Rather than the usual lineup of antivirus, security suite, and feature-laden security mega-suite, Panda offers free antivirus, commercial antivirus, and three distinct levels of security suite protection. Panda Dome Essential, reviewed here, occupies the commercial antivirus slot in this pantheon. While its interface is polished and pretty, it can't match our Editors’ Choice winners for antivirus tools, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus and McAfee AntiVirus Plus. Both of these apps delivered better results in the latest rounds of independent lab tests and our own tests, and both are better at protecting users against ransomware and phishing sites.
How Much Does Panda Dome Essential Cost?
Despite inflation, Panda's prices have dropped since I reviewed it several years ago. That said, a one-license price still costs above the norm. You pay $47.99 for that singleton, the same as Kaspersky Standard. Most competitors cost less, with many clustered near a $40 price point. Bitdefender, Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, and Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus are among the many that go for just under $40 per year.
It's Surprisingly Easy to Be More Secure Online
You can install Panda Dome Essential on Windows, macOS, or Android devices, so you'll likely need more than one license. At the three-license tier, Panda costs less than most, at $56.99 per year. Most antiviruses cost more at this level, with many clustered at just under $60 for three licenses. Got more devices? Five Panda licenses will run you $66.99 per year, while a 10-pack goes to $96.99. Once you hit 10, though, you might as well consider an unlimited subscription, which costs $113.99 per year.
McAfee AntiVirus Plus skips straight to unlimited licenses for $64.99 per year. That covers all the devices in your household, whether they run Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, or ChromeOS.
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Getting Started With Panda Dome Essential
During the quick and simple install process, you’ll create a Panda online account from which you can manage your protected devices. If you already have an account, you can log in and start the installation from there.
Like the free Panda antivirus, this software eschews the usual white or slate gray background for its main window. Instead, it fills the window with a gorgeous scene from nature. You can choose among eight nature backgrounds or set them to change automatically from time to time. Like the free edition, it also displays minimalist icons for five security features at the bottom of that main window. Pointing at the icons reveals their names: Scan, Antivirus, VPN, My Devices, and Wi-Fi Protection.
Scrolling down reveals two more rows of five icons, which can get get overwhelming. Rather than point to each one to see what it does, you can click a button at the bottom right to display all the labels.
Features Shared With Panda Free Antivirus
Most purveyors of free antivirus utilities put all their essential protection technology into the free edition. Not Panda. Panda Free Antivirus omits the Safe Browsing component that diverts browsers and other programs away from phishing and malware-hosting sites. Panda Dome Essential, reviewed here, includes everything from the free edition and quite a bit more. Please read my review for a full rundown on what comes free. I’ll summarize here.
For every antivirus review, I check evaluations from four independent testing labs to see what the testing experts report. At present, Panda shows up in reports from AV-Comparatives and SE Labs.
Testing experts at SE Labs use a capture and replay system to hit multiple antivirus tools with the same malware attacks, certifying success at five levels: AAA, AA, A, B, and C. Like all contenders in the latest report, Panda earned AAA certification.
At AV-Comparatives, antivirus programs that pass a test earn Standard certification, while those that shine can receive Advanced or Advanced+. I follow three tests from this lab. Panda failed two of them due to too many false positives (identifying valid programs as malware). Six competing antiviruses, among them Avast One, AVG, and Bitdefender, took Advanced+ in all three tests.
I’ve devised an algorithm to normalize results from multiple labs and create an aggregate score. Panda’s aggregate score of 7.5 points is among the lowest. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, by contrast, scored 9.9 of 10 possible points, based on excellent scores from all four labs.
As part of my malware protection testing, I challenge each antivirus to defend against a collection of malware samples that I gathered and analyzed myself. Panda’s real-time protection kicked in when I copied the malware to a new location; it eliminated two-thirds of them at this point. I went on to launch the surviving malware, noting whether (and how well) Panda blocked their activities. Panda’s free antivirus detected 80% of my samples and scored 7.7 points. I ran this test again with the paid edition and got the same results. Malwarebytes Premium holds the best score among those tested with this collection of malware set, 9.8 of 10 possible points.
I check each antivirus against a second collection of malware samples that I've modified by hand. Panda’s initial real-time check missed more than 80% of these, including three-quarters of the ransomware. When I launched those modified ransomware samples, Panda (both free and paid) let most slip past, allowing them to encrypt anywhere from dozens to thousands of files. This poor performance suggests it won’t do well against a zero-day ransomware attack.
That set of curated malware necessarily remains the same for many months, as collecting and analyzing a new collection takes weeks. For another look at malware protection, I challenge each antivirus with a new collection of malware-hosting URLs, noting whether the antivirus diverts the browser from the dangerous URL, quarantines the malware payload, or does nothing at all.
