A Full TotalAV Review for 2024: Features, Pricing, and More

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In this TotalAV review, we test one of the most reliable antivirus solutions, which became popular in less than a decade. It offers everything you need in antivirus software: real-time threat protection, system optimization tools, and antivirus scans.

It offers many extra features in addition to malware protection. However, is TotalAV worth considering in 2024? In this full review, we’ll explore its functionality, design, and pricing to help you decide if it’s best suited to your needs.

TotalAV Pros and Cons

Before we dive deeper into our TotalAV review, here are the key benefits and drawbacks of using the tool:

What is TotalAV?

TotalAV provides real-time protection from viruses, malware, and other online threats. The platform, formed in 2016 by a UK-based cybersecurity company, is relatively new to the industry.

Despite this, it became one of the most popular antiviruses in less than a year. Over 30 million people now use TotalAV to protect their devices.

Its popularity is largely due to its affordability and its excellent malware detection rates. To date, it has won numerous awards, including:

Is TotalAV Legit?

TotalAV is a safe choice and comes from a legitimate cybersecurity company—Protected. While their pricing lacked transparency in the past, this is now clearly detailed on their website.

Over the years, TotalAV has also received many awards from reputable testing labs, including AV-Comparatives, an independent organization that evaluates all the leading antivirus brands.

The highlight from independent tests and comparisons is that TotalAV is the only product with zero false alarms.

TotalAV Key Features

TotalAV’s free plan offers antivirus and data breach monitoring, while its premium version unlocks access to extra features like Total VPN and Total Password.

We’ve tested all these features on our machine, so let’s explore each one individually.

Real-Time Monitoring

TotalAV can protect you from various threats, including:

TotalAV detects all of this and more before it poses a threat to your device or data. When it detects unusual activity, it compares it against a database of known threats.

This helps it detect zero-day threats. While many antiviruses, like McAfee, also offer real-time threat protection, we were impressed with how lightweight TotalAV is on system resources.

It runs in the background and doesn’t interrupt your work—the only time it would disturb you is if it detects anything suspicious in the files, apps, or sites you open or download.

You can also configure the tool’s settings to determine how it should respond when it detects malware. For example, you can set it to either automatically block the software or notify you.

Antivirus Scans

If you doubt your system is infected, you can use TotalAV’s scanning options to detect and remove any threats. Here are your options:

During our test, both quick and smart scans took around 10 minutes to finish. We particularly like its smart scan feature for addressing both malware and system performance.

It displays all the programs that auto-run when your system starts. Here, you can choose to turn off time-consuming or unnecessary programs to improve speed.

TotalAV also supports automatic scan schedules. In the settings, you can set the time and type of scan, such as a weekly ‘quick scan’ or a monthly ‘full scan’.

The tool immediately notifies you if it finds something fishy during these scheduled automatic scans. Once the scan ends, you have several ways to handle the identified issues.

You can delete, quarantine the files you aren’t sure about, whitelist trusted files, or ignore them.

WebShield

Internet browsing is a common practice for anyone using a computer. Hackers know that and often attract you to malicious websites and harmful links to steal your personal information.

However, capable antivirus software like TotalAV lets you browse with ease and confidence. It blocks access to suspicious, harmful sites on the internet.

It checks and filters the URLs you visit against an updated database of flagged websites.

However, if you trust a website that TotalAV flags, you can manually remove it from the blocklist. This extension works on Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Firefox browsers, and mobile.

TotalAV even offers “Safe Search,” its own web engine, for extra security when browsing the web. It gives green ticks to safe sites and red ticks to ones it recommends you avoid.

Dark Web Search

Google’s Threat Horizons report concludes that 86% of breaches involve stolen credentials. So, while many of the sites we visit aim to protect our data, there are others looking to hack it.

Once they receive your passwords from one website, they try it on multiple sites and gain access to your other information if you reuse your credentials on different sites.

That’s why TotalAV created a dark web search tool. You input your email ID, and it’ll tell you if your credentials have appeared in data leaks.

This reveals not only the leaked data but also the websites responsible for the breach. This could save you a lot of harm, giving you time to change all your passwords.

To avoid such breaches, you can use a password manager—without needing to invest in separate tools, as TotalAV offers one.

Total Password

TotalAV’s password management tool adds extra security to your passwords. It’s only available on the top-tier plan, Total Security, but we find it well worth the cost.

Total Password helps you save, organize, and retrieve all your login details and passwords. All these details are stored in an encrypted vault that requires a master password to access.

With this, you can generate complex passwords that are hard to crack. Also, the tool saves them in encrypted vaults that are accessible only to authorized people.

Total Password also has an autofill feature. Enabling this automatically pastes in passwords whenever we try to log in to the apps and websites we visit most.

If you already use one of the top password managers but want to switch to a different solution, we found importing our passwords to Total Password to be a breeze.

Total VPN

TotalAV’s VPN, as with any VPN, hides your IP address, lets you unblock content, and keeps your data and online activity safe from prying eyes.

The VPN is only available in the top-tier plans—Internet security and Total security. This is a pity, but it all depends on your specific needs.

Compared to other VPNs we’ve tested, like PureVPN, TotalAV’s VPN lacks in certain areas. For starters, it only offers 50 servers in 30 countries.

It lacks the WireGuard protocol streaming VPNs use, so overall, we’d only recommend it for added security when browsing the web.

We were impressed that Total VPN offers some nifty features you’d find with the best VPNs, like a kill switch that disconnects you from the internet if your VPN connection is interrupted.

