Compare antivirus plans on coverage.
Security suites advertise cost per licence slot, which flatters a ten-device plan bought by someone with three devices. The honest comparison is cost per device you actually protect, since unused slots contribute nothing. Bundled extras complicate it further: a VPN and cloud backup you would otherwise pay for are genuine offsets, but only if you would have bought them separately.
Effective cost
Cost per device used = annual price / min(devices you own, devices covered)
Net of bundles
Net cost = annual price - value of bundled VPN and backup you would otherwise buy
General guidance only, not a security assessment. Account protection needs depend on your threat model — follow your organisation's security policy for work accounts.
Modern operating systems ship competent built-in protection, so the case for a paid suite rests on the extras — parental controls, VPN, backup, identity monitoring — rather than on detection alone.
First-year pricing is usually promotional. Check the renewal rate rather than the introductory rate, because that is what you pay from year two.