The Best Small Business Cybersecurity Suites We've Tested for 2026 - PCMag

Table of Contents Many people saw the original IBM PC as a hobbyist’s dream, but it wasn't long before it became an essential business tool. Today, huge corporations devote entire business units to IT and security, but smaller operations neither need nor want that level of investment. Fortunately, there are security suites specifically designed for businesses that are just a little too large to rely on a consumer-style suite. Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security is our favorite among those that retain a connection with their consumer-side roots. If you're looking for a more manageable, smaller-scale version of corporate-style security, Avast Premium Business Security is a good fit. These two are our Editors' Choice winners for small business security, though the other suites we’ve evaluated have their merits. Read about all of them below, and keep reading for thoughts on how to choose the right cybersecurity suite for your small business. Our Top Tested Picks Best for Affordable Protection Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security Available at Bitdefender Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Best for Remote Management Avast Premium Business Security Available at AVAST Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Best for Advanced Features Norton Small Business Premium Available at Norton Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Best for Businesses With Their Own Servers ESET Small Business Security Available at ESET Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Best for No-Frills Protection AVG Internet Security Business Edition Available at AVG Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Best for Priority Support Malwarebytes for Teams Available at Malwarebytes Check Price EXPAND  PROS & CONS Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks RELATED: Best Business Password Managers Best Business VPNs (Credit: PCMag Composite) Best for Affordable Protection Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security 4.5 Outstanding Pros & Cons Protects Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices Comprehensive, effective device-level security Award-winning antivirus Remote management of employee devices Monitors for business asset exposure Digital identity protection for employees Password manager lacks advanced features Mediocre scores in some hands-on tests In the consumer realm, Bitdefender is an Editors’ Choice, boasting excellent test scores and a comprehensive suite of features. Almost all those features make their way into the business suite, along with some business-specific additions. Best of all, on a per-device basis, Bitdefender is among the least expensive. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security Review (Credit: Avast) Best for Remote Management Avast Premium Business Security 4.5 Outstanding Pros & Cons Excellent scores in antivirus lab tests and our tests Full remote configuration management Can remotely trigger scan, update, reboot, more Includes firewall, VPN, file shredder Web control filters inappropriate content Exchange and SharePoint security for servers Relatively expensive No VPN for Mac installations While most small business security suites top out at 20 or 25 licenses, an Avast subscription can scale up to 999 licenses. Monitoring hundreds of computers can be tough, but Avast’s powerful remote management hub makes the process easier. Especially important is the policy system, which allows you to control configuration for every company computer from one location. And of course, underlying it all is an antivirus that gets excellent scores in lab tests and my hands-on tests. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More Avast Premium Business Security Review (Credit: PCMag Composite) Best for Advanced Features Norton Small Business Premium 4.0 Excellent Pros & Cons Award-winning antivirus VPN with no bandwidth or server limits Data exposure monitoring for your business Hosted online storage for backups Relatively low per-device price Includes Norton Utilities and driver updater Remote management limited to fixing reported problems Some features only work on Windows installations Norton 360 Deluxe is an Editors’ Choice for a consumer security suite, and Norton’s small business suite boasts almost all the same features. In addition to award-winning antivirus, intelligent firewall, and a no-limits VPN, you get 500GB of hosted online storage for backups, a collection of performance enhancement components, and separate installations of Norton Utilities Ultimate and Norton Driver Updater. Not only that, on a per-device basis, it’s one of the least expensive options. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More Norton Small Business Premium Review (Credit: ESET) Best for Businesses With Their Own Servers ESET Small Business Security 4.0 Excellent Pros & Cons Perfect scores from four antivirus testing labs Scores from good to perfect in hands-on tests No-limits VPN Can install VPN on router Cross-platform anti-theft system Includes server-specific edition No remote management of endpoint installations ESET’s consumer-facing security suite includes several features that are very well-suited to a business environment. For example, you can remotely locate, lock, or wipe a lost or stolen company device. The Device Control system prevents data exfiltration attempts. Best of all, you can protect your company’s servers by installing the specially configured ESET Safe Server suite. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More ESET Small Business Security Review (Credit: AVG) Best for No-Frills Protection AVG Internet Security Business Edition 3.5 Good Pros & Cons Excellent scores in antivirus lab tests and our tests Full remote configuration management Can remotely scan, update, reboot, and more Exchange and SharePoint security for servers Lacks features found in AVG’s consumer suite Protects PCs only, not Macs Expensive for what you get All your business PCs need basic antivirus protection, but it’s up to you how much your suite goes beyond those basics. AVG installs a simple, no-frills security app on every company computer, up to 999 of them. Managing so many PCs would be challenging, but AVG’s online hub provides the administrator with full remote control. Not only can you take actions such as remotely rebooting a PC or launching a scan, you can also adjust the configuration for all company computers at once by making changes to the controlling policy. