TotalAV is a budget-friendly and popular antivirus software designed to scan your computer for malware and stop any incoming nasties from being downloaded.
It’s a crowded market and there is some stiff competition, so we set out to find if the TotalAV antivirus app can compete with its more expensive rivals.
What is TotalAV?
TotalAV is a fully featured antivirus software suite with a lot to offer. There is a stripped back free version, which includes the core antivirus engine and a premium version, which includes real-time protection from viruses, spyware, ransomware, and other forms of malware.
TotalAV’s premium features include:
- Real-time antivirus monitoring
- Anti-phishing
- Updated viruses definitions
- Data breach monitoring
- Smart scanning
- Safe browsing VPN
- Remote firewall
Is TotalAV safe?
TotalAV is 100 percent safe as long you download it directly from the provider’s website. A lot people worry that because there is a free version, it’s not legit; but it is a well-trusted antivirus solution and should do an excellent job at protecting your computer. In this review, we will dig into each of the features so that you can understand exactly what is on offer and whether purchasing the premium version is right for you.
How much does TotalAV cost?
TotalAV costs just $19 (€19/£22.80) for the first year. That prices increases to $99 (£118.80) per year after the first 12 months. It’s worth noting that auto-renewal is switched on, so if you don’t plan on sticking around after that first year, be sure to put something in the diary and cancel before you are charged the full amount!
TIP: The introductory price can fluctuate a bit. Make sure you use our link for the 80% first year discount.
Can you get TotalAV for free?
You can get TotalAV free, but the free version only offers a basic scanner. The free version of TotalAV allows you to scan for and remove malware. However, it does not provide a real-time scanner and has several other limitations. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so we’d urge you to consider the paid-for version as you ideally want to identify malware before it is downloaded… not after!
TotalAV Features
Total AV constantly updates its malware protection and antivirus scanner to protect against the latest threats. Each year some modifications are also likely to be found in the software suite being offered. In 2021 TotalAV’s VPN has expanded from 40 servers worldwide to over 100, including 57 in North America.
The latest tests I have run on the 2021 version show that, compared with its peers, Total AV has a relatively large impact on PC systems such as CPU, memory, and control disk usage.
Updates to TotalAV software
After a few years on the market and a few bloody noses from customers, TotalAV changed its software, billing practices, and refund policy for the better. It’s now one of the most consumer-friendly services on the market today, a move that prompted us to re-evaluate our previously negative review of the service.
EXCLUSIVE DEAL:TotalAV is offering our readers a $19/year deal, which even beats the current deal it has running on its website. This includes a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it risk-free and cancel for a full refund.
Value for money is an important factor in our ratings, so we have elected to bump the rating based on the discounted pricing and money-back guarantee.
If price is taken out of the equation, there are alternatives we prefer; however for a solid, easy-to-use solution that comfortably beats all of the free (and some of the paid) antivirus software we have tested, TotalAV should be on your shortlist.
In our previous update on this service, we lowered TotalAV’s score due to customer complaints about consumer-unfriendly business practices, particularly regarding unintended payments, higher-than-expected bills, and an unclear auto-renewal policy.
Since then, TotalAV has listened to those complaints and moved positively in a more consumer-friendly direction. As a result, we’ve bumped the score back up to better reflect the company’s positive change.
While the auto-renewal policy is now more transparent, renewals are expensive compared to the introductory price.
TIP: Total AV is great value for money for the first year but the price jumps on renewal. After signing up for the discounted deal, contact the support team and ask them to switch off auto-renewal.
Here’s the important part of the renewal policy confirming how you can switch off auto-renewal and what the renewal price is if you do renew.
We’ll monitor customer feedback including the comments we receive here to see if more ethical billing practices are maintained.
Minimum system requirements
TotalAV makes applications for Windows, Android, Mac, and iOS.
For Windows and Mac, that includes standard antivirus protection. For Android devices, you’ll get antivirus protection, an optimizer, and an app manager. The iOS version is notably limited, offering an optimizer to help speed up your phone, a photo manager that helps you clean up your photos and avoid the dreaded “Storage Full” message, and a safe browsing tool.
It’s difficult to tell exactly what the system requirements are for each. TotalAV does not list any information about system requirements on its website. Instead, when you click on “download” for Mac or Windows, or go to the Google Play Store or iTunes, you’ll either find that it downloads pretty easily, or you’ll run into errors. This is not an entirely good way of helping customers figure out if their devices can handle the software, but most modern devices with up-to-date operating systems should work.
Installation and setup
In the past, TotalAV required you to make an account before even purchasing or downloading the software. Now, thankfully, you can purchase and download the software first, then create your account after, making it easier to avoid giving up your information if you decide not to buy.
Once installed, TotalAV will spend a good few minutes updating its virus definitions onto your machine. Only after all of that can you actually install the program onto your computer. In all, installation took me just under 10 minutes, which seems a bit long to install a program. That said, most of that time spent waiting for the full installation was spent updating the virus definitions.
