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Best Antivirus for iPhone

No device today is completely safe from web trackers, spyware, adware, or any type of malware.

While computers and laptops are often the most targeted types of devices, your iPhone is also susceptible to such attacks.

For that reason, installing antivirus software on your iPhone is a great way to ensure your personal information remains private.

If you’re looking for the best antivirus for iPhone, you need to look at applications and software that were created specifically for iOS—the operating system that all Apple products run on.

Check out the top 5 applications to protect your iPhone against malicious files, bots, cloud snoopers, and more in this review.

What are Antivirus Apps?

Antivirus apps are downloaded from the Apple store just like any other application you would use on your iPhone.

They’re designed and created to protect against web attacks and phishing scams and to keep your personal data secure.

These antivirus apps will monitor the permissions of websites and other applications and can help block websites from tracking your data.

The best antivirus app for iPhone will also include features like wi-fi scanning to check if a network is safe, a VPN for safe web browsing, and automatic alerts if your personal data has been compromised.

Why is it Important to Use an Antivirus App for iPhones?

iPhones already come with a set of security features that help keep information private, yet they are not resistant to all types of threats and scams.

iOS devices like iPhones and iPads are often the targets of phishing scams, fake websites with intrusive ads, and network attacks.

Plus, many apps available to iPhone users have unauthorized access to your phone to monitor your website browsing, photos, contacts, and plenty more.

The bottom line is that iPhones are not immune to the plethora of threats that exist today. The best antivirus for iPhone can help protect your personal information against intrusive websites and apps.

What’s the Best Antivirus for iPhones?

There are countless apps made to protect iPhones against viruses and other web threats. However, not all of them offer the same level of security or privacy features. Check out the top 5 apps below.

1. Avira Mobile Security – Our Top Choice

Visit Aira

Pros

Immense security
Comes with anti-theft safeguard protections
Best free antivirus

Cons

Response times from customer support can be slow

Avira Mobile Security is an app designed by an award-winning German security company that has over 30 years of experience in the industry. The app is compatible with iPhones that have iOS 12.0 or a later version.

The application provides iPhone users with all the features necessary for them to feel safe while browsing the web or joining new wi-fi networks.

Top-Notch Security

When you’re browsing the web, Avira Mobile Security blocks phishing scams, malware attacks, spam messages, and more. If you want even more secure web browsing, you can activate the secure VPN included with the app.

Doing so ensures that all your personal information goes through Avira’s secure connection to safeguard it from third-party apps or websites that try to steal personal data.

However, the downfall of the VPN is that users have a daily limit of 100MB.

The Avira Mobile Security app also comes with anti-theft and identity safeguard protections. You can lock apps on your phone to prevent access if someone has stolen your iPhone, and you can even remotely wipe all of the data on your device.

Identity safeguard protections include email scanning to see if your email address or any address in your contact list has been leaked online. You can also schedule email scanning to occur daily, weekly, or monthly.

What’s Better Than Free?

On top of all that, Avira also provides contacts backups to your email or Dropbox or Google Drive account, call blocker features, and a device analyzer that can provide insight into the storage and memory of your iPhone.

Avira users can also utilize the app’s privacy manager to prevent Siri from recording conversations.

The bottom line of Avira Mobile Security is that it’s a reliable application with great features all for free. If you want the best antivirus for iPhone, download Avira Mobile Security.

2. Avast Security & Privacy – the Next Best Thing

Visit Avast

Pros

Very user friendly
Many security-related bonus features included
One of the fastest and most secure antivirus

Cons

Installation can be slow

There’s a case to make that Avast Security & Privacy could take the spot as the best antivirus app for iPhone instead of Avira.

Avast has an impressive reputation for snuffing out malicious websites and other web threats to keep your iPhone safe from viruses. It’s also a great option for Android smartphones, which you can read about in our Best Antivirus for Android review.

The app is available to iPhone users with iOS 12.0 or later.

Features Galore

The Avast Security & Privacy app has three key features for iPhone users—wi-fi scanning, password safeguarding, and the Photo Vault.

The iPhone app will scan public wi-fi networks to make sure there are no threats present on the network. The threat detection technology monitors weak passwords and other potential vulnerabilities that may allow hackers to steal personal information.

The password safeguarding feature may not sound like anything special, but it goes a long way to keeping you safe online.

Avast is Always on Your Side

Avast uses your email address to monitor various online databases to make sure that your passwords haven’t been compromised. If any leaks are found, Avast will immediately notify you.

The Photo Vault is a secure place to store photos that you don’t want others to see such as photos of IDs or other sensitive content. It can be accessed via a pin code, Face ID, or Touch ID and can store up to 40 photos.

The downfall of the Avast Security & Privacy app is that many features are behind a paywall, and for that reason, it did not top the list.

The paid plans include a VPN, unlimited email account monitoring, and unlimited encrypted storage for photos.

3. McAfee Mobile Security – a Name You Can Trust

Visit McAfee

Pros

Lots of features
Encrypted storage
Premium customer support

Cons

Interactive interface could use some work
Pricing plans can be confusing

McAfee is a well-known name in the world of antivirus software and data protection, so it’s no surprise the company has built a strong mobile antivirus app.

The McAfee Mobile Security app is available to iPhone users with iOS version 13.0 or later.

Users who sign up and open the app will first be impressed with the layout and design of the application. From there, the features will shine.

5 Key Features

McAfee Mobile Security offers 5 key features—a secure VPN, dark web monitoring for identity protection, safe browsing protection, wi-fi scanning, and system scans.

