Award-Winning Antivirus. Cloud-based threat analysis keeps you protected without slowing you down. You must either have a qualifying free trial or a paid software subscription to McAfee LiveSafe (5-Device or unlimited) or McAfee Total Protection (5- or 10-Device) and you must be enrolled in automatic renewal (turned on) and your account.
Bitdefender Total Security for Mac (3 devices) — $71.99 (save $18)
Webroot Internet Security for Mac (3 devices) — $29.99 (save $30)
Kaspersky Internet Security (1 device) — $20 (save $39.99)
McAfee Total Protection (3 devices) — $24.99 (save $55)
There's a common misconception that Macs don't need antivirus software. Unfortunately, that's far from accurate these days.
Macs are generally more secure than PCs, thanks to a more secure operating system where certain aspects of its software are more locked down and harder to infiltrate by rogue software. Also, fewer people own Macs meaning fewer targets for criminals. However, that doesn't mean that it's impossible to get a virus on your Mac, or receive a suspicious piece of malware either.
SEE ALSO: Best cheap laptops: 10 options for under $500
A report from Malwarebytes found that Mac malware has seen an increase of over 270% between 2016 and 2017. That number is likely to rise in 2018 with new threats like OSX.MaMi and Dark Caracal cited in the article as significant ways of disrupting Mac owners. The more Macs are used, the more they’ll be targeted by cyber criminals. And everyone loves the must-have MacBook of the moment, right?
MacOS might still be more secure than Windows but why take a risk with your valuable data? We've taken a look at some of the best antivirus solutions out there for your Mac, ensuring you have an extra layer of security between your data and nefarious viruses. We’ve evaluated their effectiveness at detecting viruses, and lay out any of their additional security features too.
Protect your Mac against ransomware attacks, computer viruses, and more with these antivirus products:
Offers choices of scanning types • Offers idle scanning for when you're not active • Includes two Safari plugins
Was known for having performance issues in the past
Norton gives you plenty of options to scan your Mac in the background without the performance dips of the past.
1. Norton Security for Mac
Norton runs in the background, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity or threats to your system, without any need for interaction from you.
One Mac: $39.99/year
Up to five Macs: $49.99/year
The gist: One of the oldest names in the security software business, it's easy to know what to expect from . Essentially, it runs in the background, keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity or threats to your system, without any need for interaction from you. In the past, Norton software has been known for causing performance dips but that's far from the case here. For one thing, its idle scanning feature only scans during quiet periods with that scan pausing the moment you use your Mac. What it offers: Norton Security for Mac offers a few different options for scanning. You can switch to automatic, always-on protection and never think about it again, or there's schedule scanning for appropriate times of day for you. It's the idle scanning feature that's most useful though, which simply works when you need it to. Additionally, includes two Safari plugins. Safe Web helps you avoid visiting rogue sites, while Identity Safe is a simple password management tool. Neither are quite as expansive as the antivirus facility, but as a useful way of cutting off issues at the source, they do the job admirably. The price: uses a subscription based service: $39.99 for the first year provides you with one Mac license. If you want to use the software on more than one Mac, you'll need to upgrade to Norton Security Deluxe for $49.99 for the first year. The $10 upgrade gives you up to 5 licenses (for PC, Mac, Android and iOS smartphones), as well as parental controls if you need them.
Free Antivirus For Mac
Offers extra tools like anti-spam protection • Comprehensive
Not quite as fast or accurate as Norton
It might not be the speediest or the most attractive antivirus software, but for those after comprehensive security assistance, it's unparalleled.
2. McAfee Total Protection
McAfee offers extra tools like digital document shredding and anti-spam protection that help it rise above the rest.
One device: $24.99 (first year)
Five devices: $39.99 (first year)
Ten devices: $29.99/month (first year)
The gist: Another familiar name in the security software world, is more than just antivirus software, offering a full security suite of features. It's a name that was synonymous with being a tad bloated in the past but that's far from the case now. If you want something more powerful than simple antivirus protection, this will scratch that itch. What it offers: As expected from a name as big as McAfee, there's the prospect of award-winning antivirus scanning. It's not quite as fast as Norton's nor quite as accurate, but it's still highly competent. Where things are ramped up is McAfee Total Protection's many extra tools, much beloved by its users. There's anti-spam protection that works with many popular email clients, a digital document shredding tool, Wi-Fi protection settings, and a network manager so your network can't be hijacked without your knowledge. Parental controls are also available along with True Key identity management which uses multiple forms of authentication to ensure that only the correct owner of your Mac will be able to use it. It's all about cutting off your risks before you even get that far. It might not be the speediest or the most attractive antivirus software, but for those after comprehensive security assistance, it's unparalleled. The price: The price you pay depends on how many systems you want to run it on. You can protect one device for $24.99 or five for $39.99, and up from there. In each case, that's the price for the first year of use.
