Do You Actually Need Antivirus in 2025?

The Threat Landscape Has Changed

In 2005, the answer was an emphatic yes. Viruses spread via floppy disks and email attachments. Browsers had no sandboxing. Operating systems had no built-in protection. You were one bad download from a destroyed machine. Third-party antivirus was the primary defence against a meaningful and constant threat.

In 2025, the picture is different. Modern browsers sandbox every tab. Windows 11 ships with Secure Boot and hardware-based security features as standard. Microsoft Defender is built-in, automatically updated, and substantially more capable than it was five years ago. The threat hasn't disappeared — but the base level of protection on a patched Windows machine is higher than it's ever been.

What the Risks Actually Look Like Now

The most common ways people get compromised in 2025 aren't sophisticated malware downloads. They're phishing links in emails or text messages, reused passwords compromised in data breaches, and social engineering that tricks users into doing something voluntarily. A piece of software running in the background cannot reliably protect you from clicking a convincing fake bank login page, or from reusing your Netflix password everywhere. These are behaviour problems, not software gaps.

That said, there are genuine malware threats: ransomware is real and the consequences are serious, drive-by download attacks do still occur, and software downloaded from unofficial sources is a consistent infection vector. Antivirus helps with all of those.

The Honest Answer by Platform

Windows 11 — Probably Not, Unless…

On a Windows 11 machine with automatic updates enabled, Microsoft Defender active, and sensible browsing habits, you are well-protected without spending additional money. The "unless" covers a few situations: if you regularly download software from unofficial sources (cracked software, grey market tools), if you share a machine with people who aren't technically careful, or if you handle sensitive data where the consequences of an infection are severe. In those cases, a paid suite like Bitdefender adds meaningful additional protection.

Mac — Almost Certainly Not

macOS has Gatekeeper, XProtect, and a sandboxing model that makes Windows look relatively permissive. Mac-targeted malware exists but it's rarer and typically less sophisticated. We haven't run a dedicated antivirus on our Mac test machines for three years, and we haven't had a problem. The one exception: Malwarebytes Free, run manually once a month, is worth doing just as a sanity check.

Android — A Real Case for Third-Party

Android's fragmented update model means many devices are running unpatched OS versions. Sideloading apps outside the Play Store is common and risky. If you or someone in your household does either of those things, a mobile security product is worth having. Bitdefender Mobile Security is our pick — the free tier covers basic scanning.

What You Should Actually Do

Keep Windows updated. Keep your browser updated. Enable Microsoft Defender and leave it alone. Use a password manager (Bitwarden is free and excellent). Enable two-factor authentication on your important accounts. Be skeptical of emails asking you to log in anywhere. Don't install software from sources you don't trust. If you do all of that, you are more secure than 90% of users regardless of what antivirus is installed.

Add a paid antivirus if you have a specific reason to — you share a machine with less careful users, you handle genuinely sensitive data, or you regularly venture into riskier parts of the internet. Bitdefender Total Security is what we'd spend money on.