Surfshark Antivirus earned a perfect 6/6 protection score from AV-TEST in February 2026 — a milestone that puts it on par with Bitdefender and Norton in raw detection terms. The catch: it's not a standalone product. You get it only as part of the Surfshark One bundle, alongside the VPN, dark web alerts, and a private search engine. Whether that's a great deal or a forced compromise depends entirely on whether you already want a VPN.
Surfshark Antivirus delivers on the one metric that matters most — detection. AV-TEST's February 2026 evaluation found it blocked 100% of zero-day threats and 100% of widespread malware, earning the AV-TEST Certified badge. It's also light on system resources and pairs neatly with a VPN, dark web monitoring, and private search. What it doesn't have is the depth of a dedicated security suite: no personal firewall, no parental controls, no password manager, and no iOS support. If you're already a Surfshark VPN subscriber or you want a simple, proven AV layer without complexity, this bundle delivers strong value. If you need a full security platform, look at Bitdefender Total Security or Norton 360 instead.
| Surfshark Antivirus — Specs at a Glance | |
|---|---|
| Product | Surfshark Antivirus (part of Surfshark One) |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Android No iOS |
| Devices per plan | Up to 5 devices |
| Starting price | $2.49/month (Surfshark One, 2-year plan) |
| Standalone AV price | ~$28.08/year (5 devices) |
| Real-time protection | Yes |
| Webcam protection | Beta — Windows only |
| Dark web monitoring | Yes — Surfshark Alert |
| Scheduled scans | Yes |
| Firewall | No |
| Parental controls | No |
| AV-TEST score (Feb 2026) | Protection 6/6 • Performance 5.5/6 • Usability 5.5/6 |
| Malware detection (AV-TEST) | 100% zero-day • 100% widespread malware |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 days |
Surfshark received its AV-TEST Certified badge in early 2026, marking a turning point for a product that previously had limited third-party validation. In February 2026 testing, the antivirus engine blocked 100% of zero-day malware across 407 samples and 100% of widespread malware across 19,213 samples — the same bar Bitdefender and Norton routinely clear. That's a meaningful signal, not just marketing.
The Surfshark One bundle has also expanded. The current tier structure is: Surfshark Starter (VPN only), Surfshark One (VPN + Antivirus + Alert + Search + CleanWeb), and Surfshark One+ which adds Incogni — Surfshark's data broker removal service that scrubs your personal information from 420+ databases automatically.
Webcam protection launched in beta during 2025 and remains beta-flagged on Windows as of April 2026. It works by blocking unauthorized applications from accessing your webcam unless you explicitly whitelist them — a useful layer against RATs and stalkerware. macOS support for this feature hasn't been announced yet.
The most defensible claim Surfshark can make about its antivirus is the AV-TEST result. Independent testing by AV-TEST in February 2026 showed the product blocking 100% of zero-day malware (407 test samples) and 100% of widespread and prevalent malware encountered in the wild over the previous four weeks (19,213 samples). That puts it in the top tier of tested products alongside Bitdefender, Norton, and Kaspersky.
The engine updates virus definitions every three hours — faster than many competitors that push daily updates. That matters for catching rapidly-mutating ransomware and supply chain attack payloads, where a 24-hour detection gap can be the difference between an incident and a clean environment.
AV-TEST February 2026: Protection 6/6 (100% zero-day, 100% widespread) • Performance 5.5/6 • Usability 5.5/6 — AV-TEST Certified badge awarded.
The usability score of 5.5/6 reflects a low false positive rate — the antivirus doesn't flag legitimate software as malicious very often. That's important in real-world use: excessive false positives erode trust and cause users to disable protection entirely. Surfshark's low false positive rate is a practical advantage.
One gap: Surfshark hasn't published AV-Comparatives results. AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives use different methodologies, and security professionals typically want to see both. The absence of AV-Comparatives data isn't a red flag on its own, but it means you have fewer data points than you'd have with Bitdefender or Norton.
Real-time protection runs continuously in the background on Windows, macOS, and Android. It scans files on access, monitors network connections, and watches process behavior for suspicious patterns. Users on Reddit note that performance impact is minimal during daily work — web browsing, document editing, and video conferencing showed no noticeable slowdowns in reported user experience.
You can set up recurring scheduled scans on daily, weekly, or monthly intervals, or trigger a manual quick scan or full scan on demand. Quick scans cover active memory and common malware locations; full scans check the entire drive. Scan times are reasonable but not notably faster than the competition.
Surfshark Antivirus covers the essentials well. Where it falls short is the absence of features you'd find in a mature security suite. Here's what's included and what's missing.
Available on Windows, webcam protection monitors which applications are trying to access your camera and blocks unauthorized ones. You whitelist the apps you trust (Zoom, Teams, your browser) and everything else gets blocked with a notification. This directly addresses a real threat vector: remote access trojans (RATs) and commercial stalkerware that silently activate webcams. The beta tag is a caution — don't rely on it as your only layer of protection against targeted attacks — but for most users it adds a useful guardrail.
Every Surfshark One plan includes Alert, which monitors dark web sources for leaked credentials, credit card numbers, and identity documents tied to your registered email addresses. When a breach is detected, you get a notification with details on what was exposed and guidance on next steps. This is functionally similar to what NortonLifeLock and Bitdefender offer in their premium tiers, and it's included in the base bundle price.
