take a look at our other antivirus reviews below:
- Bitdefender Review: Great Antivirus With Many Options
- Intego Antivirus Review: Protection for Mac and Windows
- AVG Review: Is this Antivirus Worth Your Money?
Odds are, you still have a few unanswered questions about TotalAV antivirus. Your answer might just be here. Click on any of the FAQs here to reveal an answer.
TotalAV is very trustworthy as it does a great job of fishing our viruses and malware that try to invade you computer. It’s also good for privacy, thanks to its built-in antivirus and password manager.
Although TotalAV collects personally identifiable information, there’s been no record of a data breach thus far. You can learn more about TotalAV’s security and privacy features in our TotalAV review.
Although TotalAV is a useful antivirus, Norton is more robust and efficient. Unlike TotalAV, Norton has a 100% malware and virus detection rate. Plus, it boasts a ton of useful features including dark web monitoring, parental controls, and fictitious identity monitoring, which TotalAV doesn’t have.
Explore Norton’s features in our Norton antivirus review.
TotalAV’s free version offers only a basic scanner. You can scan and remove harmful files on your device, but that’s about all you’ll get. There’s no real-time protection and many other features. Read our TotalAV review to learn about features that you can get when you purchase a plan.
Here’s a summary of TotalAV’s paid plans:
- Antivirus Pro (three devices): $29 for the first year and renews at $119/year
- Internet Security (built-in VPN and five devices): $39 for the first year and renews at $145 /year
- Total Security (built-in VPN, ad blocker, password vault and six devices): $49 for the first year and renews at $179/year
We’ve broken down TotalAV’s plans and how it stacks up to other antivirus programs in our comprehensive TotalAV review.
