Are GridinSoft’s anti-malware programs free?

GridinSoft’s Windows products — Anti-Malware and Trojan Killer — are not free, but both programs come with a free trial. You can try Anti-Malware for free for 6 days, and Trojan Killer has a 14-day free trial. GridinSoft’s Trojan Scanner for Android is 100% free. Out of the 6 days of your free trial, GridinSoft’s Anti-Malware is only fully functional for the first 2 days. After that, the real-time protection and internet security features are disabled, but you can still run your scheduled scans. After your 6-day free trial expires, you can continue using GridinSoft for manual scans of your PC. However, you cannot enable real-time protection, run scheduled scans, or auto-update your free version — which makes it effectively useless. The free trial period for GridinSoft Anti-Malware is much shorter than what most competitors offer. For example, Norton 360 comes with a risk-free 60-day money-back guarantee, which is more than enough time to test the product and see if it fits your needs.

Does GridinSoft offer a money-back guarantee?

GridinSoft offers a conditional 30-day money-back guarantee. It means that, if the program fails to remove malware from your PC within 30 days of your purchase, you need to email your scan log files to GridinSoft’s support. They will then analyze the log files and either get back to you with a fix — or refund your money. GridinSoft’s refund process is very complicated — especially if you compare it to how other antivirus companies handle their refunds. For example, Norton offers a 60-day unconditional money-back guarantee — and the software is backed by a “100% Virus Protection Promise”, which offers a full refund if Norton is unable to clear malware from your PC at any time during your subscription.

Is GridinSoft’s antivirus protection good?

No. GridinSoft’s virus scanner isn’t very good. Even though the full version of the program offers real-time protection, it missed around 20-40% of the malware files in my testing. Also, GridinSoft doesn’t include any extras like a firewall, parental controls, a VPN, or a password manager — something that top antiviruses like Norton and Avira offer in their packages. If you’re trying to save money by downloading a minimal anti-malware suite, check out Malwarebytes — it’s a simplistic, easy to use antivirus with high malware detection rates and a couple of decent extras.