Best Antivirus Best For Mac
Rubenking The Best Mac Antivirus Protection of 2018 Despite what you may have heard, your Apple computer is not immune to malware. We test the top contenders to identify those offering the best Mac antivirus protection. Even Macs Need Antivirus Protection It never fails. If you post on a help forum about some computer problem you're having, some genius is sure to contribute, 'Get a Mac!' Yeah, it's not much help, but there is a nugget of value at the core of that advice. Devices running Windows (and Android) are vastly more likely to get hit with a malware infestation than Macs, simply because the macOS operating system is better at maintaining security. But less likely doesn't mean impossible; Macs do get hit with ransomware, Trojans, and other types of malware.
Smart Mac users don't rely strictly on the OS. They install a macOS-centric antivirus utility. We've put a collection of such tools under serious scrutiny, to help you choose the one that's best for your macOS devices. As with, the most common price is just under $40 per year for a single license.
ProtectWorks is unusual in that a single $29.95 payment lets you protect all the Macs in your household, with no subscription needed. McAfee goes beyond that, with a $59.99 per year subscription that protects all your Macs, PCs, Android, and iOS devices. With Sophos Home Premium, $50 per year lets you insall and remotely manage protection on 10 Macs or PCs. At the high end, you pay $99.99 per year for a three-license subscription to Intego Mac Internet Security X9. You may have heard that the coming advances the platform's privacy and security.
Safari on Mojave automatically blocks ads and social media trackers. The built-in password manager does more than ever. And when AppleScript apps try to access internal macOS features, Mojave makes them wait until you give permission. But nothing we've seen suggests that upgrading to Mojave will obviate the need for an antivirus utility. Free Mac Antivirus Protection There's another angle to the variation in Mac antivirus pricing.
How about paying nothing at all?, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac, and Sophos Home Free (for Mac) are totally free for personal use, although Sophos technically limits you to three devices, macOS or Windows. AVG also offers free antivirus for Mac, but until its phishing protection improves we can't recommend it. The best commercial products offer more protection but if you can't afford the best, at least install a free antivirus. Offers everything found in the free edition, plus ransomware protection and Wi-Fi intruder detection.
We don't consider the added features worth the product's $59.99 per year subscription price. It merits three stars, but not a spot in the chart. Malware Protection Lab Certifications When you go to select a new washer, refrigerator, or other appliance, chances are good you research it first. User reviews can be helpful, as long as you discard the very best and very worst of them. But actual test results performed by an independent lab give you more reliable information. Two large labs include antivirus products in their testing, and all but four of the products in this roundup received certification from at least one of them.
Malwarebytes declines to be tested, on the basis that its unusual detection mechanism isn't compatible with current testing methods. And the labs didn't choose to include ClamXAV, McAfee, or ProtectWorks. The researchers at evaluate Mac antivirus products on three criteria: protection, performance, and usability. A product can earn up to six points for each.
Protection against malware protection is essential, of course, as is a low impact on performance. A high usability score reflects a small number of false positives, legitimate programs and websites identified as dangerous. Several products achieved a perfect 18 points, all six points for all three criteria. F-Secure Safe took the lowest score in the most recent test. You won't find a Mac-specific review of this product, as it's a cross-platform suite that protects Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. In the macOS malware test by, almost every charted product scored at least 99 percent, and a couple managed a perfect 100 percent.
Webroot stumbled just a bit, with 96.9 percent protection. This lab, too, included a test using malware aimed at Windows. Yes, these samples can't affect a computer running macOS, but they could conceivably escape to Windows machines on the network. Scores in the Windows malware test ranged from 35 percent to 100 percent, which is quite a span. Results in these tests have a much smaller point spread than in tests of.
It's good that most products in the chart received at least one certification for Mac protection, and even better that some received two certifications. Malwarebytes earned a three-star good rating, but because of its unusual detection and remediation mechanisms, it's not suited to lab testing, and hence has no lab certifications. The chart also doesn't include free products such as Sophos and Avira, but you can find all of these products in the blurbs at the bottom of this roundup. Hands-On Phishing Protection Testing When we test on Windows, we use live malware inside an isolated virtual machine. We've coded a number of analysis tools over the years to help with this testing. Little of that testing regimen carries over to the Mac. Phishing, however, isn't platform-specific, and neither is our antiphishing test.
Phishing websites imitate secure sites, everything from banks and finance sites to gaming and dating sites. If you enter your credentials at the fake login page, you've given the phisher access to your account. And it doesn't matter if you are browsing on a PC, a Mac, or an internet-aware sewing machine. Over half of the products in this story include protection against malicious and fraudulent sites. With ClamXAV, Intego, and ProtectWorks, this just isn't an included feature.
