Avast Free Antivirus for Mac is Avast's answer to concerns about how to browse safely. The application is packaged with a brand-new, easy-to-understand graphical user interface, with access to all features available at single click.

1. Avast For Mac
2. Is Avast Mac Security Safe
3. Avast For Mac Review
4. Avast Free Mac Security Review

Keep your web browsers up to date, the system/security updates, up to date. Is avast for mac any good More Less. Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted. The lack of experience Avast has shown in dealing with the Mac platform was very clearly demonstrated by the Avast representative whom made several obvious errors in their attempts to discredit Thomas Reed, Who has always been a trusted source of good quality technical information on Mac security. Sep 08, 2009  Question: Q: is avast for mac any good More Less Apple Footer This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Avast Free Mac Security is developed by one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world named Avast. The company uses next-gen technologies in order to provide advanced protection against malware, cyber attacks and other cyber threats in real time. Avast is a very good Av suite. As already pointed out it scores very high in comparative testing and is well regarded in the tech community. It comes in two versions, the free Av scanner and active defense scanner, and the paid for suite, which has online security features, firewall, ability to create a USB vaccination stick, and more advanced.

The application's onscreen tools are well-organized, and its live graphics enhance the feeling of safety -- you can see that the antivirus software doesn't sleep and is always working to protect you from any viruses circulating on the Web. Avast's free software provides three shields to protect your computer: a file system shield, an e-mail shield, and a Web shield. With all three representing a door to your computer, Avast does a great job of watching these entrances.

However, this comes at a cost, and we don't mean money: as soon as you launch the app, you'll notice a slight drop in your computer's performance, which is due to Avast being at work scanning your entire computer for infected files. Secondly, it affects your browser's performance, as it also scans the pages you attempt to navigate to for viruses through the extensions it installs in Safari, Firefox, and Chrome browsers. We did find its notification feature handy, as it informs the user about its actions, so you'll always know what the software is up to.

Overall, Avast Antivirus for Mac is a nice addition to your Mac toolbox. It's free and very easy to use.

What do you need to know about free software?

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.

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

Reasons to Buy

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

Reasons to Buy

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.

Reasons to Buy

Avast For Mac

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.

Reasons to Avoid

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.

Reasons to Buy

Reasons to Avoid

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

Is Avast Mac Security Safe

Reasons to Buy

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.

Reasons to Buy

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.

Reasons to Buy

Reasons to Avoid

Avast For Mac Review

Avast Free Mac Security Review

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.