360 Total Security Review 2024: How Reliable Is It?

360 Total Security is a decent antivirus, but it doesn’t come close to any of the best antiviruses in 2024. It offers basic malware protection and system optimization tools for desktop devices, but its mobile protection is nonexistent.

360 Total Security’s malware detection rates aren’t great either — it only detected 80% of my malware samples, which is nowhere near as good as top competitors like Norton and Bitdefender (which consistently detected 100% of my malware samples).

It also lacks some additional features you’d expect in a premium antivirus, like a password manager, parental controls, and data breach monitoring. That said, the performance optimization tools work well and did a good job of boosting the startup time of my PC.

360 Total Security is also straightforward to set up and use. It has a simple and intuitive user interface which I never struggled to navigate, and I really like how non-invasive it is. A notification icon sits in your system tray and informs you of any alerts without being too bothersome.

Overall, 360 Total Security offers the bare essentials you need in an antivirus — but it could be better. There’s a free plan available for Windows and Mac and a premium version for Windows only. Paid plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can always try it out risk-free, but it isn’t the most reliable or powerful antivirus on the market in 2024.

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360 Total Security Full Review — Basic & User-Friendly Antivirus for Windows & Mac

360 Total Security is a user-friendly antivirus with basic malware protection. The free version offers most of its key features, including malware protection, ransomware protection, a sandbox tool, and cleanup and optimization tools. However, it also has a lot of annoying pop-ups prompting you to buy the premium version.

The premium version removes the pop-ups and offers a few extra features, including a desktop organizer, data shredder, firewall, and tracker blocker. It’s a low-cost antivirus, but competitors like Norton and Bitdefender offer better protection and more features on their most affordable plans.

360 Total Security Premium is only available for Windows, with a limited free version available for both Windows and Mac. Unfortunately, it offers no mobile protection, so if you’re in the market for a decent mobile antivirus, I’d recommend checking out our lists of the best antiviruses for Android and iOS instead.

360 Total Security Plans & Pricing — Affordable Plans, but Most Only Cover Windows Users

360 Total Security has 4 plans: Free, Premium, Business Essential, and Business Advanced. While the paid plans are only available for Windows, there are limited free plans for Mac and Windows.

360 Total Security Free offers basic security features, including virus scanning, web protection, real-time protection, and ransomware protection. Besides the essential security features, you also get access to some optimization tools to speed up your device.

360 Total Security Premium adds advanced security features — including fileless attack detection, a firewall, a data shredder (fully destroys deleted files), anti-tracking tools, a desktop organizer, and an ad blocker. This plan can protect up to 3 devices and is available for 1, 2, or 3 years at prices starting from $13.49 / year.

360 Total Security Business Essential and Business Advanced are designed for organizations. These plans offer the same features as Premium plus a few extras, including centralized management for multiple devices and privileged access to tech support. The Business Essential plan is available at $14.99 / year, while the Business Advanced plan is available at $19.99 / year. Both Business plans are priced per device, with no limit on how many devices you can cover.

Overall, 360 Total Security is one of the more affordable antiviruses in the market. Still, you’re better off going with a more reliable option like Bitdefender that offers better value for money, delivers a higher level of security, and does every feature better than 360 Total Security. However, if you decide to go with 360 Total Security, you can try it out risk-free using its 30-day money-back guarantee.

Here’s a quick overview of all of 360 Total Security’s plans:

360 Total Security Security Features — Disappointing Malware Scanner & Real-Time Protection (Good Speedup Tools)

360 Total Security’s malware scanner can detect all types of malicious threats, but it’s not that good. I ran a full disk scan, and it only detected 80% of my malware samples while taking over 3 hours to complete. To put this into perspective, competitors like Bitdefender took less than an hour to complete and had perfect malware detection rates.

The scanning and scheduling options are pretty limited too. While 360 Total Security offers quick, full, and custom scans like most antiviruses, it doesn’t include much else. I like how competitors like Avira offer more options, such as a smart scan, a rootkit scan, a local drive scan, an external device scan, and more.

360 Total Security’s real-time protection didn’t work very well, either. It didn’t stop me from downloading malware files onto my computer, and it only took action when I was about to launch those files. I also found it annoying how its real-time protection handled the threats. Instead of deciding for itself and removing them, it acted more like a firewall, asking me whether to allow suspicious processes or not. Its anti-phishing protection was a bit disappointing, too — while it detected fraudulent emails, it allowed me to open several known scam websites that competitors like Norton blocked.

I wasn’t very impressed with 360 Total Security’s firewall. It successfully blocked malicious network traffic in my tests, but I didn’t find it very intuitive to use. For example, when I was setting up rules and network permissions, I had to do so individually for each application. If you have a large hard drive with hundreds of programs (like I do), setting up the firewall can take a long time, which is super annoying. Competitors like Bitdefender allow you to apply a rule to block multiple applications at once. That said, the firewall effectively protected my Wi-Fi network from intrusion attacks and outperformed Windows Defender. While it may not match top competitors, it did successfully put all of my network ports into Stealth mode to reduce vulnerability — which is great!

360 Total Security also includes a VPN (Proxy Master) that encrypts your network traffic using 256-bit AES encryption, but it isn’t nearly as good as a standalone VPN. It only offers access to one free server — even on 360 Total Security’s paid plans — and the speeds on that server are pretty limited. In my tests, web pages took much longer to load (up to 20-30 seconds sometimes) and I wasn’t able to watch popular streaming sites available in my location, like Netflix. In order to connect to the premium servers, you have to upgrade to a premium VPN plan, which is a separate purchase from the 360 Total Security antivirus. While these servers performed better in my tests, other antiviruses like Kaspersky include full access to their VPNs as part of their premium antivirus plans.

