Dr.Web Antivirus Review 2024 — Is It Worth Buying?

Dr.Web is a reliable antivirus suite, but it has a few notable drawbacks. Its malware scanner is powerful, removing nearly all of the malware I put on my computer and Android phone. But though they’re quite fast, the scans can be a bit resource intensive and therefore not great for low-end devices.

I was very satisfied with the real-time protection, though. It detected more threats than the built-in security included with my PC and Android, and it wasn’t very intrusive either. It rarely flagged safe files as threats or caused issues with my programs.

Though generally effective, many features are quite basic. The web protection, for example, is good at blocking phishing sites, but there isn’t much in the way of customization. It’s a similar story with the parental controls, which handle basic functions well but lack advanced features.

There are a few aspects of Dr.Web that I simply don’t like. The firewall is particularly disappointing. I had to deal with constant pop-ups when launching widely-used programs. Another problem is the fact that, unless you speak Russian, your support options are incredibly limited. On top of that, the website is confusing and the installation process is needlessly frustrating.

My critiques aside, Dr.Web is very affordable compared to other antiviruses. You may have to forgo customer support and subscribe to a 3-year plan to get the best deals, but even the shorter plans are fairly cheap. It may not have a money-back guarantee, but it does offer an abnormally generous 90-day free trial.

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Dr.Web Full Review

Dr.Web is an extremely affordable antivirus with a few great features. The core malware scanner uses a combination of traditional signature-based malware detection and heuristic analysis to catch complex zero-day threats. That said, an intrusive firewall, lack of advanced extra features, and somewhat outdated UI keep it from being one of my favorite antiviruses.

Though it isn’t one of the best antiviruses, it is one of the most affordable options, with plans starting at $14.01 / year. And while it doesn’t have a money-back guarantee, you can pick up the Security Space package with a generous 3-month free trial.

Dr.Web Security Features

Anti-Malware Engine

Dr.Web’s core malware scanner is great. It combines signature-based malware detection with heuristic analysis that helps it catch zero-day threats (malware that hasn’t been discovered yet). During my tests, it blocked nearly every sample of malware I buried on my device, including ransomware, trojans, worms, and viruses.

There are 3 different types of scans: full scans (a deep scan of every file on your computer), quick scans (faster but only looks at important files), and custom scans (checks specific folders or files). The full scan took about an hour, which is average, but it put more strain on my computer than cloud-based antiviruses like Bitdefender.

SpIDer Guard, the name for Dr.Web’s real-time protection, is very good, too. On top of blocking more threats than Windows Defender did in my tests, it’s highly customizable. You can choose what kind of threats to block and manage lists of exceptions. Expert users can fine-tune its behavioral analysis, ransomware protection, and other advanced features.

For the most part, customizing Dr.Web’s engine is fairly intuitive. But if you plan on tinkering with the behavioral analysis, ransomware protection, or other advanced parts of the malware scanner, technical knowledge is very helpful. If you don’t know what an option means, Dr.Web doesn’t offer any in-app explanations.

If you click on the Statistics page at the top of the main menu, you can view detailed reports on your antivirus’s actions. You can see when Dr.Web blocked malware, malicious activity, and every virus it recently scrubbed from your system.

It’s hard to find fault with Dr.Web’s malware protection. It’s highly effective and experts like myself will appreciate the wide degree of customization. The statistics page is also a great touch.

Firewall

Dr.Web also comes with a firewall, but it has some serious problems. To be clear, the issues have nothing to do with security; the firewall blocked most network threats (including exploits) in my tests.

The problem is that it flags tons of safe and commonly used apps. Whenever I opened a new app, the firewall would make me manually create rules for the app, issuing 2–3 pop-ups for each program. You have to decide whether to completely block a given app, disable updates, or prevent it from performing any background functions.

The fix is to turn your firewall settings to Allow unknown connections, but this isn’t a great solution. Since you’re accepting unknown connections, you’re left more exposed to real threats inside of unknown sources. On the other hand, if you keep the default settings, you may become so used to pop-ups that you won’t notice when it detects something that’s actually dangerous.

Overall, there are much better firewalls, like Norton’s smart firewall, which is significantly less intrusive. Dr.Web’s firewall is secure enough, but it needs to expand its database of safe applications.

