Panda Antivirus Review: A Family Friendly Choice
Content
Panda Dome Antivirus: Protect Your Network
Pros
Cons
Quick Stats
Panda Dome is an established antivirus on the market. It uses AI and cloud computing to gather information and develop its program to keep your PC safe with minimal performance effects. Panda Dome provides many features, from a free VPN to a password manager, or if you're a worried parent requiring parental control over your child's device, Panda doesn't fail to deliver.
In this review, we will further discuss Panda Dome's features in detail to help you decide if it's the antivirus for you.
Panda Dome Security and Protection
When it comes to antivirus, security is best assessed in independent test labs. Different labs have different criteria to evaluate security. For simplicity's sake, we will give one example of such a lab.
According to Panda Dome's website, the antivirus detection rate is 100%. According to independent test labs such as AV-Test lab. However, that's not the only criteria. Instead, three criteria are considered, the first is protection, the second is performance, and the third is usability, meaning how often a false positive is given to known malicious programs.
In this section, we will take a look at Panda Dome's assessment according to different third-party testing labs.
1. Third-party lab test results
Third-party testing labs are experts with well-constructed criteria and testing methods for testing AV products, providing an unbiased opinion on product security.
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AV-Test lab
- 6/6 points for protection, as Panda is capable of identifying malware without fail.
- 5/6 points for performance, as to how much Panda takes up from the device's resources.
- 5.5/6 Points for usability, meaning a low false-positive rate (i.e., unlikely to mistake none infected files for infection ones).
- 6/6 points for protection, as Panda is capable of identifying malware without fail.
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AV-Comparatives
- Panda scored 2/3 stars in the departments of malware removal.
- Panda antivirus scores 3/3 stars in the impact on device performance department, which means it won't take up your device's resources.
- Panda antivirus has a Real-World Protection Test with a 2/3 stars real-world protection score. According to a test conducted with 758 domains/files, this score checks the detection rate of malicious files and domains.
- Panda antivirus hasn't been tested in terms of false alarms. Therefore, there aren't any results to list here.
- Panda antivirus has a 0/3 score regarding malware detection. This was done by testing 10102 test cases.
- Panda scored 2/3 stars in the departments of malware removal.
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SE Labs
There were no test results regarding Panda antivirus in SE Labs' latest tests. Still, two other labs tested the product, and we can say that Panda rates were pretty good in both.
SE Labs rank products from AAA being the highest score, AA (Intermediate), and B (Lowest score).
2. Firewall and IDS protection
Firewalls are an essential system to find in your antivirus plan; it's used to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Panda provides an effective firewall, but its use is limited to Windows only.
3. USB rescue toolkit
This feature lets you download a rescue kit as a failsafe on your USB and use it later. In the event malicious ware infects your device and prevents it from even booting and reaching the antivirus screen, you can use the USB rescue kit to initiate cloud-based cleaner.
Panda antivirus provides "Panda USB Vaccine". This is a feature scanning any inserted USB device as soon as it is detected while protecting from the malware trying to spread via Auto-run. This works by disabling the "Auto-run.inf" file on the USB, which is often used by many malware programs, as there is no user-friendly way to disable the auto-run function on Windows. Currently, the USB vaccine works only on FAT and FAT32 USB devices.
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Plans and Features
Panda offers four sets of plans, including Essential, Advanced, Complete, and Premium. Features and prices increase respectively.
1. Panda Essential
This is the most basic of the bundles. It includes real-time protection, a firewall, and a free limited VPN of 150MB per day, for the price of $17.49/year per device. The lack of ransomware protection is a major downside to this bundle.
2. Panda Advanced
This bundle adds to the Panda Essential ransomware protection, ID protection when shopping and banking, and parental control. This bundle's parental control feature makes it a good deal relative to its price of $23.49/year per device if you are concerned with parental control. However, it would lack vital features such as dark web monitoring and unlimited VPN offered by Norton 360 Plus for a slightly higher price.
3. Panda Complete
This bundle offers what Panda Advanced does in addition to a data shield, a password manager, and a cleanup tool.
The password manager is the most valuable of these tools, allowing you to store multiple passwords, encrypt them, and reuse them with a master password. The data shield allows for the encryption of sensitive files on your PC to secure them and allows for file shredding to prevent deleted data recovery. The cleanup tool optimizes your device so that it can run more smoothly.
