Best Anivirus For Mac

First things first: yes, your Mac needs virus protection. While malware that targets Macs isn't nearly as common as malware that goes after Windows, it does exist and is a growing problem.

Mac viruses might be rare, but they do exist. If you decide to protect your Apple device, these are the best tools for the job. Best Mac Antivirus Software. You need an antivirus program on your Mac. That statement may cause some Apple users to argue or walk away, but 2017 has so far seen more Mac malware and adware than. Top 10 Best Mac Antivirus Software 2018 Compare some of the best virus protection services for Mac There is a common misconception that Mac computers are so secure that they don’t need antivirus protection, this however is not correct!

Viruses specifically may not yet be the major concern for the Mac but there are many different kinds of malware to worry about: things like trojans, adware, ransomware, spyware, and lots of other dangerous wares so keeping your computer protected is smart.

Our advice? If you're not using an antimalware program for Mac yet, it's time! Below you'll find the 4 best ones we've found, any of which will keep your Mac safe from these growing threats.

If you're here because your Mac is already infected with some form of malware, try using a friend's Mac to create an emergency Mac OS boot device and then use that to download and install one of these antivirus apps to detect and remove the suspected malware.

Not on a Mac? Check out our updated best free Windows antivirus software and best free Android antivirus apps lists.

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Avast Free Mac Security

What We Like

Detects several types of malware.
Blocks your computer from sending and receiving viruses in emails.
Able to minimize its impact on system resources.
Includes other security tools.

What We Don't Like

Some features only work in the pro edition.
Might take a while to install.

Avast Free Mac Security uses a traditional signature-based method to scan files on your Mac for known malware, Trojans, and viruses. Avast can root out rootkits and other methods that a hacker uses to gain control and is able to pry open compressed files to scan their content.

Beside malware designed for the Mac, Avast also looks for PC malware to help keep cross-platform infections from occurring. You don’t want to be the person sending off infected email attachments to your PC friends.

Avast uses real-time detection that runs in the background. Avast, like other antivirus apps that continually run in the background, can have an impact on your Mac's performance. Avast, however, gives you the option of using its real-time detection, or a scheduling system that can have less impact on your Mac's performance.

Scheduled scans allow you to set the time for Avast for Mac to run its routine scans for the presence of malware. Moving the scheduled time to when it will least impact your workload is a big plus.
File shield can check all of the files on your Mac for nefarious content. Files can also be checked by file type or location on your Mac.
Web shield blocks unsafe websites from loading or downloads from those sites from occurring.
Mail shield prevents dangerous email attachments from downloading or from being executed.
Local network scan makes sure your home network and all connected devices are free from vulnerabilities that hackers could make use of to steal personal data.

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Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac

What We Like

Easy to set up and forget about.
Finds malware automatically.
Includes lots of really great features.
Has a lightweight footprint.

What We Don't Like

The free version is limited in several important ways.

Bitdefender offers two security apps for the Mac a free Virus Scanner for Mac and the paid Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac. Both use the same Bitdefender engine for finding and removing malware, but Virus Scanner for Mac uses a manual approach to scanning your Mac, while Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is loaded with features to make the process simple and, if you want to, as automatic as possible to ensure you are never the victim of a malware attack.

In fact, the Autopilot feature works so well that you can just about turn it on and forget about it, knowing that your Mac is protected from current and future threats from malware as well as ransomware, which is on the upswing in the hacking world.

Time Machine Protection monitors your Time Machine backups and prevents ransomware attacks that may try to encrypt or remove your backups.
Safe File allows you to specify folders that will be continuously monitored, preventing unauthorized apps from making changes to these folders.
Adware removal can free your Mac from annoying ads, unwanted browser add-ons, and browser toolbars that may be added without your consent.
Traffic Light browser extension works with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to add advance phishing detection to your browser and warn you of dangerous websites.

Bitdefender makes use of traditional signature-based detection system as well as behavioral-pattern recognition. To help keep its database of devious malware types up to date, Bitdefender uses a cloud-based data collection system that stores the most recently detected Mac malware, adware, and ransomware information, allowing all Bitdefender users to have the latest updated detection system.

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Malwarebytes for Mac

What We Like

It's always active and running to find threats.
Provides advanced options that can be tweaked to your desires.
Doesn't use up lots of memory or CPU.

What We Don't Like

The free version only works in manual mode (i.e., it can't catch malware automatically).

