Free Antivirus for Mac is the Mac version of our current favorite for Windows, and for good reason. Avast Free Mac Security (Free) As one of the most popular antivirus packages for Mac, Avast has a large name to live up to. And with 100% detection rates from AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives, it has the chops to go head-to-head with more expensive software like Norton. Avast Free Mac Security 2019 Download| Support OS: Avast Free Mac Security 2019 for Mac / Mac OS X Public Beta / Mac OS X 10.0 / Mac OS X 10.1 Puma / Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar. The download links for Avast Free Mac Security 2019 can be find on the bottom of this page by press the button and save the files to your storage then install it.
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac's top-shelf malware detection and barely there system impact make it the best antivirus solution.
Best Free Mac Antivirus
Avast Free Mac Security
Avast Free Mac Security's malware-squashing proficiency, negligible performance impact and included password manager make it the best free option.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers top-shelf malware detection and protects files from ransomware.
After evaluating eight free and paid antivirus products, we've chosen Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac ($40 per year) as the best antivirus for Mac. 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.
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.
MORE: Best Antivirus Software and Apps
Latest Security Alerts and Threats
— Google pushed out an emergency patch for its Chrome browser for Windows, macOS and Linux after a vulnerability was found that could let a malicious website take over a computer. ADVICE: Copy and paste 'chrome://settings/help' into your Chrome address bar to make sure your browser is updated to version 76.0.3809.132.
— Apple patched a security hole that let you -- or a malicious website -- jailbreak an iPhone and install any kind of app, including potential malware. (This is not among the flaws that let several websites infect any iPhone.) ADVICE: Make sure your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch is updated to iOS 12.4.1.
— Spammers have been sending emails to inject scam or malicious messages in regular people's Google Calendar pages. ADVICE: Follow our instructions to stop phony Google Calendar notifications from happening to you.
How We Tested
To find the best antivirus for Mac desktops and laptops, we evaluate ease of use, interface and performance impact, we installed each AV program on the same Late 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina Display running macOS 10.12 Sierra. It was powered by a 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7 processor and had 8GB of RAM and 70GB of data stored on a 512GB SSD.
We conducted our own tests in July and August 2017 based on how much each antivirus product affected our laptop's performance. To do this, we used our custom OpenOffice benchmark, which matches 20,000 names and addresses in a spreadsheet. We measured how long it took to run a quick scan and a full scan while the laptop crunched numbers in the background.
We assessed how easy each program was to use and the number of useful extra features it offered (including free add-on software). To gauge how effective each package was at stopping malware, we used the results of evaluations conducted in May 2017 by AV-TEST, a well-regarded independent product-testing lab in Germany, and results from other tests conducted in July 2017 by AV-Comparatives, a similarly well-respected firm in Austria.
Best Mac Antivirus
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac
Reasons to Buy
Free Avast Security For Mac
Minimal system impact
Reasons to Avoid
Kaspersky Internet Security is the best antivirus for Macs because it offers both the lowest system impact and some of the best malware-detection rates recorded. It even provides extra security features, including parental controls and options to lock down your webcam and stop websites from tracking your browsing activity. If you're willing to pay to protect your Mac from malware, Kaspersky Internet Security is the best option available.
Best Free Mac Antivirus
Avast Free Mac Security
Reasons to Buy
Excellent malware protection
Password manager included
Reasons to Avoid
Avast Free Mac Security caught 99.9 percent of all malware, packs in a password manager, barely leaves a smudge on system impact and doesn't charge a dime. If only it caught 100 percent of malware, as Kaspersky did.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
Reasons to Buy
Ransomware protection
Avast Security For Mac Reddit 50/50
Parental controls
Reasons to Avoid
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
$38.99
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is one of only a few solutions we tested that offers perfect malware detection. Further, its modern, streamlined interface places on-demand scans front and center. Bitdefender has dropped from first place, though, because its system-impact scores don't match the flawless marks posted by Kaspersky.
Norton 360 Deluxe
Reasons to Buy
Reasons to Avoid
Noticeable system impact
Norton 360 Deluxe may offer excellent protection, but it charges more (after the first year) than its competitors do, without offering as many perks. Norton AntiVirus Plus offers similar protection for a single Mac, but with fewer perks. Still, both have always-on-call customer support.
AVG Antivirus for Mac
Reasons to Buy
Free
Reasons to Avoid
Comparatively high background impact
AVG Antivirus for Mac
If you're looking for the best antivirus for Mac without having to pay, AVG AntiVirus for Mac is not too shabby, with its 99.9 percent detection rate and easy-to-use design. Unfortunately, other free competitors provide extras (Sophos with parental controls, Avast's password manager) that AVG does not.
Best for Families
Sophos Home
Reasons to Buy
Remote manageability
Low system impact
Reasons to Avoid
With Sophos Home for Mac's simple interface and low system-performance impact, you'll barely realize the program is shielding you until you need it. Anyone with young children at home will find Sophos' parental controls useful, as they allow for remote scans and checks, and let you block sites by category. Sophos even keeps a log of when users try to reach banned pages. This program's major drawback, though, is its lackluster malware-detection rate.
Avira Free Antivirus for Mac
Reasons to Buy
Solid malware protection
Reasons to Avoid
Once our favorite, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac is no longer the best antivirus for Mac. That's because it is a hair shy of perfection in its malware detection, and fell behind in system-performance testing, earning some of the higher performance impacts recorded.
McAfee Antivirus Plus
Reasons to Buy
Familiar user interface
Reasons to Avoid
Unproven detection rates
McAfee® AntiVirus Plus
While McAfee's unlimited licenses mean you can support a whole family of Macs (and PCs and Android devices, too), this program's lack of special features (for a paid version) make it hard to recommend. Further, we don't have malware-detection testing scores for McAfee, so its protection powers are unproven.
Apple has finally acknowledged the Mac Defender malware problem and released a system update to combat the Trojan, but many OS X users are left feeling that it might be time to install an antivirus application. In recent years, several companies have added Mac versions to their repertoires — and you can now add Avast to the list.
Avast remains one of the most popular antivirus applications in the world, with tens of millions of Windows users running both paid and free versions. The arrival of the company’s first beta for Mac couldn’t have been timed better, with so much talk about the recent spate of Mac Defender rogues targetting OS X users.
As with its Windows cousin, Avast for Mac offers realtime filesystem and web defense — critical elements in blocking those annoying Trojans — as well as email protection. Avast can also execute on-demand scans on fixed disks, removable drives, and network shares and files can also be dragged and dropped onto the Avast Dock icon or into the area in the bottom-left of the application window for instant scanning. Desktop notifications are powered by Growl, so you’ll need to install it to enable Avast’s alerts on your Mac.
It’s important to remember that Avast for Mac is still a beta release and you’re probably going to experience the occasional glitch or crash. That said, Avast has been very stable on my Mini since I installed it a few days ago, and the program has been updating and executing scheduled scans without fail. Those who want a more polished (but still free) antivirus program for their systems may want to check out Sophos Home Edition.