Once installed, TotalAV runs silently in the system tray but will load up the dashboard, at least for the first time. It used almost no space on my CPU and consumed around 20 MB of RAM on my machine. All in all, it keeps a low profile.
Interface
You certainly can’t fault TotalAV for paying attention to the visuals. The interface on this application is very easy to navigate.
The Malware Protection section is the default screen when you open the app. From there, you can adjust your real-time protection settings, or run a Smart Scan.
You can quickly access over a dozen other features from the left side menu by hovering over each item.
TotalAV recently revamped the interface, making it all the more user-friendly, reducing clutter, and eliminating some unnecessary features that weren’t entirely popular either.
Its newly streamlined approach is more in line with some of the more popular tools on the market while making the app among the easiest AV tools on the market to navigate.
Primary security features
This application gives you all of the must-have tools you’re looking for in an antivirus program. Importantly, you’ll get real-time antivirus protection that monitors your computer constantly for malware activity. Or, you can opt for one of several manual scanning options.
Real-time protection
The real-time scanning and blocking tool is highly effective. We found it blocks potential malware immediately when it detects malware within a downloaded file.
Meanwhile, running scans will check your file system for malware that may have slipped, either because it was missed by the real-time protection, or because your computer was infected prior to installing the TotalAV software.
Malware scanning
There are three scanning options: Smart Scan, Full System, and Custom Scan. The Smart Scan feature will scan a large, yet targeted selection of files and folders on your hard drive. This scan focuses attention on the areas of your file system where malware is most likely to be rooted.
Once a scan is complete, TotalAV offers feedback on the number and type of malware threats discovered. It also scans and offers removal options for tracking cookies, junk files, autorun programs, browser history and cookies, duplicate junk files, potentially unwanted applications (PUAs), and offers security recommendations.
Scan times will depend fully on the type of scan you choose and the size of your file system. Custom Scan can result in the fastest scan times if you limit to just a few select folders. Smart Scan, which is TotalAV’s “quick scan” equivalent, can take over 15 minutes. A Full Scan could take closer to an hour or more if your file system is large and limited in resources.
TotalAV VPN Review
The service offers a VPN with a long list of VPN server locations: over 40. That’s comparable to some of the major VPN providers on the market, making this a decent VPN solution if you’re looking for location variety. I asked TotalAV about whether their VPN service provided by them or offered by a third party. I was told TotalAV’sVPN is their own, homegrown service.
The company’s online Knowledge Base includes a few more details on the VPN, such that it uses 256-bit AES-CBC encryption run on the OpenVPN protocol. Beyond this, there’s no information on the VPN.
Due to the lack of info and features, I would not suggest using it for the time being if you’re looking for a serious VPN solution. It doesn’t come with any features commonly found on paid VPN services, such as DNS leak protection, kill switch, or the option to change your ports. There’s also no word on a logging policy, something fundamentally important to anyone wishing to use this as a secure, anonymous VPN.
TotalAV WebShield
TotalAV includes a web filtering tool that is automatically set to block suspicious websites and web browsing activity. The tool blocks “low trust” website, cryptomining URLs, and other malicious-acting sites. There’s a white list included for trusted websites that may trigger false positives.
The value in quarantining is the files found and cleaned may be necessary for other programs to correctly operate. Needless to say, you’ll have to be far more particular in how you use the free version given you have no quarantine option, lest you find yourself causing some damage to certain infected programs by mistake while trying to clean them.
Ultimately, the usefulness you’ll get out of TotalAV’s primary functionality is limited if you only stick to the free version.
TotalAV for iPhone & TotalAV for Android
People often think of antivirus for phones as a bit of a gimmick – but iPhones and Android phones are increasingly becoming popular attack vectors for cybercriminals. Why? Simple… because that’s where we spend most of our time these days!
It’s true that iPhones and iPads are inherently more secure thanks to Apple’s ‘walled-garden’ approach to hardware and software development; but they are not immune to vulnerabilities.
The TotalAV companion app for iOS & Android is not really a full-blown AV product for your mobile, but it does offer WebShield on the go. This provides sophisticated real-time monitoring to prevent users from accessing malicious sites and files.
It also provides access to the VPN so that you can keep your mobile connection private.
Other privacy and security features
TotalAV includes a range of other privacy and security tools in the package that users may find useful. These include:
- Ad-Block Pro (requires additional activation)
- Data Breach Check
- Password Vault
- Junk Cleaner
- Duplicate File Finder
- Application Uninstaller
- Setup Manager (optimizes boot time)
- Browser Cleanup
These features are not uncommon among other paid antivirus tools. But at the low price offered, they create what is effectively a high-end package for a low-end cost, at least for the first year of service.
Effectiveness as a security solution
When you consider what you get with TotalAV, it’s ultimately a good, if not perfect, security solution. With a few years of operation under its belt, TotalAV has some time to fine-tune its product, although there’s still room for growth. In particular, the company could do more to be transparent (an area where it’s made great strides in the past year), especially about the pricing after the service renews, and should make it easier for customers to turn off automatic renewal.
