Webroot Antivirus 2021 Review

 You must have heard about Webroot SecureAnywhere, a lightweight device protection software. It might have gone through various tests, but there has been no independent test performed on it till now. So, we did our own research to see how it performs, and can we rely on it as our primary antivirus tool or not?

So, without any further ado, let’s get started with our detailed review on Webroot antivirus and what we experienced during the test we conducted.

Webroot Antivirus: Security

Webroot SecureAnywhere offers a standard scanning mechanism that checks directories and related-files for malwares and viruses.

Users can choose their preferred scanning procedure. They can perform either a quick scan, full system scan, a custom scan (that checks for user’s preferred files and directories), deep scan (for Trojans, rootkits, and several other threats).

Webroot antivirus lets users enable/disable master boot record scanning and rootkit protection so that the harmful files corrupting the boot sequence of the systems can be traced and further removed.

Webroot also helps remove potentially unwanted applications. PUAs are program files that contain nuisance browser toolbars, adware, and several other software that are unnecessary for a system. So, having an effective mechanism for tracing and removing the PUAs is pretty impressive as it makes the systems fast and reliable. We were impressed with this feature of Webroot that tracked and removed the nuisance toolbars with which it was tested.

Webroot Antivirus: Features

Alongside scanning files, Webroot offers some helpful features that enhance basic device protection. They are:

Web Shield

Web Shield gets integrated with the browser extension that gets installed Firefox, IE, and Chrome automatically so as to prevent the attack of suspicious websites. We took some websites from PhishTank.com and tested their URLs in Chrome but, none, including a phishing website (that was disguised as a PayPal login), were flagged by this antivirus suite. So, we recommend you run any other protection tool for this intended purpose.

Backup & Sync

SecureAnywhere offers a full-featured utility to sync and backup over 25GB of cloud-hosted backup for folders and related crucial data. Though the files are encrypted only during the transmission, it would have been considered the second layer of protection if the files had been encrypted on the server-side. The storage might be enough to keep document folders encrypted, but it’s not adequate for an entire system backup.

Firewall

Web Shield offers a firewall management tool that enhances the standard firewall protection in every Windows installation. Some of the firewall features that impressed us are:

• A USB shield that helps monitor the connected USB devices.
• A real-time shield that blocks threats documented in the community database and threat definitions.

Alongside this, Webroot SecureAnywhere also offers a password manager. This feature is integrated with Android and iOS devices, and you can access the passwords saved on the web anywhere.

Webroot Antivirus: Ease of Use

You can install the Webroot Secure Anywhere setup straightforwardly and with ease. The file size is only over 3MB making it incredibly lightweight. The task manager didn’t show any significant CPU and memory consumption, and it consumed only 0.3MB RAM when in idle mode.

This setup is perfect for the systems running on older hardware versions. It also offers backward compatibility for as far as Windows Vista (both SP2 & SP1), and this makes it one of the choices for a vast number of users.

One of the additional features enhancing the usability of the product is the Web Console. Although it requires you to create an additional account within the program, it provides a few admins and other management functions. For instance, the ability to change policies or apply upgrades on multiple endpoints, see the quarantined list of files and read export logs.

Webroot Antivirus: Support

There is a user forum and knowledge pool based on the web, and it’s collectively termed as Webroot Community. The knowledge base offers videos, PDFs, and web pages. The documentation is well-organized and comprehensive, as every page provides an index in the sidebar.

Though human-to-human support is a bit less comprehensive, however, there’s a ticketing system, but we could not locate the live chat option. However, our ticket was addressed within a duration of five minutes, and we were mailed to our registered mail address to continue our going chat with the support executive online. Though there’s a sales center that the company operates for purchasing and renewal purposes, customer support isn’t offered through it.

Webroot Antivirus: Pricing

You can purchase Webroot SecureAnywhere for over three years for one/three systems (Mac or Windows). The pricing is fair, and if you take the subscription for a longer duration, you will get a fair deal and will be able to cover a more significant number of systems. Alongside all this, you get a 14-day trial to test the service on your system. You also don’t need to enter your credit card details for the free trial.

BOTTOM LINE

No doubt, WebRoot SecureAnywhere offers reliable system and internet security protection; the only thing that makes us question it is its ability to flag phishing websites. However, we would recommend using it, and it would work very efficiently even on the older hardware versions.

source:https://dcougar.com/webroot-antivirus-2021-review/