F-Secure Reviews
F-Secure was founded in 1988 in Finland, and has been keeping over ten million users safe online since then. Since their humble beginnings, they’ve expanded to 25 global offices in over 40 countries. Unlike many of the competitors, F-Secure keeps its various security software separate. The Anti-Virus software is simply an anti-virus scanner for your PC or Mac. The F-Secure Internet Security software is more along the lines of a security suite, with malware blocking, anti-spam, and some other limited features such as parental controls. F-Secure was also the first Internet security provider in the world to develop an anti-rootkit service.
REVIEW
For the Internet Security software, the installation is very small compared to other security suites. The download process takes only a few moments, and the software begins working immediately, with no restart needed. If you use F-Safe on a Windows PC, you’ll need to keep running Windows Firewall, because there is no built-in firewall with F-Secure’s software. Before you finish the installation, F-Secure does a scan and removes any potential infections, so that it is installed in a default environment.
While the F-Secure runs by itself in the background, and upgrades itself automatically, the user interface is very simple to use when you do want to interact with the software. Everything that you need to access is located on the simple dashboard. You can also do manual scans on specific folders or files, USB drives, compressed files, and other data. You can set it to either clean or quarantine, depending on your preferences.
The email and live chat functions of the customer service are available 24/7, but the phone service is only available on weekdays. Besides the basic anti-malware functions that make F-Secure a solid security suite, the 2016 version of Internet Security also features parental controls and banking protection. While it appears that you also have a performance enhancement tool to help your computer run better, this feature redirects you to the website where you must purchase it for an additional cost.
The cost of F-Secure Internet Security is higher than many competitors, but it does include bundling abilities, so that you can protect up to 25 devices on the same subscription. One of the nice things about F-Secure is that it does not automatically enroll you in auto-renew, which most competitors do.
RATINGS
BRAND REPUTATION COMPARISON
USER ENGAGEMENT COMPARISON
POPULARITY TREND COMPARISON
- Easy to use interface
- No auto-renew for subscriptions
- Performs well in all tests, consistently picking up on threats
- Does a complete clean before you ever install
- Small installation file size
CONCLUSION
For users who want to download a basic anti-malware protection service and forget about it, F-Secure is a decent option. You shouldn’t notice any difference in the performance of your computer, and F-Secure can be set so that it’s fairly unobtrusive. It does the job well, and will keep your computer safe from the most common types of infections gathered from regular web surfing. The email spam filter is one of the better rated filters in Internet security software, although the anti-phishing function doesn’t perform up to the same standards.
If you are a tech geek who needs an Internet security suite that is more robust, F-Secure is not the software for you. The parental controls lack many specific controls that are necessary to whittle down what can and cannot be seen, instead relying on generalized categories that are at times too broad, and at times to narrow. It lacks the extra features that most of the competitors offer, and at a higher price than many, it’s simply not worth it.
