Best Mac antivirus software 2023: Security software compared

Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 suite is a pair of utilities designed to help you keep your Mac safe and running smoothly. These are VirusBarrier and NetBarrier, which catch and kill malware threats plus spot potential intrusion attempts from outside as well as outgoing attempts from rogue software.

You can get Intego Mac Internet Security X9 here.

The Mac Premium Bundle X9 adds three more sets of capabilities to these: the backup prowess of Personal Backup (a good ‘belt’ addition to your Time Machine ‘braces’), the useful cleaning, tidying and general speed optimising tricks of Mac Washing Machine, and finally the multi-user safe surfing intelligence of ContentBarrier.

Sure, that last one is not something everyone needs, but it’s great for parents. Whichever one of these software suites you choose, you can be sure they offer some of the best protection available for your Mac.

Clario 1.5 for the Mac is much more than an antivirus package, it packs a healthy amount of security into one package, including real-time and on-demand malware scanning, ad blocking and website trackers, a VPN, and data breach monitoring to alert you if your email is caught and potentially exposed in a cyberattack. There’s also 24/7 live support.

Payment is by subscription, and currently Clario has 54% off the usual $107.88 / £107.88 a year, so you can pay $50.00 / £50.00 a year (billed at $4.17 / £4.17 a month). The three devices included in the plan can include a combination of Macs and iOS or Android devices. There’s also a 7-day free trial.

Set up is quick and painless with a wizard that takes you through configuration of all the key features while allowing you to evaluate the different options and determine which ones you want to enable. Once installed you can access information about the security of your Mac and monitor the status of your online accounts and personal data. The VPN will kick in if Clario detects you using an unprotected network. And from the Dashboard you can trigger a quick virus scan, which is actually quite thorough.

We did encounter some issues with performance, with the program sometimes running slow before we were fully set up, but once we were fully configured everything ran smoothly.

Whether you’re a novice or advanced user, Clario is an effective and supportive security program.

AVG Antivirus for the Mac is one of a handful of free antivirus for Mac programs. As such it is basic, but its effective at protecting you from viruses, spyware, and malware.

Despite being free, AVG covers all the bases: blocking viruses and malware from websites, downloads, and email attachments. AVG will scan applications and check every file and remove threats from your Mac. It auto updates so you shouldn’t miss out on protection from the latest threats.

Though it lacks the advanced features of paid antivirus products, it handles the core tasks cleanly and seamlessly. However, if you need to resolve any advanced issues you will need to pay to upgrade to the full version of the software, which is about $2.49 per month for a one-year subscription. There is a 60-day free trial though, which could be enough for your purposes.

All in all this is a great option, despite being basic. You get much more than you ‘pay’ for.

McAfee Total Protection is a dedicated software security tool that will monitor your Mac as you work, looking for unauthorised software activity such as browser search engine hacks, attempts to trick you into installing unwanted software, and actual malware and virus attacks.

It is very simple to use; once you’ve walked through the guided steps for giving it permission to work behind the scenes it is essentially something you can just leave to get on with its job.

Total Protection also offers WebAdvisor as an option, steering you from known problem sites and warning you when you visit questionable ones. It also offers a software firewall for two-way network traffic monitoring.

We noted some occasional performance impacts as it ran in the background, but it was largely unobtrusive in its efforts. The option of protecting other devices is useful as well, covering smartphones and Windows PCs as you require.

It’s worth noting that the Windows version in particular offers more features, such as a native VPN, which you don’t get in the Mac app.

You can get McAfee Total Protection here.

Norton 360 Deluxe is a security utility that performs a range of different monitoring and safeguarding operations to keep your Mac free from threats such as browser hacks and search engine hijack scripts to intrusion attempts and actual malware.

It focuses on catching unwanted software, but it also offers some useful additional features including a VPN for securing personal data while online, and a tool for managing passwords, bank card details and similar data.

There are three different versions, two of which can also be used to secure your iPhone as well as Android smartphones and Windows PCs, should you require that. In tests it proved to have little to no detectable impact on performance, and it spotted all the challenges in our test macOS setup.

Note that the Cloud Backup feature doesn’t work on macOS, but that is more of an extra rather than a vital part of the package.

You can get Norton 360 Deluxe here.

Avast Premium Security for Mac does its job well overall. There are a few niggles such as the unwanted upselling for Cleanup Premium and the fact that the File Shield monitoring slows down file copy times a bit.