That said, one must consider what is available through the application. The firewall is there, and it works as intended as far as we can tell. The virus scanner is thorough in picking up threats and nicely separates the different threats into categories, which wasn’t always the case with the tool.
The addition of the VPN makes it more valuable in this category for some users than most other antivirus solutions, weighing heavily in TotalAV’s corner as a more all-in-one security solution.
One of its newest features, the Data Breach Check, is a certainly useful feature, though TotalAV simply scrapes that data directly from the well-established site Have I Been Pwned, making it a feature that’s not altogether necessary as part of the tool.
The core features are built well, however, and go a long way toward protecting users. And since we first reviewed this tool back in 2017, TotalAV has adopted many changes to it that have improved its functionality, usability, and trustworthiness.
System impact
I found that TotalAV used very little of my system resources during both the quick and full scans. That’s an uncommon benefit, as some programs will simply fill up your processor to the extent that you can’t do much with your computer at all while performing regular malware scans.
Even more impressive is the fact that it didn’t slow down my netbook at all while scanning. Given a netbook tends to have very limited CPU resources, this may make TotalAV a good option for a good segment of users with low-powered machines.
The application does its duty when malicious files are inbound. TotalAV’s firewall detected my attempt at downloading a test malware file and gave me a warning about it. The file’s download is automatically blocked, so if it’s a file you do want to download, you’ll need to turn the web filtering off first.
Help and support
TotalAV provides several support areas for those looking to use the software. The company offers 24/7 live chat on its website, which is something I think more companies should offer. I used this service once to find out information on their VPN. It took about four minutes to get a response. The service representative was able to answer my question fairly quickly and succinctly after that.
You can also email them, call them, or use the available knowledge base articles. The knowledge base is only marginally helpful, however, so chances are you’re more likely to turn to one of the more direct contact methods to get in touch with the company.
TotalAV Reviews from users: How to avoid extra charges
While TotalAV offers a steep discount on their services for the first year, the product is rather pricey after the renewal (although still cheaper than many competing products). Prior to our revised review of the service, many consumers complained about getting caught by surprise by the renewal price increase, as TotalAV was not overly clear about its auto-renew policy, and was slow to process customer complaints.
There have been major changes, however. TotalAV now openly advertises its auto-renewal policy on its product pages, and on the final sign-up page. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, and a prorated refund if you cancel before a full year of service.
Note that if you don’t want to experience the sticker shock on TotalAV’s full, standard price (currently $99 per year), you’ll want to make sure you cancel before the first year is out. We suggest setting up a calendar reminder for yourself.
We recommend paying with PayPal. Here’s why:
Taking into consideration the above section avoiding extra charges, we recommend that you consider signing up to TotalAV or any other subscription-based service by using PayPal. All subscription-based services allow you to cancel your subscription, but they’re not always clear about how to cancel, or make that cancellation process easy. Additionally, we’ve found many TotalAV users complain that the company still withdraws a subscription fee even after they’ve requested a cancellation.
While we can’t confirm whether TotalAV is taking money from accounts, using PayPal is the easiest way to prevent this from occurring. With a PayPal account, you can cancel any subscription by canceling the payment to a particular service provider from within your PayPal account. To cancel TotalAV or any other subscription payment in PayPal, do the following:
- Open your PayPal account from a desktop or laptop computer
- Go to Activity
- Next, click on your Profile icon on the top right
- Select Account Settings
- Find and select Money, Banks, and Cards from the list
- Scroll down to Automatic Payments and select Set Automatic Payments
- Locate the merchant (such as TotalAV) from the list and click on the merchant name
- Finally, next to Status select Cancel and then confirm the cancelation
Again, this is a guaranteed way to prevent any merchant from withdrawing money from your account, regardless of whether they’ve processed your subscription cancelation request. It’s a sure-fire way to make sure you can end your TotalAV account without getting charged after the subscription ends, or with any other subscription-based service. And from a security standpoint, it may be a good idea to go through and do this anyway with old accounts, just in case.
Antivirus Testing Methodology
We run in-depth testing on all the Antivirus software suites we review to ensure you get a clear picture of its strengths and weaknesses.
Rather than relying purely on lab tests, we try to look through the eyes of a consumer by reviewing AV tools based on:
- Effectiveness at detecting malware
- Effectiveness at removing malware
- Pricing structure and transparency
- Auto-renewal policy and transparency
- System impact when running scans
- Basic features
- Advanced features
The technical side of our in-house testing includes:
- Testing the antivirus against EICAR samples
- Running live malware samples
- Reviewing the latest independent antivirus lab test results
We then compare our results to tests run by the world’s most respected antivirus labs, including:
Alongside this, we also review other important aspects such as pricing and transparency of the provider.
If you’d like to know more about how we analyse antivirus software, we have a dedicated post on our antivirus research and testing methodology.
TotalAV Review: FAQs
Best alternatives to TotalAV
There are a few alternatives to TotalAV that I can recommend. The selections below all deliver robust security and privacy online and rival TotalAV for overall performance and additional features.
