Guardio Review 2024: Straightforward Protection for Your Browser

Guardio is an easy-to-use browser extension focused on protecting you from cyberthreats while you're browsing, but it's limited as an antivirus program. It also has some identity theft protection built in, with dark web and data breach monitoring as well as identity theft insurance. 

The extension continuously scans for cyberthreats. However, there are no manual scan option and it's limited to scanning your emails, browser extensions, and other online activities, not your files and folders. 

We'll go over Guardio's prices, features, and more so you can determine if its the best antivirus solution for you.

Guardio review at a glance

Price	$14.99/mo
Free plan	Yes
# of devices protected	1 to 5
Malware scans	No
Real-time protection	Yes
EICAR test results	1/3
Firewall	No
Phishing protection	Yes
Compatibility	Android, iOS, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge
Extras	Data breach monitoring, dark web monitoring, identity theft insurance
24/7 support	Yes
Learn more	Get Guardio

Our experience

We found Guardio to be user-friendly from the beginning. Once we purchased our subscription, we were greeted with a video from one of the Guardio team briefly explaining the program's capabilities.

We liked that Guardio provided an overview with steps on how to set-up your protection. Most steps just required adding different bits of personal information, like our email and phone number, as well as downloading Guardio on our browser and phone. 

Once we set up the features, Guardio got to work. We clicked through the various tabs to find reports of data breaches, malicious extensions, and spam emails. 

However, we quickly realized that Guardio doesn't have many of the features that we look for in an antivirus. There's no firewall to protect your device from unauthorized access. There's also no performance optimization tools or parental controls.

We were trying to find a way to scan our device, but we couldn't it on our dashboard. The help center had an article describing the steps for how to do a manual scan, but it appeared to be outdated. We reached out to customer support to confirm, and the agent let us know that there's no need for a manual scan, as Guardio provides real-time protection. 

Who is Guardio best for?

• Recommended for users who want a straightforward, simple way to protect their browser from cyberthreats.

Guardio offers protection against malware, identity theft, and phishing on your browser. If you want software that runs in the background while you do your thing, Guardio may be perfect for you. It offers two plans: a free plan with basic browsing protection and a premium paid plan with a full kit of real-time protection tools.

If you’re looking for software that’s simple to use on day one, Guardio checks the box. It also covers up to five people with one paid subscription, which makes it more cost-effective for families. 

Guardio cost

Guardio has a free plan and a premium plan for $14.99/mo. 

There’s the Guardio Free plan for basic browsing protection, which includes suspicious site detection, on-demand scans, phishing alerts on limited sites, and a history of personal data leaks. However, you can only remove the threats found by purchasing Guardio Premium.

Guardio Premium is on par with some of the more expensive antivirus programs out there if you look at the annual cost. Here are some of popular antivirus programs for comparison:

• TotalAV: $29.00/yr (first year only) ($2.42/mo)
• Norton: $29.99/first yr ($2.49/mo)
• Bitdefender: $24.99/yr (first year only) ($2.49/mo)
• McAfee: $39.99/first 2 yrs ($3.33/mo)

However, Guardio's price doesn't increase after your first year, so that cost stays the same. Cheaper antiviruses may start out at a lower price, but oftentimes the price skyrockets at the start of your second year.

So while Guardio is on the expensive side, we do think it offers value for its focus on browser security and use of innovative technology to negate cyberthreats.

	Free	Premium
Price	Free	$14.99/mo
Number of devices supported	1	5
Dangerous site alerts
Dangerous site blocks
Malicious email security
Identity and data breach monitoring
Identity theft insurance
24/7 identity theft resolution hotline
Learn more	View plan	View plan

Guardio features

When it comes to browser security, Guardio’s features are nothing to sleep on. Guardio comes with extension neutralizing, which blocks or neutralizes any browser add-ons that are considered harmful. It also comes with real-time protection, which helps guard you against malicious push notifications and phishing attacks.

Both the free and premium subscriptions include identity theft protection in the form of a historical data leak report. This is helpful for spotting potentially compromised accounts so you can take quick action by changing your password — a key step to prevent identity theft. The Guardio Premium plan also includes data breach monitoring, which alerts you if any future leaks compromise your account info.

Malware and antivirus scan

Guardio antivirus software prevents viruses in real time and also gives you the option to manually scan your browser for potential threats as well. 