The venerable SiteAdvisor component of McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) failed when tested previously. More recently, it went from flop to phenom, with an amazing 100 percent protection. The wily malefactors who create phishing sites are in the business of deception, and they constantly change and update their techniques, hoping to evade detection. If one fraudulent site gets blacklisted or shut down by the authorities, they simply pop up with a new one. That being the case, we try to use the very newest phishing URLs for testing, scraping them from phishing-focused websites. We launch each URL simultaneously in four browsers.
One is Safari on the Mac, protected by the Mac antivirus that's under test. The other three use the protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Discarding any that don't fit the phishing profile, and any that don't load correctly in all four browsers, we report the product's success as the average of the difference between its detection rate and that of the other four test systems. Most of the products in this roundup beat the combined average of the three browsers. Bitdefender in particular scored hugely higher; perhaps the browsers were having a bad day.
It's worth noting that, while phishing is platform-independent, phishing defense may not be. For example, Norton on Windows scored siginficantly better than Norton for the Mac. Tested at the same time, McAfee on Windows and on macOS both scored 100 percent. Ransomware Protection The scourge of ransomware is on the rise. While ransomware attacks are more common on Windows devices, Macs have suffered as well. Of course, any antivirus utility should handle ransomware just as it handles spyware, Trojans, viruses, and other malware types. But since the consequences of missing a ransomware attack are so great, some security products add components with the sole purpose of preventing ransomware attacks.
We've observed a wide variety of techniques on Windows. These include blocking unauthorized access to user documents, detecting ransomware based on its activity, and recovering encrypted files from backup. Of the products listed here, Bitdefender and Trend Micro offer a ransomware component that blocks unauthorized modification of protected documents. As with Bitdefender's Windows edition, the Safe Files feature prevents all unauthorized access to your documents. On a Mac, it also protects your Time Machine backups.
Trend Micro offers multiple layers of Windows ransomware protection. Folder Shield, which, like Safe Files, prevents unauthorized document access, is the only layer that made its way to the macOS edition. Sophos Home Premium includes the same CryptoGuard behavior-based ransomware protection found in its Windows equivalent.
Our Windows test sytsems are virtual machines, so we feel free to release real-world ransomware for testing. We just roll back the virtual machine to a clean snapshot after testing. We don't have the option to do that on the physical Mac testbed, so we just have to figure that since it worked on Windows, it probably works on macOS. Spyware Protection Any kind of malware problem is unpleasant, but spyware may be the most unnerving. Imagine some creeper secretly peeking at you through your Mac's webcam! Other types of spying include logging keystrokes to capture your passwords, sending Trojans to steal your personal data, and watching your online activities to build a profile.
As with ransomware protection, we've observed more features specifically devoted to on Windows-based security products than on the Mac, but a few products in this collection do pay special attention to spyware. Under Windows, Kaspersky's Safe Money feature opens sensitive sites in a secure browser that's hardened against outside interference.
The Safe Money feature on the Mac doesn't do that, but it does check URLs to make sure you're on a legitimate secure site. Kaspersky offers an onscreen keyboard, so you can enter passwords with no chance of capture by a keylogger. Its webcam protection isn't as configurable as it is on Windows, but you can use it to disable your Mac's webcam whenever you're not using it. It even includes the ability to block advertisers and others from tracking your online activities.
If spyware is your bugaboo, you'll like Kaspersky. Sophos Home Premium offers protection for the webcam and microphone that's more substantial than Kaspersky's. You get a notification any time an untrusted program attempts to access either; you can allow access or stop the program. There's also an option to whitelist a program, so you don't get a popup every time you use your off-brand video chat tool.
Bonus Features. Many antivirus tools on Windows pack in a ton of bonus features, packing in everything from tune-up utilities to. That behavior seems less common on the macOS side. Even so, some vendors don't have a standalone Mac antivirus, opting instead to offer a full as the baseline level of protection, and a few others include suite-like bonus features in the basic antivirus.
A typical personal firewall component blocks attacks coming in from the internet and also manages network permissions for programs installed on your Mac. Intego, McAfee, and Norton each include a firewall component, while Kaspersky's Network Protection comes close. Parental control is another common suite component. With Sophos (free or premium) and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, a content filter can block access to websites matching unwanted categories. Kaspersky goes beyond that, with content filtering, internet time scheduling, private data protection, and even social media contact control.
Protect Your Mac Most of the products covered in this roundup earned certification from at least one independent testing lab; some managed two certifications. There really are no bad choices here, as far as basic antivirus protection goes. Even so, a couple of products stood out. Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac not only achieved certification from both labs, it earned the maximum score in every test, and took the top antiphishing score. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac also earned high scores.
