Best Cybersecurity Software for Small Business

Cybersecurity Software for Small Business Reviews

Cybersecurity software for small businesses provides data protection and privacy, financial and legal security, and business continuity and productivity, strengthening your company’s reputation and trust. By safeguarding sensitive data like financial records, personal identification, and intellectual property, the software keeps unauthorized users from compromising your systems and damaging your business and daily operations. In a digital age that is constantly expanding, it’s vital for small businesses to secure their assets.

To help you find a cybersecurity provider that meets your needs, we analyzed over 20 vendors, considering features, pricing, reputation, and more. To learn more about how we created our list, please visit our methodology section.

Bitdefender – Best for Threat Detection

Bitdefender, an industry-leading cybersecurity company, offers malware detection and real-world threat protection for small businesses with up to 25 employees and no IT staff. It also offers more advanced features for small- to medium-sized businesses. Bitdefender provides a unified security system that tracks emerging cyber threats across all your employees’ devices, including macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows.

Key cybersecurity features include real-time protection against data breaches, vulnerability & patch management, malware protection, anti-phishing, firewalls, ransomware mitigation, sensitive data monitoring, built-in VPN security, and more. Bitdefender has two solutions for small businesses: Ultimate Small Business Security and GravityZone.

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Bitdefender features

• Threat Detection & Analytics – Offers real-time correlation and historical analytics for anomaly detection.
• Identity Protection – Provides an Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) add-on module to track user behaviors and identify and prevent identity-based threats.
• Security Automation – Automatically blocks, contains, or isolates elusive threats across endpoints.
• Endpoint Protection Integration – The built-in EEP integrates directly with your IT and security ecosystem, providing a single-agent architecture.
• Centralized Management – Enables deployment and monitoring of your business’s cybersecurity at all times from a single console.

How Bitdefender pricing works

Bitdefender offers a tiered, per-device subscription model. It has four plans for small business owners to choose from, as well as a 30-day free trial.

• Ultimate Small Business Security: Starts at $79.99/mo for 50 devices (max device amount)
• GravityZone Small Business Security: Starts at $324.99/yr for 10 devices
• GravityZone Business Security: Starts at $384.99/yr for 10 devices
• GravityZone Business Security Premium: Starts at $879.99/yr for 10 devices

Pricing for the GravityZone plans is based on a one-year subscription plan for 10 devices, but each plan can support up to 100 devices.

What markets does Bitdefender serve?

Bitdefender provides cybersecurity to consumers, small businesses, and enterprises. For small businesses, it offers solutions tailored to companies with fewer than 25 employees and no IT team.

Read our full Bitdefender review

Norton Small Business – Best for Growing Teams

Norton’s small-business cybersecurity solution offers easy financial and social media monitoring, business tech support, and data protection. It protects your business against fraud by alerting you to suspicious financial transactions, prevents cybercriminals from damaging your reputation by breaking into your social media accounts, and safeguards your business data with real-time antivirus, VPN, and Cloud Backup. Norton tailors its security software to small businesses, entrepreneurs, and individual business users, ensuring sensitive information, online activities, and finances are protected 24/7.

Norton provides real-time antivirus and a firewall, cloud backup storage to protect your data from ransomware attacks or theft, and a password manager with an encrypted online vault for your passwords, credit card info, and more. Plus, with its secure VPN’s bank-grade encryption, you and your employees can work from anywhere without fear of hackers and data breaches.

Norton Small Business features

• Threat Detection & Analytics – Scans and eradicates malware, spyware, and ransomware while analyzing incoming network traffic and stops threats before they reach your devices.
• Identity Protection – Norton ensures identity protection through financial, social media, and dark web monitoring; identifying suspicious activity and cybersecurity risks; and notifying you when sensitive business data is found.
• Security Automation – Automatically scans for and installs software updates to close security vulnerabilities, backs up critical files, blocks malicious traffic, and scans the dark web for compromised data.
• Endpoint Protection Integration – Offers real-time antivirus, firewall, and threat monitoring to protect business data from hardware failures or ransomware.
• Centralized Management – Allows administrators to manage security across multiple company devices via its cloud-based web portal.

How Norton Small Business pricing works

Norton offers two small business plans with a yearly subscription model. It offers a 30-day free trial and often offers a discount on your first year; prices below do not include the discounted rate.