Malwarebytes for Mac has been a top choice for finding and removing Mac-based malware ever since its early appearance as Adware Medic.

Best Antivirus For Mac Review

Now under the guidance of Malwarebytes, the app retains its free ability to find and remove malware but has also expanded its capabilities to offer a premium paid version that can actively prevent Mac virus, spyware, and malware infections. It can also keep adware and unwanted apps from finding a home on your Mac.

Detects and removes adware targeting Macs without requiring a separate browser add-on.
Real-time protection can be disabled, allowing you to scan only when you wish.
Includes an uninstaller for removing the Malwarebytes app.
Low system overhead even with background scanning enabled.

Malwarebytes uses a signature-based system to determine the presence of Mac malware. The signature list can be updated as often as once per hour. Malware that is discovered can be automatically quarantined for easy removal at a later date.

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Sophos Home for Mac

What We Like

Provides real-time threat detection.
Identifies and removes various types of malware.
Includes unique features such as remote management.
Protects against web threats via filtering.

What We Don't Like

Several features are not included in the free edition.
You must provide personal details to download the free version.
It has a relatively large setup file.

Sophos has been a leader in business-grade antivirus and security protection apps for PCs and Macs for years. Sophos brings the same business-grade security system to the personal Mac (there is also a PC version) user for free.

Sophos Home for Mac can protect every Mac in your home from malware, viruses, and ransomware. It also can protect your web browsing from stumbling across inappropriate websites that may contain phishing schemes or malware.

Sophos uses signature-based as well as heuristic-based behavioral detection to monitor the unusual behavior of apps to identify suspicious activity. Like most antivirus apps for the Mac, Sophos can detect Windows-based threats as well, helping to prevent cross-platform contamination.

Remote management allows you to monitor, configure and control Sophos Home on up to ten Macs or PCs.
Parental controls can block viewing inappropriate websites while keeping a log of such web visit attempts for later review.
Background scanning had a low impact on overall performance.
On-demand scanning allows you to initiate a scan at any time.

Sophos runs primarily in the background scanning your Mac and detecting if malware or related threats are present whenever you download, copy, or open a file or folder. The scanner can also examine compressed files to make sure files contained within are safe.

Macs may be a far less tempting target for malware and viruses, but they’re not immune from attack. Even if you don’t care about adware or being used as a means to infect users on other platforms, it’s still possible to fall victim to ransomware, password theft, or stolen iPhone backups.

Accordingly, good antivirus software will protect your Mac on all of these fronts. It’ll catch malware that’s still spreading or in circulation; block ransomware; protect older systems with out-of-date software from security vulnerabilities; prevent your Mac from acting as a carrier for malware aimed at other operating systems; and keep infected files off of any virtual machines you’re running.

Antivirus for Mac cheat sheet

Our quick-hit recommendations:

Best paid antivirus for Mac:Sophos Home Premium for Mac[sophos.com]
Best free antivirus for Mac:Avast Free Mac Security[avast.com]

Many antivirus suites provide a decent level of protection, but a few rise above all others by providing the very best in performance. Our top contenders dominate by posting perfect (or virtually near perfect) scores from security research labs, passing our own malware detection tests with flying colors, offering well-designed interfaces, and even throwing in extra features like a firewall or password manager.

Updated 08/15/19: Added our review of Avira Free Antivirus, a worthy free option that’s easy to use and effective.

Looking for Windows antivirus recommendations? You can read about the best antivirus suites for PC on our sister site, PCWorld.

Best overall antivirus software

on Sophos

Sophos Home Premium has the most extensive and up-to-date approach to fighting malware at an unbeatable price.

Sophos Home Premium has it all: Effective malware protection, ransomware monitoring, protection against potentially-unwanted-apps, and additional features that often require separately licensed software. Its cloud-based configuration and generous licensing (up to 10 Macs and PCs) also make it easy to shield friends and family from threats, no matter where they live. (Full details available in our review.)

Best free antivirus software

Though Sophos does offer a good free version of its software, Avast Free Mac Security edges it out as the best free antivirus software for macOS. In security lab tests, Avast detected 99.9 percent of macOS malware, and 100 percent of Windows malware. However, if you want more advanced protection (like ransomware detection), you’ll need to upgrade to paid software.

What to look for in antivirus software

By our reckoning, antivirus software should be able to neutralize a threat before it can begin wreaking havoc. That means preventing the download, installation, or execution of malicious software.

