Foolproof security for Zimbabwe team and Pakistan vs Zimbabwe Matches security control room CCTV cameras 01:01 Men caught on camera trying to steal security van outside security company. F-Secure has been fighting for a safe and secure internet for over 30 years. We build award-winning anti-virus, online security and content cloud solutions to keep you safe at.
- Pros
Protects Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. Remote account management. Cross-platform parental control with remote configuration. Finder for lost mobile devices.
- Cons
Many-device licenses expensive. Parental control limited on iOS. Windows behavioral protection component failed some ransomware tests.
- Bottom Line
An F-Secure Safe subscription lets you install security software on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices, but it costs more and does less than the best cross-platform competitors.
Back in the early days of personal computers, you could install a security suite on the (single) family computer and be done. In the modern world, you have a houseful of devices that all need protection, whether they're running Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS. F-Secure Safe is up to that task, with support for all four platforms. However, it offers less than the best competing products, and if you need more than the minimum number of devices it costs more than the rest.
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At $69.99 per year for three licenses, F-Secure Safe looks to be below the usual price for a multi-platform suite. However, looks can be deceiving. Bitdefender Total Security costs $89.99 per year, but that gets you five licenses, matching F-Secure's five-license price. You get 20 Kaspersky Security Cloud licenses for $149.99 per year, compared with $229.99 per year for 20 F-Secure licenses. And of course, your $99.99 per year subscription to McAfee Total Protection gets you unlimited cross-platform licenses.
Symantec Norton 360 with LifeLock Select looks like it might challenge F-Secure for the high price crown, given that it costs $149.99 for five licenses, $249.99 for 10, and $349.99 for unlimited licenses. However, those prices get you the top-notch protection of Norton's suite, and the same number of licenses for Norton's VPN utility with no limits on features or bandwidth. You also get LifeLock identity theft remediation and 100GB, 250GB, or 500GB of hosted storage for your online backups. There's really no comparison.
If you're totally gaga over F-Secure's products, you may want to consider F-Secure Total. This bundle includes the F-Secure Safe suite reviewed here, the F-Secure Key password manager, and F-Secure's Freedome VPN. First-time subscribers also get the F-Secure Sense security router.
Depending on your needs, F-Secure Total may actually be a better deal than F-Secure Safe, despite prices running from $99.99 per year for three licenses to $299.99 for 25. The thing is, F-Secure Key alone costs $32.99 per year, and Freedome ranges from $49.99 to $79.99 per year. And don't forget the prize at the bottom of the box—a free security router!
My F-Secure
Other than the different window title, the Windows incarnation of this product looks much like the Windows-specific suite. The big difference is a tab at the left labeled My F-Secure. Clicking this opens the online My F-Secure console. Once you log in with your account credentials, you can quickly see how many days remain on your subscription and how many unused device licenses you have. You can also tweak your account settings and manage your billing and renewal settings.
Most importantly, the console is where you go to manage your devices. The attractive display shows your account with its associated devices, as well as any children's accounts and devices. You can release the license for any device you no longer use, making it available to apply on another device. A Settings button suggests the possibility of remotely modifying the settings, but all it does is rename the device.
What you can do remotely is configure the Family Rules parental control system for devices assigned to children. It's a little confusing, as it looks like you're just setting the rules for the selected device, but your changes apply to all the child's devices. You can also invoke the Finder feature to locate any mobile device, your own or your child's. I'll discuss these features in detail below.
F-Secure for Windows
When you install F-Secure Safe on Windows, the protection you get is precisely the same as what you get with F-Secure Internet Security, except for an enhanced parental control system. Please read my review of the Windows product if you plan to install Safe on any Windows boxes.
Briefly, the product's core is the antivirus protection from F-Secure Anti-Virus, which gets good scores from the independent labs. It aced our malicious URL blocking test, earned good scores in our malware protection test, and fared poorly in our antiphishing test. When challenged to defend against a dozen ransomware samples using behavioral detection only, it missed one attack completely, allowing it to encrypt files and replace the desktop with a ransom note.