Web Protection

Dr.Web offers multiple forms of web protection, including an online link-checking extension and real-time web protection through the SpIDer Gate app. There’s also a link-checking Telegram bot, a feature I’ve never seen anywhere else.

Both manual link-checking tools are free, but they aren’t great. The Telegram bot requires a Telegram account (which requires a phone number). I tested both using a database of known phishing websites but was disappointed by the results. The Telegram bot only detected a couple of threats. The extension caught a few more, but the difference wasn’t huge.

The real-time web protection is much better. I compared it with Chrome’s built-in security. It outperformed Chrome, blocking a lot more phishing sites that I attempted to visit.

You can choose what type of malicious website to block using a series of toggles and manage whitelists/blacklists for websites pretty easily. If you visit the Statistics page, you can view a list of every recent URL that Dr.Web blocked.

The email scanner automatically checks emails for malicious attachments. By default, any malicious email it detects is moved to your spam folder and given a new header marking it as spam. Though lacking customization options, it worked as promised in my tests.

In short, I like Dr. Web’s real-time web protection. It outperforms most browsers’ built-in protections and is easy to use. That said, I recommend ditching the manual link-checking tools in favor of something like Norton Safe Web (which doesn’t require a Telegram account and catches significantly more phishing sites).

Parental Controls

Dr.Web’s parental controls are good, though they’re missing a few key features. They provide a basic set of browsing restrictions, activity reports, and website filters. Unlike many parental control apps, there isn’t a separate app to download. Instead, you can set the controls up on any device that has Dr.Web installed. If you’re using the PC version, you can set up different rules for each user profile.

You can set up basic restrictions, including blocking a child from select apps and websites. It’s also possible to block categories of sites and specific sites. Plus, Dr.Web makes it easy to set time restrictions on when your child can use the internet.

It’s pretty customizable and it works well. For example, I set up an account for a younger kid and made it so they only had internet access after school and on weekends. Then I made a profile for a teenager that blocked specific harmful sites and all adult content but wasn’t impeded by time restrictions.

I like the activity reports, which detail how much time your child spends online, what sites they visit, and what apps they open. You can view all this by going to the Statistics menu and clicking on Parental Control. Dr.Web will also issue you an alert if your child has the privileges needed to disable the app. This is good, but it would be great if it could provide alerts if the child actually tries to remove the app.

There are some missing elements, however. Unlike the best standalone parental control apps, Dr.Web doesn’t come with any location-tracking tools. It also lacks YouTube monitoring, a panic button, and other features that are included with Qustodio, my favorite parental control app. I also found it easier to get around the restrictions, but that doesn’t mean your child will know how to pull this off.

Dr.Web’s parental controls are pretty good for an antivirus-bundled product. I’d like to see a few more features added, namely location tracking, but aside from that it’s a great tool.

Extra Features

Dr.Web also comes with a slew of smaller extra features, such as:

• Microphone and webcam protection — Prevents unauthorized use of your mic and webcam while sending you alerts if any apps are trying to gain control over either.
• USB access control — You can block unauthorized access to your USB drives or other forms of removable media. If someone else plugs in your flash drive, they won’t be able to steal your files.
• Back-up options — Includes an option to backup important files so that you can easily restore them to a previous point in case of an infection. It’s a lot more basic than Norton’s backup features, but it works well enough.

Dr.Web Plans & Pricing

Dr.Web provides several low-cost plans for users all around the world. It has 3 plans available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users and 1 plan for Android customers, plus a free app. All plans start with 1 license, but you can pay a fee to get more.

The plans are frankly confusing. The website uses the words ‘subscription’ for some plans and ‘license’ for others, but there’s functionally no difference. Some plans are also almost identical. Luckily, I’ve figured everything out and will explain things below.

Dr.Web Katana — Lightweight Malware Scanner

Dr.Web Katana is a simple and lightweight malware scanner with real-time protection for up to 5 Windows computers. It’s good for simple malware scans, but it doesn’t come with any of Dr.Web’s extra features. Dr.Web claims that it won’t conflict with other antiviruses, but frankly I don’t see the point in paying for two antiviruses. In any case, Katana costs $16.20 / year. There’s no money-back guarantee, but you can get a 90-day free trial.

Dr.Web Premium — Standard Short-Term Plan

Dr.Web Premium gives you all of Dr.Web’s features, including the firewall, parental controls, web protection, and microphone/webcam protection. Prices start at $21.45 / year.

