A typical antivirus utility does its best to eliminate programs it identifies as dangerous or unwanted. If a tricky program evades detection, it can proceed with its dirty deeds. Instead of trying (and possibly failing) to catch unsafe programs, PC Matic Home only permits programs it can guarantee to be safe. This default-deny approach can work well in some situations, but it has quirks. We still recommend a standard antivirus such as Bitdefender Antivirus Plus or McAfee AntiVirus Plus, both of which are Editors’ Choice winners.
How Much Does PC Matic Home Cost?
A $50-per-year PC Matic Home subscription gets you five licenses, which is relatively inexpensive. About a third of the premium antivirus programs I track cost roughly $40 per year for a single license. That group includes Bitdefender, Trend Micro, and Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus. By contrast, PC Matic pencils out to $10 per license.
Another common price is $20 higher, but what you get with your $60 subscription varies wildly. A $60-ish subscription for Norton or Panda Dome Essential protects just one computer, while Bitdefender, ESET, and Total Defense (along with a half-dozen others) protect three for that price. Sophos goes all out, giving you 10 remotely manageable licenses for $60. And with McAfee AntiVirus Plus, you get unlimited licenses, though the price is closer to $65.
It's Surprisingly Easy to Be More Secure Online
Note that PC Matic offers two higher security tiers. For $130 per year, the Complete Protection package adds a VPN you can use on five devices, as well as dark web monitoring. Paying $280 per year for Ultimate Protection raises your count of protected devices to 10 and adds identity protection and a password manager. I stick with Basic Protection for this review.
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Little Help From the Labs
I look to four independent antivirus testing labs around the world for regular reports on their extensive testing of antivirus utilities. If all four labs include an antivirus in their testing, and if all four give it high scores, you can be sure the program is worthwhile. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus stands out from the rest, with perfect scores from all four labs.
As for PC Matic, it only shows up in current reports from AV-Test Institute, and its scores are nothing to celebrate. This lab rates antivirus utilities on Protection, Performance, and Usability, assigning up to 6 points for each. The Usability category refers to avoiding false positives, which are instances of blocking valid programs and websites. In past reports, PC Matic has mostly received 6 points for protection, though it has dipped as low as 3. Its usability scores have ranged from 3 to 5, with an average below 4 points.
In the latest report, PC Matic receives the full 6 points for protection. Its default-deny system doesn’t spend time analyzing programs, so 6 points for performance is logical. As for avoiding false positives, PC Matic scores just 4 points. For comparison, Microsoft Defender and Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security score 5.5 points in that category, while every other tested antivirus rates a perfect 6. PC Matic’s 16-point total is the lowest in the latest report. An antivirus with a total score of 17.5 or better earns the title Top Product—almost two-thirds of those apps tested hit that mark.
I’ve devised an algorithm for aggregating multiple lab scores, mapping them onto a scale from 0 to 10. However, this algorithm requires at least two results to generate a score. As noted, Bitdefender holds perfect scores across the board for an aggregate score of 10 points. Also tested by four labs, Avira boasts 9.4 points and Microsoft Defender Antivirus 9.2.
Allowlisting and Blocklisting With PC Matic
PC Matic is one of the few antivirus companies that has regularly advertised on television, starting back in 2018. Fortunately, the ads have grown more sophisticated over time. For example, they no longer claim that computer viruses are written by "Boris RipYouOff." I haven’t seen one in ages. If this mention has made you nostalgic, check out the PC Matic Commercials archive online.
Some of the old commercials make strong statements that aren’t entirely supportable, and the company’s website once echoed these. I’m not sure I believe PC Matic is "The only antivirus company that conducts our research 100% in the United States.” And I know it’s not true that other antivirus utilities work strictly by blocklisting malicious programs, nor that PC Matic is the only product with allowlist-based protection. I’m pleased to see the current website and more recent commercials take a more measured approach.
So, what is this blocklisting? The idea is like hiring a security guard to bar only known criminals from your building, which would be a bit shortsighted. In the real world, a guard who notices an unknown goon lurking in the bushes with a ski mask will raise an alert, even if there’s no match on the blocklist. In the same fashion, while standard antivirus programs certainly detain any malware programs they recognize on sight, they spend as much effort watching for suspicious behavior.