Some suites include a local spam filter and firewall protection. F-Secure removed its spam filter a few versions back, and it just offers to help you configure the built-in Windows Firewall. Like Bitdefender and Kaspersky Total Security, F-Secure includes special protection for banking sites. When you're visiting such a site, it prevents all other online connections, to foil man-in-the-middle and other attacks.
Better Parental Control
Parental control in the Windows-only F-Secure Internet Security is totally local. If you simply dive in and configure it to block unwanted sites and put limits on screen time, you'll find that you've applied those restrictions to your own Windows account. To configure it for another account, you must first log in to that account. If you've given Administrator privileges to an older child, there's nothing to stop the child from terminating parental control.
With F-Secure Safe, you handle configuration online, in the My F-Secure console. Settings apply to all devices associated with the same child profile. Note that to configure parental control for a child's Windows or Mac user account, you still must log into that account. Awkward! But the remote configuration system does mean that the child can't simply turn off parental control.
The content filter offers to block the same 15 categories, color-coded red for dangerous, yellow for iffy, and blue for innocuous. That last color code includes Social Networks, Anonymizers, and Unknown. The power of content filtering varies by platform. On Windows, F-Secure blocks inappropriate sites regardless of the browser used. Installed on macOS, it only filters Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. On mobile devices, it only manages browsing that uses F-Secure's proprietary browser. It does filter secure HTTPS sites, so your kid can't evade filtering by using an off-brand browser.
Parents can limit device or internet time in ways that vary by platform. You can limit all activity on an Android device except for calling and texting. On an iOS device, limits only apply to surfing with the built-in browser. For Macs and Windows boxes, parents put limits on all use of the device; there's no option to just limit online time.
Time limits work two ways. Parents can set an overall daily cap, up to eight hours, separately for weekdays and weekends. Parents can also define bedtimes for weekdays and weekends. Bedtime is a single span during which access is banned, not the full grid found in the Windows-only product. Note, too, that time limits aren't cumulative across platforms. If your kid runs out of time on one device, she can just switch to another.
On Android, parents can exempt any app from time limits, or completely ban it. F-Secure gathers a list of all apps on the child's device and lets parents flag them in three ways. Setting an app to Always Allowed exempts it from the time limits. Blocked means the child can't use it at all. The default, Time-limited, means that the time limits do affect the app. There's no option to set different time limits for different apps.
This parental control system beats the local-only feature in F-Secure Internet Security. It's cross-platform, and remotely configured, and at least on Android it includes a degree of application control. However, it doesn't compare with the very full-featured parental control systems in Bitdefender Total Security, Norton, or Kaspersky.
Lost Device (or Child) Finder
The biggest threat to a mobile device is loss or theft, though malware attacks do exist. If you've lost your mobile device, you can log into My F-Secure to find it. For an iOS device, getting the location is about all you can do, unless you've merely lost the device in your own home. In that case, triggering the alarm feature should help you find it. In testing, it made a twinkling, fairy-dust noise, much more pleasant than the recorded human scream used by McAfee.
For Android devices, F-Secure shows a bit more muscle. Yes, you can locate the device, or sound an alarm. But you can also lock it remotely, or wipe a hopelessly lost device. Note that the lock feature relies on the device's own lockscreen, so be sure to set up your device with biometric authentication or a strong password.
In any case, parents probably don't want to lock or wipe a child's device. The point of Finder in this case is to locate the child, by locating the device. Testing with Android and iOS devices I found the location system to be reasonably accurate, pinning down the device location to within a few houses.
Norton, Kaspersky and a few others take the location concept further, letting parents define areas where the kids should be, and notifying parents if they leave the safe area. Kaspersky goes beyond Symantec Norton 360 Deluxe's similar feature by including a schedule for each safe location. Kids should be in school during school hours, and at home not long after, for example, and parents get notified if the kids stray.
Support for macOS
To install F-Secure Safe on a Mac, you use the online My F-Secure console to download the installer or send an email with an installation link. After installation, you must connect the new device to your account. The Mac edition is as similar to the Windows one as possible, though you don't get DeepGuard behavioral protection or ransomware protection. On a Mac, Safe requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or higher.
