8 Best Small Business Computer Security Software in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best computer security software for small businesses

#1

Norton Small Business

Best for: Non-technical owners who want one flat price covering the whole office, with no per-device maths

Visit norton.com

Starting price$59.99/year (first year, 6 devices; renews at $119.99/year)

Free planNo — free trial, card required

Norton Small Business is the simplest pitch: one plan, one flat price, and no per-device maths. The first year costs $59.99 and covers 6 devices — two per employee for a three-person team — with device security, a firewall, cloud backup and dark web monitoring in the same subscription. Setup takes minutes, the cloud console needs no server, and 24/7 business support is included.

The catches are the renewal and the device cap. The second year costs $119.99, double the first-year price, and the plan tops out at 20 devices — a growing office needs a second subscription. There is no free trial advertised, only a trial that asks for a card up front. Buy Norton when the owner is also the IT department and wants security handled; buy CrowdStrike Falcon Go when detection quality matters more than simplicity.

What we like

• One flat price covers 6 devices — no counting endpoints or per-seat maths
• Device security, firewall, cloud backup and dark web monitoring in a single plan
• A cloud console an owner can run without an IT person or a server
• 24/7 business support included, which most rivals charge extra for

Watch out for

• The $59.99 price is for the first year only — renewal is $119.99 a year
• No free trial advertised; you buy first and rely on the money-back window
• The 20-device cap per subscription means a growing office needs a second subscription

#2

CrowdStrike Falcon Go

Best for: Small teams that want enterprise-grade detection without an IT department or an on-premise server

★★★★★★★★★★4.7/5 on G2 (679 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit crowdstrike.com

Starting price$59.99/device/year (billed annually; $7.99/device/month on monthly billing)

Free planNo — 15-day free trial

CrowdStrike Falcon Go is the rare enterprise security product with a small-business edition. You get the Falcon platform's cloud-native endpoint protection, next-generation antivirus, USB device control and mobile protection, packaged for companies with up to 100 devices and priced at $59.99 per device a year. A 15-day free trial lets you install it on your actual machines before committing, and multi-year terms cut the rate to $49.99 a device on two years.

The honest limits are the device cap and the missing EDR. Falcon Go is not an EDR product: investigation, threat hunting and extended detection start at Falcon Enterprise, $184.99 per device a year. Monthly billing costs $7.99 a device, about 37% more than the annual rate over a year. For a small team that wants the protection big companies buy, Falcon Go is the most credible option.

What we like

• Published small-business pricing at $59.99 per device a year, with no sales call needed
• Cloud-native platform with no on-premise server to install or maintain
• Next-generation antivirus, USB device control and mobile protection in the entry bundle
• Multi-year terms cut the rate to $49.99 a device a year on two years and $39.99 on three

Watch out for

• Falcon Go is not an EDR product — investigation and threat hunting start at Enterprise, $184.99 per device a year
• The 100-device cap means a growing fleet must move to Pro at $99.99 per device a year
• Monthly billing costs $7.99 per device, about 37% more than the annual rate over a year

#3

Avast Essential Business Security

Best for: Small Windows and Mac offices that want the cheapest published per-device price with a cloud console

Visit avast.com

Starting price$31.37/device/year (Essential, first year; renews at $39.21/device/year)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Avast Essential Business Security is the cheapest published per-device price: $31.37 a device for the first year, renewing at $39.21. Essential covers next-generation antivirus with ransomware, phishing and data defenses, managed through the Business Hub cloud console, where you set policies, push installs and watch threats across the company's devices. A 30-day free trial covers up to 100 devices, so an office can test it.

The limits are scope and the renewal. This line covers Windows, Mac and Windows Server only, and the VPN, USB protection and patch management sit on higher tiers — Premium at $39.85 and the top tier at $48.33 a device for the first year. The per-device price also falls with volume, so a 10-device checkout will differ from the headline rate. Pick Avast when the budget is tight and every device runs Windows or Mac.

What we like

• The cheapest published per-device price here at $31.37 a device for the first year
• Business Hub cloud console manages policies and installs from any browser
• Ransomware, phishing and data defenses included on the entry tier, not held back
• 30-day free trial covering up to 100 devices, so a real office can test it

Watch out for

• The $31.37 price is for the first year only — Essential renews at $39.21 per device a year
• No Linux or mobile endpoints in this line, and VPN and patch management need higher tiers
• The per-device price falls with volume, so a 10-device quote will differ from the headline rate

#4

Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security

Best for: Mixed-platform offices with Windows, Mac and Linux machines that want one console for all of them

Visit bitdefender.com

Starting price$118.99/year (Small Business Security, 5 devices, 1-year term)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Bitdefender's GravityZone is the technician's favorite in the small-business space: strong detection engines, ransomware remediation, and a cloud console that manages every platform your team uses. Business Security covers endpoints across Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile, with optional add-ons for web access control and network attack defense. The 30-day free trial is generous enough for a real evaluation, and a three-year term cuts the five-device price to $81.66 a year.

