IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Review 2024: Is It Safe?

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO offers a reliable malware scanner that combines an in-house engine with Bitdefender’s known malware database to catch over 209 million known viruses. The Bitdefender engine that’s incorporated into the premium version can be toggled on or off, but you’ll most likely want to keep it turned on — it’s the single most powerful tool in the antivirus.

Unfortunately, IObit PRO comes with underwhelming ransomware and web protection. Although its webcam protection is decent, the real-time protection is subpar, and the web protection has some major flaws — its anti-phishing protection is among the worst I’ve ever tested. In fact, the premium suite’s most valuable feature is the malware engine, which you can actually download for free through Bitdefender.

I also don’t like that IObit places such an emphasis on advertisements for third-party software, like an extra firewall, an extra VPN, driver boosters, disk cleaners, and more — while each product has its own level of functionality, I’d like to see IObit provide more advanced features for no extra cost, like all the top antiviruses of 2024 do.

If you want to try out IObit, I’d recommend downloading the premium version instead of the free one, since it includes Bitdefender’s antivirus engine and a few more security features. It comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you’ll have plenty of time to see firsthand if it suits you.

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IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Full Review — Decent Malware Scanner (But Not Much Else)

IObit Malware Fighter PRO has a good malware scanner, but that’s about it. It offers almost no extra features despite its fairly high price, and it’s very intrusive with the third-party apps it advertises. Most of its security features fall woefully short of those of its top competitors, like its weak ransomware protection.

Unlike our highest-rated antiviruses, it doesn’t include a firewall, a VPN, a password manager, or much else. When your PC gets attacked by malware, you need the best antivirus you can find. Unfortunately, I don’t think IObit is enough to keep you safe.

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Plans & Pricing — Limited Free Version (Upgrade to Get Bitdefender’s Malware Database)

IObit Malware Fighter PRO has 2 versions of its premium plan: a 1-PC plan ($19.95 / year) and a 3-PC plan ($23.99 / year). It also has a free version, which is very limited.

The free version only comes with IObit Malware Fighter’s in-house malware engine, whose malware database consists of just 9 million threats (compare that to 209+ million known malware strains in Bitdefender’s database). It also has real-time protection, but unfortunately, it scored very poorly in my tests.

The premium version adds Bitdefender’s Windows antivirus engine and a few minor extras. You can hardly call it a bargain — the premium plan costs as much as or more than my favorite premium antiviruses, but barely meets the number of features included in, for example, Avira’s free plan. What’s more, Bitdefender already offers its antivirus for Windows for free.

That said, there’s a generous 60-day money-back guarantee on the paid plans, so if you’re looking for a lightweight antivirus with a decent malware scanner, you could always try it out yourself, risk-free.

Here’s a quick overview of all of IObit’s plans:

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Security Features — Good Malware Scanner (And That’s About It)

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO comes with a handful of security features — most prominently, it uses a combination of an in-house malware scanner (that you can get with the free version) and Bitdefender’s database of known malware (available on the paid plan) to protect you from all kinds of threats. No independent labs have reviewed IObit’s antivirus, so I only have my own scans to run on.

During my tests, I got a 90–95% malware detection rate, which is about as good as competitors like Malwarebytes and Panda, but not as good as Norton or Bitdefender, which both have flawless detection rates.

Scans only took about 45 minutes, which is quite fast, and a significant upgrade over IObit’s older scanners, which could take several hours for the same results. However, while the scanner is pretty good, IObit’s other security features hold it back.

When I turned on real-time protection and ran some tests, it only caught about 40% of the malware I tried to download. To make matters worse, it flagged about half of them as safe!

IObit’s anti-phishing protection is disappointing, too. The only phishing scams it was able to detect during my tests were from AMTSO’s phishing detection page. It wasn’t able to capture a single phishing attempt outside of this, making its web protection one of the weakest I’ve ever tested.

The ransomware protection fared no better — IObit managed to remove the only ransomware it detected during my tests, but only after hundreds of files were already encrypted. As for the remaining ransomware samples I used, it didn’t detect a single one before it was fully deployed.

All that said, there are a few other tools that work pretty well, including a sandbox feature that lets you launch software in a safe mode (although only an advanced user or researcher would really need this feature), webcam protection that will notify you if apps are attempting to use your webcam surreptitiously, and password protection — which I thought was a password manager at first. It turned out to be just a “safe box” that prevents Windows Explorer from accessing browser-saved passwords. It doesn’t offer anywhere near the functionality of a fully featured password manager.