Has won many awards • Super fast • Offers security suite tools like adware blocker • Works on Macs and PCs
Its Autopilot background scanner can't be scheduled
Bitdefender is the choice of many tech-savvy users who love its speed and reliability.
3. Bitdefender Total Security 2019 for Mac
A little cheaper than its competitors, it's a strong opening gambit for a company that's more well known among tech savvy folks than the average consumer.
Up to 5 devices: $49.99.(first year)
The gist: antivirus option might be a lesser known name in the antivirus and security software world, but it's garnered many awards for its antivirus engine. Some sources have even found 100% success rates for virus and malware detection, although mileage will vary depending on the viruses involved. A little cheaper than its competitors, it's a strong opening gambit for a company that's more well known amongst tech savvy markets than the average consumer. What it offers: Speed is one of the best things about . Within seconds of use, it'll scan thousands of your files with a full scan taking mere minutes. Opting to scan specific locations such as your Mac's system library is also an option, streamlining your experience. No one wants to wait around for a full virus scan, so it's refreshing to see Bitdefender just get on with things, or provide you with convenient alternatives. There's also the ability to search for malware quickly within various archives and common filetypes, such as PDF or ZIP, further extending your options. An always-on scanner known as Autopilot keeps an eye on things when you don't want to do anything manually, although that does mean no choice of scheduling. Security suite features are also included, such as an adware blocker, anti-phishing detection for webpages, and backup protection for your Time Machine backups. The price: is currently priced at $49.99 for five devices for the first year. It'll work across platforms so it's ideal if you have additional Macs, smartphones (Android or iOS) or PCs that require protection.
Speedy • Uses the cloud, so great for older computers • Includes anti-phishing tools and other features
Doesn't use a large database for detection, if that matters to you
Webroot's cloud-based solution makes it perfect for protecting an older Mac without using up precious RAM.
4. Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac
Webroot Antivirus for Mac stores all its anti-malware protection information on the cloud, meaning it's speedy and has a small footprint on your Mac.
One device: $29.99 (first year)
Three devices: $44.99/month (first year)
Five devices: $59.99/month (first year)
The gist: isn't like other anti-virus software, in that it's keen to make absolutely no impact on your Mac's performance, no matter how old your system is. Instead of using a large database to detect issues, it primarily relies on behavioral based detection, snooping out when something doesn't seem normal for your system. Tackling things with a different approach means it's perfect for old systems that haven't got the space or the RAM bandwidth for too much probing. What it offers: Webroot Antivirus for Mac stores all its anti-malware protection information on the cloud, meaning it's speedy and has a small footprint on your Mac. By saving you the effort of downloading virus definition updates, it's also impressively accurate while speedy. Most full scans will only take a matter of minutes rather than hours, no matter how dated your technology is. Alongside such fast scanning, works to cut things off at the source. It has anti-phishing tools that block harmful sites before you even load them, along with a firewall and network connection monitor. Working as pseudo security software means it's a little more effective than simply scanning your system as and when needed. However, the real advantage here is how undemanding Webroot Antivirus for Mac is. It simply just works, without making you worry about any noticeable performance impact while your Mac is in use. The price: Webroot Antivirus for Mac works out as $29.99 per year for one device license. $44.99 provides you with three licenses per year, so it suits a household well.
Built just for Macs • High accuracy rate • Works on iOS devices too • Provides network protection as well
Not as speedy as some • A bit pricier than some others
For a more stylish and intuitive way of tackling your virus protection, Intego is unbeatable.
5. Intego Mac Internet Security
Intego does a fantastic job of detecting anything thrown at it, albeit a little slower than with some antivirus protection.
One device: $39.99 (first year)
Three devices: $54.99 (first year)
The gist: is software that's exclusively for Mac products. Unlike other entries here, it's been built from the ground up just for Mac, with no hint of a one-time clunky Windows interface in sight. For a more stylish and intuitive way of tackling your virus protection, it's unbeatable. What it offers: High rates of accuracy is very much Intego Mac Internet Security's game. It does a fantastic job of detecting anything thrown at it, albeit a little slower than with some antivirus protection. As soon as it's installed, scheduled and real time protection is activated by default, making it an ideal choice for anyone who wants to avoid poking around the software. By default, it automatically detects Mac malware, but it'll also keep an eye out for anything Windows or Linux based, so you can be sure to not accidentally send such files elsewhere. It keeps an eye on files on your iOS devices too. Besides the key antivirus protection features, also includes NetBarrier X9 to provide network protection, securing your Mac from unauthorized access when you're on a public network, like public Wi-Fi. The price: A one-year subscription for one device costs $39.99 with that price rising to $54.99 for up to three devices.
