What is the difference between Windows Defender vs. Norton Antivirus?

[Windows Central Question]

What is the difference between Windows Defender vs. Norton Antivirus

I'm currently using Norton antivirus and is due for renewal in a couple of weeks. I'm wondering if I should just use Windows defender instead. When using windows defender; how does it alerts your if the site is ligit like norton anti virus puts a check mark next to the url.

thanks for your help.

 

[Jazmac]

Re: What is the difference between Windows Defender vs. Norton Antivirus

The difference is between 40 and 60 bucks for starters. Secondly, if you have a decent sense of the internet and you don't do things that you know put you at risk, you should be more than protected for the occasional hornets nest. I don't use Norton as a rule because I find it incredibly nosy. It isn't content sitting in the background watching, its got to show up when you don't even ask. But to get with your question, Windows does a good job protecting itself these days.
What you get from both Norton and Windows Defender is realtime protection from new and emerging crap on the net. Which is what you want.
Norton ads things like a firewall, anti spam, anti-phishing and something called gamer mode. Admirable but you can cancel firewall since Windows has that. Anti-phishing? Most modern browsers have that built in so that cancels out. Anti Spam? Browsers do that too. Gamer mode? Does that ever become an issue or just one of those, nice-to-have features. I'm thinking nice to have. SO, IMHO, what you need is what Windows Defender provides you. Realtime protection from new and emerging threats and all that is included. But judge based on your movements. If you are a big warezer, all of this is moot. If you just want to do your thing on the net with minimal interruption, I think you're OK without the added expense.