System Tune-Up Tools

TotalAV also offers features to optimize your device’s performance. These tools usually activate while running smart scans, but you can also access them separately.

Total Adblock

Many websites on the Internet display ads that aren’t just annoying but can pose a serious threat. For this, TotalAV offers a browser extension called Total Adblock.

Sites and apps send requests to advertising servers to load ads. TotalAd blocker’s database has known advertising URLs and scripts: giving it the ability to identify and block these requests.

By blocking ads and pop-ups, you can enjoy a safe, faster, uninterrupted browsing experience. The best part is that it even blocks cookie trackers used for things like personalized ads.

TotalAV’s ad blocker is available for all major browsers, including Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, and as a mobile application for iOS and Android.

TotalAV Pricing

TotalAV isn’t the most affordable option, but it’s fairly priced, given its features, effectiveness, and ease of use. Unlike others, like Norton, for example, TotalAV also offers a free plan.

However, the free plan only includes a virus scanner. It doesn’t include features like real-time threat protection and system tune-up tools.

If you want to try the premium features risk-free, there’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee on offer. Here are your options:

TotalAV Interface – Is it Easy to Use?

TotalAV has a modern design. The interface might not be the best we’ve seen, but the visuals and navigation are familiar and easy to use.

The installation takes some time—more than 10 minutes in our case—but the setup is easy. You just click the install button and wait for the tool to download.

Desktop Interface

Immediately after the installation, TotalAV will run a scan. Once finished, you’ll see the dashboard. We found that everything was pretty neatly organized.

The left-side menu bar clearly shows all the main sections: Home, Settings, Add-ons, and Help Center. Under Home, you’ll find all the key features you’ll need.

This includes antivirus scans, app uninstallers, disk cleaners, and others.

Mobile App Interface

As with the desktop version, the mobile app asks you to scan the device right after you install it. While largely the same, the desktop left-side menu is at the bottom of the screen on mobile.

With the same icons and similar feature organization, the mobile app is as robust as the desktop app. It has a 4.5 rating from 99k+ users on Google Play Store.

TotalAV vs Other Antivirus Solutions

Are you unsure if TotalAV is right for you? Here’s a quick look at how it compares to leading TotalAV alternatives, including antivirus and VPN combo options like NordVPN.

TotalAV Reviews — What Are People Saying?

We tested TotalAV’s malware detection capabilities and performance on our devices and explored all its other key features.

But we think it’s important to validate our experience with what other users think about the tool. For starters, it has gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback on Trustpilot.

Over 107k users have rated it, giving it an overall rating of 4.6/5. Impressively, 86% of these are delighted with the tool’s offerings, giving it a 5/5 rating.

Many Trustpilot reviews agree with our experience, including the ease of setting it up and navigating the interface and how lightweight it is on any system.

Moreover, the value for money is a big USP mentioned, with extras like the password manager, VPN, and ad blocker—all of which work well to enhance your security and privacy.

The key complaint we found was the VPN’s limitations. We don’t recommend it for streaming or torrenting. However, we did like that it includes some handy features like the kill switch.

Overall, for online protection, TotalAV is one of the best. Its all-in-one nature and near-perfect detection scores and reviews are testaments to its deserved position in the antivirus sector.

Other TechReport Antivirus Guides

Besides this review, our team has done extensive testing and research to compile other guides you may find useful, including:

• Full Kaspersky Review for 2024
• The Best Antivirus Software Overall in 2024 Compared
• The Best Business Antiviruses

Why You Can Trust Our TotalAV Review

Our team follows a thoughtful review process when testing any software. Our methodology includes:

This combined ensures we’re able to deliver unbiased reviews that cover the good and bad you should know before deciding if it’s right for you.

How to Use TotalAV – A Step-By-Step Guide

Like other antivirus software products, TotalAV is fairly easy to set up and use. In this section of our TotalAV review, we’ll show how to install the software and navigate the features.

Installation and Set Up

Visit TotalAV and click ‘Free Download’. Then, run the downloaded .exe file and install TotalAV on your system. This can take 10-20 minutes.

Next, launch the TotalAV app. You can access its features only after you perform the system scan, so click ‘start scan’.

Antivirus Scan

Open the TotalAV app. Go to the home section from the left side toolbar and select ‘Antivirus Scan.’ Click ‘Run an Antivirus Scan.’ Next, choose between a quick scan and a full scan.

Once finished, the tool displays the issues. You can manually fix them or click the ‘Resolve Issues Now’ button, and the tool will handle them.

Set up Scan Schedule

Click the settings icon on the toolbar on the left side. Then, select ‘Scan Schedules.’

Here, you can set the time, type, and frequency at which you want the tool to run scans automatically in the background.

The scheduled scans run in the background without interrupting you. Once the scan is finished, you’ll be notified of any issues found.

Breach Scan

This will identify if your email ID has appeared in any online breaches. Click the home icon from the left menu bar and select ‘Breach Scan’.

Now, input your email address into the text input field and click the ‘Check Now’ button.

If yours is compromised, you should update the account password and login details on the breached website.

Final Thoughts

As our TotalAV review shows, it’s an excellent solution for anyone who wants to protect their privacy and devices from malware and other online threats.

Getting started with TotalAV is easy and quick, and you get ample valuable features on higher-end plans, including a password manager and VPN.

Overall, while we do feel the renewal prices are high, the plans and the provider offer great value for money. What price would you put on peace of mind?

Its awards, near-perfect detection rates, and positive reputation are testaments to how great this tool is for what it was designed to do. The best part? You can try it for free before you decide.

FAQs