4. Panda Premium
This plan includes an added unlimited VPN service powered by hotspot VPN to the bundle, an update manager, and 24h live customer support.
As discussed already, while a perfect malicious ware detection rate is provided, it does affect speed ever so slightly. Scanning with Panda could drop performance and hence is not advised during heavy load periods. Scan scheduling feature should help you decide when to scan to avoid performance issues.
Panda Dome VPN
One of the included features is a free virtual private network (VPN) to encrypt your data outgoing to the internet and provide an anonymous status on the internet. And while Panda Dome VPN is effective in these areas, it is limited to 150 MB per day of traffic data, which is very low compared to other free VPN products.
If more data is required, you can go for the Panda Dome Premium plan for unlimited VPN traffic access. However, it lacks two key features: a kill switch which means if the VPN connection fails, your IP could get exposed, and the ability to switch servers on the free version means you can't bypass geo-restricted content.
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Wi-Fi hacking protection
Did you know that Wi-Fi hacking is easier than hacking devices connected to Wi-Fi? Many old Wi-Fi products use wired equivalent privacy (WEP) encryption, which is very easy to hack; even the better-encrypted ones can be hacked. Panda Dome provides a Wi-Fi scanning and protection tool included in all of its packages to protect your Wi-Fi from getting hacked.
Panda Dome Password Manager
You can buy this product alone or as part of the premium bundle. It can create robust passwords, save and encrypt them until you need the password again. This works via a master password, and all saved passwords are decrypted and used when needed by entering your master password.
This helps you only have to recall one password to enter all your accounts while not being at risk of losing all your accounts if one of your accounts gets hacked. Panda Dome Password Manager has a zero-knowledge policy as they don't keep any of the encrypted passwords nor the master password.
This policy functions as both a privacy feature and a risk factor, in case you forget your password, you wouldn't have a way of retrieving it.
Panda Dome gaming/multimedia mode
This is a mode implemented automatically whenever your device goes into the full-screen mode or upon request. It stops the updates, the self-diagnosis, and the scheduled scans, which means more performance power.
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User Experience
Panda antivirus is easy to install and use. They offer support 24/7 via:
- Tickets.
- Email.
- Knowledge base.
Pricing and Payments
Let's compare Panda's four plans with their prices:
| Plans | Panda Essential | Panda Advanced | Panda Complete | Panda Premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-time protection | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Firewall | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Free VPN | Included limited VPN of 150MB per day |
Included limited VPN of 150MB per day |
Included limited VPN of 150MB per day |
Included Unlimited VPN |
| Ransomware protection | N/A | Included | Included | Included |
| ID protection | N/A | Included | Included | Included |
| Parental control | N/A | Included | Included | Included |
| Data shield | N/A | N/A | Included | Included |
| Password manager | N/A | N/A | Included | Included |
| Clean up tool | N/A | N/A | Included | Included |
| Update manager | N/A | N/A | N/A | Included |
| Price per year | $17.49 | $23.49 | $29.49 | $35.49 |
Free trial
Panda has a 30-day trial period on its products, so you can try them before you decide to make a purchase.
Money-back guarantee
Panda has a 30-day money-back guarantee for users to enjoy the product and decide if it meets their expectations.
Payment methods
- Credit Cards.
- PayPal.
Final Verdict
Is Panda Dome worth your time? Panda Dome definitely has features making it a strong contender. It offers some features which other antiviruses offer at higher-priced bundles, such as the parental control feature for less. If one of these features interest you, then Panda Dome might be the antivirus for you.
FAQs
Yes, Panda Dome provides a free VPN. However, it is limited to 150 MB of traffic per day. For unlimited VPN, the premium bundle is advised.
No, unfortunately, Panda Dome firewall works only on Windows
While it's possible to do so, it is not advised since it stops the updates, the self-diagnosis, and the scheduled scans.
Yes, Panda Dome has a 30-day money-back guarantee
Payment methods include the majority of Credit Cards and PayPal.
Yes, Panda Dome offers parental control on three plans: Panda Advanced, Panda Premium, and Panda Complete.