Your Mac is not immortal. It is capable of catching a virus, and you should consider getting the best free antivirus for Mac that is on the market. What have you got to lose when they’re free? Besides your Mac…
These are all free products that are only going to help your Mac perform better for longer. 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. They’ve been in the industry for well over a decade now, and many people trust them. Specific tools for this free antivirus include:
- Quick full system malware scans
- Email thread and attachment scanning
- Download scanning
- Webpage risk assessment
- Drag-and-drop file scanning
- Phishing attack protection
All while still being able to scan external drives, such as USB thumb drives.
You may think that with all of these features that it is difficult to figure out, but it is quite intuitive. You’re given five basic buttons to push, and a real-time graph that shows what’s happening on your Mac.
While you are downloading it, 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, especially considering what you are getting for free anyway. They offer a VPN, but IPVanish is a much more quality option than what they offer for the same price.
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’re able to do basic system scans whenever you need to, and then later schedule file specific scans as well.
This antivirus software has:
- Spyware protection
- Adware protection
- Website risk analysis
- 5 GB of online storage
- Easy deletion of malicious files
While this is one of the best free antivirus Mac programs, it is also one of the biggest. 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 it is associated with a high-quality paid service, you benefit from frequent malware updates. Depending upon your system resource needs, this may just be the best free antivirus for Mac currently on the market. They also have a great tool for iPhone security.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac
This used to only be for Windows users. It was a favorite backup system for ‘always on’ malware software on that operating system.
Mac Malwarebytes started as an adware removal tool, but it is now a full anti-malware tool. It has the same effectiveness on Mac as it does on Windows. 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.
You just have to be sure to do the scans periodically. It does not have real-time protection.
Best free antivirus for Mac: Sophos Antivirus Mac Home Edition
Sophos have been looking at Mac malware since 1982. This history definitely makes them one of the best free antivirus for Mac software providers 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 antivirus needs: just set it up and forget about 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. This is thanks to their wide range of scanning options, which allow you to quickly perform deep scans of your whole system, or simply target a specific area of your Mac.
You can grant it access to certain areas of your Mac:
- Launch agents
- System library
This will help you bypass longer scans when you need things done quickly so that you can get to work. You will also get hourly updates from Bitdefender’s hourly malware scanning system. They do everything they can to help you:
This is where it’s at exceptionalism ends though. It is somewhat more limited than other free antivirus for Mac options that we have looked at, but it comes from a trusted source that updates it frequently.