It offers a full suite of Mac security tools, at the same price competitors charge for basic antivirus protection. These two are our Editors' Choice winners for Mac antivirus protection.
Look over the reviews, pick the product that suits you best, and get your Mac protected. Once you've done that, you should also consider installing a. While an antivirus protects you, your devices, and your data locally, a VPN extends that protection to your online activities, protecting both your security and your privacy. Pros: Protects files and backups from ransomware. Top ratings from two independent testing labs. Excellent score in our antiphishing test. No-hassle Autopilot mode.
TrafficLight browser extension marks dangerous links in search results. Cons: TrafficLight currently doesn't work under the specific Safari/Google combination. Bottom Line: Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac gets top marks from the independent labs and in our own hands-on testing.
With its handy Autopilot mode, you can set it, forget it, and have confidence that your Apple computer is protected against malware. Pros: Excellent scores from two independent testing labs.
Full parental control system. Network protection. Decent score in our antiphishing test.
Privacy protection. Useful bonus tools. Cons: Parental content filter foiled by secure anonymizing proxy. Content filter missed raunchy sites blocked by Windows edition. Bottom Line: Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac excels in independent lab tests, and it goes far beyond mere antivirus, offering protection against network attacks, parental control, privacy protection, and many other useful features.
Pros: Certified by one independent antivirus lab. Webcam protection. Very good phishing protection.
Ransomware protection. Remote management. Simple parental control.
Cons: Parental content filter foiled by secure anonymizing proxy. Lacks exploit protection, malware deep-clean, download reputation check, keylogger protection, and other advanced features found in the Windows edition. Bottom Line: Sophos Home Premium offers Mac antivirus protection at a very reasonable price, but the absence of many advanced features found in the Windows edition is disappointing. Pros: Certified by one independent testing lab. Speedy full scan.
Excellent phishing protection for Chrome and Firefox. Useful bonus features. Ransomware protection. Wi-Fi intruder detection. Cons: Doesn't add much to free edition's features.
Poor phishing protection for Safari. Password manager includes only basic features. Bottom Line: Avast Security Pro (for Mac) adds ransomware protection and Wi-Fi intruder detection to the features found in Avast's free antivirus, but these additions don't merit its high price.
Table of Contents. Getting an antivirus is a critical step toward securing your computer. Even so, it feels like Apple users have been left in the cold. With most malware targeting Windows, Mac seems to get served subpar versions of established software or, worse, mediocre dedicated options. In this guide to the best antivirus for Mac, we’ll go over the few good options available. While most are part of a multi-device plan, they still offer excellent protection and a list of features, to boot.
We’re going to go over how we made our selections, analyze lab results and give you other reasons why we like each. If you’re a regular reader of our guides, it should come as no surprise that we rated first, but be sure to read through the other four picks if you want some options. We also recommend reading our article on the for even more protection. What Makes an Antivirus Best for Mac? According to, 88.13 percent of all desktops use Windows and, because of that, most malware is written to attack it. That said, macOS accounts for 9.27 percent of the market share, which isn’t insignificant. There’s just a different set of threats to Apple users.
Antiviruses are structured differently on macOS because they’re looking for different malware that behaves in different ways. It isn’t as simple as slightly rewriting the software to run on the operating system. That means some of the isn’t available for macOS, or, worse, isn’t any good.
Our main concern is that a Mac antivirus won’t be able to stand up to the list of threats Apple products face. While the same methods apply, the applications may differ. We consulted three independent labs to find the most secure macOS options on the market. Protection against known threats is important but simple. We also looked at the real-time protection of each antivirus, as well as how it did with zero-day malware, which are attacks carried out the same day an exploit becomes known. Security is our first priority, but there are other important areas. We looked at the the usability of each program, including their scan modes and settings, to see how well they balanced it with power.
As antiviruses have evolved, they’ve added more features, so we also looked at what else is provided with each security package. That includes things such as webcam protection, which is the first recommendation in our guide on. There aren’t as many antiviruses for macOS as there are for Windows, so price isn’t a big factor. We considered it, but not at the cost of features or, especially, security. If there is a free plan, that’s a plus, but only if the antivirus satisfied our other criteria. Make sure to check out our guide to the if you’re looking to save money, though.
Best Antivirus for Mac: Bitdefender has some of the best protection scores for Macs. AV-Test awarded it a perfect score in its.