• Small Business: Starts at $249.99/yr for 10 employees – 2 devices per user
• Small Business Premium: Starts at $399.99/yr for 10 employees – 2 devices per user

What markets does Norton Small Business serve?

Norton offers cybersecurity solutions for the global consumer and small business markets. Its business cybersecurity plans are best for entrepreneurs and small-scale operations wanting scalable antivirus tools and secure endpoint protection.

Avast – Best for Remote Management

Avast provides simple but powerful cybersecurity for growing businesses. The easy-to-use antivirus solution protects against a range of cybersecurity threats, including data breaches, malware, phishing attacks, ransomware, and more. It prevents these threats from impacting your network, server, and endpoints by identifying suspicious files and malicious software.

For small businesses, Avast can support up to 100 devices, without you having to rely on a dedicated IT team. Additionally, Avast provides automation and endpoint security to ensure every endpoint is monitored, and if any vulnerabilities are identified, it will automatically fix your software, keeping security up to date.

Avast features

• Threat Detection & Analytics – Provides real-time visibility into global security threats, analyzes suspicious files, and provides threat analytics data feeds to strengthen external security infrastructures.
• Identity Protection – Scans the dark web, data sources, and credit files for compromised data, provides access to identity restoration specialists, and watches social media profiles.
• Security Automation – Features automated tools like patch management, threat detection, scans & updates, and more across hundreds of third-party applications.
• Endpoint Protection Integration – Integrate, deploy, and manage endpoint security across multiple devices and operating systems, monitoring for threats, configuring security policies, and running reports.
• Centralized Management – Allows you to add or remove new users securely and manage the security of business devices in your network from one screen, wherever you are.

How Avast pricing works

Avast offers three subscription-based plans with per-device payment. It has a 30-day free trial.

• Essential: Starts at $370.90/yr for 10 devices
• Premium: Starts at $467.50/yr for 10 devices
• Ultimate: Starts at $567.70/yr for 10 devices

What markets does Avast serve?

Avast is best for individual consumers and small- to medium-sized businesses, providing enterprise-grade endpoint protection, cloud backup, patch management, and remote IT management.

CrowdStrike Falcon – Best for Global Threat Intelligence

CrowdStrike Falcon stops data breaches using agentic managed detection and response (MDR) technology. It offers real-time threat intelligence and preventive measures across endpoints, identities, cloud workloads, and third-party data. It provides visibility across their network, email, SSO, and more, detecting and responding to cybersecurity threats before they damage your business.

CrowdStrike Falcon continuously adapts to emerging threats, executes full-cycle remediation, tracks cross-domain attack activity, analyses unified telemetry, initiates real-time containment, and more to eliminate threats and delays at scale.

CrowdStrike Falcon features

• Threat Detection & Analytics – Combines AI with behavioral analytics to identify attacks, assign risk scores, and detect anomalies.
• Identity Protection – Detects and stops identity-based attacks, uncovers vulnerabilities like weak or compromised passwords, and provides phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication.
• Security Automation – Handles security automation through the following native components, like repeatable workflows, agentic AI, third-party orchestration, and more.
• Endpoint Protection Integration – Unifies multiple endpoint defenses, such as next-generation antivirus (NGAV), endpoint detection and response (EDR), and threat intelligence.
• Centralized Management – Allows administrators to manage and monitor enterprise security from a single, unified console.

How CrowdStrike Falcon pricing works

CrowdStrike Falcon offers a 15-day free trial and three paid plans. The pricing below is based on annual billing.

• Falcon Go: Starts at $59.99/mo per device
• Falcon Pro: Starts at $99.99/mo per device
• Falcon Enterprise: Starts at $184.99/mo per device

For fully managed protection, CrowdStrike offers Falcon Complete Next-Gen MDR, which has custom pricing.

What markets does CrowdStrike Falcon serve?

CrowdStrike Falcon is best for global enterprises, mid-market organizations, small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and the public sector.

ESET – Best for Businesses with No IT Department

ESET offers proactive cybersecurity for endpoints, email, and cloud, defending your small business against ransomware, phishing, and zero-day attacks. It balances human expertise with AI to deliver efficient and streamlined security practices and no-compromise protection. With low false positives and a light footprint, ESET empowers your organization with a cloud‑first platform. It fortifies defenses using next‑gen prevention, detection, and proactive threat hunting capabilities.