Otherwise, it’s a well-featured suite which will protect from all sorts of nasties including watching for browser script hacks, potential ransomware and other remote attack activity. It will, of course, also scan for potentially unwanted programs and actual malware threats, whether on your Mac or your removable media or in email attachments.

Custom scheduled scans can be set up, although the automatic background monitoring teamed with occasional specific manual scans is likely to be enough for most requirements. Wi-Fi network monitoring for vulnerabilities is another feature this software offers, and the Real Site option watches for fake sites pretending to be legitimate shopping or banking sites, a serious risk that goes beyond just watching for unwanted files on your own Mac. It is very effective at all these things, although we found that customising its behaviour can be a little fiddly.

Bitdefender Total Security is a very effective tool for keeping your Mac safe, and it will also protect Windows PC, an iOS and Android devices. The bundled VPN is very basic and gives you only 200MB of data per day, but the rest of the suite of tools is effective and easy to manage.

But when you compare what the Mac version offers compared to the Windows version, you’ll feel quite hard done by. There’s no password manager, no social network protection, no webcam or microphone protection, no Wi-Fi security advisor and plenty of other features that Windows users get for the same price.

Bitdefender is also lagging behind its rivals with no identity protection. If your goal is simply to keep your Mac protected from malware, then Bitdefender does a great job. But you can find better value elsewhere.

Eset Cyber Security Pro is a useful security tool that protects your Mac – and your Windows PC, Linux box and even Android phones, although not your iPhone – against unauthorised software behaviour, network intrusions, search engine hijack scripts and worse.

It stands out from its competition through its comprehensive range of preferences controls that can fine-tune many aspects of its behaviour, and its relatively low price.

It isn’t the most unobtrusive in terms of background performance impact, although most of the time this was minor enough to be not really noticeable.

As well as real-time and on-demand monitoring it also provides a useful firewall, dedicated tools for spotting web-based threats including spyware, and protection against phishing attempts to trick users into divulging private data. It also offers parental controls with three user categories and detailed control over what kinds of sites each user is allowed to visit.

Trend Micro Antivirus is a good program with well rated antivirus protection, and a simple, straightforward interface that users will appreciate.

Anyone looking for additional features will be disappointed with this suite, but it offers good protection at a fair price.

In March 2022 AV-Test gave Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac a 99 percent protection score against 200 samples.

Our own spot checks produced similarly good results. Lining up against the Objective See malware library Trend Micro had no trouble detecting most threats. However in a few cases it didn’t detect all the malware contained in a folder until a scan had been run.

Trend Micro is an excellent choice for those looking for something that’s simple and easy to use. There are options with better protection, but Trend Micro’s protection is still good and pricing is fair.

Avira Prime is a security utility designed to keep your Mac safe from potentially unwanted programs; which covers everything from simple scripts designed to compromise and redirect your browser searches through to actual malware.

A single large window presents the various features, from scans to app management and cleanup, although a couple of its features use a separate panel for a web-based console. In our tests it detected all our compromised files and installers.

It doesn’t look inside zip archives or disk images, but it pounces as soon as items are extracted from these.

Most importantly, even while Avira Prime is actively scanning for trouble it has such a small impact on the general performance of our Mac that we wouldn’t notice it without comparing timings. You can get the basics of the security features with Avira Free Security but Prime’s annual subscription provides useful additional capabilities, if you can stomach the high cost.

The 2022 version of Kaspersky Total Security offers a raft of features, including antivirus and anti-phishing protection, ad blocking and private browsing, webcam spying protection, a VPN, a child locator with parental controls, screen time management, and a password manager.

The main disappointment with Kaspersky Total Security 2022 is the installation process on the Mac – made all the more frustrating by the fact that installing on Windows is quick and easy.

Mac users have to download and install the Internet Security product and then download and install the password manager and Safe Kids tools as separate apps. Kaspersky doesn’t make this clear.

Once installed, the product is robust and effective. Based on 2021 testing for anti-virus products, Kaspersky received top marks for protection, performance, and usability from AV-Test and solid grades from AV Comparatives. The product also was rated the best antivirus software for 2022 from Security.org.