The free antivirus doesn't include Safe Browsing, so it didn't block access to any of the URLs. Its overall score of 71% protection, based entirely on detecting and eliminating verified malware payloads, is better than nothing, but it’s still quite low.
Naturally, I had to run this test again with Panda Dome Essential to let Safe Browsing show off its skills. I'll discuss that test in detail below; briefly, the addition of Safe Browsing only pulled the score up a little.
Panda Free Antivirus includes a handful of useful security bonus features. Like all members of the current security product line, it comes with a VPN component, and like all but the most expensive suite, it imposes stringent limits on that component. You don't get a choice of VPN server locations, and you can only use 150MB of bandwidth per day. Other bonus features include a vaccination system to armor USB drives against Autoplay malware, a bootable antivirus rescue kit for the toughest malware, and a Dark Web Scanner that checks whether your email addresses have been exposed in a breach.
Safe Browsing Fails to Impress
As noted, Panda Dome Essential includes Safe Browsing, a feature that’s not part of the free edition. I repeated my malicious URL blocking test, as always, using the latest URLs supplied by London-based testing lab MRG-Effitas. The URLs are different every time, but they're always the most recent.
Most similar features install as a browser extension, but Panda’s Safe Browsing works below the browser level, with no extension required. When Safe Browsing detects a malware-hosting URL, it diverts the browser to a bright red warning page. This warning explains that the page you tried to visit “contains malware or exploits that could infect your PC.”
If the dangerous URL has a secure HTTPS address, Panda necessarily takes a different approach because swapping in a warning in place of an HTTPS page requires a browser extension. In that case, it displays a small, transient warning popup and leaves the browser displaying an error. The popup explains the reason for blocking the page. In testing, I saw “Malicious Web Sites,” “Compromised Websites,” and “Phishing and Other Frauds.”
Safe Browsing diverted the browser from 37% of the dangerous URLs, and Panda’s real-time protection took care of another 37%, for a grand total of 74% protection. That’s just slightly more than the free edition’s 71% score and still in the bottom quarter of recent scores. A half-dozen competitors earned a perfect 100% in their own latest iteration of this test, among them Guardio, Norton AntiVirus Plus, and Sophos Home Premium.
Phishing Protection Back in the Cellar
Phishing websites are frauds that imitate banks and other sensitive sites, hoping to trick hapless web surfers into logging in. When you enter your username and password, you've handed over your account to the fraudsters. The phishing site will often pass your credentials to the real site, so it seems that you logged in as usual. If you're alert to their chameleon-like ways, you may be able to steer clear of such phishing scams, but just one slipup can cost you. That's why most antivirus utilities include a component to detect these frauds. With Panda, Safe Browsing handles that task, or at least tries to.
To test phishing protection, I start by gathering the newest suspected phishing URLs from websites that track such things. I make sure to include both verified frauds and URLs that are too new to have hit any blocklists. I launch each URL simultaneously in four browsers. The antiphishing components built into Chrome, Edge, and Firefox protect three of them. Naturally, the fourth relies on the antivirus under testing.
It’s common for a URL to remain on the blocklist even when the actual phishing page is gone. I don’t count those; if any of the four browsers can’t load an item, it goes in the trash. A true phishing URL must imitate a sensitive site and attempt to collect login credentials. Any that don’t fit that profile also get trashed. With enough verified frauds tested, I run the numbers.
Panda’s scores in this test have been up and down. Last time I tested, it came in at 71%, much better than its previous 46%. In this latest test, it’s back down to 45%. That’s poor, considering that half of recent antivirus utilities scored better than 90%. Avast, Guardio, Norton Genie, Trend Micro, and ZoneAlarm all reached a perfect 100% in their own phishing protection tests.
Normally, I would test phishing protection simultaneously in the Windows and macOS versions. That proved impossible in this case because the Safe Browsing feature for Mac is not working at present. My Panda contact indicates this problem should be fixed in October.
Firewall and Program Control
Firewall protection is one significant feature that you don't get in Panda’s free edition. Like the built-in Windows Firewall, Panda protects against port scans and other external attacks, putting all ports in stealth mode so that attackers can't even see them. At the simplest level, you configure the firewall by identifying the network you're using. If it's your home network (the default), the firewall uses relatively relaxed settings. For a work network, it tightens things up. If you indicate that you're using a public network, it battens down the hatches.