Key modules ESET offers include extended detection & response, mobile threat defense, modern endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, vulnerability & patch management, threat intelligence, cybersecurity awareness training, server security, mail server security, and more.

ESET features

• Threat Detection & Analytics – Monitors threats 24/7, analyzes vulnerabilities and emerging threats, and offers human-led threat hunting.
• Identity Protection – Secures network and prevents breaches through multi-factor authentication (MFA) and one-time unique passwords, while enabling full-disk encryption and role-based access.
• Security Automation – Automatically scans and patches operating systems and third-party applications for vulnerabilities.
• Endpoint Protection Integration – Offers multilayered defense, detecting malware pre-execution and during execution. and post-execution.
• Centralized Management – Provides centralized management through its unified cybersecurity platform, allowing IT administrators to manage all endpoints, servers, virtual machines, and mobile devices from a single console.

How ESET pricing works

ESET has ready-made plans and tailored solutions, allowing you to create the best cybersecurity tool for your business. The pricing information below is for one year of the ESET Protect Protection Teirs for small and mid-sized businesses. ESET offers a 30-day free trial.

• Protect Entry: Starts at $422/yr for 10 devices
• Protect Advanced: Starts at $549/yr for 10 devices
• Protect Complete: Starts at $675/yr for 10 devices
• Protect MDR: Contact Sales

What markets does ESET serve?

ESET serves businesses of all sizes, from small at-home offices to large enterprises, providing cybersecurity and endpoint protection across more than 200 countries and territories.

Compare the Best Cybersecurity Software for Small Business Side-by-Side

What is Cybersecurity Software for Small Business?

Cybersecurity software provides small businesses with a suite of tools and programs to protect their devices, networks, and sensitive data from cyber threats such as malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks. Cybersecurity providers offer threat detection, incident response, and security management from a single, centralized interface.

Modern cybersecurity platforms use human expertise and AI-powered processes, which have been shown to save an average of $2.22 million per breach, to identify potential threats both within and outside your network, flagging suspicious links and compromised information. Cybersecurity for small businesses allows administrators to navigate security challenges more easily, managing separate firewalls, antivirus software, and monitoring tools from a single platform.

These cybersecurity tools can operate across multiple employee devices, including laptops, mobile devices, desktops, servers, and routers.

Core Cybersecurity Solutions

Cybersecurity solutions provide small businesses and enterprises with key tools and protocols to protect digital assets, networks, and endpoints from threats. Core solutions secure different areas of your infrastructure.

• Network Security: Often includes firewalls and VPNs to monitor and control incoming and outgoing traffic, shielding against any untrusted networks.
• Endpoint Security: Involves endpoint detection and response (EDR) and antivirus software to monitor activity on individual devices and detect and block malware and compromised hardware.
• Data Protection: Encrypts sensitive data to prevent it from being read or stolen if intercepted.
• Identity & Access Management: Uses tools like multi-factor authentication and strong passwords to prevent unauthorized access.
• Threat Detection & Incident Response: Manages and groups security data across your network to streamline threat detection and mitigation.

How to Choose a Cybersecurity Platform for Your Small Business

Protecting your business from cyber threats and data breaches is vital, as attacks can weaken your business’s reputation, cost you thousands, and expose sensitive information. As such, it’s important to be intentional when choosing the right cybersecurity software for your business.

Follow these steps to choose the right cybersecurity platform:

1. Identify Risks and Assets

Start by taking inventory of what devices are used, who has access to which accounts, and what your most critical data is, including customer information and payment info. You will also need to assess whether you’re required to meet specific data privacy standards (such as HIPAA or PCI DSS), which dictate the security measures you must take and will help you when searching for a provider.

2. Determine Security Non-Negotiables

Identify the core security features your cybersecurity provider must offer. Most experts cite endpoint protections, identity & access management, and email security as the foundational pillars every business needs to survive. However, you know your business best, and there may be additional areas that the software must cover. Determining what these non-negotiables are will make it easier to narrow down your search.

