Your Mac is not immortal. It is capable of catching a virus, so consider getting the best free antivirus programs for Mac that are on the market. What have you got to lose when they are free? Besides your Mac…
All these are free products that are only going to help your Mac perform better for a longer time. Choose one, and move forward with a better security plan for your Mac.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Avast! Free Mac Security
Avast is one of the most popular antivirus programs across all platforms. It has been in the industry for well over a decade now, and many people trust it. Specific tools for this free antivirus include:
- Quick full system malware scans
- Email thread checking
- Attachment scanning
- Download scanning
- Webpage risk assessment
- Drag-and-drop file scanning
- Phishing attack protection
All these features are active while the scanning of external drives (such as USB thumb drives) is on-going.
You may think that with so many features, it will be difficult to figure out Avast. Surprisingly, the program is quite intuitive. You’re given five basic buttons to push as well as a real-time graph that shows what’s happening on your Mac.
While you are downloading Avast, it’s going to ask you if you want to add two paid services. You don’t need these particular services; they are not the best, considering that you are getting the program for free anyway. It offers a
Best free antivirus for Mac: Avira Free Antivirus for Mac
Avira has put a lot of work into balancing an easy-to-use interface with quick-to-access advanced utilities. You can do basic system scans when you need to. You can schedule specific file scans as well.
This antivirus software has:
- Spyware protection
- Adware protection
- Website risk analysis
- 5GB of online storage
- Easy deletion of malicious files
While this is one of the best free antivirus Mac programs, it also has one of the biggest sizes. It is heavy on system resource use as well. It is free, but you will have to free up a bit of space on your Mac for it.
Since Avira is associated with a high-quality paid service, you’ll benefit from frequent malware updates. Depending on your system resource needs, this may just be the best free antivirus for Mac that is currently on the market today.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
Malwarebytes started as an adware removal tool, but it is now a full anti-malware tool. It used to be for Windows only, where it was a favorite backup system for ‘always on’ malware software on that operating system.
On Mac, Malwarebytes has the same effectiveness as the Windows version. That means that you get to enjoy these features:
- Malware scans as soon as you push the button to perform them.
- Scans take less than 15 seconds.
- The program itself is smaller than three digital songs.
- Kills programs that can slow down your Mac.
However, you have to do the scans periodically as the software does not have real-time protection.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Sophos Antivirus Mac Home Edition
Sophos has been looking at Mac malware since 1982. This history makes it one of the best software providers of free antivirus for Mac out there. You can expect:
- Custom scans
- Scans on demand
- Scheduled scans
- Scans of specific files, folders, and drives
- Tools for deleting malicious software
- Quarantine tools
This real-time antivirus tool is exceptional; it’s not just useful because it’s free. It is also lightweight and will not impede your Mac’s performance very much.
The interface is easy to understand as most things are done from the main menu. If you want, it can be a completely hands-off solution for your Mac’s antivirus needs. Just set it up and then leave it as it works real-time all the time.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Bitdefender Virus Scanner for Mac
Bitdefender’s Virus Scanner for Mac features an award-winning antivirus engine. Thanks to its wide range of scanning options, you’re allowed to perform deep scans of your whole system quickly or simply target a specific area of your Mac.
You can grant it access to certain areas of your Mac like:
- Launch agents
- System library
If you need things done quickly, access to such areas will allow you to bypass longer scans so you could resume your work. Also, you’ll get hourly updates from Bitdefender’s hourly malware scanning system. It does everything it can to help you:
This is where its exceptionalism ends though. Bitdefender is somewhat limited as compared to free antivirus options for Mac that we have looked at. But it comes from a trusted source, so the updates are frequent.