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.
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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
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.
Avast Cleanup For Mac External Drives For Mac
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.
Cleanup
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
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. Is avast safe for mac reddit swagbucks. 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).
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
Privacy concerns
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.
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.
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
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.
Avast Cleanup Pro scans for and removes unnecessary and duplicate files on your Mac to clear disk space. This article assumes that Avast Cleanup Pro is installed and activated on your Mac. For detailed instructions, refer to the following articles:
To get started, open the Avast Cleanup Pro user interface using one of the following methods:
- Click the Avast Cleanup Pro icon on your menu bar and select Open Avast Cleanup Pro.
- Click Go on the menu bar and select Applications, then double-click the Avast Cleanup Pro icon.
Clear disk space
The Clean Clutter option scans your Mac for unnecessary files and allows you to select which files are deleted to clear disk space. To initiate a scan and remove files, follow these steps:
- Click Scan under Clean Clutter on the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen.
- After the scan completes, you can choose a selection method by using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen.. ..or manually select files by clicking a tab from the left-side panel and ticking or unticking the relevant boxes.
- After selecting files to remove, click Clean.
- If prompted, enter your system credentials and click OK.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen.
You can adjust the Clean Clutter scan settings by going to AvastCleanup on the menu bar and selecting Preferences ▸ Scanning.
Remove duplicate files
The Find Duplicates option scans your Mac for duplicate files. To initiate a scan and remove duplicate files, follow these steps:
- Click Find under Find Duplicates on the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen. To change the location for the scan, click the folder icon next to Find and select the folder or drive you want to scan. The selected location is displayed under the Find button.
- After the scan completes, click View Duplicates.
- You can choose a selection for all categories by using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen.. ..or you can manually select files by clicking a tab from the left-side panel and ticking or unticking the files you want to remove.
- After you make a selection, click Clean.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen.
Best antivirus for mac. You can adjust the Find Duplicates scan settings by going to AvastCleanup on the menu bar and selecting Preferences ▸ Scanning.
Identify bad or similar photos
The Find photos option scans your Mac for photos that are blurry, bladly-lit, or similar. To initiate a scan and review bad or similar photos, follow these steps:
- Click Find under Find Photos on the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen.
- Choose where you want Avast Cleanup Pro to scan for photos by ticking or unticking the folders and locations. Click Add to select additional folders, external drives, or specific photos you want included in the scan.
- After you make a selection, click Scan.
- Click Review to see all the bad and similar photos that Avast Cleanup Pro has found.
- Click Got It to remove the pop-up message.
- Choose a selection method using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the screen or make a selection manually by ticking the pictures you want to delete.
- After you make a selection, click Remove to confirm deletion of your selected files.
- Click Done to return to the main Avast Cleanup Pro screen.
Manage notifications
By default, Avast Cleanup Pro is configured to notify you when a certain amount of clutter is detected on your Mac. To manage this setting, follow these steps:
- Click AvastCleanup on the menu bar and select Preferences.
- Select the Alerts tab and adjust the settings according to your preferences.
View subscription information
To view your subscription information, follow these steps:
- Click AvastCleanup on the menu bar and select Preferences.
- Select the Subscription tab to view the duration of your Avast Cleanup Pro subscription.
- Avast Cleanup Pro 1.x for Mac
- Apple macOS 10.14.x (Mojave)
- Apple macOS 10.13.x (High Sierra)
- Apple macOS 10.12.x (Sierra)
- Apple Mac OS X 10.11.x (El Capitan)
- Apple Mac OS X 10.10.x (Yosemite)