I’ve not been too worried about malware on our Macs until now, but I get the impression that our risks are increasing. After I read this article Best Antivirus for Mac 2024: Top Security Software Compared today, which may interest many of you, I bit the bullet and bought Intego Mac Internet Security X9.
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I used to have Norton 360 for Mac which I installed because I worked for Symantec. It was sort-of-OK and got good reviews, but it was a royal pain. It would randomly start chewing up massive amounts of CPU time when updating either the product or AV definitions, their firewall was flaky, and features like the VPN were equally flaky and never well-thought out for the Mac. Many times I had to uninstall and reinstall the product to get it to behave. Until the next time if flaked out.
When my Microsoft 365 subscription started offering Microsoft Defender AV as part of the subscription, I ditched Norton and its $100 USD yearly subscription fee for Microsoft Defender and the Mac’s built-in firewall. It’s been almost a year now and it’s worked for me - no burps or strange behavior. Whodathunkit from Microsoft on the Mac.
As always, your mileage may vary.
Also, check to see if your ISP offers anything meaningful.
For example, it appears that Verizon offers a McAfee-based security suite for FiOS customers. And Comcast used to (but doesn’t appear to currently) offer Norton Internet Security as bundle with their cable modem service.
I’m not saying you should select something just because it’s provided at no extra charge, but if there is an offering and it appears to be an acceptable product, you may want to use it instead of paying for yet another subscription.
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FWIW- been using Intego Virus Software for well over 5 years- currently X9 version- no problems- rough recall only two or three virus hits found during that time. Updates almost weekly and choice of quick check or full check Using on mac minis with intel and apple processors
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ClamXAV might suit you:
It’s relatively inexpensive and uses up-to-date virus lists.
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I use ClamXAV.
Cheaper than all others and does the job…
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I use Bitdefender for years, also for my clients, found it very reliable and one of the best.
For clients the payed Version did some quirks some months ago (no scan until re-login the client into bitdefender account). For myself I use the Mac-App-Store Version, payed once many years ago, use since then. Sometimes if I need a quick, manual scan on another Mac without a Virusscanner-App installed, I just use the free Mac-App-Store Version.
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Virus Scanner Plus im Mac App Store : buy only once; must be set up (eg. disk access rights) for each user account on the Mac.
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Bitdefender Virus Scanner im Mac App Store as above only without live scan in the background, free of charge. So you have to click for each scan and remember to do so regularly.
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More professional is Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac - Bester Virenschutz für Mac : There are costs per year
note: initial purchase is significantly cheaper than the extensions, so buy 2 to 3 years right away
As the article in my OP says, and the posts so far indicate, there are many good AV apps. MacWorld only listed their top picks (which their own editors use, BTW), 14 paid and 5 free ones, but said there are many more. Some of those, too, may be at least OK. For instance, I use CMMX, which has recently added an AV routine of its own, MOONLOCK. IMO MacPaw’s been pretty reliable in the past, so I suspect MOONLOCK’s OK, too, but I’ve never seen it independently reviewed, which is why I bought Intego’s. In the end, it seems you pays your money and you makes your choice, and you’ll probably be safe with most of them. The key takeaway is that nowadays Macs need such protection, and it’ll probably get worse.
I run Intego’s free VirusBarrier Scanner once a day, after running MacUpdater, and before my daily CCC clone and TimeMachine Backups. Also run BlockBlock to detect potential malicious processes.