Pricing is the frustration: Bitdefender shows no fixed per-device price on a static page, so the figure depends on device count and term — the five-device, one-year price is $118.99. The console is powerful but assumes someone technical will run it. For offices with mixed devices and an owner or IT person willing to learn the console, GravityZone delivers top-tier protection.

What we like

• Covers Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android from one cloud console
• Consistently strong independent test scores for malware detection
• Multi-year terms cut the five-device price to $81.66 a year on a three-year term
• Centralized policy management suits offices with a part-time IT person

Watch out for

• No fixed per-device price on a static page — the price depends on device count and term, so confirm at checkout
• The cloud console assumes someone technical will run it; non-technical owners face a learning curve
• Web access control and network attack defense are paid add-ons, not included

#5

ThreatDown Core

Best for: Businesses that already trust Malwarebytes and want ransomware rollback without enterprise complexity

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (1,092 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit threatdown.com

Starting price$69/device/year (Core, 5-device minimum; $345 a year for 5 devices)

Free planNo — free trial

ThreatDown is Malwarebytes' business brand: the same detection engine millions of consumers trust, packaged for companies in four bundle tiers, from Core up to a fully managed tier, with endpoint protection, ransomware rollback and vulnerability management scaling up the tiers. The Nebula console manages it all from the cloud, and Core costs $69 per device a year for a five-device minimum. A free trial lets you test the console before buying.

The 2023 rebrand from Malwarebytes for Business to ThreatDown still causes confusion, and the tier ladder has a catch: ransomware rollback starts on Advanced at $79 a device a year, not on Core. Server, mobile, email security and DNS filtering are add-ons with separate quotes, and fleets over 20 devices need a sales quote. If your team already runs Malwarebytes at home, the business version is a natural step.

What we like

• Built on Malwarebytes' respected detection engine, with the highest review count here
• Four bundle tiers let a small office buy only what it needs
• Nebula cloud console manages every device from one dashboard
• Three-year terms save 20% on the annual per-device price

Watch out for

• Core has no ransomware rollback — that starts on Advanced at $79 per device a year
• A five-device minimum and a 20-device store limit mean larger fleets need a sales quote
• Server, mobile, email security and DNS filtering are add-ons with separate quotes

#6

ESET PROTECT Entry

Best for: Teams on older hardware that want protection they will never notice running

★★★★★★★★★★4.6/5 on G2 (1,014 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit eset.com

Starting price$210/year (PROTECT Entry, 5 devices; about $42 per device)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

ESET has spent three decades building security software that stays out of the way, and PROTECT Entry continues that tradition: fast scans, low CPU usage, and protection users forget is installed. The package covers endpoint antivirus, anti-phishing, firewall and device control, with server security included and a cloud console, PROTECT Hub, for managing the office's machines from one dashboard. A 30-day free trial is available.

Pricing requires a trip through ESET's own store: there is no static price on the product page, and the five-device, one-year price is $210, about $42 per device, with the per-device rate falling as device count rises. The interface is dated compared with CrowdStrike or Bitdefender. But if your team runs older hardware or complains that security software slows their machines, ESET's light footprint is the deciding factor.

What we like

• Famously light on system resources — the pick for older or low-spec machines
• Strong malware and ransomware detection with a low false-positive rate
• PROTECT Hub console manages up to 100 devices online from one dashboard
• Server security included on the entry tier, not held for a higher plan

Watch out for

• No fixed price on a static page — the store quotes by device count, so confirm at checkout
• Licensing tiers confuse buyers: EDR and full-disk encryption wait for higher PROTECT tiers
• The console interface looks dated next to CrowdStrike or Bitdefender

#7

Webroot Business Endpoint Protection

Best for: Very small offices and older computers where a heavy antivirus agent would slow everything down

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (532 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit webroot.com

Starting price$30/endpoint/year (Business Endpoint Protection; $150 a year for 5 endpoints)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Webroot takes the opposite approach to most antivirus: instead of a heavy local engine, a 670 KB agent sends file data to the cloud for analysis. The result installs in seconds, scans fast, and runs happily on old machines that choke on heavier products. Business Endpoint Protection adds centralized management to the same tiny agent, and the vendor offers a 30-day free trial.

The cloud dependence is the honest trade-off: offline machines get reduced protection, and the $30 tier is the basic agent only — DNS protection and Evasion Shield cost extra. Pricing is straightforward at $30 per endpoint a year, $150 for five, with no tiers to decode on the entry product. For a small business with aging computers or no IT staff, the install-and-forget lightness is hard to beat.

