9 Best Antivirus for Linux of 2026

ClamAV is the default answer for Linux malware scanning because it is free, open source and documented in depth. It ships clamscan for quick one-off scans, clamd for faster repeated scans through a daemon, and freshclam to keep signatures current. The feature that matters most for desktop users is clamonacc, the on-access scanner. It uses the Linux fanotify API to block a process from opening a malicious file at the kernel level, so an infected download is stopped when it is read, not only at the next scheduled scan. The engine understands archives, ELF and Windows executables, Office files and PDFs, which helps if you share files with Windows users. The cost is effort. On-access mode needs clamd and clamonacc running side by side and a few clamd.conf edits, and the project recommends at least 3 GiB of RAM for the standard database. There is no official graphical app, so plan on the terminal.

ESET Endpoint Antivirus for Linux is the most desktop-focused commercial product on this list. ESET calls it the ideal choice for any Linux desktop that meets its requirements, and its documentation names Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 through 24.04 LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and 9 with a desktop environment, and Linux Mint 20 and 21. It runs both an on-demand scanner and an on-access scanner that triggers whenever a file is opened. A small graphical window shows protection status, runs custom path scans and offers a removable media scan for USB drives. Web access protection scans HTTP and HTTPS traffic and blocks known malicious pages before content downloads, and it works alongside OpenVPN, WireGuard and ProtonVPN. The drawbacks are licensing and coverage. ESET sells it through its business plans and we could not read a USD price from our location, and Linux Mint 22 users are outside the documented list for now.

Falcon Go is the cheapest way we found to put a well-known commercial antivirus agent on a Linux machine with a published price. CrowdStrike lists it at $59.99 per device billed annually, or $7.99 per device billed monthly, and you can add it to a cart without a sales call. The bundle covers next-gen antivirus against malware and ransomware, device control for USB and SD cards, and mobile protection for Android and iOS, plus Express Support for setup questions. CrowdStrike says the Falcon platform supports Windows, macOS and Linux, so a small office can manage an Ubuntu workstation from the same console as its laptops. The 15-day trial includes Falcon Prevent and device control. The limits are scope and fit. Endpoint detection and response, threat hunting and firewall management sit in Falcon Pro and above, and the service is aimed at businesses, so a single home user pays for management features they may not use.

GravityZone Small Business Security brings Bitdefender's business engine to Linux, but its licensing tells you who it is for. The suite combines anti-malware with heuristic analysis, Advanced Anti-Exploit, ransomware mitigation that backs up files before a suspicious process changes them, and web protection that scans HTTP and HTTPS traffic and blocks phishing and fraud pages. Bitdefender lists pre-execution and on-access blocking layers, and its requirements include Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or higher along with Red Hat and SUSE. The catch for desktop users is that Bitdefender says Linux operating systems are considered servers, and servers can account for only about 30% of the devices in a bundle. That works for an office with ten Windows laptops and two Ubuntu file servers, and badly for a household of Linux desktops. The deals page builds prices with scripts, so we could not confirm a USD figure from our location.

Sophos Endpoint is a strong option when Linux is one part of a mixed business fleet. Sophos describes one lightweight agent for Windows, macOS and Linux that combines deep learning prevention, exploit mitigation and CryptoGuard, its ransomware defense that watches for malicious encryption, blocks the process and reverts files to their original state. More than 60 exploit mitigations are on by default, and Adaptive Attack Protection switches to stricter settings when it sees signs of an active attacker. Sophos also says coverage includes legacy Linux environments, which helps offices with older servers that newer agents no longer support. Everything is managed from Sophos Fusion alongside other Sophos tools. For a single Ubuntu laptop it is a poor fit. There is no price on the product page, it is sold to organizations, and much of the marketing describes the platform as a whole, so check the Linux feature list with Sophos before you buy.

SentinelOne Singularity Complete is the heaviest tool here and the most expensive one with a published price. SentinelOne lists it at $179.99 per endpoint per year for 5 to 100 workstations, with AI-driven endpoint and cloud workload protection, real-time detection and response, 14 days of data retention and its AI Security Assistant. Its cloud workload security supports Linux, Windows and Kubernetes natively, which suits teams running Ubuntu servers in the cloud as well as Linux desktops. You get more than malware scanning: detection and response tools record what happened on a machine so an admin can investigate. The trade-offs are cost and buying route. Purchases go through authorized partners, and SentinelOne says the partner's price controls if it differs from the website. For a home Ubuntu or Mint user this is far more product than needed. For a security-minded company it is a credible Linux option.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux is a serious agent with one big caveat for this audience: Microsoft documents it for Linux server workloads in on-premises, cloud and hybrid setups, not for personal desktops. Within that scope it is complete. It offers real-time antivirus using behavior-based, cloud-delivered and machine-learning techniques, behavioral monitoring of processes, and scheduled or on-demand quick, full and custom scans. Passive mode keeps EDR visibility while another antivirus does the blocking, so it can sit beside ClamAV. The EDR side adds MITRE ATT&CK-aligned detections, a device timeline, advanced hunting and Live Response for remote cleanup, and vulnerability management flags what to patch. Licensing is the hard part. Microsoft says onboarding a Linux server to Defender for Business requires another license, such as Defender for Business servers, and we could not confirm a Linux-specific USD price from Microsoft's pages.

Linux Malware Detect, known as maldet, fills a gap that desktop antivirus leaves: malicious PHP and script files on web servers. R-fx Networks says it is designed around the threats faced in shared hosted environments, and its signatures come from intrusion detection data on network edges, so they reflect malware used in real attacks. Version 2.0.1 rebuilt the scanning engine, and detection runs in five stages covering MD5 hashes, HEX patterns, YARA, ClamAV and statistical checks for obfuscated code such as base64 and gzinflate. Real-time monitoring uses inotify, and alerts can go to email, Slack, Discord or Telegram. Detected files land in a quarantine with audit logs, and cleaner rules can strip injected strings. For an Ubuntu laptop it is the wrong tool, since it does not focus on desktop threats and installs from source. For anyone hosting WordPress or other sites on a Linux box, it is a strong free companion to ClamAV.

chkrootkit is not antivirus in the usual sense, and it belongs here only as a companion. It is a shell script plus a handful of small C programs that look locally for signs of a rootkit: modified system binaries, network interfaces in promiscuous mode, deleted lastlog, wtmp and utmp entries, and signs of kernel module trojans. The project has been running for 25 years and is still updated. Version 0.59, released on January 1, 2026, added checks for processes executed from memory, the XZ backdoor and the Bootkitty UEFI bootkit, and the homepage lists 75 rootkits, worms and backdoors it detects. Running it takes one command, and it fits well in a weekly cron job next to ClamAV. It does not scan your downloads for viruses or block anything as you work, and its output assumes you know what a normal system looks like, so treat a warning as a reason to investigate rather than proof of infection.