Total Security offers access four key features: scanning, updating, privacy, and Safe Kids. To hunt down malware, you can run a full scan, a quick scan, or a scheduled scan. The Safe Money feature protects your credentials when you shop or bank online, while the Kaspersky password manager sets up strong passwords.

There is also an easy to configure VPN and the Safe Kids app (which can be accessed via a smartphone app) brings parental controls.

Sophos used to offer a free version of its Home product with antivirus protection and website protection, but in 2021 that version was discontinued, leaving Sophos Home Premium as the only option for personal use.

There’s now a 30 days full trial, but after that it costs £37.46/$44.99 for the first year and £49.95/$59.99 for each subsequent year. You can install on 10 Macs or PCs though.

Setup was confusing. Initially the software guides you through the process, but then setup stops and you have to sign into your Sophos Home dashboard to complete setup (it’s not at clear that you need to do this step).

There’s also no Dock icon to launch the program, instead you use a menu bar icon to access the online dashboard where you can control the five types of protection including:

• Antivirus protection – real-time scanning for local and network drives, perform a manual scan or schedule one, plus a quick scan can be triggered from the menu bar icon.
• Web protection
• Ransomware protection
• Privacy protection
• Malicious traffic detection
• Web filtering

A 2017 evaluation of macOS security software by AV-Test gave Sophos Home outstanding grades for protection, performance, and usability. We ran the EICAR test, which simulates a virus, and Sophos detected and blocked it with no trouble. The website filtering worked well.

Sophos Home Premium provides effective protection, but the setup process and cloud-only features are drawbacks. It needs clearer set up and the ability to do more locally.

Malwarebytes comes in both free and premium editions for personal use. Unfortunately the Mac version falls short of many of the features of the Windows version. Malwarebytes Premium for Mac includes the basis virus and malware scanning as well as the ability to detect malicious apps, or PUPs (potentially unwanted program). The real-time protection constantly monitors your system for security threats, automatically blocking and quarantining anything that could infect your computer.

But it doesn’t directly come with the protection against malicious links and phishing attempts. Nor does it offer the safeguards against ransomware and zero-day exploits.

There is a free version of Malwarebytes, but that just includes just basic virus scanning. The premium version costs $3.33/£2.50 billed monthly or $39.99/£29.99 billed annually for one device, and $6.67/£5.83 billed monthly or $79.99/£69.99 billed annually for five devices. There’s a free 14-day trial.

Malwarebytes Premium on a Mac is accessible through a menu bar icon. Clicking the icon displays a menu with options to start a scan, temporarily turn off the malware protection and malicious app blocker, update the program, view and tweak its settings, and open the management console.

From the management console you can trigger a manual scan and set up scheduled scans to run on a recurring basis. A detection history displays all quarantined items. There’s an Allow list to add legitimate files or programs that were mistakenly flagged as malware to.

Malwarebytes Premium has regularly and consistently gotten top marks from AV-Test for protection, performance, and usability. In real-world testing conducted by AV Comparatives during February and March of 2022, the software scored 100% at blocking malware, though it had a high number of false positives.

It’s just a shame that the Mac version feels like an also-ran compared with the Windows edition.

MacKeeper 5 is the reborn version of a security utility that has been around for many years. The reputation of previous versions seems just old news now – today, it’s a useful and comprehensive tool for keeping your Mac secure and optimised as you work, play and use the internet.

The range of tools it offers in addition to watching for unwelcome software is wide ranging. There’s a memory optimiser, an update tracker to spot outdated applications, a smart uninstaller to clean up after other software and a VPN feature for secure browsing.

There’s even identify protection, which monitors password databases to catch possible ID theft efforts. While we noted occasional performance impacts from its real-time antivirus monitoring, it wasn’t something that happened all the time.

Ultimately, we liked MacKeeper’s easy and helpful interface, which makes what could be a daunting task quite approachable.

F-Secure Total is a simple-to-use security software suite that works on macOS, iOS, Windows and Android devices and protects your data from a wide range of threats. These range from the fairly common simple browser hacks and search engine hijack attempts through to the more rare but also more risky actual malware and ransomware attacks.

It performs these jobs well, although the real-time scanning behaviour – important in this kind of tool – did have some impact on the overall performance of our test Mac.

The price is high, though, its passwords management feature doesn’t directly support Safari and we noticed some interface quirks as we used it. If you want a solid and capable security utility this does fit the bill, but at the same time it’s not as convincing an option as some of its competitors.