What we like

• A tiny 670 KB agent that installs in seconds and barely touches system resources
• Cloud-based scanning keeps the local footprint small on old hardware
• Flat $30 per endpoint a year with no price tiers to decode on the entry product
• Centralized management console included, with a 30-day free trial

Watch out for

• Cloud-dependent scanning gives reduced protection when a machine is offline
• DNS protection and Evasion Shield cost extra — the $30 tier is the basic agent only
• Fewer features than rivals at the same price: no built-in patch management or encryption

#8

Sophos Intercept X

Best for: Companies that fear ransomware above everything else and want automatic file rollback

Visit sophos.com

Starting priceCustom quote (per-user subscription, sold through partners)

Free planNo — 30-day free trial

Sophos built Intercept X around the threat small businesses fear most: ransomware. Its CryptoGuard technology monitors file encryption behavior and rolls back affected files automatically, while deep-learning models handle threats with no known signature. Managed through Sophos Central, it can synchronize with Sophos firewalls and email security for layered defense, and a 30-day free evaluation is available.

Pricing is quote-based, sold per user through partners in one- to multi-year terms, so there is no number to compare until a partner sizes your estate. Intercept X also shines brightest inside the Sophos ecosystem, which can pull you toward more Sophos products. For a business whose nightmare scenario is encrypted files and a ransom note, start here.

What we like

• CryptoGuard anti-ransomware technology with automatic file rollback
• Deep-learning models that catch malware with no known signature
• Sophos Central console with synchronized security across Sophos products
• EDR and XDR available on higher editions for teams that investigate incidents

Watch out for

• No published starting price — every quote comes through a partner, so budgeting needs a sales call
• Full value needs the Sophos Central ecosystem, which pulls you toward more Sophos products
• Reviewers note heavy CPU and RAM use during scans on lower-spec machines

The best small business computer security software for a ten-person company is not the consumer antivirus on the owner's home laptop. Business tools add a cloud console that manages every machine, ransomware rollback, and support that answers when something is wrong — and they are priced per device or per plan, which changes the bill more than any feature list. We ranked the eight tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a US owner with no IT department — and every price was checked on November 7, 2026.

How to choose the best small business computer security software

• Count your devices first. Norton charges one flat price for 6 devices, while CrowdStrike, Avast, ThreatDown, ESET and Webroot charge per device — so count laptops, phones, tablets and servers before you compare prices.
• Check the renewal price, not the first-year price. Norton doubles from $59.99 to $119.99 in year two, and Avast Essential rises from $31.37 to $39.21 a device.
• Decide whether you need EDR or just antivirus. Falcon Go blocks malware but cannot investigate incidents; that needs Falcon Enterprise at $184.99 per device a year.
• Check what the entry tier leaves out. Ransomware rollback starts on ThreatDown Advanced, not Core, and Bitdefender's web control is a paid add-on.
• Try it on your real machines. Every tool here offers a free trial — run it on your oldest computer first, because that is where a heavy agent shows up.

Security is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If the office also needs to be found online, our monthly SEO service covers the visibility side, and our guide to the best antivirus software covers the consumer products for home machines. Before you publish new pages for the services you sell, run your titles through the free SERP snippet preview tool — it shows exactly how the title and description will look in Google.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with real data before you pay. The trials in this list are long enough to run one genuine week — your devices, your network, your users — and that week tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that the console shows every device, including laptops that never come into the office, and that a scan does not slow your oldest machine to a crawl. Every tool here manages devices from the cloud, so there is no reason to buy before your whole fleet is visible in the console.

Computer security software for small businesses pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a ten-device office — ten laptops, no servers — and price the first year on list prices. Norton costs $99.99 for the 10-device plan, Webroot costs $300, Avast Essential costs $313.70, Bitdefender costs $324.99 at list, ESET costs about $420 at the published five-device rate, CrowdStrike Falcon Go costs $599.90, and ThreatDown Core costs $690. Sophos Intercept X cannot be priced without a quote. The same ten laptops cost $99.99 a year at the cheap end and $690 at the dear end — a $590 gap that comes entirely from flat-plan versus per-device pricing, not from features.

Two of those numbers need adjusting before they are real. First, the renewal: Norton renews at $179.99 a year for ten devices, and Avast Essential renews at $392.10, so budget on the second-year price, not the first. Second, the multi-year discounts: CrowdStrike drops to $49.99 a device a year on a two-year term and $39.99 on three years, ThreatDown saves 20% on a three-year term, and Bitdefender's five-device price falls to $81.66 a year on three years. A three-year commitment is the cheapest way to buy any of these — but only after the trial proves the product fits.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, servers cost more: ESET includes server security on the entry tier, but ThreatDown charges $129–$179 a year per server as an add-on. Second, add-ons: DNS filtering, email security and patch management are separate purchases on ThreatDown, Bitdefender and Webroot. Third, the devices you forgot — the owner's phone, the tablet at reception, the old laptop in the store room — all count toward the device total on per-device plans. Email is the other half of office security, and most attacks arrive there first — see our guide to the best email security software.