3. Evaluate Vendor Experience and Capabilities

Prioritize providers that offer specific operational criteria, such as easy-to-use platforms, especially if you lack a dedicated IT security team. Look for platforms that can scale with you and continue to support all necessary devices. Also consider whether the provider will assist with monitoring threats, such as partnering with a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), or if it offers a more DIY approach, allowing you to manage it in-house.

Ensure the vendor offers proper integration capabilities and onboarding services to ensure the software works with your existing infrastructure and workflows.

4. Leverage Resources

Before committing to a specific vendor or budget, take advantage of free resources like the Small Business Administration Cybersecurity Guide and federal training tools to understand your baseline posture. You should also review customer reviews on trusted third-party websites to get a sense of the vendor’s reputation, support, and functionality.

Main Benefits of Cybersecurity Software

In addition to operational and security improvements, cybersecurity software offers businesses myriad benefits that significantly impact their chances of success.

• Reduced response times—With integrated software, businesses can detect and contain security incidents faster than those using fragmented security tools.
• Cost savingsCybersecuity software consolidates licensing, simplifies vendor management, and streamlines operations, drastically reducing costs of data recovery, operational downtime, and legal penalties.
• Enhanced data protection—Protects highly confidential information from being breached or leaked and reduces false positives compared to rule-based systems.
• Productivity enhancement—With a consistent and secure environment, employees can work without worrying about phishing scams or system-crippling viruses, increasing productivity.
• Simplified regulatory compliance—Staying compliant can be difficult, but cybersecurity software ensures organizations meet strict data privacy and security mandates (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR, or CCPA), making regulatory compliance easier.
• Protected brand integrity—Increases customer loyalty and brand integrity by actively securing clients’ and stakeholders’ personal and financial data.

Overall, cybersecurity software provides a comprehensive defense of digital systems, networks, and personal or corporate data against attacks, unauthorized access, and theft.

How Much Does Cybersecurity Software for Small Businesses Cost?

The cost of cybersecurity software for small businesses ranges from $50 to $150 per device for basic protection, while comprehensive, enterprise-grade platforms can cost between $70 and $1,000+ per employee.

Most providers offer yearly subscription plans, allowing you to choose the number of employees or devices, affecting the final cost. For example, Bitdefender’s Small Businesses Security plan starts at $79.99/month, billed annually, for 50 devices. For fewer devices, the monthly cost decreases. However, its GravityZone plans offer more complex security services, and start at 324.99/year for 10 devices, but Bitdefender can support up to 100 devices.

On the other hand, Norton Small Business starts at $249.99/year for 10 employees and covers two devices per user. For higher tiers, you can expect prices between $550 and $675 a year for an average of 10 devices. As always, the more advanced capabilities and devices you have, the pricing will increase significantly.

Cybersecurity Software for Small Business FAQs

What are the most common cyber attacks on small businesses?

The most common cyber attacks small businesses face are phishing, ransomware, malware, and business email compromise (BEC), in which hackers can gain access to a legitimate account via compromised credentials and cause problems.

Why are SMBs most vulnerable to cyberattacks?

Because small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) tend to have both highly valuable digital assets and limited resources, cybercriminals often target them because they are seen as easy targets or as a backdoor entry into larger supply chains.

Why small businesses need endpoint detection and response (EDR)?

Small businesses need endpoint protection software because cyberattacks regularly target remote, vulnerable employee devices. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) goes beyond traditional antivirus tools by providing real-time device monitoring, automated threat neutralization, and forensic visibility to stop ransomware and data theft.

How We Chose the Best Cybersecurity Software for Small Business

We curated a list of 22 cybersecurity software companies for small businesses and identified 7 reputable vendors with significant online presence to narrow our focus. From there, we chose 5 providers that stood out for their features, pricing, support, and reputation.

To rank our top choices, we scored companies on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) across the following criteria, each worth 25% of the total score:

• Variety of features: We sought vendors that offered key cybersecurity features, including Threat detection & analytics, organizational identity protection, security automation, endpoint protection integration or services, and centralized management.
• Pricing and transparency: We compared listed pricing and plans, how transparent companies were about their pricing, how easy they were to find, and how their pricing compared to the industry average.
• Onboarding and support: The B2B Reviews team selected companies with multiple types of support available, both during onboarding and beyond.
• Brand reputation: We selected companies with strong reputations by analyzing customer review data from third-party review sites.