McAfee: One of the most well-known names in cybersecurity, McAfee has performed well in my previous antivirus tests and comparisons. I found that the pricing between the two companies’ product tiers is very similar, although Total AV offers better first-year discounts. McAfee wins on additional features and malware protection scores.
Bitdefender: A strong security solution with an impressive reputation in the antivirus market. Bitdefender scored well for performance, the depth of its scans, and additional features in my recent review and comparisons of its software.
Webroot: If you’re looking for another low-cost antivirus to compare with Total AV then Webroot is one of the lowest cost options around. The full-price version for its entry-level antivirus is $39.99 per year, meaning you will not be hit with an enormous increase once the first-year discount runs out.
How can I cancel TotalAV?
TotalAV does not include a way to cancel directly through the dashboard. At least, they didn't at the time of testing. Get in touch with the live chat support and request a cancellation. It's pretty painless.
How do I remove TotalAV from my PC?
You can remove TotalAV using the standard add/remove programs within Windows. Or you can follow these instructions:
- Type TotalAV in your windows search bar
- Right Click the TotalAV Application
- Click Uninstall
A new window should open with a list of applications.
- Find TotalAV
- Right click TotalAV
- Click Uninstall / Change
Overall impressions
TotalAV is a low-profile, fully-functioning application with a lot of character. In today’s market for consumer products, a company needs character to distinguish itself from the crowd. And the antivirus software market is very crowded indeed.
It’s a powerful program, to be sure, and the fact that it’s not a system hog is beneficial for all users, but especially for those using netbooks and other computers with limited processing power.
Nevertheless, it could use some sprucing up of its signature features, like the VPN, to be a truly viable alternative to the major contenders. Additionally, if TotalAV wants to improve both its image and its customer base, it needs to continue its push toward greater transparency, especially with its auto-renewal pricing.
The recent changes in clarifying its auto-renewal policy, as well as the addition of a prorated discount are extremely fashion-forward, so to speak. But there’s still growth that can be had regarding other areas, such as allowing buyers to turn off auto-renewal at checkout as some competitors allow.
TotalAV packs a useful program into a pretty package, but you’ll need to strongly consider whether it holds value after the year 1 discount. The 1st-year price is competitive, easily matching some of the top names in the industry, while providing almost equivalent security features and then some. However, the autorenewal price is well above what you’ll pay from competitors.
Note: While competitively priced, the discounted $19 pricing offered to Comparitech readers makes TotalAV a very good value. Value for money is one of many elements we factor into how we rate a service. Based on the currently discounted pricing and positive changes to its business practices, we have elected to bump the score of TotalAV up to a 9 out of 10.
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See all reviewsSwitched to this from McAfee as it is cheaper. From what I can tell it works fine, I’ve not had any viruses and my laptop seems somehow faster (not sure if I am imagining it). I’m not an expert in these things but it seem to do the job and for a lot less money than McAfee. I took the advice of your review and turned off the auto-renewal.
Ran into an installation problem.. no phone support.. promised me a remote session at 11:30 a.m .. never heard from them.
worst customer service i have ever experienced. When i re contacted them quite a while later they wasted my time and never fixed the problem even tho they said it ws fixed. The old saying is true.. ” you get what you pay for”
They falsely report websites and the removal process is slow and their support and responses are slow and painful
I answered an ad to try TotalAV for $2.99 and installed it on my phone. I did not notice any changes to my phones behavior and never got any messages about infections on my phone. I launched the app a month later and got the message, “Your Antivirus Has Expired”. That was fine as I had no interest in using the app. Five months later, on June 12, 2021, I noticed a charge for $8.99 from TotalAV. I checked for other charges and found that TotalAV had been charging me $8.99 every month, for the past 6 months. It took 2 days, 3 phone calls, 1 email and nearly half an hour to get the account cancelled and one months charge reversed. That makes a total cost of $47.94 for a one month trial on my cell phone.
So watch out for extra charges. Also, they offered me a rate of $2.99 per month, before cancelling, but after charging me $8.99 for the past 6 months. They like to insult you after ripping you off, so if you like being abused, buy from them. Otherwise, stay away from TotalAV.
Having been charged by various antivirus firms for subscriptions for obsolete devices a few times I decided to take a reviewer’s advice re my new subscription to Total AV and ask that they cancel the automatic payment for my subscription next year so I can manage the renewal on my devices myself. You should read the emails I got. Calling them passive aggressive is a compliment. They have just now cancelled my account all together though they did refund my remaining money. The message they are sending here is you either sign up for life or they do not want you as a customer. There you go. What terrific people to deal with.
