Looking for advice on the best vpn and antivirus/antimalware

VPN
1

Last I checked private internet access used to be the best due to their no logs policy. I am not sure if that is still the case.

I currently own premium version of Avast antivirus which is horrible. Even with paying for a premium version they constantly spam me with ads for their products.

I have free version of malwarebytes.

I am based in the Netherlands if that matters.

2

Depends on your needs.

I personally can highly recommend Mullvad as VPN. They are very transparent what they do, everything is written on their website.
They allow up to 5 devices. The best part is that they also can do port forwards which is nice for “downloading linux iso’s via torrent”. They also have Wireguard as connection method, which gave me depending on server location roughly 500-800MBps.

I would personally stay away from NordVPN or similar, as they tend to have concerning business practices. Yes, they are cheap, but the overall speed etc ain’t great.

For AntiVirus:

  1. Use your brain, most of viruses can be avoided just by not doing dumb shit
  2. Microsoft Defender is actually pretty good and can keep up/exceed what payed services can do.
  3. Stay away from Kaspersky if you do heavy network IO, as their software is really agressive to check every connection. It literally crashed the network adapter several times a day.
  4. Use Linux instead of Windows for concerning stuff.
3

Viruses are fairly rare for the average computer user to encounter. Malware is more of an issue these days. I am very aware of the files and programs on my computers and dont keep any antivirus or anti-malware running because they are all resource hogs. I do keep the installs on an external just incase.
That being said Malwarebytes or SecureAPlusSecureAPlus Forum would be my recommendations for anti-malware.

I personally like SecureAPlus better. They give you more options for how it operates. For example they ask if you want to have their software register with the operating system as antivirus software or not. Doing so allows Windows defender to be disabled. Not doing so both will run and use more resources.