Since you can encounter threats by visiting compromised or malicious websites, receiving virus-laden attachments, or accessing USB drives with malware, good AV software should scan on a continuous basis unless you configure it otherwise. And ideally, files identified as malicious should be quarantined into a special storage area managed by the AV software, with the option to automatically delete files known to be malware or repair normal documents that also carry devious payloads.

Great AV suites also will monitor the filesystem for certain kinds of changes. Ransomware—which is malware that will rapidly encrypt user files like documents and mailboxes and then delete the originals—has become a huge moneymaker on other platforms. As a prime opportunity for attackers, it’s the greatest danger Mac users likely face as a category.

Detecting this pattern and halting it before any files are unavailable should be possible without an anti-malware system knowing the specific innards of a ransomware virus. Sophos, our top pick, includes this feature in the Home Premium version of its 2018 update. Other vendors, like Avast and Trend Micro Antivirus, offer an alternative feature that allows you to whitelist programs allowed to manipulate files in specific directories. So if this particular type of attack becomes rapidly popular, you’ll be protected.

Good antivirus software should also use minimal computational resources. That’s especially the case these days—AV monitoring hasn’t become much more complicated than when it first became available, and faster, multi-core CPUs can easily handle the demands of running AV software in the background without disturbing your active work.

Beyond these primary features, an easy-to-navigate interface and extra features are worth factoring into your decision. Some AV software are full-fledged suites that offer additional options like backup service for essential files, a password manager, parental controls, anti-tracking and privacy modes or options, a more advanced firewall, and the blocking of Potentially Unwanted Applications (PUAs).

How we test

Best Antivirus For Mac Cnet

Each software package is evaluated creating a clean installation of macOS Mojave, cloning it for each AV product, and then booting separately into each one to install a different package. This was to ensure that previous app installations didn’t interfere with new ones—sometimes AV software treats other AV software as an infection.

In addition to visiting malicious websites, downloading known malicious software, and even running said malware, we also reference the most recent reports from two labs that regularly cover macOS malware: AV Comparatives and AV-TEST. These laboratories test AV software against sets of known malware as well as products that are grouped as potentially unwanted applications (like adware).

Best Antivirus For Macbook Air

The latter doesn’t damage or expose your computer or its files but may consume power and CPU cycles. Because the testing effectively looks at a combination of virus databases and behavior, they remain good gauges even after many months. When an antivirus software package lacks a rating from a known security research lab, we do more extensive testing with real malware.

Finally, while we gave props for a lot of different features and behaviors, we marked products down if they lacked any or all of the following:

A nearly perfect score on macOS malware detection
Ransomware monitoring
Native browser plug-in or system-level Web proxy
A high score on Windows malware detection

Best Antivirus For Mac Os X

Privacy concerns

Best Antivirus For Mac Free

Using an anti-virus product, especially any that includes tools to also improve your online privacy, may lull you into believing you’re safe from personal and private information leaking out. That’s not quite the case. While there’s no reason to panic, you should consider a few reasonable issues.

First, an antivirus product may upload the complete text of files flagged to the cloud, where it can be analyzed by separate tools hosted there. This practice is normal and sensible: Some malware can detect when a running process may examine it, and will then engage in subterfuge. Antivirus software makers also can access their massive databases to examine files with characteristics that trigger their algorithms—certain elements that match known malware. As a result, security researchers discover new viruses, worms, Trojans horses, and the like.

However, helping the greater good means you’ll have to be comfortable with trusting a third-party with your file contents. Where appropriate, we noted privacy policy issues in individual reviews.

Best Antivirus For Mac Business

Second, this software may also rely partly or entirely on cloud-based checks of URLs, malware, and the like. Accordingly, an AV package might upload every URL you visit, metadata about files, signatures of files, information about your computer’s hardware, a list of running or installed applications, and more. Companies vary on their disclosure of such policies, and may not let you opt out of this kind of sharing. We note issues in each review as available.

Best Antivirus For Mac Reviews

Third, anti-virus software makers also get a sense of what behavior is happening on your computer that’s being monitored or blocked, and may use that information for their own purposes. In some cases, you can opt out of this information gathering.

All of our antivirus for Mac reviews

Best Antivirus For Mac And Pc

If you have specific requirements or just wish to see other options, below is a list of all the antivirus software we’ve reviewed. We’ll keep evaluating new and refreshed software on a regular basis, so be sure to come back to see what else we’ve put through the ringer.