Alternatives

5 Mobile AV Tools to Use Instead of the Now-Banned “Virus Cleaner”

By Bill Toulas / July 3, 2020

India has banned 59 Chinese apps, including the controversial yet highly popular “Virus Cleaner” app. It was an anti-virus, cleaner, phone security, battery saver, RAM cleaner, game booster, and notification scrutinizer suite that came with quite a few annoying ads, though.

So, even if it’s still showing up on the Play Store for India-based users, it will soon depart, and this means you’ll have to seek a different AV to help you stay safe from mobile threats.

Here are five alternatives to Virus Cleaner to consider.

Avast Mobile Security (Android)

Avast offers a quality anti-virus app for the Android platform, with lots of features and regular updates to its malware definitions. It also features a powerful anti-theft system that can lock the stolen or lost device remotely, and it even offers to apply specific performance-boosting settings. The best part is that it’s free of charge, without any limitations. The downside is that it displays some ads to make up for this.

BitDefender Mobile Security (Android)

The BitDefender team has swept many awards for being the best “free” AV tool in the past couple of years, which tells us something. It’s a “set it and forget it” AV solution that comes with a complete internet protection layer, and intelligent security recommendations that generate when you browse the net. It’s also a built-in privacy advisor.

ESET Mobile Security (Android)

ESET is one of the most prolific companies in the field of mobile threats research, and this expertise is reflected in its products. The ESET Mobile Security offers a powerful AV engine, real-time scanning, a remote locking system, security reports, and activity logs. The paid version adds anti-phishing, scheduled scanning, and automated virus database updates.

Kaspersky Internet Security (Android)

Kaspersky has created a comprehensive security tool for Android, featuring an advanced virus and malware scanning engine, an anti-theft system, data privacy protection layers, and automatic blocking of suspicious apps, websites, and files. When met with something unknown, Kaspersky Internet Security employs machine learning to figure out whether it’s behaving dangerously or not. Phishing protection is only available on the paid edition, which is one of the very few downsides.

Trend Micro Mobile Security & Antivirus (Android)

This choice is the most premium service of this list. It provides an advanced detection engine, as well as protection against malicious apps, ransomware, risky websites, unauthorized device access, or unsafe WiFi networks. It’s even checking your privacy settings on social media, warning you about potential risks of revealing more than you intended to. Moreover, there is a suite of parental controls to link your kids’ devices to your own. Finally, Trend Micro’s software offers a “Pay Guard” system to help keep online banking and shopping transactions made via mobile secure.

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