After evaluating eight free and paid Mac antivirus products, we've chosen Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac as the best antivirus software for Macs. It had a nearly invisible impact on system performance, and it caught all malware.
Avast Free Mac Security is our favorite free option, as it provided nearly perfect malware protection and an easy-to-use interface with an imperceptible performance hit. But Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac and Norton 360 Deluxe are better.
Despite what you might have heard, you do need an antivirus program on your Mac. Recent years have seen more Mac malware and adware than ever before, from Trojans to targeted attacks, supply-chain attacks like the XcodeGhost attack and even encrypting ransomware.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers flawless malware detection and a nearly nonexistent impact on system performance. It also offers ransomware rollbacks, and a streamlined, easy-to-use interface places on-demand scans front and center. We wish that Bitdefender didn't nag us to buy extra VPN service, but other than that, it's nearly perfect.
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac has perfect malware-detection rates, locks down your webcam, kills tracking cookies and offers the best parental controls among Mac antivirus programs. But the included password manager and VPN service are limited unless you pay extra, and the malware-detection engine takes a somewhat heavy toll on system performance during scans.
Norton 360 Deluxe has a ton of special features, including unlimited VPN service and a password manager. It also has a small impact on system performance, always-available tech support and, not least, flawless malware detection of both Mac and Windows software. You'll pay a lot for these luxuries, however, although the five-device license lets you spread out the cost. We also wish that the parental controls and backup software worked for Macs as well as PCs.
Avast Free Mac Security's malware detection is good, if not perfect; the software includes a free, unlimited password manager; it has nearly no background system-performance impact; and it scans email messages and attachments. But you'll be nagged to pay for many of Avast's extra features, such as VPN service and a system optimizer.
Sophos Home Premium can protect all of a large family's devices for a low price and stop kids from seeing objectionable websites. Its background system impact is more noticeable than its competitors', although nowhere near the system impact of some Windows antivirus products. We just wish we had some third-party lab-test data about the efficacy of Sophos' Mac malware scanner.
McAfee's 10-device license means you can support a whole family of Macs (and PCs and Android phones), but this program's lack of special features makes it hard to recommend for Mac users. Further, we don't have Mac malware-detection testing scores for McAfee, so its protection powers are untested.
Despite its fast scans and light impact on system performance, Malwarebytes for Mac Premium feels half cooked. It doesn't have many of the extra features its competitors offer, and because its malware-blocking skills haven't been evaluated, we don't know how good it is at protecting your Mac. You might want to let the Premium trial expire and instead use the free tier alongside better Mac antivirus software.