You could seriously tighten building security by creating an allowlist. Nobody is allowed in if they’re not on the list. However, this approach tends to block access for perfectly innocent people (or programs). If BTS shows up for an impromptu concert, will you turn them away?
PC Matic’s SuperShield component aims to solve the problems inherent in allowlisting. It avoids blocking known safe programs such as popular browsers. But it also looks for known malware, putting found threats into quarantine. Programs that are unknown but not malicious still get blocked from running.
With a similar feature in CyberLock, you can easily free up a blocked program, allowing it to run. Telling PC Matic to stop blocking a program is more complicated, as I’ll discuss below.
Getting Started With PC Matic
When you install PC Matic, you must either create or log in to your online account. Creating a new account requires a license key. There’s no free tier, but you can take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with the program.
The light-colored main window naturally divides into three horizontal bands. A status banner across the top reports “This device is protected” against a green background when all’s well. Below that banner, six large icons offer access to Dashboard, SuperShield, Scheduler, Devices, Reports, and Options. A big Scan button centers the bottom band, with notes about recent and scheduled scans on the left and icons for access to performance stats on the right.
You’re encouraged to run a quick scan right after installation. Your registration isn’t complete until you do. When I ran a quick scan after performing my hands-on malware test, it took 16 minutes and found exactly one malware sample that hadn’t been quarantined already. For another look, I reverted the virtual machine back to a point before any other testing and dug into Options to enable a full scan. That took an hour and 53 minutes, a bit less than the current average of two hours, and a repeat scan took about the same time. As I’ll discuss below, the scan did more than just look for malware.
PC Matic Blocks Malware (and Everything Else)
Whether or not a given antivirus tool shows up in reports from the testing labs, I always perform hands-on malware protection testing. Real-time protection in many antivirus utilities starts wiping out malware samples as soon as I open the folder, but there are some that don’t scan until a program tries to execute. PC Matic falls into the latter category.
For almost every sample, I got a File Execution Blocked notification from PC Matic, along with a Windows error message reacting to the block. I didn’t see any difference in the messaging when SuperShield quarantined files it actively identified as malicious. My only clue was that the file vanished shortly after the notification. I did check the quarantine list after testing and verified that all the vanished files wound up there.
PC Matic quarantined 44% of the samples and blocked another 54% from launching simply because they weren’t on the allowlist. The remaining 2% included a malware program that ran to completion without any reaction from PC Matic. This file is undeniably malware. When I checked the VirusTotal website, I found it flagged as such by 48 antivirus engines. In addition, 80% of the antivirus tools I’ve tested recently detected and blocked it.
My PC Matic contact investigated that odd behavior and found the cause. The file in question was signed using a certificate that, until recently, was trusted. My installation of PC Matic should have received an update automatically, but logs showed that it didn't. Thus, SuperShield treated the file as trusted." After I downloaded the latest data files, PC Matic corrected its behavior.
If I scored PC Matic’s behavior as if every blocked program represented a true detection of malware, it would have 98% detection and an overall score of 9.8 points. But it didn’t—it blocked most of them simply because it didn’t know them. To call out this disconnect, I’ve tagged its score in the chart below with an asterisk.
PC Matic’s 9.8 score matches that of Guardio, a different sort of special-case antivirus tool. Guardio only works within Chrome and only checks files for malware when they're downloaded. The best scores among standard antivirus programs tested with this current malware collection are 9.4 points for Webroot and 9.2 for McAfee.
Like PC Matic, G Data Antivirus, and ZoneAlarm PRO NextGen Antivirus + Firewall score 9.8, though they were tested using my previous malware collection. Unlike PC Matic, they clearly identified all their targets as malware.
How to Rescue Legitimate Programs in PC Matic
As noted, PC Matic blocks unknown programs without regard to whether they’re good or bad. Not on the list? You don’t get in. So, what happens when it blocks a legitimate program you really want to run?
When CyberLock blocks a program, you can always click for more information and, after consideration, choose to allow execution. If CyberLock has actively identified the program as malicious, you must confirm that you know it’s dangerous, but you can still let it run.
Getting an unknown program past PC Matic is more complicated. You right-click the shield icon in the notification area and choose Protection Level > Block Notification Method > Prompt for Override from the resulting menu. Launch the unknown program again, and you get four choices: Block, Always Block, Allow, and Always Allow. You want the last one.