For $9.99 Australian per year I am protecting 27 devices between 6 households with exceptional anti malware protection and quarantine removal, antivirus, VPN with 40 worldwide servers, password manager, Adblock, webShield, firewall, data breach check, 256 bit encryption and even a photo manager!? Free extensions for Chrome and Brave browser, and people for the record your iPhones and iPads DO NOT COUNT against your licenses they are protected for free when linked to your account, DO NOT add them as your first device add your iMac laptop or Mac mini. Yes the subscription has terms, read them, and cancel auto-renewal? Takes all of 5mins? WTF is with all the hate in reviews I signed up because they offered a $180 package for $9.99 as a bloody good deal, but it clearly stated their services cost $180 per year how so many reviewers don’t know how to manage a subscription is ridiculous. OMG put it in your calendar and/or read your emails they send a reminder or pay attention to the pop ups when you turn on your computer or allow notifications seriously I just can’t see how this renewal can catch anyone by surprise? I emailed them to cancel renewal they responded 20mins later it was like 3am, all sorted, this was two years ago to be honest they rank top %1 for customer service in my book they have live support. I visit dodgy websites and pirate everything torrenting 800GB month, I am not even slightly careful TotalAV removes all the malware and cookies whatever when I logon and once a week because I told it to does a deep scan/quarantine/removal so easy, VPN unblocks everything that is not country specific so just change location with two clicks start downloading safe as houses.
So when your subscription ends login to your device, not your phone or tablet, it will offer a discounted renewal just leave the tab open and go back 30 mins later it will offer better discount, repeat until it’s ten dollars (what’s that in US,UK? F all)this has worked for me three times, gives me 7 liscenses, VPN, password vault and ad block as I said 27 Apple products are benefiting from this……ten dollars…..a year…..my f-ing calendar costs me $66/year🙄.
From my experience, with Apple Macs,iPads and iPhones this is absolutely without a doubt the Best Buy for an Apple ecosystem, everything you need in one go, all exceptionally effective and supported.
I purchased a year subscription for $40 US and it was supposed to be from 12 September 2020 to 11 September 2021. They then billed me monthly as well which I canceled. No refunds on this then they canceled my year as well and no refund on that although I wanted to use the software for the year. Have complained to Dean accounts Manager. Keeps sending emails saying my license will be canceled. You already did cancel it!!
Why don’t TotalAV just have a reasonable price from the off? We increasingly live in a world where you have to opt out instead of opting in. The lack of integrity in the commercial sector is appalling. Why does anyone accept it? Back companies that are transparent and straightforward then the wannabes will have to disappear.
When I signed up for total av I paid less than 30 euros, and did not understand that the price would increase by almost 400 per cent. I have now written to them and told them I am not happy. Awaiting an answer,
The product seems good although a bit intrusive.
Been using it for a couple months now and haven’t really encountered any issues yet. When i first bought it, i added an extra feature which I didn’t really need. I contacted TotalAV and requested a cancellation. They did and they also refunded the amount I had paid for it. Overall satisfied up until now.
i paid for the subscription which states my tablet would be protected only to find after payment i get a follow up email stating that android devices are not covered and i need to pay extra for it i requested a refund immediately. i am totally grossed out by this company and i should have trusted the reviews they are not transparents and lie to customers. i will probably have to wait months for a refund or report it as fraud on my account to get my money back
I feel stupid for even trying it, I should have done more research, it probably left crap in my registry that I need to clean.
I have subscribed toTotalAV since 2016 and have always been taken care of. At the beginning of my subscription, my auto renewal came up at a different price and once I contacted the billing department, they promptly refunded the charge and went back to the original price. I have had issues with Total AV VPN service not interacting with the Microsoft anti-virus and once again, the support team helped me through the issues. I would recommend TotalAV to anyone looking for a good product at a competitive price. I find TotalAV to be a great value!
Did not know about auto renewal but when it happened there was nothing in the email title to suggest auto renewal. Felt like a system designed to protect me had actually robbed me. Very dissapointed and had to contact my bank just to establish where my money had gone as the debit was showing in background for several days and there were no clues what had happened. Follow advice here on cancelling auto renewal.
Despite other reviews here my experience has been good. My laptop still runs as fast as ever, I’ve had no malware issues and the product is easy to set up and use.
The product served me well for the first year and the price was very competitive (around 20 GBP). Imagine my surprise when the automatic renewal came in at £118.80. I contacted them and was told that the first year was a special offer and I was now being billed for the full price. I asked them to cancel my subscription and they offered me a discount of £70.00. This all seemed wrong to me and I insisted that I wanted to cancel. I was promised a refund and given a www link to claim it. When I activated the link I was offered a further discount. I insisted that I wanted to cancel and was promised a refund of £106. This was close enough and I agreed. Now the refund has reached my account but only £72. I feel that this is very unsatisfactory.
I was furious to find they had taken 119 pounds from my PayPal account without permission. I emailed them straight away and rang their uk 0333 number which was answered straight away.
The lady was extremely helpful and refunded 100 pounds back straight away to my PayPal account.
As a result of this good customer service and an email confirming auto renewal had been switched off I agreed to pay 20 pounds for another year.
Maybe they have improved their customer service after so many complaints or maybe I was lucky. Just be warned of the auto renewal catch.
All my emails had gone into my spam account so only saw payment on my PayPal account.