For full details about the Mac edition, please read my review of F-Secure Safe (for Mac). Briefly, it got a perfect score from one testing lab and a good score from another. Challenged to clean up a thumb drive brimming with Windows malware, it detected 91 percent of the samples, which is very good. Its protection against phishing sites (fraudulent sites that try to steal your login credentials) is improved since my last review, going from terrible to so-so. And with this latest edition, the parental control system covers Macs, as well.
If protecting macOS devices is your main goal, you can do better. Symantec Norton 360 Deluxe (for Mac) is a full security suite, and comes with a VPN that's not limited in features or bandwidth. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac is also a suite, though with a different feature set from Norton, and it's priced the same as many standalone Mac antivirus utilities. Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac also earned two lab certifications, scored high against phishing frauds, and includes ransomware protection. These three are our Editors' Choice products for antivirus protection under macOS.
Limited iOS Protection
As with macOS installation, you send an email from the My F-Secure console to an address associated with the iOS device. Clicking the enclosed link downloads the app, after which you log into your account. The resulting app features vary greatly depending on whether you identify the device as belonging to you or to a child.
When you install on a child's device, the installer walks you through the tedious process of disabling all other browsers using the built-in Restrictions function, to force use of the proprietary browser. As part of this process, you apply a PIN to prevent anyone else from tweaking the Restrictions. Using the proprietary browser lets F-Secure apply content filtering, and also enables Banking protection. And, as noted, you can log in to remotely check your child's location.
That's about it for features on a child's device. Oh, your child can tap My Location to see a map, but the built-in map app can do the same.
Installed on your own device, F-Secure exhibits a few more features. There's an icon to open My F-Secure. Tapping Finder gets you the option to text someone your location, or to find a lost device (both of which you can do using built-in iOS features). Tapping Banking Protection just gets an explanation, not configuration. You can view Statistics, and details of your Subscription. But in terms of security there's not a lot more than in the child version.
Robust Android Security
As with most cross-platform security tools, F-Secure Safe can do more on Android than on iOS. To start, in child mode it automatically blocks all browsers except the proprietary one, and the time limit feature works. In addition, parents can control time limits on a per-app basis, exempting some from limits or blocking others entirely.
Quite a few other useful features work whether you assign the device to yourself or to a child. The Privacy Rating component checks your apps and flags those that have Many, Some, or Few privacy issues. You can tap through to view precisely what got each app flagged.
Security For Mac Free
The antivirus component scans for malware on demand and (optionally) on schedule. It also checks all new apps you install. You can configure it to scan when the device boots, if you wish.
A few more features appear if you switch the phone to your own F-Secure account. As on iOS, you get icons for My F-Secure, Statistics, and Subscription. Tapping Banking Protection offers to start browsing in the built-in Safe Browser. Previous editions offered to block unwanted calls, but modern versions of Android make such blocking difficult. I don't see that feature in the current edition.
You Can Do Better
F-Secure Safe is a modern, multi-device, cross-platform security suite, no doubt. However, its feature set lags far behind the best such suites, and it's surprisingly expensive if you go for larger numbers of devices. It does offer cross-device remotely managed parental control, though this feature faces limits on iOS. And even on Windows, the core antivirus doesn't consistently earn top scores.
On Windows, Bitdefender Total Security offers a vast smorgasbord of features, among them ransomware protection, spyware protection, system cleanup tools, and a Wi-Fi security check. It also lets you install Bitdefender's award-winning macOS antivirus, as well as powerful protection for Android devices and (less-powerful) iOS protection. It's our Editors' Choice for feature-rich security mega-suite.
If your main desire is cross-platform protection for many devices, look to Editors' Choice Kaspersky Security Cloud. As with F-Secure, you manage your devices from an online console, and you can add up to 20 devices for quite a bit less than F-Secure's price. On Windows, it gets top marks from the labs; on macOS its protection is an Editors' Choice.
Maybe you don't have 20 devices, but you do want plenty of security features. With Editors' Choice Symantec Norton 360 Deluxe you get five cross-platform licenses, five no-limits VPN licenses, 50GB of hosted storage for your backups, and more.
F-Secure Safe
Bottom Line: An F-Secure Safe subscription lets you install security software on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices, but it costs more and does less than the best cross-platform competitors.
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