It’s meant for short-term subscribers, with options to subscribe for 90, 180, or 360 days. Additionally, you can choose between 1 and 10 licenses. For every PC license, you’ll also get an Android license, so technically it can cover up to 20 devices. There is no money-back guarantee or free trial for Premium.

Dr.Web Security Space — Most Cost-Effective Dr.Web Plan

Dr.Web Security Space is the most affordable package in the long term. It comes with every one of Dr.Web’s features and gets you access to the Android app as well. You can get it for as little as $14.01 / year.

Sound familiar? That’s because Security Space is functionally identical to the Premium plan. But unlike Premium, you can test Security Space for up to 90 days using a free trial. The subscription periods are also different, with Security Space subscriptions lasting between 1 and 3 years. There’s also an option to get expanded technical support as an add-on, but I don’t recommend you do so (more on that later). If you decline support and get a 1-year subscription, Security Space is cheaper than Premium — and pretty much any other antivirus out there.

Dr.Web Security Space for Android — Mobile Plan

Dr.Web Security Space for Android is a decent plan that comes with all of Dr.Web’s mobile security features. It costs $11.70 / year but also comes for free as part of the Security Space and Premium subscriptions.

It comes with a malware scanner, firewall, SMS protection, web protection, and anti-theft tools. You can try it out using the free trial to make sure it works for you. There’s also a free Android app, but this just includes the scanner and is supported by ads.

Dr.Web Ease of Use & Setup

Dr.Web is pretty easy to use, though if you’re a first-time user, the installation process might be a little confusing. The website has a very archaic and unintuitive layout.

For example, if you’re buying the Windows version, when you go to buy a package, you first have to load your wallet and then go back to the plan you wanted to buy. There’s also no obvious way to download Dr.Web after buying a plan.

Making matters worse, there’s a language barrier for non-Russian speakers. Parts of the website, like the support forums, are almost entirely in Russian. You’ll have to navigate the old-school design choices, a confusing installation method, and a rough translation (unless you speak Russian).

I had to wait several minutes for an email providing instructions on where to download the program. Once I got it, it took me almost 15 minutes to install, which is way longer than any of our highest-rated antiviruses. While it was setting up, it slowed down my system quite a bit, unlike top products like Norton or Bitdefender.

As soon as I installed Dr.Web, I started having problems. My computer crashed when I clicked Finished. I had to restart my computer in safe mode and uninstall it from my PC. After re-installing it, the only thing I did differently was uncheck the box that installs the firewall during setup and it installed fine. I even turned the firewall right back on without issues.

When I finally got to use the program, its firewall required me to create a rule and manually allow just about every program on my computer, from Grammarly to Discord and uTorrent. Sometimes I’d get 3+ pop-ups per app I opened.

These issues aside, I do like the UI. Unlike the clunky website full of copied/pasted information and poor translations, the UI has a sleek modern look and easy-to-understand options.

When you open up the Security Center, you’ll be able to see categories of various features. Click on one of these categories and then on a specific feature to open up a new menu of customization options, including toggles for various settings and fields that let you change the rules of the chosen feature.

Unlike my favorite antiviruses, Dr.Web didn’t work out of the box in my experience. The process for purchasing and installing that app was a huge pain. You’ll have to do a bit of configuration, but, if you get past that initial learning curve, the antivirus is easy enough to use.

Dr.Web Mobile App

Dr.Web’s mobile app is easy to use, even if you’ve never touched a mobile antivirus before. The feature profile is similar to what you get with the desktop app, with a few mobile-specific features added. Dr.Web Security Space for Android is available as a standalone purchase and is also included with the Security Space and Premium plans.

Though not as customizable as the Windows version, the Android app allows for more tinkering than most of its competitors. It’s quite easy to use and doesn’t suffer from any of the technical and language issues I encountered while downloading and installing the desktop antivirus.

Though not quite as feature-rich as Norton or Bitdefender’s mobile apps, I was impressed with the breadth of protections included with the mobile app. Unlike some apps, the scanner detects dangerous files in addition to malicious apps. The list of features includes:

• Malware scanner.
• Firewall.
• SMS/Call spam filter.
• Security Auditor.
• Web protection.
• Parental controls.
• Anti-theft features.