I was overcharged in Jan 2019 and have been promised a refund since then, they keep telling me it is a billing issue with their office but no refund yet. I would never trust this company
Being security minded, decided to buy the TotalAV package at £19.99 .. Received my Paypal bill,, £34:89 !!? Challenged them on this charge,
and after several e-mails , they agreed to refund me £12…. Aug 5th 2019 ..! am I being impatient ? ‘ because there has been no refund paid…..
Unfortunately, I read the negative reports , too late .. Lesson learned ! ?
Don’t give them your credit card details they will ripp you of and continue to ripp you off until you have nothing.
Sam,
Debating on whether to take the leap or not. Sounds impressive by the ad but once I got into the reviews, lots of disgruntled folks. After reading all the reviews the consensus seems to be that TotalAV needs to do a better job of being straight with the customers, be available for customer service and change their registration and billing practices and whether it’s truly free or if it’s $19.99/yr. or $179/yr. Very shoddy. Also was not impressed to hear that many people found that their pc’s either slowed down immensely or quit working altogether and were unable to get support. Sam I do believe you rated this outfit way too high for the feedback that’s out there. I know you can’t satisfy everyone but in my opinion the odds are tipped in the favour of the disgruntled. I would like security I can count on with good customer service and an “above the ground” billing system, no surprises. I think I’ll wait before better reviews before I pull the trigger.
I was tempted by the offer of only £2.99 for Total AV software with 3 licences, HOWEVER in the marketing blurb, the was NO MENTION that this was an offer, and in fact was to be charged £30 PER MONTH!
I didn’t click on the CONTINUE WITH MONTHLY PAYMENT button, as I spotted the catch in tiny greyed out text at the bottom of the form, However, an email arrived soon after along with a billing ticket for £3.59, yes, they added VAT! Cheeky sods!
I phoned Total AV UP, on 0808 169 7741 and cancelled immediately. The advert was misleading, there was no mention of added VAT, and while I didn’t click on the “continue” button, they still charged me!!
Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,Avoid,!!!!!!!!
Hello,
This is an addition to a previous post,sorry. Good people,leave the writers that review anything alone,my gosh.In your desperation to find solutions,bagging on the reviewers to solve internal problems with the companies you did business with is rude and not very well thought out.So Mr. Cook got kinda caught up in the customer services problems, because he didn’t do a fake account,and is trying to help you.Doing fake accounts could give a 50/50 20/80 40/60 ,you get it, success or fail rate.He doesn’t have to.Looks like he spent quite a bit a time examining the nut and bolts of the program,which is why your looking.You’ll have to do what I said in my previous post and report to the attorney general.If enough of us do that instead of complaining to a writer,we’d get better results. I have no skin in this company.I read their terms,found where they live.Red flags are:not in business long:only 2 business departments.:no Cfo,Ceo,Balony O names of corporate officers,emails,etc to contact or study business model. Anytime you see companies that don’t disclose information that gives you access to the corporation,or have 25 LLC that all lead back to europe,reconsider your purchase,because by the time your state does anything about these billing discrepancies,you’ll be old,no longer doing business with these types of companies,you will be included in a class action and get back 5 dollars,they pay a 1 dollar fine to every 100 $ they’ve made off of you.Buying goods online today has been plagued by some dishonest vendors, and little oversight. Be Careful and write your govt officials.
I ONLY USED FREE VERSION, ALTHOUGH CONSTANTLY TARGETED AND BOMBARDED TO PURCHASE UPDATE.
SEEMED TO WORK OK BUT SOME THINGS DID NOT RING TRUE. COMPUTER SLOWER!
I UNINSTALLED AND SINCE THAT MOMENT, EVERYTHING IS INCREDIBLY SLOW. OPENING A TAB, ANYTHING.
TASK MASTER SHOWS 100% DISC USAGE.
I WILL HAVE TO BUY NEW COMPUTER!
I HAVE EXTREME SCEPTICISM ABOUT THIS COMPANY’S INTENTIONS!!!!!
I have been using TotalAV for a while. Initially I did not have any issues with the VPN, then in November of 2018 the VPN would not allow me to access my email, YouTube, anything. I have been in constant discussion with them, and I continue to hear that they have fixed the problem. Unfortunately that is not the truth and I continue to have no access to these sites. I have changed to Avast and their VPN is flawless. I can access everything. I have scheduled system scans that show that there is are no threats found. I run Avast and I find a laundry list of issues. From my perspective, I would not recommend TotalAV. I have requested a cancellation of my subscription. I would encourage anyone looking for malware or firewall programs to do a deep and thorough evaluation of every company before committing to a specific company. I will be taking my business elsewhere for sure.
installed total av worked OK So paid for it .Merry Xmas went and so did all traces of Total av from my p/c!