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More AVG Internet Security Business Edition Review (Credit: Malewarebytes/PCMag) Best for Priority Support Malwarebytes for Teams 3.5 Good Pros & Cons Includes no-limits VPN protection Near-perfect score in malware blocking test Very good protection against malicious and fraudulent sites Priority support with scheduling No remote management of company devices Lacks some expected security suite features Few business-specific features Malwarebytes has a long-standing reputation as the go-to tool for cleaning up the mess when other antivirus apps fail to do their job. Its premium-tier antivirus adds real-time antivirus protection. The antivirus gets good test scores, but the business suite as a whole doesn’t go much beyond antivirus. You’ll appreciate Malwarebytes if you encounter any technical issues, however. Instead of suffering hours of music on hold or interacting with a slow chat-based assistant, Priority Support means you go straight to scheduling a Zoom call with a support expert. Why We Picked It Who It’s For Specs & Configurations GET IT NOW Today’s Best Deal Learn More Malwarebytes for Teams Review Buying Guide: The Best Small Business Cybersecurity Suites for 2026 What Counts as a Small Business for IT Protection? There’s no fixed size for a small business, but one rule of thumb suggests that your business counts as "small" if you know the names of all your employees. Practically speaking, that probably means no more than a few dozen, and the licensing schemes for small business suites mostly fit that profile. With Malwarebytes, your subscription can cover up to 20 devices. Norton lets you enroll up to 20 employees and protect up to 40 devices. ESET subscription choices range from five to 25 devices, while Bitdefender allows you to choose between three, five, 10, or 25 users. As with Norton, Bitdefender supports twice as many devices as employees, meaning you can install it on 6, 10, 20, or 50 devices. Avast and AVG are nearly unlimited, compared with the rest. You can purchase a license for anywhere from one to 999 devices. Their pricing schemes are similar, although not identical. And in both cases, a maxed-out 999-device license would cost you more than $23,000. Cross-Platform Security Coverage: Windows, Mac, and Beyond I confess, when I think of a small business computer, I think of a Windows PC. All the suites I’ve collected here provide full support for Windows PCs. To be fair, a Mac is also a personal computer. And all but AVG can manage your company’s Macs as well. When it comes to mobile devices, the picture is less clear. Either you issue a company phone to each employee, or you require employees to install company security software on their personal phones. Avast and AVG sidestep the problem by simply withholding support for mobile devices. The other four let you monitor and protect Android devices, and all but ESET even extend coverage to iOS. There’s one more contender in the operating system arena—Windows Server. Yes, you can install security intended for a Windows PC on Windows Server, but the priorities aren’t the same. Bitdefender, ESET, and Norton offer server-specific editions of their suites. Avast and AVG don’t supply a separate edition, but with both, you can define an individual policy (collection of settings) for servers. Remote Control: Admin Tools That Save You Time The initial step of installing a security suite on all your company servers can be daunting. Avast and AVG include a beta-level feature for remote installation, but being in beta, it doesn’t always work. With any of the suites here, you can send employees an email with a link to install. And, of course, you (or your IT specialist) can also go through the office and manually install protection on each workstation. All the suites discussed here let an administrator log in and view the list of protected devices. All but Malwarebytes show you a status indicator for each device. Perhaps one of your employees turned off the security suite, thinking it caused their game to lag? With ESET and Norton, the online console displays a warning, and you can click it to remotely resolve the issue. Avast, AVG, and Bitdefender offer remote management capabilities that extend far beyond simply fixing a problem remotely. With Bitdefender, you can remotely trigger a malware scan or a vulnerability scan, or invoke the suite’s performance optimization. Avast and AVG add more remote actions, including triggering an update, rebooting or shutting down the system (with a warning to the user), and restarting the antivirus. Comprehensive Defense: What’s Actually Protected All the suites discussed here install a local security application on all your company computers, and all but AVG pack along a full-featured VPN. All come with award-winning antivirus protection, with perfect and near-perfect scores from independent testing labs. And they all earn top scores in my hands-on tests, with a couple of bobbles. The local protection installed by Bitdefender, ESET, and Norton looks very similar to the corresponding consumer-side suite. Avast, AVG, and Malwarebytes strip out many ancillary security features found in their consumer products. Norton alone offers backup, 500GB of hosted storage shared among all your computers. Bitdefender, Malwarebytes, and Norton include features to enhance performance. And all but Malwarebytes come with firewall protection. Lock It Down: Managing Lost Devices and External Threats Do your employees exercise the same level of care for a company laptop as they do for a personal device? If so, good for them! But whether they do or not, there’s always a possibility it will be lost or stolen. That could be especially problematic if the company laptop contained sensitive company information. Recommended by Our Editors Your Small Business Needs a VPN. Here's How to Choose the Right One From Start-Up to Success: Must-Have Apps for Managing a Small Business The Best Business VPNs for 2026 Bitdefender and ESET head off this possibility with centrally managed anti-theft systems. You can remotely lock and locate a missing device and use a variety of techniques to recover it. If it’s gone beyond all hope, you can cut it loose and remotely wipe its data. Other devices can cause trouble when they enter your network, not when they get lost. Corporate spies have been known to bait competitors by leaving infected USB drives in areas where employees are likely to find them. Bolder spies might break in and copy your plans for world domination to a thumb drive. ESET and Avast both build in protection against device misuse. Avast’s plan is simple. You can set a policy to block all use of removable drives and distribute it to all your company computers. If that’s too draconian, you can define specific known and trusted devices to bypass the USB ban. ESET does something similar, though it offers a much wider array of configuration options. Extras That Make a Big Difference for Small Businesses If you’re relying on a security suite to protect your company computers, you don’t want any technical problems. And if a problem does come up, you don’t want to sit on hold endlessly waiting for a tech support agent. Malwarebytes and Norton offer 24/7 priority support. With Norton, you also receive five support incidents per year, enabling you to get help for almost any technical issue. Some of these business suites strip out personal identity protection components found in their consumer equivalents. Bitdefender’s Business Assets Exposure Scan takes that identity protection technology and applies it to your business details. Norton also offers business-focused monitoring of the dark web for sensitive information. When discussing protection against spyware, I always point out that malicious software can turn on your PC’s webcam without triggering the tell-tale light, and listen in to the microphone without your knowledge. It’s one thing to have a pervy peeper gazing into your boudoir, quite another if a corporate spy abuses a camera or a mic to steal company secrets. Avast, Bitdefender, and Norton incorporate software that warns anytime an unauthorized program attempts to access the camera or microphone.