But you're still not done. Unless you want to see that big pop-up all the time, you must right-click that icon again and choose Protection Level > Block Notification Method > Display Only. It’s pretty convoluted.
PC Matic’s Ad-Blocking Browser Extension
When you install PC Matic, it adds a browser extension to Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, pending your approval. The extension is, at its core, an ad- and tracker-blocking system, though it goes deeper than most.
The extension does not make any attempt to block access to malware-hosting web pages or phishing frauds, which is too bad. I appreciate antivirus utilities that take the fight upstream, preventing the download of dangerous files and even blocking access to malware-hosting pages.
Out of the box, the PC Matic extension blocks ads and trackers on every page you visit, displaying the number of items it blocked as an overlay on its toolbar button. You can disable blocking for the current site, just as with most similar ad blockers, but you can also disable blocking only for the current page. Icons along the top and bottom offer access to more unusual features.
I don’t imagine many will make use of features like blocking large media elements and remote fonts, but I can’t help but call out the Element Zapper. As the name implies, this lets you get rid of any page element that doesn’t please you. Don’t want a stock trading banner at the top of your news page? Zap it!
What Does a Full PC Matic Scan Do?
With many antivirus programs, you get a collection of scan choices, typically Quick, Full, and Custom. PC Matic just has the Scan button on the main page. By default, clicking that button performs a quick scan. You must dig into the Options to change the default to Full.
Before launching the full scan, I rolled back the virtual machine to a point before any other testing. The scan reached completion in one hour 53 minutes, slightly quicker than the current average of two hours. It did much more than look for malware, but I found the malware results perplexing.
A handy scan results report shows you which malware samples the scan has quarantined. In my testing, this group included almost all the ransomware samples, but it was only 31% of the total number. When SuperShield checked each program at launch during the previous test, it quarantined 44% of the same sample set. My company contacts didn’t have an explanation for this difference. Remember, though, that PC Matic’s emphasis is on allowlisting—actively identifying malicious programs is just icing on the cake.
Malware detection is just one part of this scan. It also checks for unpatched security holes in apps and dangerous browser add-ons. In the performance realm, it flags and removes junk files and defective Registry entries; it also checks memory and startup items. Other tasks report on your system specs and installed apps and check for problems with drivers, services, and scheduled tasks.
PC Matic didn’t find a lot to do on my minimally provisioned virtual machine testbed. Its summary of changes and advice contained just a few items. It advised enabling System Restore and correcting Firefox password security without giving any indication of how to go about these changes. There were no outdated drivers or iffy browser extensions. It updated Opera and Firefox and verified that Chrome was already up to date.
Don’t get me wrong. The many tests and reports that make up a full scan by PC Matic are useful for a normally configured PC. They just didn’t find much on my test system.
What Other Programs Use Allowlisting?
PC Matic doesn't have the lock on allowlisting technology. Quite a few antivirus utilities maintain their own huge allowlists of programs that are known and safe, but most use them in conjunction with other technologies. For example, Norton AntiVirus Plus quarantines any programs blocklisted as malicious and leaves programs on its allowlist alone. When a program falls in neither category—a true unknown—Norton ramps up its behavior monitoring on that program. At the first hint of malicious activity, the antivirus steps in, halts the program, and puts it in quarantine.
CyberLock handles allowlisting a bit differently. It assumes you have a clean PC to start, and it allowlists your active programs. After that, it blocks any unknown programs. If you deliberately install something new, you just click to remove the block. But if the message is unexpected, you block the activity. CyberLock supplements this simple allowlist system with an AI-based malware detection system and a larger allowlist that lives in the cloud.
Data443 Ransomware Recovery Manager effectively allowlists everything about your PC's current state. On each reboot, it returns to that clean starting point. Any malware that weasels onto the system gets eliminated as soon as you reboot. It's a rather extreme solution and not one that I'd choose for myself. However, it can be perfect for situations like a public computer. You can just reboot between users.
Give Allowlisting a Try
PC Matic Home keeps malware off of your PC by rejecting any program that isn’t on its allowlist. It softens this tough stance to avoid inconvenience, but you’re sure to find it blocks programs both good and bad. Though a generous 30-day money-back guarantee means you can try it without risk, we’re guessing you’ll come back to a more traditional antivirus. Our Editors’ Choice winners are Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, which has more features than many suites, and McAfee AntiVirus Plus, which protects all the devices in your household.
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