CleanWeb is Surfshark's built-in ad, tracker, and malware-URL blocker — it runs at the VPN level, which means it works across all apps, not just browsers. CleanWeb 2.0 added phishing domain blocking and improved tracker coverage. It's not a replacement for a browser extension like uBlock Origin, but it provides meaningful network-level filtering for everything that passes through the VPN tunnel.
What's missing: No personal firewall, no ransomware rollback, no password manager, no parental controls, and no vulnerability scanner. Bitdefender Total Security and Norton 360 include all of these at comparable price points.
Surfshark One includes a private search engine that doesn't log queries or build a profile. It's not particularly powerful as a search product — most users testing it find Google and Bing still deliver more relevant results — but if you're privacy-sensitive, it's a usable alternative for general searching.
AV-TEST awarded Surfshark Antivirus 5.5/6 for performance in February 2026 testing. That score reflects the product's impact on common tasks: launching applications, downloading files, installing software, and running browser-based workloads. A 5.5 places it in the middle of the tested field — lighter than some older engines but slightly heavier than the most optimized products (Bitdefender and Kaspersky routinely earn 6/6 here).
In practice, the difference between 5.5 and 6.0 is imperceptible on modern hardware. On a machine with 8GB RAM and an SSD, you won't notice Surfshark Antivirus running. On older hardware with 4GB RAM or a spinning hard drive, you may see slightly slower boot times and file copy speeds during full scans. The real-time protection layer is optimized to minimize CPU usage during idle periods, ramping up only during active file access.
Surfshark Antivirus isn't sold separately from the company's other security products. You can get it two ways: as part of the Surfshark One bundle, or as a standalone antivirus subscription (covering 5 devices on Windows, macOS, and Android).
The standalone antivirus pricing at ~$28/year for 5 devices is competitive — Malwarebytes Premium charges $44.99/year for a single device and Bitdefender Total Security starts at $29.99/year for 5 devices. But the better comparison is the Surfshark One bundle at $2.49/month ($59.76 over two years), which gets you the antivirus plus unlimited VPN connections, dark web monitoring, and private search. If you'd pay $30/year for a VPN anyway, the bundle effectively gives you the antivirus for free.
Best value scenario: If you need a VPN and basic antivirus protection, Surfshark One at $2.49/month is hard to beat. You're getting a well-regarded VPN with AV-TEST-certified antivirus for less than the cost of most standalone AV licenses.
How does it stack up against the dedicated antivirus tools with comparable annual pricing?
| Feature | Surfshark One | Bitdefender Total Security | Norton 360 Standard | Malwarebytes Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual price (1 device / plan) | ~$30 (AV-only) / $30 (bundle) | $29.99/yr (5 devices) | $29.99/yr (1 device) | $44.99/yr (1 device) |
| AV-TEST 2026 Protection | 6/6 ✓ | 6/6 ✓ | 6/6 ✓ | Not rated |
| Firewall | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| VPN included | ✓ (unlimited) | 200MB/day limit | ✓ (unlimited, top tiers) | ✗ |
| Dark web monitoring | ✓ (Surfshark Alert) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| iOS support | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Parental controls | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Webcam protection | ✓ (beta, Windows) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Ransomware rollback | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Bitdefender Total Security wins on features at a comparable price — firewall, ransomware remediation, and parental controls at $29.99/year for five devices. Norton 360 is the better choice for families or users who want a full security platform. Malwarebytes costs more for fewer features. Surfshark wins outright on value if you want VPN + AV in a single subscription.
Small business teams: Surfshark Antivirus isn't designed for managed endpoint deployments. There's no central management console, remote policy enforcement, or MSP licensing. For business endpoint protection, see our reviews of CrowdStrike Falcon and SentinelOne.
Surfshark operates on a RAM-only server infrastructure, meaning no data is written to persistent storage on its servers. The company has undergone independent no-logs audits for its VPN service, and as of April 2026, there are no publicly reported data breaches or significant security incidents affecting the antivirus or Surfshark's broader platform.
Surfshark is headquartered in the Netherlands — a country with European Union data protection laws and GDPR obligations. The privacy policy covers what telemetry the antivirus collects (malware sample data for improving detection, basic diagnostics) and the processing basis under GDPR. For most users, this is a reasonable privacy posture.
The antivirus engine itself is proprietary. Surfshark hasn't published full technical details on the detection methodology beyond stating it combines signature-based scanning, heuristic analysis, and behavioral monitoring. The AV-TEST certification validates the outcome (detection rates) but not the implementation details.
Surfshark Antivirus earns its AV-TEST certification honestly — the detection numbers match the best in the industry. The bundle model is smart: for $2.49/month over two years, you get a well-regarded VPN, certified antivirus protection, dark web monitoring, and private search. That's genuinely good value for anyone who wants those four things in one place.
The feature gaps are real, though. No firewall, no iOS support, no ransomware rollback, and no parental controls mean it's not a full security platform. If you need those, Bitdefender Total Security is the better pick at a similar price. But for a Windows or macOS user who wants solid antivirus protection without complexity — especially as part of an existing Surfshark VPN subscription — Surfshark Antivirus does its job and does it well.
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