It was 100 percent effective against 507 samples of malware discovered in the four weeks leading to the test. The industry average at the time was a pitiful 95.5 percent. Bitdefender’s performance is excellent, too. AV-Test found that it slowed the machine down by, at most, 1 percent while downloading applications and copying files. The industry average 12 percent for downloads and 16 percent for copying files. AV-Comparatives found similar results.
Out of 310 samples, Bitdefender. The lab doesn’t have numbers for macOS performance, but Bitdefender received an advanced+ rating, the highest possible tier, on Windows in April 2018. The third lab we reference, MRG Effitas, doesn’t have Mac results, but it awarded Bitdefender a Level 1 certification in its, meaning it blocked 100 percent of the threats. The tests were done on Windows 10, though, so there are no macOS results to compare. Even so, given the results from AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, it’s likely that Bitdefender’s Apple variant would have performed well.
Other Reasons We Like Bitdefender Bitdefender has great protection scores, but it has a lot more going for it, too. The user interface, while slightly different from the Windows version, is excellent. You can see your current system status, enable web protections and run quick, system or custom scans. It also has a small section for Autopilot, as well, which is Bitdefender’s automated security recommendation system. It will let you know about the vulnerabilities your device may have and the steps you can take to fix them. There’s ransomware protection, too, in the form of Safe Files.
The feature monitors files and folders you specify and blocks changes to them. If you’re unfamiliar with this nasty malware, read our guide on. Bitdefender is constantly in the top tier of protection, usability and features.
It’s cheap, too, with the three-device plan costing around $50 a year. You can also use Total Security, a multi-device plan that secures up to 10 Windows, macOS, iOS or Android devices. You can learn more in our or download a. Trend Micro has an antivirus for a single Mac, but it shines with its multi-device plan, Maximum Security. It got excellent results protecting macOS, with AV-Test in protection and performance. It was 100 percent effective in the malware tests, better than the 95.5 percent industry average. Performance numbers are impressive, too, but not as much so as Bitdefender.
Downloading frequently used applications resulted in a 1 percent slowdown and copying files caused a 3 percent slowdown. Still, the results were much better than the industry average. AV-Comparatives also found it. As with Bitdefender, there are no macOS numbers for performance, but the Windows results were decent. Trend Micro has bounced between getting standard and advanced ratings from AV-Comparatives. The most recent test awarded Trend Micro with one out of three stars for performance.
MRG Effitas awarded Trend Micro Maximum Security a Level 2 certification in its. That means Trend Micro blocked at least 98 percent of threats. The service performed well in all tests except for blocking potentially unwanted applications. Those tests were done on Windows, but MRG Effitas evaluated Maximum Security, a multi-device plan, as a whole. Other Reasons We Like Trend Micro Trend Micro is decent as a Mac product, offering protection against ransomware, and more for a single macOS machine.
That said, the Maximum Security package is much better. For twice the price, you can secure up to 10 devices using Windows, macOS, iOS or Android. Maximum Security comes with other features, too, including a system optimizer that will help you get rid of extraneous files and a password manager. The latter isn’t one of our, though. It also has Trend Micro Pay Guard, which provides extra protection when using online checkouts. Pay Guard isolates your connection and watches for abnormal behavior in the browser.
If anything is suspicious, it will disconnect you to save your information from. Trend Micro has impressive protection results and the single macOS plan will defend your browser and desktop against threats. As the risk to mobile devices increases, though, Maximum Security looks more attractive. You can learn more in our or download a. Unlike other providers who have a Mac-specific product, Norton offers its whole lineup for Windows or macOS.
The single-device plan is pricey, though, especially considering you can protect up to 10 devices for around $20 more. That said, no matter which plan you choose you’ll get the same level of protection. A perfect score in protection and performance. It was 100 percent effective against the 507 macOS malware samples used, which tops the 95.5 percent industry average at the time. While it scored six out of six point for performance, Norton doesn’t have the chops of Trend Micro or Bitdefender.
It slowed the test machine down by 5 percent when downloading frequently used applications and by 1 percent when copying files. AV-Comparatives doesn’t have macOS results for Norton, but the are impressive. It blocked 100 percent of malware during the August 2018 testing. The most recent performance test, conducted in April 2018, awarded Norton an advanced rating and two out of three possible stars. The Windows results from MRG Effitas were impressive, too. During the Q2 full spectrum analysis, MRG Effitas awarded Norton a Level 1 certification, meaning it blocked all threats.
Many threats were blocked via behavior monitoring, meaning Norton’s protection against zero-day malware should be good. Other Reasons We Like Norton All Norton plans come with a 100 percent guarantee. That means that your machine will stay free of malware. If it doesn’t, Norton will refund you. While the guarantee comes with all plans, the inexpensive Norton Security Standard isn’t as attractive as other options. It can protect a single device from malware, but that’s it.
