Iolo Antivirus Review 2025: Is It More Than Just Tune-Up Software?

Iolo is generally easy to use, but we've had so many problems with the service we can't say it's worth downloading. This program has caused us to reinstall Windows and it was nearly impossible to download the program during our latest round of testing, even with help from customer support. 

We were also confused with its offered products and services. Iolo antivirus is one of many features you can find on iolo System Mechanic Ultimate Defense. This bundle also includes PC optimization, password management, and file recovery tools.

The antivirus itself is untested by reputable antivirus testers, including AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives. This puts a bit of a question mark over its reliability from our perspective, even though iolo is a well-known software company with millions of users.

Check out our iolo System Mechanic review to see our experience with the antivirus and how it compares to the best antivirus software.

At a glance

Price	$23.95–$79.95/first yr
Free plan	Yes
# of devices protected	1 10
Malware scans	Manual and scheduled
Real-time protection	Yes
EICAR test results	2/3
Firewall	No
Phishing protection	No
Compatibility	Windows
Extras	VPN, password manager, performance optimization tools
24/7 customer support	Yes
Learn more	Get iolo

We last tested iolo on February 14, 2025.

 

Our experience

We almost couldn't install iolo on our laptop. Every time we tried to install the service, iolo kept flagging other software on our device. We scrubbed our device of all files related to Sophos but kept receiving this message from the System Shield setup.

After we exhausted all potential troubleshooting, we decided to call customer support. The only way they were able to help was by remotely controlling our device.  

We mentioned the issues with installing System Shield, but the agent installed iolo System Mechanic instead. After installing the service, the agent tried to upsell us on iolo's identity theft protection services, which was offputting because we solely reached out to install a service we had already purchased. 

After insisting we wanted System Shield on our device, he quickly directed us to the antivirus activation tab on the System Mechanic. We're not sure why there was a System Shield download on iolo's webpage if all we needed to do was download System Mechanic. 

Luckily, this worked easily for us. iolo had fast scan times and blocked the malware test files we threw at it. However, the whole setup experience left a bad taste in our mouth and we can't imagine the average antivirus user would want to put up with all these issues.

Note: When we tried to retest the product in September 2024, our computer became extremely sluggish forcing us to restart. When we tried to boot the system back up, we were hit with continual blue screens of death with the stop code "UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP." After being unable to boot in safe mode, we were forced to reinstall Windows, which did the trick.

Though this was a terrible experience, we couldn't find evidence that other people had run into a similar problem with Iolo before. It could've been an incompatibility with our system (we test a lot of products on this laptop, which could've caused a fatal conflict) or bad timing in our restart that corrupted our system files while Iolo was trying to optimize.

Regardless of the cause, we hesitate to recommend this product. 

Who is iolo best for?

• Recommended for Windows users who want a proven PC tune-up kit that can also be paired with antivirus and other security products.

Iolo provides loads of different products, but one of their most popular products (System Mechanic) is a tool for optimizing your PC performance. This won’t necessarily help you combat a computer virus or avoid malware, but it’s a useful product for keeping your computer in tip-top shape.

We’re not as enthusiastic about the iolo security and antivirus features because they haven’t been independently tested to see how well they work. From our testing, they seem to work fine from an everyday computer user’s perspective. In other words, they provide real-time antivirus protection and can scan your computer for potential threats. 

They’re just not proven compared to other antivirus services, such as TotalAV or Avast. Some antivirus providers don't undergo third-party testing because it's can be expensive to submit them. We're just surprised iolo hasn't submitted itself ever because the company has been around for decades. 

iolo antivirus cost

Iolo offers loads of different products and services that all come with their own price tags, which is about $23.95–$79.95/first yr depending on the product you choose. That’s about in line with what you can expect from other antivirus products, at least for the first year of service.

It’s worth going for the more expensive products if they have the features you’re looking for. This is because buying all the different services separately will typically cost more.

We like that you can pick and choose specific services or select a product that provides multiple features. For example, you might purchase Malware Killer if you specifically want to find and remove existing malware on your computer.

But you might go for System Mechanic Ultimate Defense if you want real-time antivirus protection, file recovery, PC tune-up tools, and more in one package.