Despite all of the above flaws, I really like the speedup and cleanup tools that come with 360 Total Security. I could find 11.5 GB of unnecessary files on my PC using the Cleanup feature — which is really good. The Speedup feature also showed me a graph of my system’s average boot time, so I could track my progress as I turned off unnecessary startup items (which can significantly slow down your system’s loading time).

Finally, 360 Total Security includes several extras, such as:

• 360 Zip — extractor/compression tool.
• Desktop Organizer.
• Game Booster.
• Document Protector.
• Data Shredder.

The Desktop Organizer widget from 360 Total Security is customizable, so you can select which fields you want to display — like Daily News, Screenshot, and Notepad — but I found them unnecessary as part of a security software package.

Overall, 360 Total Security’s security features are inferior to those of top competitors. For example, its malware detection rates are relatively low, its real-time protection could be better, and its anti-phishing protection is weak. It also doesn’t have a password manager — while Norton and Bitdefender both do — and the extra features it offers are mostly lackluster.

360 Total Security Ease of Use & Setup — Clean, Easy-to-Use Interface (Despite a Wide Range of Features)

360 Total Security has a large number of features that might even be overwhelming to new users, but the clean interface will allow most users to quickly find their way around and easily navigate menus and use the program. There is a simple menu on the left hand side of the screen that gives you all the main options: Full Check, Virus Scan, Speedup, Cleanup, and Tool Box. I found this layout pretty intuitive, and never struggled to find what I needed.

However, uninstalling 360 Total Security proved difficult — it required an admin password that didn’t work, and customer support was unresponsive. It may be an added security feature, but I also had to manually remove the program in Safe Mode after trying several uninstaller programs without success.

Overall, however, 360 Total Security is easy to use, and even a first-time user wouldn’t have much trouble navigating its features. That said, it’s lacking mobile device coverage, so I’d recommend opting for a top antivirus like Norton if you want to protect all of your devices — its mobile apps for both Android and iOS are at the top of our list of the best mobile antiviruses in 2024.

360 Total Security Customer Support — Not the Best Support in 2024

360 Total Security provides support through email only, lacking live chat or other direct contact options. However, it does have an integrated support center with FAQs and guides to address common queries.

360 Total Security could improve its customer service. My email inquiry received a response after approximately 12 hours, but it merely directed me to a webpage that didn’t answer my question, which gave me the impression that customer service isn’t a big concern. They do have the option to send support queries from within the app with screenshots and a description of the problem you’re experiencing, but this function still uses email. And I got no response to the queries I submitted this way apart from an automated ‘We’re away right now.’

The customer support 360 Total Security offers could be better. It needs to simplify access to help and boost its responsiveness. On the other hand, leading competitors such as Norton and Bitdefender provide effective and prompt support options including live chat, telephone, and email support.

Is 360 Total Security Worth Trying in 2024?

360 Total Security’s scanner is relatively slow, and its malware detection rate isn’t good enough to be trusted with protecting your device.

It also lacks additional tools that top antiviruses have, like a VPN, password manager, dark web monitoring, and identity theft protection. Plus, most of its extra features are below par and don’t justify paying for a premium plan.

That said, I found its performance optimization tools quite helpful and practical — they did an excellent job of cleaning up my PC, boosting RAM usage, and speeding up the boot time. It also has a user-friendly interface with an intuitive dashboard, allowing you to easily access different modules and features.

Overall, 360 Total Security is far from being a top antivirus in 2024. It might work if you need basic protection and performance optimization on your Windows PC, but you’d be better off going with a more powerful and feature-rich antivirus like Norton or Bitdefender. They both offer perfect malware detection rates and advanced features, such as password managers, firewalls, VPNs, and more. Plus, they come with excellent customer support that responds when you need help, and they can cover your mobile devices too.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does 360 Total Security slow down your computer?

No, 360 Total Security is lightweight software that won’t slow down your computer. In fact, it includes pretty good speedup and cleanup tools that can help your computer run faster (Bitdefender is another good antivirus with a cloud-based scanner that doesn’t cause system slowdowns).

Is 360 Total Security better than Windows Defender?

No, 360 Total Security isn’t any better than Windows Defender. Windows Defender offers a slightly better malware detection rate, plus it’s free and comes pre-installed on most Windows devices. That said, 360 Total Security has better system optimization tools, so if you want to speed up your PC and clear out old files, it might be worth using.

Can 360 Total Security detect Trojans?

Yes, 360 Total Security can detect and remove trojans from your device. I tested the scanner by hiding around 500 malware samples throughout my virtual Windows computer, including viruses, worms, trojans, adware, and spyware, and 360 Total Security removed 80% of them. It uses a large malware database to detect them, alert you to their presence, and remove them. Along with its virus scanner, 360 Total Security also offers security features like real-time protection and anti-phishing protection to keep your device safe from malware (but they could be better).

Is 360 Total Security free?

Yes, the basic version of 360 Total Security is free to use. It has many tools and security features needed to protect your device from malware and other threats. However, it lacks some important features found in the premium version, like a firewall, an ad blocker, and anti-tracking tools.

I don’t usually recommend using a free antivirus as it doesn’t provide the same level of protection as you would get from a premium one. That said, the best free antiviruses offer much more than the free version of 360 Total Security, including features like a firewall, a password manager, and a VPN.