Security
Editor Rating: Good (3.0)
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$60.00
Pros
Subscription covers unlimited macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS devices. Includes two-way personal firewall.
Cons
No current test results from independent labs. Nonfunctional protection against fraudulent or malicious websites. No search-result markup. Poor score in our Windows malware detection test.
Bottom Line
McAfee's subscription gives you unlimited licenses to protect all your Macs with McAfee AntiVirus Plus, and your Windows, Android, and iOS devices, too. However, the SiteAdvisor website rating tool isn't working yet, and no independent labs have rated this edition.
While Macs aren't quite as malware-prone as Windows boxes, they do get hit with Trojans, ransomware, and other malware. Security companies handle macOS antivirus protection in a variety of ways. Some just offer a Mac-specific antivirus tool. Others include Mac protection in a cross-platform suite. McAfee is unusual in that all the security products, from antivirus all the way up to feature-packed mega-suite, are cross-platform. Subscribing to McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) means getting protection for every macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS device in your household.
As with many cross-platform security products, McAfee starts the installation process online. You log in or create your account, enter your registration code, and download to your Mac. During the process, you receive a serial number. Save it. If you must reinstall the software on this same device you'll need that number, not the registration code.
SEE ALSO: The Best Antivirus Protection for 2019
During installation, McAfee offers a Virus Protection Pledge. This pledge means that if malware gets past an existing McAfee installation, McAfee's trained experts will remotely remediate the problem. Virus removal service normally costs $89.95, so this is a good deal. If the experts can't fix the problem, McAfee refunds your purchase. You must sign up for automatic subscription renewal to get this pledge, but that seems reasonable.
This product hasn't yet moved to a 64-bit code base, so when you install it, you get a warning that it's 'not optimized for your Mac.' Just click the warning away; it's harmless. McAfee's developers are working on switching to 64-bit, however, because eventually macOS won't support 32-bit programs.
As noted, your license lets you install McAfee on your Windows devices, as well as your iOS and Android devices. Please see my review of McAfee AntiVirus Plus for details on what you get with the other platforms. Briefly, the Windows edition is loaded with features not found on the Mac, the Android edition offers both antivirus and antitheft, and the iOS edition (as expected) is relatively feature-limited.
The Windows-facing products got a user-interface makeover last year, going from a green-tinted collection of large rectangular panels to a blue-tinted layout with a menu across the top. With the current edition, the macOS product gets that same makeover, so it looks extremely similar. The only major difference is that McAfee on the Mac doesn't have all the features of the Windows edition.
Pricing and OS Support
As noted, you can use your $59.99 per year subscription to install McAfee protection on every macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS device you own. Norton is also cross-platform, supporting macOS, Windows, and Android, but your $89.99 per year Norton subscription gets you five licenses, not an unlimited number. You pay $29.95 for ClamXAV (for Mac) just once, which lets you install it on all of the Macs in your household.
Bitdefender, ESET, Malwarebytes, and Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac all cost $59.99 per year for three installations, compared with unlimited licenses for McAfee. A three-license ProtectWorks subscription cost a bit less, $44.95 per year. Of course, you can also get antivirus protection for your Mac with zero cash outlay by choosing Avira or Sophos Home, both of which are free.
Like Malwarebytes, McAfee requires a fairly recent operating system, 10.11 (El Capitan) or higher. Norton's support for the current macOS and the two previous versions means it has the same requirement, at least until macOS Mojave arrives. For those who, for one reason or another, run an old operating system, ClamXAV, ESET, or ProtectWorks AntiVirus (for Mac) may be a better choice, with support back to Snow Leopard (10.6).
Mcafee Antivirus For Macbook Air
No Results From Antivirus Labs
The team of researchers and testers at an independent antivirus testing lab can throw a lot of resources at the task of determining the efficacy of an antivirus tool. I follow four such labs for my Windows antivirus reviews; just two of them release regular reports on Mac antivirus, however. Furthermore, since my hands-on testing setup, developed over a period of years, is mostly Windows-based, those two sets of lab results are even more important to my Mac antivirus reviews.
When I first evaluated McAfee's Mac product, it had certification from AV-Comparatives, with 100 percent detection of Mac malware and 94 percent detection of Windows malware, but next time around it wasn't tested. Alas, McAfee still doesn't appear in the test results from this lab. Nor was it included in test reports from AV-Test Institute. Malwarebytes for Mac Premium also doesn't appear in test results from either lab. My contacts at that company explained that their detection techniques just aren't suited to the simple tests these labs perform, so they don't submit the product. AVG, ClamXAV, ESET, ProtectWorks, and Sophos also lack recent results available.