	Malware Killer	System Shield AntiVirus & AntiSpyware	System Mechanic Ultimate Defense
Price per year	$23.95/yr	$35.95/yr	$67.93/yr
# devices supported	10	10	10
Manual and auto scan
Real-time protection
File recovery
Password manager
Ad blocker
Performance optimization tools
File shredder
Learn more	Get iolo	Get iolo	Get iolo

It’s helpful that iolo employs a Whole Home License policy for its products that lets you pay for one product and use it on up to 10 compatible devices as you want within your home. The only guideline is that none of the devices can be used for business purposes.

This can help you save money from having to buy another license for more devices, which is a common pricing strategy for antivirus services. Of course, that doesn’t matter if you only need antivirus protection on a few devices anyway.

iolo System Mechanic features

We used the iolo System Mechanic Pro product on Windows 10 to test different iolo features. We found that the user interface was simple to navigate because it was easy for us to figure out how everything worked. This ease of use should be helpful for antivirus beginners getting the hang of the System Mechanic Pro app.

But we did find a few areas where certain settings and options might be more suited in the hands of an advanced PC user. Specifically, using the System Mechanic service to tweak PC performance can get a little in-depth if you venture into the LiveBoost area where you can optimize electricity consumption and prioritize CPU speed for different programs.

System Shield and Malware Killer

System Shield is iolo’s antivirus software that includes Malware Killer, an on-demand feature that helps you find and remove existing malware.

The primary purpose of System Shield is to provide real-time protection against malware, including viruses, spyware, and more. System Shield scans in the background to provide this protection, which didn’t seem to really affect our PC performance while the program was running.

The antivirus provides malware protection by checking against constantly updated virus and spyware definitions to make sure your device is protected against known threats. There’s a recommended option in the System Mechanic Pro settings to keep these definitions automatically updated so your protection is up to date.

System Shield also employs artificial intelligence to combat threats that might not yet be included in the anti-malware definitions, which could include mutated programs and other threats. This type of protection is called heuristic-based detection and is one of many ways antivirus software works.

The antivirus option in System Mechanic Pro can be found on the AntiVirus tab. You have options for a full system scan, a quick scan, or individual scans for files and folders.

Check out our antivirus experience to learn more about how this feature works.

Privacy Guardian

Privacy Guardian is a service that helps you stay private while using the internet. This includes deleting tracking cookies, disabling data-collecting systems, and blocking attempts to capture your digital fingerprint.

Cookies are small text files that websites use to remember who you are. They’re typically used to enhance your online experience, but some cookies can be used to track your activities. 

Privacy Guardian can automatically clear cookies at specified intervals to help keep your online activity and personal information private.

You can buy Privacy Guardian as a standalone product for $27.95 for the first year. But it might be more worth it to buy System Mechanic Ultimate Defense for $67.93/yr, which includes Privacy Guardian and a whole slew of other features.

ByePass

ByePass is iolo’s password manager. Password managers are typically useful if they can help you remember loads of different passwords and help you generate new secure passwords.

ByePass provides both of these features, as well as the option to scan the internet for any of your passwords that might be leaked. If you do have a leaked password, you can immediately generate a new secure password with ByePass to replace it.

An interesting feature of ByePass that you might not see with every password manager is that it can encrypt your credit card information when shopping online. This can prevent online stores from accessing and storing your credit card information, which provides you with more financial privacy and security.

It’s also helpful that ByePass is available on most operating systems and different web browsers. This includes iOS and Android devices through the App Store and Google Play, as well as Windows, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and more.

You can buy ByePass as a standalone product for $15.95 for the first year or have it included with System Mechanic Ultimate Defense, which costs $67.93/yr.

Ransomware protection

Iolo doesn’t specifically advertise ransomware protection on any of its products, unlike other antivirus products such as AVG’s Ransomware Shield.

But even without this explicit mention, certain iolo features could help protect you against ransomware threats. Take the Search and Recover service, for example.

Search and Recover can help you recover data, including accidentally deleted files or personal data from damaged drives. So if a cybercriminal used ransomware to hold your files hostage or to delete them if you didn’t pay them money, you could theoretically use Search and Recover to recover your files.

Recovering deleted files is also a feature that’s available with the System Mechanic Pro and System Mechanic Ultimate Defense products. These products also provide real-time antivirus protection, which would hopefully prevent you from ever downloading a ransomware-related file in the first place.

System Mechanic

System Mechanic is iolo’s popular PC tune-up utility kit, which basically means it provides a suite of maintenance tools that can give your computer a performance boost. The end result is hopefully a computer that runs fast without any noticeable delays or hiccups.

We found that System Mechanic was easy to use and provided some useful features that could help optimize your system’s performance, including your internet speed. You can find all the features in the Performance tab of System Mechanic Pro.

