PC Matic vs. Norton Antivirus

With all the different antivirus software available — including the myriad packages and bundles from each brand — it can be a mad, mad world when deciding which to choose. Today, we’ll look at PC Matic and Norton Antivirus, two programs which have received high marks in the market. For instance, in a recent AV-Test analysis,1 PC Matic received a score of 16 out of 18.

As digital security experts with years of experience, we’ll put PC Matic and Norton Antivirus to a head-to-head test. We will compare these two antivirus programs by taking into consideration cost, performance, and even customer service. In a sea of programs, we’ll help you wade through the water to find antivirus land again.

>> Also See: A Complete Guide to Antivirus Protection & Internet Security in 2024

A Range of Costs: PC Matic vs. Norton

One thing you’ll notice about antivirus software is the huge diversity of pricing, depending on the bundle you purchase. For PC Matic, though, things are a bit more straightforward — there is not much flexibility. Instead, you’re given the option of buying the PC Matic Antivirus annual plan at $50 — or about $4.17 monthly. This covers up to five devices.

Norton Antivirus, meanwhile, brings with it a lot more options and flexibility. The lowest tier, Antivirus Plus, is currently priced at $19.99 annually. If you want protection on more than one device, however, you’ll want to opt for Antivirus Plus (multi-device); this covers up to five devices and costs $39.99 per year. Even better than that is Norton 360 Deluxe, which is currently priced at $45.70 annually. With this tier, you get a host of additional features, including dark web monitoring, parental controls, and top-tier VPN protection.

A Comparison of Features

Before we put the virus detection of PC Matic and Norton to the test, let’s take a look under the hood; we’ll go into more detail about what each of these programs actually provides. There are a few things that PC Matic is missing that might be of interest to you. But PC Matic does offer the same dark web monitoring that the higher-tier Norton products offer — keeping you and your personally identifiable information (PII) safe. PC Matic and Norton can catch any identity leaks before they wreak havoc.

More on PC Matic and Norton’s Features

PC Matic and Norton Antivirus boast a range of features with their software. You can expect standard antivirus protection, which includes protection against spyware and malware; this comes with even the most basic versions. The higher you go, the more features you’ll get; this is perfect if you’re someone who, for instance, wants to get their VPN via their antivirus program.

Multiple Device Protection: PC Matic’s annual subscription comes with five devices. The highest Norton Antivirus program, 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus for $299.88, provides protection for unlimited devices.

Ad Blocker: Here’s an area where PC Matic stands out: They bundle an ad blocker into their program through an annual subscription.

Lifetime Plan: Here’s another nice thing about PC Matic. Besides the annual subscription, you can also fork over $199 per year for a lifetime subscription. Big commitment, maybe, but at least you’ll know that your PC will still be safe 20 years from now.

Device Status: PC Matic also has a cool feature where you can check your device status; it will show your RAM and CPU usage along with free disk space.

Customer Service: Norton offers 24/7/365 chatbot support, as well as support team messaging on social media. As for PC Matic, you can expect prompt replies via email within a few hours.

PC Matic vs. Norton Scanning

Initiating a scan with PC Matic was straightforward; however, we didn’t love the lack of an end-of-scan summary, which shows important details like the total number of files scanned. This tends to be standard fare with antivirus software, so we were surprised it was not included here. Like most standard antivirus programs, PC Matic offers a full scan, a quick scan, a selective scan, and the ability to schedule a scan. PC Matic did a full scan within a quarter of an hour, comparable to similar tests we performed with Norton. Neither software bogged down our computer’s performance, either; this is always a boon.

>> Check Out: PC Matic Pricing and Review

Head to Head: PC Matic vs. Norton

We then started to put PC Matic to the test as far as protection and detection of viruses. The two programs received slightly different marks from top antivirus review sites and our own analysis.

Antivirus Rating: As mentioned, PC Matic received a 16/18 score from AV-Test. Meanwhile, Norton earned a perfect score from AV-Test in 20241 and a 99.7 percent online detection rate per AV Comparatives.2

False Alarms: Norton registered three false alarms in an AV Comparatives test; PC Matic has also registered similar numbers in recent months. This means that each antivirus program occasionally recognizes legitimate software as a possible malware threat.

Whitelisting: A Concern With PC Matic

The rabbit hole goes a little bit deeper with PC Matic, however. To understand this part, let’s speak in terms of what kinds of antivirus programs are out there. As a general rule, these programs can be broken down into three categories: blacklist antivirus software, behavior-based antivirus software, and antivirus software that mixes these two.

With blacklist antivirus, the software taps a list of known malware threats. So when your computer is scanned, it compares all the files on your computer with this database and places any that match into quarantine.

PC Matic, however, uses an entirely different strategy than these three: whitelisting. It works by exclusion; this means it maintains a list of trusted and approved programs. So when you install a new program on your computer, PC Matic inspects it to see if it’s known and trustworthy.

The problem with whitelisting, however, is that it leads to a lot of programs being erroneously marked as malware; this is because the database can’t keep tabs on every legitimate program around the world. This leads to pop-ups from PC Matic warning you that a harmless program should be blocked.

Tabulating the Results and Picking a Winner

Both PC Matic and Norton offer antivirus protection options that keep your devices safe. Here’s a recap of where things stand before we pick our winner.

Pricing Options: Norton has a lot more bundles available compared to PC Matic. Norton has cheaper annual options as well as a slew of higher-tier bundles with tons of add-ons.

Antivirus Scan Speed: Both scans were superfast. We say PC Matic and Norton were equal in this category.

Antivirus Detection Strength: When it comes to antivirus protection, we’ll take Norton. PC Matic’s whitelisting method certainly detects viruses well, but as mentioned it can lead to false positives.

For this head to head, Norton takes the cake over PC Matic. However, PC Matic is still a solid program; it’s particularly useful for those who aren’t interested in additional features like firewall protection and a VPN. We will emphasize, though, that you should certainly invest in good firewall and VPN software.