TotalAV deducted the fund via PAYPAL and not got activated…then too much struggle to follow up for it,
Just Avoid it though I got a sorry letter from them giving more discounts and to buy full version. But I have lost trust and quit.Waste of time.
i started getting geosmartdns adware to appear as soon as i bought totalav and it would not detect the malware as I assume they are in some sort of partnership. had to download other antivirus/malware products (Malwarebytes did the trick) in order to remove the ads. would not recommend. totalav content did also pop up on malwarebytes items that needed to be quarantined
just paid for this and i wish i had read up first its a complete scam DO NOT USE total av
the WORSE software and customer support i have delt with.. totalAV caused multiple crashes when it did it’s first updated on my 1 week old custom built computer with 7 programs on it, complete system lock-ups forcing me to hard reset my machine when totalAV updated and now when my machine comes out of sleep makes me think that TotalAV could actually damage my hardware, support told me to uninstall windows defender and sent me tutorial on how to remove a program, i replied explaining windows defender is integrated into windows 10 and cant be uninstalled only disabled which it was from the start. they replied with the same email saying uninstall windows defender and sent me tutorial on how to remove a program again….. facepalm… they then told me to start removing programs as other programs are causing the issues.. i use Steam, Battle net, spotify and a few benchmark and performance testing programs like aida 64 and msi afterburner, nothing that causes conflict with any other antivirus. few weeks later TotalAV picked up a game mod file as a potential threat and put a warning overlay on my screen which is fine, i put the 2 file back on usb stick and removed them from the computer but 2 hours later and i’m still trying to get rid of the overlay so i can see my screen, support tell me to start removing programs and sent me the same tutorial on how to remove a program.. at this point they are starting to frustrate and insult me by wasting my time so i ask again how do i get rid of the overlay or who do i contact to refund the broken and unfinished software. guess what.. they replied with you need to remove conflicting programs and sent me tutorial on how to remove a program because 1 of the 7 programs i use but are not currently not running causes the issues with and only with TotalAV so if you use Steam, Spotify, Battle net, Aida64, MSI Afterburner, CPU-z or Intel Extreme Tuning you may have issues with TotalAV. i canceled my subscription today and found not only that i can’t get a refund i also lose the 1 year with 2 other devices i had not used which is fine because at this point because i’d pay to not deal with TotalAV or TotalAV support (Lack Off) how they get a rating above 1 stars is beyond me. i wonder how much they pay for those ratings
Pros:
Cheap
Cons:
not intuitive
intrusive
can cause system instability
no support at all
reports of TotalAV taking money from people’s bank accounts months to a year after subscription was canceled
I have just installed TotalAV and paid for the version. My computer (XP) is now unusable seemingly massively slow. I’ve had to uninstall to regain use of my computer. How do I continue , ie stop future payments etc.
Do not use TotalAV!!
They will increase their prices and trick you with their billing process.
I went from £3.99 per month to £9.99 and they also changed a free safe browing service to £93.60 a year.
I cancelled soon after but they continued to take money from my account. I had to cancel with my bank.
I am currently fighting for a refund.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I also do not want the Automatic Renewal when my time is up. Please honor my request also.
I need to talk about my account and services.
I need to contact a live person about my account ASAP please.
I bought a paid version of Total AV, First attempt at use indicated that “Doh all my licenses wherein use” now how could that be when I have one computer, the one I downloaded and purchased it for.
So I went to the Live Chat button, NOPE, no such thing, called the support number, Nope! tells you to send them an email. Total fraud, do not do business with these scam artists.
Not free, cpu hog. Use Sophos.
I downloaded the free version and scanned my computer. it came back with a load of threats found so I thought I better purchase it. why not ay? so cheap. although I’m sure it said it was free? anyway. I paid, ended up paying for the year, and did another scan….oh look, ZERO Threats found. absolutely disgraceful. I went on to their online chat and demanded a refund. they tried to offer me next years subscription for the same price, which I already assumed it would be. told them no and I want a refund now. which apparently they have done and I should get back in the next 48hours or sometimes 7 days. Their software might work but if they are happy to Lie and deceive their customers from the outset then they don’t deserve any of our money.
Worst Antivirus software. Its a big piece of shit. Please please never buy Total AV. Makes you PC unusable. Even a click will take ages to action. My machine started taking 30 mins to start. Then to Mozilla it started taking 15 mins. I wished I could worse words to use.