We especially liked the Deepclean feature, which acts like a general PC cleaner and optimizes a variety of different spots on your PC that could use some attention every once in a while.

Check out our System Mechanic experience to learn more about how it works.

DriveScrubber

DriveScrubber is an iolo feature and service that’s designed to completely wipe hard disks, permanently erasing all files on the drive. You might want to use DriveScrubber if you plan to sell or donate a hard drive, USB, or flash drive, or if you simply want to clear a drive and start using it again.

You can purchase the standalone product for $23.95 for the first year or you can get DriveScrubber included on System Mechanic Pro, as well as the Ultimate Defense version.

We found DriveScrubber in the Toolbox section of the Performance tab in System Mechanic Pro. It was easy to see where you could select an available drive to wipe (you can’t wipe a drive where Windows is installed) and use the one-click Wipe Selected Drive button.

iolo antivirus test results

Once we finally downloaded iolo, we could test the program with ease. Iolo provided fast scans and blocked malware files. However, it failed the phishing test and has no third-party test results we could review. 

Learn more about how iolo performed in our tests below.  

Scan speed

• Result: Fast

Iolo has full system scans, quick scans, and custom scans for one folder or file. We tested the quick scan and full scan and found they were completed quickly. It also flagged the EICAR malware file and sent it to quarantine. 

However, we were browsing while the scan was happening and found that webpages were slow to load. You may be better off leaving the computer alone during an iolo scan. 

Scan type	Time spent
Quick scan	10 seconds
Full scan	6 minutes

EICAR test results

• Result: 2/3

We threw malware and phishing tests at iolo's antivirus to see how well its protection works. The two EICAR malware files were blocked with ease, either never downloading or being thrown into quarantine.

Iolo did fail the phishing detection test, but it doesn't have a browser extension to help block against those types of threats. 

Test	iolo score
Malware detection	Pass
Drive-by malware downloads	Pass
Phishing pages detection	Fail

Third-party test results

We get antivirus test results by checking trusted third-party companies, including AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives. Unfortunately, iolo’s antivirus features haven’t recently been tested by these reputable companies.

This is a bit of a red flag because AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives generally test all major antivirus software, so you might immediately think something is wrong with the iolo antivirus features if they haven’t been tested.

At least, that’s how we felt. So we continued digging further into available test results and found that a few independent sites, including VPN Overview and Comparitech, had done some testing.

Malware was detected during the VPN Overview tests, but the tests weren’t completely thorough.^[1] Only one adware file (out of seven possible malware and virus files) was found during the Comparitech tests.^[2]

Going off these limited test results, iolo doesn’t appear to provide the best antivirus protection. But more thorough testing is needed to get more conclusive results.

iolo compatibility

We tested iolo System Mechanic Pro, which is available on these Windows versions:

• Windows 11
• Windows 10
• Windows 8.1
• Windows 8
• Windows 7

You can also find a few iolo products on mobile apps. This includes iolo ByePass, a password management app that’s available for iOS devices (Mac, iPhone, and iPad) on the App Store and Android devices on Google Play. The iolo VPN app is available for Android devices on Google Play.

iolo customer support

Iolo has a support page where you can research solutions to different problems involving iolo products. You can also visit one of iolo’s social media channels for updates and general information. Its Facebook channel seems to be used most often.

Phone support is available 24/7 at 801-523-6763. Live chat is also available 24/7 and can be accessed from the main iolo site by clicking the chat option in the corner of any page. 

Top alternatives

Iolo stands out for its device optimization tools and tune-up features, but may be lacking as an antivirus. That's why we've collected the following antivirus alternatives, which have clear antivirus features, third-party test results, affordable pricing, and more:

FAQs

Bottom line: Is iolo a good antivirus?

Iolo seems to be more trouble than it's worth, plus it should undergo third-party testing to see whether it can compete with other antivirus services. During our latest round of testing, the scan speeds were decent and it flagged the malware, but we're still wary due to our install issues. 

Iolo is also massively confusing from the perspective of a potential buyer. There were simply too many products to choose from on the iolo website, and it wasn’t super clear what the differentiating features between products actually did.

If you’re looking for a PC tune-up kit that can also provide some security features, iolo could be a good fit for you. System Mechanic’s PC optimization features work well enough and the antivirus features seem fine, but more extensive testing is required. 

For more antivirus options, check out our list of the best antivirus software.