Most Android antiviruses don’t include a firewall, making Dr.Web stand out. It’s much less intrusive than the Windows firewall. The web protection performed as well as it did on PC. The parental control app is great on mobile as well. It breaks down every app on your kid’s phone and lets you set time limits for each one or block it outright in case it’s an app you don’t want your kids using.

The anti-theft and device security features are quite good. You can make it so you need to enter a password whenever your phone restarts, set it to wipe your data after 10 failed attempts, and lock your phone if your SIM card is changed. I especially like that you can create a failed lock screen message in case your phone gets stolen. You can even give a friend the power to wipe or lock your device.

On the whole, I really like Dr.Web’s Android app. It has a wide array of features that all worked well in my tests. There’s also a free app, but it’s supported by ads and the only noteworthy feature is a malware scanner.

Dr.Web Customer Support

Dr.Web offers four main forms of customer service: user guides, phone support, email support, and a fairly extensive forum section. I particularly liked how extensive the user manuals were for each product.

To get it out of the way, Dr.Web Security Space comes with an extra customer service add-on that increases the price by almost 40%. It only provides you with an extra email-based technical support channel, so it really isn’t worth it.

The phone option wasn’t too helpful to me, since I wasn’t able to connect to the international phone support. I was able to use one of the contact info phone numbers, but since I don’t speak Russian, I couldn’t get much farther.

The email support is available in English, Russian, French, German, and many other languages, but it isn’t very reliable either. The website says it will respond in 24–48 hours. When I tested it, Dr.Web responded within a day, but I sometimes wouldn’t get email confirmation until a few days later. Aside from that issue, support was helpful and able to answer every question I sent its way.

Though it’s very active, you won’t get much out of the forum unless you speak Russian. Fortunately, most browsers have a built-in auto-translate option. While this is helpful, the translations aren’t perfect and can be particularly bad when dealing with technical subjects. That said, most of the posts I looked at had at least one reply and hundreds to thousands of views, so it’s a good place to go if you have a niche question that isn’t covered in the user manuals.

Is Dr.Web Worth Buying in 2024?

Yes, Dr.Web is worth buying. It’s a decent cybersecurity suite with a powerful scanner that removed most of the malware samples I used for my tests. It’s great for stopping ransomware and comes at a price that’s hard to beat. That said, Dr.Web is bogged down by a mixed bag of extra features, outdated design, and language issues.

The real-time protection, web protection, and email scanner all tested well without giving me any problems. And the parental controls are fine, albeit somewhat basic.

But Dr.Web has a few confusingly intrusive or archaic aspects. The firewall was especially bad since it would send me multiple notifications every time I opened a new app for the first time. Installation is also more complicated than it needs to be, and it even crashed my system the first time I tried installing it. Beyond that, the process of picking a plan and installing the software is needlessly painful.

Still, if you need an effective and extremely affordable antivirus, Dr.Web isn’t a bad option. It offers a free trial for new users and you can install the malware scanner for free. There’s no money-back guarantee, but with how cheap the plans can be, you won’t be making a big investment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dr.Web safe?

Yes, Dr.Web is safe. Its malware scanner caught most of the malware samples in my tests, and its real-time protection was reliable. The firewall can be a bit invasive in how much it blocks, but it does block malicious network intrusions very well. It isn’t the most feature-rich antivirus on the market, (Norton includes a VPN, dark web monitoring, a password manager, and more) but it is good enough to keep you safe from malware and debilitating network attacks.

Is Dr.Web antivirus for iOS?

No, there isn’t a Dr.Web antivirus for iOS. There is a fully-fledged Android app and an iOS tool called the Mobile Control Center, but it can only be used to monitor what Dr.Web is doing on your desktop. It’s not a true antivirus and won’t help keep you safe. If you’re looking for a good iOS antivirus, I’d recommend one of these options instead.

Is Dr.Web a virus?

No, Dr.Web is not a virus. Some browsers or computers might flag it as being suspicious, but if you read carefully, you’ll see that it’s only warning you that it’s not commonly downloaded, not that it’s flagged as malicious. Dr.Web is safe to install and won’t give your computer any viruses. If you’re skeptical, you can use a good website link-checking tool to verify that it’s safe.

Is Dr.Web free?

Dr.Web does have a free plan, but only for Android. It has a good malware scanner, but the premium mobile app is much better. There is a basic desktop app that includes real-time protection but, though it’s quite affordable, it isn’t free.