Digging into the firewall's settings, I found a group of items labeled Intrusion prevention. Normally, I would test an intrusion prevention system by hitting it with several dozen exploit attacks generated by the CORE Impact penetration tool. However, I’ve learned from previous tests that whatever Panda’s defenses cover, it’s not the kind of exploit attack generated by this tool. Go ahead and look at these if you like, but unless you’re deeply familiar with terms like SYN Flood and Smurf (really!), don’t make any changes.
Most third-party firewalls pair protection against outside attacks with protection against betrayal from within. That is, they monitor programs that make use of the network and internet and make sure they don't misuse the privilege. Firewalls in top suites like Norton 360 Deluxe and Kaspersky automatically assign permissions to known programs and carefully watch the behavior of unknowns, springing into action if an unknown program abuses its privileges.
Panda's program control is much simpler. It does assign simple permissions to a few known processes, but in general, it simply allows all outbound network connections and forbids unsolicited inbound connections. If you want program control at the per-process level, you're free to dig in and manually define rules, but in practice, nobody's going to do that.
Early third-party firewalls were among the first security programs to develop techniques for self-protection. That makes sense; a firewall's not much use if malware can just flip its "off" switch. It's been ages since I found anything like a simple on/off switch in the Registry, and indeed, Panda doesn't expose any significant settings in the Registry.
I found six Panda processes in Task Manager, but I couldn't terminate them either using Task Manager or a separate process-killer tool. Panda's essential Windows services weren't quite as well-protected. I stopped four of the five services with ease. That’s a step backward—at the time of my last review, I could only stop one of the five. I also managed to disable two of the services, preventing them from launching at startup. The other three resisted any change to their startup configuration. It’s clear Panda’s designers know how to harden processes and services against attack. I still wish they’d harden all of them.
Bonus Security Features
I mentioned above that this program’s main window features icons for fifteen features and components. I’ve covered most of those, but some bonuses remain, specifically Application Control, Virtual Keyboard, Wi-Fi Protection, and enhanced features for the Dark Web Scanner.
Clicking the Dark Web Scanner icon opens your Panda account online—that’s where this feature resides. You start by adding your email addresses and confirming your ownership of each using an emailed verification code. As with Panda’s free edition, you can click to scan the addresses individually or all at once. Paying customers also get the option to have Panda monitor each address for any new breaches. Sharp-eyed users will note a vestige of Panda’s Spanish origins—instead of “Monitoring,” it says “Monitorizando.”
Application Control is one of the few features that Panda doesn't enable by default. Don't confuse this with the firewall's program control, which determines how and whether programs can connect to the internet. Application Control determines which applications can run, period. When Application Control is active, no new program, whether good or bad, can run unless you grant it permission.
When Panda detects an unfamiliar program, it pops up a query asking you whether to allow or deny it. If it’s something you’ve chosen to run, go ahead and allow it. But if it’s unexpected, hit Deny. Note that this notification doesn’t mean the program is bad, just that it’s unknown. For example, it blocked the hand-modified ransomware samples I mentioned earlier but didn’t identify them as ransomware.
This kind of allowlist-based protection is at the core of PC Matic Home and a few similar antiviruses. If you run the same programs all the time, rarely adding anything new, it can be effective. Otherwise, Panda’s popup queries for every new program may become annoying.
With some antiviruses, Wi-Fi protection simply pops up a warning when you connect to a hotspot that lacks security. Panda's Wi-Fi Protection does more. By default, it warns about networks that have medium or low security, though you can set it to only trigger on low security. Clicking for a security check shows you things like whether the hotspot name is too common or if the Wi-Fi channel is overused, in addition to concerns about password security.
Wi-Fi Protection also lists all the devices connected to your network. Unlike Avast’s network monitor or the standalone Bitdefender Home Scanner, this feature only works on Wi-Fi connections, not wired networks. By default, it names devices using their local IP addresses, but you can change those you recognize to use a friendly name. Panda doesn’t check your devices for insecure settings the way Avast and Bitdefender do, but it does let you raise a defensive shield to prevent any identified problem device from connecting with your computer.
You'd probably notice someone leaning over your shoulder to peek at the passwords you type, but keyloggers nab your passwords without being so obvious. Some use hidden processes, while others physically plug into the keyboard cable. To foil keyloggers, you can use Panda's virtual keyboard, licensed from Password Depot. No keylogger can capture keystrokes you enter by clicking the floating keyboard, and its "fake cursors" option even foils shoulder surfers.
Limited Antivirus Protection for macOS
As noted, your Panda licenses also let you install Panda Dome Essential for Mac. Please check my review for full details of the macOS edition; I'll briefly summarize here.
