Trend Micro

In 2018, several Trend Micro consumer apps on the Mac App Store were found to be collecting users' browser history. Trend Micro said the data was used for security analysis, removed the collection, pulled the apps, and Apple delisted them. Important context: it involved discontinued standalone Mac utilities, not the core antivirus engine this comparison ranks, and the company handled it transparently. Its protection products have kept earning top lab scores since. It's a legitimate blemish worth knowing about, but not a reason to distrust the current product line.

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The plan we price for Canada is Trend Micro Maximum Security — the flagship bundle covering 5 devices, with the password manager and parental controls included — at US$49.95/yr for the first year. At renewal it rises to US$99.95/yr, so treat the intro price as a first-year deal rather than the ongoing cost. Smaller plans covering fewer devices cost less, and purchases are covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee if it turns out not to suit your machines.

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No. Trend Micro is Japanese — founded in 1988 and headquartered in Tokyo, with major operations across North America and worldwide. It's one of the largest cybersecurity vendors globally and has no Chinese ownership.

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Yes. Trend Micro has over 35 years of history, consistently strong results in independent labs — especially for web and phishing protection, where it leads this comparison — and it handled its one notable controversy, the 2018 Mac-apps issue, transparently: the collection was removed and the apps pulled. It's a mainstream, reputable vendor. Trust isn't the real concern; the practical caveats are the renewal price after year one and scan-time slowdown on older machines — quality-of-life issues rather than trust issues.

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Trend Micro protects PCs, Macs and phones against malware and ransomware, but its specialty is web threats: phishing sites, scam links, fraudulent shops and dangerous downloads get blocked before they load. That focus makes it our best-web-protection pick for Canada — the right tool if most of your risk comes from browsing, shopping and email rather than from files you install. Depending on the plan it adds a password manager, parental controls and social-media privacy checks. Users on older hardware tend to prefer lighter engines like ESET; heavy clickers are exactly who Trend Micro is for.

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Four to weigh. It can slow older computers during full scans, so ageing hardware does better with ESET. The standard plans don't include a VPN. The renewal price rises sharply after the first year — check the auto-renewal rate before buying. And in the most recent AV-Comparatives round it flagged far more false positives than the other leaders here, which means occasionally having to vouch for legitimate files it wrongly questioned. Its web and phishing protection, though, remains among the best tested, and for click-heavy users that strength usually outweighs the rough edges.

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