Guardio previously had a manual scan feature, but it seems to have been removed. to Guardio and one we're happy to see. While real-time protection is optimal, it's sometimes hard to tell if your antivirus is working as intended.

Phishing protection

Guardio protects against phishing emails by blocking pop-ups that are made to scam you or send you to a malicious website. However, its website admits that the product won’t stop legitimate pop-ups from platforms you use, like food delivery websites, because these sites make money from ads. 

Guardio’s harmful site blocks also protect you against phishing attacks. It blocks sites that could be malicious, so you won’t even have the chance to click on malware.

Real-time protection

Guardio’s real-time removal feature simply needs to be toggled to the on position to detect hijacking attempts. It keeps hackers from altering your browser’s settings without your permission. 

You can set your preferred search engine underneath the setting. And if you have malware on your browser, Guardio will fix it for you once you install the extension.

Ransomware protection

The Guardio help center mentions that it "provides proactive protection against malware, ransomware, phishing and scams." However, there are no features specifically tied to ransomware protection.

Guardio does alert you to new websites or websites with low credibility in case they’re malicious. By blocking and notifying you about these sites, it can help stop hackers from taking over your device remotely.

You won’t get a specific tab showing how ransomware protection may work with this software, though. We recommend keeping all options toggled on for the most effective security protection.

Anti-fraud protection

This is another area where Guardio doesn’t mention anti-fraud protection specifically, but it does have anti-phishing features that block malicious emails and webpages from stealing your personal data or payment information. 

Additionally, data breach monitoring alerts you to immediate data leaks, so you can take action if your data has been exposed. The Guardio website has a section on the steps to take after a data breach, which can be helpful in the case of fraud or identity theft.

Bonus features

We’ll be the first to admit you won’t get a lot of extras with this software. We think the bonus features it does provide are pretty solid, though. Not only do you get regular malware protection, but you also get data breach notifications, dark web monitoring, and a feature to stop unwanted notifications.

• Data breach notifications: The data breach notifications help keep your identity safe by sending immediate alerts of data leaks. 
• Dark web monitoring: Guardio uses your email address to search the dark web, checking for personal information or data that can be tied to that address. The program continuously monitors the dark web for these data mishaps.
  
• Unwanted notifications: Guardio stops adware that sends you unwanted notifications and advertisements. That includes malicious and annoying push notifications that keep popping up while you’re online.
• Identity theft protection: Guardio monitors your identity and provides an identity theft resolution timeline you can call 24/7. You also get up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage with the Guardio Premium subscription.

Guardio test results

Guardio's test results indicate that it's best for phishing protection, having failed the malware tests.

Since Guardio is relatively new, we didn’t find any third-party testing results for this browser extension. Antivirus companies submit their software for third-party testing, so this doesn't necessarily mean that a program without these results is bad or ineffective.

EICAR test results

• Result: 1/3

In our second round of testing, we pitted Guardio against the European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research's (EICAR's) anti-malware test files. Here's how it did:

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

Guardio didn''t catch the malware test files, allowing us to download and open the files. Considering it's primarily a browser extension, we weren't surprised by these results. 

But Guardio did catch the phishing site test link, blocking the page and warning us against opening it.

Guardio compatibility

Although Guardio’s browser extension only works on a desktop browser, the identity protection features will work on your mobile device. You can download Guardio on both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, depending on which type of device you use.

The browser extension works on any Chromium-based browser, so if you have the following browsers, you should be all set:

• Google Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Vivaldi
• Opera
• Brave
• Samsung Internet
• Amazon Silk

Guardio customer support

Guardio provides 24/7 email support. You can email support@guardio.io with issues or questions. 

We reached out to Guardio email support about the manual scans. It only took 20 minutes for us to receive a response and the agent was helpful and friendly. 

There's also a 24/7 hotline you can call if you fall victim to identity theft. Other than that, Guardio has a help center along with FAQs to answer any general questions you have about the product.

Top alternatives

Guardio has its strengths, but it may not be the antivirus protection for you. We've collected some alternative antivirus programs you can consider instead: 

Guardio FAQs

Bottom line: Is Guardio good?

Guardio is a straightforward browser extension with solid protection against phishing and data breaches. You get features that need only to be turned on to work, and the dashboard is friendly and intuitive.

Guardio may not provide a full range of protection, but it's good at what it does. We do wish it was less pricey, especially when compared to other antivirus software. 

For an affordable antivirus program that packs a punch, we recommend Bitdefender.