i have a scan running with Total AV antivirus and i found out that Yahoo mail has send me malware on my computer that automatic my internet browser has been startup when i startup my computer so i have the mail from yahoo removed en a day later i have instal Total AV the antivirus has the malware that yahoo has dune to me removed from my computer the company yahoo is very poor and don’t i like it
my motto is if a company is tricky with its offering, pretending it has a good free version and in reality trying to sell its full version that is the only one that really works properly and then being funny about the charges, then its not a company that deserves trusting
Sam, I agree with everything you posted about this product and web site and I appreciate your accurate description of this service. The one thing I noticed very quickly when I attempted to take advantage of the $2.99 introductory price was the complete lack of any clearly defined information regarding pricing and monthly payments. They also use a very effective “tactic” of bombarding a potential customer with overwhelming amounts of information, flashy script and rapid fire page overlays to try and get you to purchase additional services. My advice is to stop, take your time and read everything presented before you click on any response. While I’m not suggesting TotalAV is doing anything illegal they are simply attempting to take advantage of the fact that most people either gloss over or completely ignore most “fine print” related to stuff like this. Don’t believe me? When was the last time you actually read an entire “user agreement and/or licensing information” for something you purchased. Another thing I noticed when using this software is that many of the services they offer seem to be nothing more than an “overlay” type program that sits on top of Windows and utilizes the features built into the operating system. Some of the features can be done within most versions of Windows above XP and while Defender isn’t by any means a robust or complete virus software program I don’t have to pay a monthly fee for the “basic” services. I decided to discontinue my subscription only a day after I downloaded the program and set it up because it seriously bogged my system down (it ran noticeably slower and I have 12GB of RAM!) and they set up an automatic payment deduction of $8.99 for 2/6/18 the day I purchased the basic service. Now I know I’m no mathematical genius but even I know that $8.99 per month does not equal $19.99 a year. It’s $107.88 for 12 months plus the $2.99 introductory fee and what ever other charge they might potentially stick me with without my knowledge or consent. I followed their Cancellation Policy on their web site so we’ll see if they actually live up to their promises. Personally, I think I’ll just stick with a software company I feel a bit more comfortable with. I know Norton Antivirus is expensive but they’ve been around longer than just about anyone else and they know what they are doing. So has McAfee. Stick with what works…
Anche io ho avuto disavventure con totalav. Innanzitutto dicevano che vi erano 4 criticità nel mio computer ma quando ho pagato ed istallato il programma di queste criticità neanche l’ombra. Poi mi è stata chiesta una somma di € 19,90 ma mi è stata addebitata sulla carta di credito 23,18. Ho scoperto, infine, che il mio acquisto prevedeva rinnovi automatici a prezzo pieno. Tutto ciò sarebbe stato anche poco se avesse funzionato ma sul mio computer vi è un malware che fa comparire una pagina di aiuto ogni tanto sia con Chrome sia con Office. Avevo acquistato questo programma per eliminare la criticità ma dell’eliminazione neanche a parlarne. Ho esercitato il diritto di recesso previsto per acquisti a distanza e sono in attesa ma della risposta in poco tempo neanche l’ombra. Bloccherò la carta di credito se necessario ma spero che altri non cadano in inganno come sono caduto io
My first Packard Bell had a large 540 MB hard drive and 8 Megs of memory in 1995.
I now have an iMac 27 loaded with JPGs, most having duplicates. I downloaded Total AV yesterday after reading several reviews. I was more interested in the extras than the anti-virus. I found over 25,000 duplicates (jpg) but I also found that if you want to fix any problems, you are prompted $$ and go from there. I like Total AV and unless a problem comes up I will keep it. I think it is worth the full price which will be in effect in one year.
I just downloaded it and it said it was a free version but its not really as when you want to fix the Issues it finds you have to purchase it to remove the Threats so it isn’t free at all, i will just stick with Avast.
I wish I had read this review before going through a purchase. In my case I did not understand this was a subscription model and whilst they offered $19.00 for the first year it was not until after the confirmed purchase that this was a yearly subscription and that it would renew automatically the following year for $99. I immediately emailed to cancel they replied by offering to keep the $19 subscription for life and only after a second after reply which I then had to again confirm cancellation did they agree to cancel. However, I had ticked the unlimited devices box for an additional $35. When I emailed them about this they replied saying that they could not refund additional services (which I had not received and now could not use as they had refunded the main product that needed them).
Agree 100% of the page review. I purchased 2 products and when I realized still by safe browsing needs to be purchased, asked them to cancel my purchase. Got no response rather than automated emails, so opened dispute case via PayPal. Now they showed up and answered, asking to close my dispute in PayPal and they guarantee to refund. I did for one and waiting to see how they respond . If it works , then I close my 2nd dispute in PayPal.
I don’t know maybe I go with Bitdefender
I am having most of the same problems recorded here. Keep getting directed to a payments page whenever I attempt to delete threats. I will cancel my subscription as soon as I figure out how!
By the way, I have payed already!
I appreciate the in depth write up. I will probably give Total AV a shot.
Auto renewals remind me I to check ALL my PayPal payments more often.
Hi Sam,
Based on your experience, would you mind advising/suggesting between these three:
“TOTALAV:,
“PC Protector”, and
“ScanGuard”
which one is preferable in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and yearly subscription and billing system? Thanking you very much in advance.
How to downloaded Total AV for free?
Hi Sam,
I would recommend that you add a warning note on the main body of this article to avoid people accusing you of providing misleading information.
Until I read through the comments on your article, TotalAV seemed like a great product available against a low yearly fee. TotalAV does not seem to be open about their pricing scheme. The low entry cost is tempting, but increasing the price to 4 or 5 fold for the 2nd year needs to be clearly communicated at the time the person subscribes to the service!
TotalAV is a scam and Sam Cook is an agent of this scam. That’s it, end of discussion.