If you want to see top lab test results, look to Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, Intego, or Trend Micro. All earned top scores from both labs. Kaspersky came close, missing out by one-half point from AV-Test.
Scans and Schedules
I don't have a collection of macOS malware, so I challenged McAfee to clean up a USB drive containing the samples I use for Windows antivirus testing. My collection runs the gamut from barely risky potentially unwanted applications, or PUAs, to pernicious ransomware. Last time around, McAfee only removed 25 percent of the Windows samples. This time it did much better, wiping out 72 percent.
Impressively, Sophos Home (for Mac) detected and eliminated 100 percent of those samples. ClamXAV and Malwarebytes don't promise to detect Windows malware; even so, ClamXAV detected 43 percent of my samples.
Most of the Mac antivirus utilities I've evaluated offer two kinds of scans, a quick scan that looks for active malware and checks the most likely areas for infestation, and a full scan that covers your entire computer. McAfee sticks with the full scan, along with the custom scan I mentioned. On the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch that I use for testing, McAfee's full scan finished in 39 minutes. I observed that while the full scan displays what looks like a progress bar, it isn't. The only indication of progress is the ever-climbing number of items scanned.
McAfee's time for a full scan is slower than the current average of 24 minutes, but still not bad. However, Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac) did the job in just two minutes. Malwarebytes eschews the full scan concept entirely, and its quick scan took just 30 seconds to run.
Like ESET, Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, and a few others, McAfee schedules a weekly full scan. If you don't do anything, you'll still get a regular full scan. You can turn off scheduled scanning, or change it to daily or monthly, but you can't add multiple scheduled scans.
Phishing Protection Goes From Flop to Phenom
If you're an evil web designer rather than an evil code-monkey, phishing is just the crime for you. All you need to do is create a website that perfectly mimics a sensitive site, and disseminate links to that site. When an unsuspecting user logs in to your fake site, you grab the credentials and use them to, say, log into the victim's bank and transfer funds.
At the time of my previous review, McAfee's SiteAdvisor plug-in for Safari simply did not work. The removal of a feature called NPAPI in macOS Safari broke it. With the current edition, SiteAdvisor is back, and it's better than ever.
For my Windows antiphishing tests, I use a small utility that lets me launch a suspected phishing URL and click a button to indicate the product blocked it, the product missed it, or it wasn't a proper phishing fraud after all. I run the same utility, launching the same collection of URLs, against the phishing protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. On the Mac, it's more of a manual process, alas. I tested the Windows and macOS editions simultaneously.
Mcafee Antivirus Machine Learning
The two editions didn't behave identically. For the most part, this involved the Windows edition blocking a page that turned out not to be a true phishing fraud, while the macOS edition didn't. But the two worked in lockstep on the verified frauds, both detecting and blocking 100 percent of them. Kaspersky recently became the first product to achieve 100 percent in this test; McAfee joins it at the top.
It's worth noting that for many companies the macOS and Windows versions don't track so closely. Norton has long performed well in this test, but Symantec Norton Security Deluxe (for Mac) didn't perform nearly as well. And where Kaspersky managed 100 percent protection on Windows, its macOS edition only blocked 84 percent.
Mcafee Antivirus For Mac Reviews
Firewall Bonus
A typical personal firewall performs two tasks. First, it guards against attack by outside agencies. Second, it manages network permissions to make sure local programs don't misuse the network. McAfee used to handle both tasks, but the Application Control component is no longer present. My contact at McAfee explained 'This was a business decision, based on usage relative to the cost of maintenance.'
Like the similar firewall in Intego Mac Internet Security X9, McAfee asks you to identify each network you join as Public, Home, or Work. On a public network, the firewall allows all outgoing traffic but blocks unsolicited incoming traffic. If you flag the network as Home or Work, it allows unsolicited incoming traffic from within the local network. Simple!
If you're a total network wizard, you can click Manage Rules in the firewall's settings dialog. But even for me, the dialog that lets you create custom firewall rules is daunting. Most users shouldn't touch it.
Doing Better
Mcafee Free Trial 90 Days
It's excellent that McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac) covers every Mac you own with a single subscription, and also covers all your devices that run on other platforms. In our antiphishing testing, it blocked every single fraudulent website. But we'd still be happier with some scores from the independent antivirus testing labs.
If you need lab-approved straight antivirus protection for your Mac, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is an Editors' Choice. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, also an Editors' Choice, is a full security suite that's packed with many more features than just protection against malware.
McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac)
Mcafee Antivirus For Mac Free
Bottom Line: One subscription gives you unlimited licenses to protect all your Macs with McAfee AntiVirus Plus, and your Windows, Android, and iOS devices, too, and it aces our phishing protection test.