That sounds great if you want something simple, but for $40 a year, you would be right to expect a bit more. You get a simple malware scanner, real-time protection, a malicious app blocker, the option to schedule scans, a quarantine manager, and that's about it. No firewall, encryption tools, built-in VPN, password manager, or any other feature AV manufacturers seem to be integrating into their products. Unlike many of its competitors, it offers only the bare essentials. If you've only just accepted that you do need an antivirus on macOS, Malwarebytes seems like a tempting prospect. Very lightweight, even with a Premium subscription The Windows edition fared well in the October 2020 AV-Test roundup (though results have been very inconsistent in recent years), but the Mac version has never been tested.

There are few lab tests that gauge its effectiveness, especially for the macOS version. Even the program's developers touted its ability to work together with other security software.įor a while, though, the app has been transitioning to a fully-fledged antivirus, with mixed results. Malwarebytes used to be the go-to solution for getting rid of adware and spyware, but it was always meant to be used together with a proper antivirus. It may not be quite there yet, but it is improving quite rapidly. Recently, however, Malwarebytes has been transformed into a complete antivirus, one that should provide protection against all kinds of threats and make an additional antivirus application unnecessary. It was mostly designed to find potentially harmful software, spyware, and adware on your system, as opposed to looking for viruses via signatures or heuristics. For a long time, Malwarebytes wasn't considered a classic antivirus program.

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