Vipre Antivirus review:This is a trustworthy product (advanced review)
Antivirus software is more important than ever, but categorizing options can be difficult. This is why we pay close attention to VIPRE’s Advanced Security Anti-Virus subscription, which provides protection against traditional viruses and emerging threats such as malware, Trojan horses, and rootkits. In fact, we tested the software ourselves to see how it actually works on our 2014 Lenovo ThinkPad. With our test information and our experience as users, we provide you with an honest evaluation of whether this antivirus software is worthwhile.
Vipre history, pricing and settings
You may be surprised to find that Vipre has been around for more than 25 years. Originally released by Sunbelt Software, its name stands for “Virus Intrusion Protection Repair Engine”. Over the years, this product was acquired by GFI and then spun off as an independent company called ThreatTrack. You can still see this history on the web pages of some products. For example, if you click on the malware notification pop-up window for more information, you will be taken to a page with sunbeltsecurity in the URL, and there are multiple references to ThreatTrack on that page. Recently, J2 Global, owner of PCMag publisher Ziff Davis, acquired Vipre.
The standard price of independent antivirus protection is approximately $40 per year. Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security are all suitable for this model. These vendors offer comprehensive security suites that are twice as expensive and provide you with three licenses. McAfee is a bit tricky. Antivirus software is $59.99 per year, and the top package is $159.99 per year. Both prices sound high, but in both cases, you can provide protection for every Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS device in your home.
Purchase and set up
VIPRE currently offers four different subscription software options: Advanced Security, Antivirus Plus, Privacy Shield and Android Security. We tested Advanced Security because it is the only antivirus product compatible with Mac and PC. We thank VIPRE for providing a 30-day free trial (no credit card required!), we tried it before paying for the project-but we don’t know how to activate it. It prompts us to enter an activation key, which we have not yet, and only by clicking “Enter” did we know that we don’t need one for trial use.
That being said, once we decide to continue purchasing the program, it only takes a few seconds to enter our payment information. After clicking buy, we will receive an email with a key to enter the PC application. VIPRE provided quite detailed instructions for downloading and running the installer, so we didn’t encounter any problems-although we heard from a colleague that she had problems running the program on her Mac.
Test Vipre Advanced Security
This kit contains all the same malware countermeasure tools as the standalone Vipre Antivirus Plus, we have reviewed it, but I will summarize these findings here.
Vipre participated in the testing of two of the four independent laboratories we tracked and got high scores from these two laboratories. In the latest report of the AV-Test Institute, Vipre received 18 points, the highest score. The same is true for nine other products, including F-Secure, Norton and Trend Micro Internet Security.
In our hands-on malware protection test, Vipre scored 8.0 out of 10, which is a bad score. But please note that Bitdefender Internet Security did not perform much better on this sample collection, with a score of 8.6. When our results are inconsistent with the laboratory results, we obey the laboratory. Webroot scored a perfect 10 points in these samples, and G Data scored 9.8 points.
In the challenge of defending against the latest series of malicious software hosting URLs, Vipre scored 97%, which is good, although it has not yet reached the previous 100% score. McAfee Total Protection now tops the list with 100% protection.
user experience
Although the test results are mixed, the usability of the program is also an important factor. Once VIPRE is up and running, the program will display a fairly simple main screen. It includes a status bar that shows when the computer was last scanned, threat definitions are up to date, and whether firewall protection is active. From there, simple settings allow us to choose to run the scan immediately or schedule a scan. At the time of installation, VIPRE defaults to schedule a full scan at 10pm on Sunday and 10am every day. We think this provides a reassuring level of protection-but we can easily change the schedule if we want.
By clicking on “Antivirus”, “Update” or “Firewall”, we can access specific settings that allow us to decide whether we want VIPRE to automatically handle threats and quarantine dangerous files (our answer is yes). The program includes web filtering by default to block potentially dangerous websites, but it allows us to enter certain websites without ever blocking them. Firewall protection is also enabled by default, but allowed programs can be added. We are particularly pleased to see that VIPRE provides email virus protection, spam filtering, and anti-phishing settings-something we did not do in some other antivirus software we tested. However, spam filtering only applies to Microsoft Outlook users. You can use other email clients to set up virus protection, such as Gmail (which we use),
All in all, the interface is fairly intuitive and easy to use, partly because the default settings look pretty standard and don’t need much change. We are very happy that we have not received any annoying pop-ups or upsells, although the appearance of the app is not the most modern, but this does not affect its functionality. We find the customization option particularly useful, so we can allow certain websites and applications to pass through the firewall, and we are happy to be able to use anti-phishing and anti-virus settings to protect our inbox.
Firewall: good news, bad news
Vipre provides a complete set of firewall-related functions, but many of them are turned off by default. If you want comprehensive firewall protection, click Manage, click Firewall, and then turn on Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and Process Protection. As I learned when I checked this product last time, just turning on IDS can only prevent high-priority intrusions. For testing purposes, I also enabled the blocking of low- and medium-priority intrusions and set all three to be blocked by notifications to make any IDS activity visible. I also set process protection to use notification blocking.
Another main task of a personal firewall is to manage the way programs access the network and the Internet to prevent abuse. Vipre defines permissions for its own processes and some basic Windows processes. For others, it allows all outbound traffic and blocks all unsolicited inbound traffic. This arrangement avoids the annoying firewall pop-up queries that plague users of certain firewall products, but it also means that the firewall’s application control does not have access control based on each application.
Simple anti-spam
When was the last time you received an advertisement about male enhancement or Russian brides in your inbox? not long ago? Your email provider is likely to filter out these and other unwanted spam. If you are one of the few people who need a local spam filter, Vipre can do this effortlessly.
The spam filter supports POP3 and IMAP email accounts. It is invisibly integrated with Outlook to transfer junk mail to the correct folder. There is no toolbar and no buttons to mark valid emails that were incorrectly archived or missed spam emails. If you don’t use Outlook, you only need to define a mail rule in your email client to transfer the marked junk mail to their own folder.
Price
Similarly, we provided a one-year premium security package for three devices at a cost of $64.99. However, these prices are all heavily discounted, so although we show the normal prices below, you can expect to pay less. Check the website to see which discounts are live, or learn more on our VIPRE fees page.
review
Due to the failure to detect viruses, the policy of sharing customer data, and the lack of compatibility with Macs, we must have encountered some issues on VIPRE. However, the AV Lab test does show the typical performance of malware-so if this is your main concern, VIPRE might be a good choice.
However, VIPRE is not suitable for people who are worried about sharing their information with advertisers. In our opinion, Mac users should probably look for antivirus protection elsewhere, because the MacOS version of the software seems to be an afterthought.
Looking for other options? We have collected the best antivirus software. In this day and age, digital security should be the top priority-we want consumers to have all the information they need to make informed decisions.