The ideal plan is Norton Security Premium, which can protect up to 10 devices using Windows, macOS, Android or iOS and comes with 25GB of secure storage, to boot. That isn’t much compared to the providers, but it’s something. The more expensive Norton Security Deluxe comes with all the features of Premium in addition to LifeLock identity theft protection. The LifeLock package insures you for up to $1 million. It monitors your credit report and the dark web for signs of identity theft, too.
There are other useful features, including a password manager that isn’t as good as Dashlane but gets the job done (read our ). You can learn more about the features in our or download a of Norton Security Premium. Kaspersky earned a spot in our guide to the. It has excellent marks from the labs we reference and a good feature set, to boot. Unlike other providers, it also has an attractive single-Mac plan, though the multi-device plans may provide more value.
It earned six out of six points for protection, blocking all of the 507 samples used. It didn’t earn that in performance, though. Kaspersky lost half a point due to mediocre results in the file copy test.
It slowed the test machine down by 2 percent while downloading frequently used applications, which isn’t as good as our previous three options, but still better than the 12 percent industry average. It did worse than the industry average in file copying, though, slowing the machine by 19 percent. AV-Comparatives approved of it during its July 2018 testing. Kaspersky blocked 100 percent of the 310 samples used. The Windows performance results were excellent, too. Kaspersky earned an advanced+ rating in April 2018, which it has maintained since October 2014. It was also one of only three antiviruses to earn a Level 1 certification in the Q1 and Q2 full spectrum analyses from MRG Effitas.
Like Norton, many of the samples were blocked with behavior monitoring, meaning protection from zero-day malware should be good. Other Reasons We Like Kaspersky We like Kaspersky’s features and pricing a lot, but we have privacy concerns that keep us from recommending it outright. Even so, as a feature-dense antivirus at a good price, it’s hard not to consider it. It comes with Safe Money, a password manager, a VPN and more. Safe Money is a secure banking mode that isolates your connection to the payment portal from other network connections.
Even if you had malware that could intercept your normal connection, Safe Money would protect you from it. The VPN isn’t impressive, though. It’s provided by Hotspot Shield, a provider we didn’t take kindly to in our, and you’re limited to 200MB per day unless you upgrade. It’s a better idea to use one of our providers, such as ExpressVPN (read our ). The password manager is excellent, though, as you can read in our.
For protection on a single Mac, or protection across devices with Total Security, Kaspersky is a great choice. You can learn more in our or download a to see how you like it. © AV-Test in protection and performance.
Best Antivirus Best For Mac 2016
It was 100 percent effective, 4.5 percent better than the industry average, against the 507 malware samples the lab used in its June 2018 testing. Performance numbers were almost as good as Bitdefender’s. It slowed the test machine down by 1 percent when downloading frequently used applications and 3 percent when copying files. It maintained, at minimum, a 10 percent faster speed over the industry average. AV-Comparatives found that it blocked 100 percent malware detection during its. Since Intego is exclusive to Macs, there are no Windows performance numbers to reference.
MRG Effitas doesn’t have results for Intego. Other Reasons We Like Intego Intego can protect one to five Macs from malware. The top-tier Mac Premium Bundle is reasonably priced, too.
You can protect five devices for around $100 per year, which is a good rate considering the bundle of features included. The core feature is VirusBarrier, which protects you from malware in real time. Intego also includes NetBarrier and ContentBarrier.
The former is a firewall that monitors network connections and the latter gives you parental control to keep children safe online. © Our favorite feature, though, is Washing Machine, a Mac software cleaner that scans your device for redundant or unnecessary files and delete them. That includes things such as caches that are no longer needed and extraneous language files.
While Intego doesn’t protect Windows machines, you can purchase Windows protection when you check out. Intego partners with Panda Security for Windows protection, a decent provider that, unfortunately, loses some luster because of poor performance. You can learn more about it in our. Cons:. No multi-device plan Final Thoughts Mac users have a hard time finding a solid antivirus.
Consumer Reports Best Antivirus For Mac
In most cases, it feels like macOS versions are afterthoughts. Our five picks have all received high marks from independent labs and come with a good list of features, too.
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Except for, the single-Mac plans feel sluggish. Thankfully, and offer multi-device plans that secure your desktop and mobile device. They aren’t the only ones, either.
If you couldn’t find an option that suits you here, make sure to read our other. Also, dedicated Apple fans will want to check out our article on the as well as our piece. What Mac antivirus are you using? Let us know in the comments and, as always, thanks for reading.