On the Mac, Panda still uses an old-school interface, with big panels to show status and let you do things like launch scans or configure the VPN. There are no nature scenes here! While it does offer the same limited VPN found on Windows, it doesn't include other features beyond basic antivirus.
The labs I follow don’t include Panda in their Mac-centered test reports. In our hands-on testing, it quickly quarantined some Windows-based malware samples but only identified 55% of the samples to which I exposed it. Avast, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, and Norton all detected over 90% of the same samples.
Like the Windows edition reviewed here, Panda on the Mac relies on the Safe Browsing component to fend off malicious and fraudulent websites. However, Safe Browsing on the Mac is not currently working. My Panda contacts expect a fix in October. The absence of Safe Browsing leaves Panda’s Mac edition in a sad state.
Antivirus, Anti-Theft, and More for Android
Anybody can install Panda Dome Antivirus and VPN from the Google Play store, but full access to all features requires that you activate it using one of your licenses. As with the Windows edition, the app's background is a scene from nature, and scrolling reveals more features.
Panda's Android antivirus scan just takes a few seconds. AV-Test Institute, AV-Comparatives, and MRG-Effitas publish Android antivirus test results, but as with macOS, Panda doesn't appear in any lab reports, so we don't know how effective that speedy scan is.
Loss or theft may be a bigger worry than malware infestation for Android owners. Panda includes the expected anti-theft features. Once you give it the necessary permissions, you can remotely locate, lock, or wipe the device from Panda’s online console. There's an option to sound an alarm if you need to find a misplaced device around the house. If you think the device has fallen into the wrong hands, you can remotely snap a pic of whoever is holding it. You can also configure Panda to snap a photo of anyone who tries to unlock your device several times.
When you turn on the Motion Alert feature, Panda sounds an alarm if someone picks up or moves your phone. You have five seconds (by default) to unlock the phone when you pick it up yourself. After that, it sounds an alarm that doesn't stop until you unlock it. It’s loud; I freaked out my household by testing it. The Pixel 6 Pro that I used for testing required entry of the PIN to unlock—the default thumbprint recognition didn’t do the job.
Like Bitdefender, Norton, McAfee, and others, Panda lets you put specific apps behind a secondary App Lock PIN. When you quiet a noisy youngster by handing over your phone, App Lock lets you be sure the kid doesn't send an email blast or buy everything on Amazon.
Just about every app you install asks for one, two, or a dozen permissions. We get accustomed to just tapping OK, and that's not necessarily good. Panda's Privacy Auditor reports on apps that have permissions that could be misused, with an option to delete any that seem suspicious to you. Note that tapping Delete doesn’t delete the permission—it uninstalls the app. On my test Android, the software flagged apps in 10 permission categories, from accessing contacts to potentially costing me money.
The Google Pixel that I use for testing isn't provisioned for cellular service, so I couldn't actively test the call-blocking feature. However, it looks very straightforward. Once you set Panda as your default caller ID and Spam app, you can block all numbers not in your contacts, all callers using hidden numbers, or any numbers you specify. In that last category, you can enter any arbitrary number or choose from your Contacts. Simple!
As on Windows and macOS, Panda’s Android version offers limited VPN protection powered by a partnership with Hotspot Shield. You use whatever VPN server the app assigns—if you try to change to a specific country location, you get a warning that doing so requires an upgrade. And you’re limited to 150MB of bandwidth per day. On the PC, you can configure the VPN to turn on at startup or any time you visit an untrusted network. On Android, as on macOS, there are no VPN settings.
Panda takes care of the essential antivirus and anti-theft protection for Android and adds common bonus features, including App Lock and an audit of app privacy. Other Android security tools offer more extensive bonus features. Norton, for example, rates the reputation of apps as you view them in the Play Store before you even download them. Trend Micro checks your Facebook privacy settings. AVG, Avira, and Bitdefender earn top scores from three labs. Panda works fine on Android, but it doesn't stand out.
Pretty, But Not a Winner
Panda Dome Essential is the lowest-tier paid program in the spiffy-looking Panda Dome line; as such, it corresponds to the paid antivirus from most companies. Its lab scores range from excellent to dismal, and it didn’t shine in our hands-on tests. Bonuses include a feature-limited VPN, a basic firewall, and a comprehensive Wi-Fi security monitor. But Bitdefender Antivirus Plus comes with even more bonuses and earns near-perfect lab scores. McAfee AntiVirus Plus also gets good lab scores, with an unlimited license package that costs about half what you'd pay for Panda's. As such, you’re better off choosing either of these antivirus programs over Panda.
Panda Dome Essential includes all antivirus essentials and goes beyond the basics with some suite-level features, but its performance in testing doesn’t match its good looks.
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