Guide
Choosing protection for the devices you actually own
Most of this decision is arithmetic, not expertise: count the devices, work out what each one already has, and pay only for the gap that is left.
Quick answer
Start from the household's device list rather than from a product tier. Write down every computer, phone and tablet, note which platform each runs and whether it still receives updates, and identify what the people using them actually do — online banking, shared family computers, a small business run from the kitchen table. The gap between that list and what the platforms already provide is the thing worth paying for. Everything else is a feature you will never open.
Step one: the device audit
This takes about twenty minutes and makes every later question easier to answer. It is worth writing down rather than doing in your head, because the number of devices in a household is almost always higher than people estimate.
- List every device that connects to the internet and holds something you would miss. Laptops, desktops, phones, tablets. Note the operating system and roughly how old it is.
- Mark anything that no longer receives updates. A device past its support window is the highest-priority item on the list, and adding security software to it does not change that. Replacement or repurposing is the real answer.
- Note which devices are shared. A family computer used by several people, including children, has a different profile from a personal laptop used by one adult.
- Note where the important files live. Photographs, tax records, business documents. If the answer is "one laptop, nowhere else", backup matters more than scanning.
- Note what money and identity documents pass through. Banking, superannuation, myGov, a business account. These are what an attacker is generally after, and they shape which extra components are worth having.
Step two: what each platform already provides
The table below describes how the major platforms approach this, in general terms. Specifics change with each release, so the platform vendor's own documentation is the authority; the point here is to show that the starting point is not zero.
| Platform | Built-in approach | What a third-party product typically adds |
|---|---|---|
| Windows | An antivirus engine enabled by default, a firewall, disk encryption on supported editions, and reputation checks in the bundled browser. | A second opinion on detection, a different management interface, cloud backup, password management, and vendor support. |
| macOS | Application signing and notarisation checks, a firewall, disk encryption, and system-level malware removal delivered through updates. | Scanning of files shared with Windows machines, browsing protection, and the same bundled extras. |
| Android | Application sandboxing, store review, on-device scanning of installed applications, and permission controls. | Web filtering, warnings about risky permissions or settings, device location and anti-theft features. |
| iOS and iPadOS | Strong application sandboxing, store-only distribution in most configurations, and system-level protections. | Very little at the scanning level; the useful additions are web filtering and family controls rather than malware detection. |
The update question comes first
The Australian Cyber Security Centre publishes guidance for individuals and families, and keeping devices and applications updated sits near the top of it. If a household is going to change exactly one thing this month, turning on automatic updates everywhere is a better use of the effort than any purchase, and it costs nothing.
Step three: the questions that actually separate products
Feature lists are long and largely similar. These are the points where products genuinely differ, and where a bad answer costs you real money or real inconvenience.
- What is the renewal price, not the first-year price? Almost every product in this category is sold on an introductory rate. The ongoing rate is the number you are committing to, and it is on the vendor's own terms page.
- How many devices, on which platforms, and can seats be moved? Replacing a laptop mid-term is normal; a licence that cannot be reassigned is a problem you will meet.
- What happens to your files if you stop subscribing? This matters specifically for bundled cloud backup. Find out how long data is retained after a subscription ends before you rely on it.
- How is a refund requested, and within what window? Vendor refund policies sit alongside the consumer guarantees in Australian law, not instead of them.
- How is support delivered, and in which time zone? Chat-only support in a distant time zone is a different proposition from a phone number answered during Australian business hours.
- What does the product send to the vendor, and where is it stored? Reputation lookups and identity monitoring involve transmitting data offshore. The vendor's privacy policy is the document that answers this.
- Does it duplicate something you already pay for? Cloud storage, a password manager and a VPN are frequently already covered by other subscriptions in a household.
Working out the real cost in AUD
Price this the way you would price any subscription: total cost over the period you expect to keep it, in AUD, including the year the introductory rate ends. A product sold on a two-year term at an introductory rate and renewing at standard rates should be assessed across the full three or four years you are realistically going to leave it running, because that is what the household will pay. Currency conversion and overseas transaction fees can apply where a vendor bills outside Australia, and they belong in the total too.
The second half of the cost is attention. A subscription that renews silently for years after the household stopped using the product is an expense with no return. Our guide to subscriptions, renewals and cancelling sets out what to record at the point of purchase so that this does not happen quietly.
Households with children, and households running a business
Two situations change the calculation enough to mention separately. Where children use the devices, the useful components are parental controls and content filtering rather than scanning, and the eSafety Commissioner — Australia's online safety regulator — publishes guidance on setting these up and on what to do when something goes wrong, independently of any vendor.
Where a small business runs from the same devices, the risk profile shifts towards email compromise and invoice fraud, and consumer security software addresses only part of that. The ACSC publishes material aimed specifically at small business, and the separation of business and personal accounts, multi-factor authentication on email, and a verification step for changed bank details do more than any consumer product tier.
Questions readers ask
Four questions come up more than any others. The answers are ours, and they are general — your circumstances are the thing that decides.
Not automatically. Current versions of Windows and macOS include security components that the platform vendor maintains and updates with the system, and for a household that keeps its devices patched and uses distinct passwords, that baseline covers a lot. A paid product earns its place when it adds something you will actually use — cloud backup you configure, a password manager you adopt across the household, parental controls, or support you can call. Decide on the basis of the components you will use, not on the general idea that more software means more safety.
Only if five devices will genuinely use it. Count the devices in the household by platform first: desktop computers get the most out of a security product, and mobile platforms get less because applications there are sandboxed and distributed through reviewed stores. A five-seat licence covering two laptops and three phones is really a two-seat licence with three phones attached, and should be priced in your head accordingly.
Real-time scanning uses processor time and disk access, so there is a cost, and it is most noticeable on older hardware, on machines with mechanical hard drives, and during a full scan. The larger slowdowns people report usually turn out to be two real-time products installed at once and competing for the same operating system hooks. Running one at a time and scheduling full scans outside working hours removes most of the problem.
Mobile operating systems restrict what one application can see of another, which means a security app on a phone cannot inspect other apps the way a desktop product inspects files. What mobile security apps mostly provide is web filtering, warnings about risky settings, and features such as device location. Those can be useful, but they are a different kind of product from a desktop scanner, and installing apps only from the official store plus keeping the system updated does more for a phone than any add-on.
What to be wary of while you are comparing
- Any page that tells you your device has a problem before you have installed anything. A web page cannot scan a device, and the ones that claim to are covered in our guide to fake alerts and support scams.
- Comparison tables with no stated method. If a page ranks products without telling you what it measured, the ranking is decoration.
- Any page promising protection that is complete, total or guaranteed. No product in this category can deliver that, and a page saying otherwise is telling you something about the page.
- Prices quoted anywhere but the vendor's own checkout. Third-party pages, including this one, go out of date; the checkout does not.