Know the difference: antivirus vs EDR vs MDR

The confusion in this category is between three things that sound alike. Antivirus — or endpoint protection — blocks known malware on the device: it scans files, stops malicious downloads and quarantines what it catches. Every tool in this list does that, and for most ten-person offices it is enough. EDR, endpoint detection and response, records what happened so you can investigate: how an attack got in, what it touched, and whether it is really gone. Falcon Go is antivirus only — EDR starts at Falcon Enterprise, $184.99 per device a year — and the same split runs through Sophos and Bitdefender, where investigation tools sit on higher tiers.

MDR, managed detection and response, is a service, not software: human analysts watch your alerts around the clock and respond for you. ThreatDown's top two tiers bundle it, and standalone MDR providers sell it on its own. Buy antivirus when you need blocking, EDR when a customer or insurer asks you to prove what happened after an incident, and MDR when nobody in the business will watch the alerts at 2 a.m.

There is a second, quieter confusion: consumer antivirus is not business security software. A consumer product protects one machine and has no console; a business product manages every machine from one dashboard, enforces the same policy everywhere, and proves to a customer that all devices are protected. The per-device prices here look high next to a $39.99 consumer plan — the console, the device control and the business support are what the extra money buys.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the first-year price. Norton doubles from $59.99 to $119.99 in year two, and Avast Essential rises from $31.37 to $39.21 a device. The renewal price is what you pay in month thirteen, so compare tools on that number.
• Buying per device without counting every device. Phones, tablets, the reception PC and the old laptop in the store room all count. A ten-device quote becomes a fourteen-device bill when the forgotten machines are added.
• Assuming Falcon Go includes EDR. It does not — Falcon Go is antivirus, device control and mobile protection. If a customer questionnaire or cyber insurance form asks for EDR, the entry price is Falcon Enterprise at $184.99 per device a year.
• Buying on the trial, then finding the key feature costs extra. Ransomware rollback starts on ThreatDown Advanced, not Core, and Bitdefender's web control and network defense are paid add-ons. Check the tier list before the trial ends.
• Forgetting the machines that never come into the office. Remote laptops need a cloud console to stay protected and visible — and Webroot's cloud-dependent scanning gives reduced protection when a machine is offline.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page or store on November 7, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown. Two prices come from the vendors' own online stores as read by independent price trackers rather than a static pricing page — Bitdefender GravityZone Small Business Security ($118.99 a year for 5 devices) and ESET PROTECT Entry ($210 a year for 5 devices) — and Webroot's $30 per endpoint price comes from a tracker that reads the vendor's own store; confirm all three at checkout. Ratings are shown only where a fresh G2 page was available: CrowdStrike Falcon (4.7/5, 679 reviews), ThreatDown (4.6/5, 1,092), ESET PROTECT (4.6/5, 1,014) and Webroot (4.5/5, 532). Norton, Avast, Sophos and Bitdefender carry no rating here because no fresh G2 page was available for them, and we would rather show no rating than a stale one. Kaspersky was left out because the US Commerce Department banned the sale of its products in the United States in June 2024. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the free trial of your top pick and install it on every device, including the oldest laptop and the machines that never come into the office. Check that the console shows all of them and that a full scan does not slow the oldest one down before you commit to a year. If the office is protected but new customers are not finding you, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (17)

• CrowdStrike Falcon Go pricing — crowdstrike.com/en-us/pricing/falcon-go (checked November 7, 2026)
• Norton Small Business pricing — us.norton.com/products/small-business (checked November 7, 2026)
• Avast Business pricing (Avast store) — onlinescan.avast.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• Bitdefender business — bitdefender.com/business (checked November 7, 2026)
• Bitdefender GravityZone pricing, independent check — bestreviews.net (checked November 7, 2026)
• Bitdefender GravityZone review, vendor-page price check June 2026 — ifeeltech.com
• ThreatDown pricing — threatdown.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• ThreatDown business review, store prices October 2026 — valydex.com
• ESET PROTECT pricing, independent check — whatsthestack.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• ESET business — eset.com/us/business/small-and-medium (checked November 7, 2026)
• Webroot pricing, vendor-page price tracker — endpointindex.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• Sophos Intercept X — sophos.com/en-us/products/endpoint-antivirus.aspx (checked November 7, 2026)
• G2 CrowdStrike Falcon reviews — g2.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• G2 ESET PROTECT reviews — g2.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• G2 ThreatDown reviews — g2.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• G2 Webroot reviews — g2.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• US Commerce Department Kaspersky ban, June 2024 — sidley.com