McAfee’s VPN lets you keep your iPhone safe from unsecured wi-fi in public areas and encrypts your personal data at a bank-grade encryption level. However, iPhone users only have 500MB of VPN usage per month.

The dark web monitoring protection is as it sounds—McAfee software constantly searches the dark web for stolen information or data that are related to the data you provide the app.

It can monitor up to 10 email addresses, various ID numbers, passport numbers, credit and debit cards, bank information, and more. If a detection is found, McAfee helps remediate the issue.

The Safe Browsing features in the app include protecting against virus-ridden files and sketchy links. Plus, Safe Browsing automatically blocks malicious websites and protects against phishing scams.

McAfee’s wi-fi scanning allows iPhone users to feel confident that they’re connecting to a safe network.

The app will send alerts to your phone if you try to connect to an unsecured network.

New iOS Updates

The app will also scan your phone to check when an iOS update is available and necessary as up-to-date phones are more protected from viruses.

The McAfee Mobile Security app is an excellent antivirus app that covers all the basic features any app should have while also adding in the dark web monitoring. All the features mentioned above come with a free account.

However, there is also a paid version that includes unlimited VPN usage, advanced dark web monitoring, and more.

4. Lookout Mobile Security – Incredibly Popular Option

Visit Lookout

Pros

Solid user interface
Contains breach reports
Solid identity protection

Cons

Scans can be slow
No phone or online chat support

Lookout Mobile Security is a highly rated antivirus app for iOS 12.0 and later devices.

The app has over 100 million users that take advantage of features like phishing protection, mobile breach protection, location services, and more.

The app provides iPhone users with some handy features like checking for missing updates or seeing if a device has been jailbroken in the past.

Always Working in the Background

Plus, the Lookout Mobile Security app monitors other apps that run on your iPhone to see if there is any suspicious activity, and it monitors wi-fi networks to check for sketchy security concerns.

On top of the monitoring features, Lookout Mobile Security also has great security features in case you lose your iPhone. When your battery is low, Lookout Mobile Security will save your device’s location.

What’s more, you can receive alerts through your device even when your phone is on silent.

While all the above goes a long way to securing your device against malicious threats, you may want more for your iPhone. In that case, the premium plan offered includes much more.

What Do You Get With a Paid Version?

With a paid version of Lookout Mobile Security, iPhone users can have features like remote wiping of their phone, a privacy advisor, a cyber watch for personal and financial information, and social security number monitoring.

Plus, paid users to get to take advantage of Lookout’s artificial intelligence systems that protect your data by analyzing telemetry data of other devices and apps.

Finally, Lookout also provides paid users with identity restoration services, identity theft insurance, and breach reports when a service or app you use experiences a data breach.

All in all, Lookout Mobile Security is a solid antivirus app for iPhone users. However, to get the same cybersecurity and personal information monitoring features that many of its competitors offer, you’ll have to pay.

5. Norton Mobile Security – Safe Protection

Visit Norton

Pros

Secure VPN and password manager included
Numerous protection tools at your disposal
Parental control features

Cons

No free version
Requires an annual subscription after 14-day free trial

Norton Mobile Security is a powerful iPhone security and privacy app that provides solid protection against web threats created by a well-known and reputable antivirus software company.

The application is available for devices with iOS 13.0 or later.

Norton Mobile Security is complete with security features to protect against malware, spyware, and ransomware. The app checks for iOS updates and security patches to make sure your iPhones built-in security features are up to date.

What’s more, the app will alert you if your phone has any vulnerabilities that could allow personal data theft.

Norton is on Your Side

Norton Mobile Security includes features like SMS security to filter out phishing attacks, wi-fi scanning, and security alerts if a network suffers an attack or is compromised.

The application also provides dark web monitoring to ensure none of your information has been leaked.

On top of the security features, the app also includes a VPN for its users. The VPN utilizes bank-grade encryption to ensure your information is always private and to stop websites from tracking your data.

While Norton Mobile Security is a great option for iPhone users, the downfall is that you have to pay for a subscription to use the service.

Norton does provide a 14-day free trial once you’ve signed up for the subscription.

Final Word

There are plenty of iOS apps that claim to offer the best security and privacy services. However, by comparing the apps and their features, it’s clear to see that some are better than others.

Not only that but there are many applications that will charge you to access premium features that other apps provide for free.

The above five constitute some of the top products available for mobile security and privacy. However, the best antivirus for iPhone is Avira Mobile Security.

Avira offers numerous features that go a long way to keeping your information safe such as phishing protection, email monitoring, a VPN, and plenty more.

Best Antivirus for iPhone FAQs

What is the Best Antivirus for iPhone?

Avira Mobile Security is the best antivirus for iPhone. The app is free to download, and it includes identity theft protection, malware protection, data backups, and a free VPN.

Plus, users can schedule daily, weekly, or monthly scans to ensure your email and no accounts associated with it have been compromised.

How Do You Run Antivirus on iPhone?

You can’t run antivirus software on an iPhone the same way you can on a Mac or a PC. When you download applications on your iPhone, the application software is set up in a sandbox—it has restricted access.

While the security apps available for iPhone users cannot detect malware on your phone, they can help prevent you from getting malware on your phone.

Is it Important to Have Antivirus on an iPhone?

Yes. It’s important to have antivirus applications on your iPhone. While Apple has done a good job of making iPhones secure, it’s still possible to get a virus or fall victim to a phishing scam as an iPhone user.

Antivirus apps for iPhones help protect users from visiting malicious websites and falling victim to phishing scams.