All things considered, IObit felt a lot like a stripped-down version of Bitdefender, with none of the polish or extra features that make the latter one of the best antiviruses on the market. On top of that, the performance of its core features during my tests simply wasn’t good enough to recommend it. You can always take advantage of its 60-day money-back guarantee to give it a shot for yourself, but it’s worth considering waiting until there are at least some independent lab results or audits.

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Ease of Use & Setup — Intuitive Interface (But Ads Can Be Intrusive)

IObit has a well-designed, modern interface. The layout of the icons and the tabs makes sense, it’s fairly intuitive, and it’s easy to run a scan and toggle your security features.

That said, the installation process is far from smooth. When you first install the product, it stealthily prompts you to also install 2 third-party pieces of software (even on the premium version!). And after you accept its Terms of Service, it sends you more offers.

While navigating its menus, you’ll see ads for numerous products you can buy separately. The VPN, the firewall, and other tools are all shown in different tabs, with constant sales pitches. The fact that these products are so ingrained in IObit’s interface makes it hard to ignore them — and easy to accidentally download them while thinking they’re extras included in your premium product.

Although I like IObit’s layout, the intrusive ads and frustrating installation process hold it back. Another significant downside of Malware Fighter PRO is its limited platform availability — you can only use it to protect Windows devices.

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Customer Support — Simple FAQs & Email Support

IObit’s customer support is fairly minimalistic, but it covers the basics with FAQs and email support. The support page is broken up into 6 sections, some with a lot more information than others.

The FAQ page provides accurate and up-to-date answers that aren’t overly wordy. There are also product manuals for each piece of IObit software.

The next tab, Reinstall, sends you a code to reinstall your product. You can transfer devices, send a new code, provide feedback, and renew your license using different tabs.

There’s also email customer service for paying customers. I got a response in about an hour, and the agents were friendly and pretty helpful. Each follow-up email took about 30-45 minutes. If you have a complicated problem, you might expect a longer wait.

Overall, it’s a completely serviceable customer support center. While I’d love to see a live chat and phone support added, the FAQ page and email support are functional, to-the-point, and offer a lot of information. The manuals are also detailed enough that you might not need any further assistance.

Will IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO Keep You Safe?

IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO doesn’t offer complete protection. Even though it has a great malware scanner (using Bitdefender’s engine alongside a proprietary malware scanner), when it comes to other forms of protection, IObit falls short of any of the top antiviruses in 2024.

The web protection and phishing protection were consistently poor in my tests — so poor that I’d even recommend some free products over IObit’s premium one. It also lacks many important extra features you’d expect to see in an antivirus suite — there’s no firewall, no VPN, no password manager, and no parental controls, to name a few.

There are a handful of extra features, like webcam protection and a password “safe box,” but they simply don’t make up for the essential security features IObit is missing. Many additional features are offered via intrusive third-party-software advertisements. These products vary in quality, and every one of them has its own premium version with a paywall.

Overall, the best part of IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO’s suite is the engine from Bitdefender. While you might be better off just using Bitdefender, if you do want to try out IObit Malware Fighter 10 PRO for yourself, it’s got a generous 60-day money-back guarantee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IObit Malware Fighter Free good?

IObit’s free plan is very limited. It only offers a basic malware scanner and real-time protection for 1 Windows device. The malware scanner is limited to a database of just 9 million threats, and the real-time protection is very poor — it only caught about 40% the sample threats I used during testing.

You can upgrade to the paid version to get Bitdefender’s superior malware engine, along with web protection and ransomware protection, but these premium features still consistently scored lower than top antiviruses like Norton during testing. However, you can always try out IObit premium risk-free, as it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Are IObit’s third-party tools safe?

Yes, they’re safe — IObit’s extra tools didn’t flag as suspicious when I installed them or during any of my follow-up tests. Still, as a precaution, you should always run your own independent scans on third-party apps from developers you don’t recognize.

Does IObit Malware Fighter PRO have a free trial?

No, but it does have a generous 60-day money-back guarantee, so you can try the whole antivirus suite out and make sure it works for you. You’ve got plenty of time to test its malware scanner, ransomware protection, phishing protection, and its other security features.

Can IObit be trusted?

IObit can be trusted, but in my opinion, there are better antivirus providers out there. IObit attempts to sneak third-party downloads into your installation and constantly bombards you with advertisements for additional software once you’ve downloaded it. In the past, Malwarebytes accused it of intellectual property theft, and its forums were also reportedly hacked in 2021 and used to distribute ransomware to IObit users.

For all these reasons, I’d recommend trying out antivirus programs that come from brands with much stronger reputations instead. Brands like Bitdefender aren’t just more reputable; they have much better security features that can offer more comprehensive protection for your device and your data.