• Pros Top scores from AV-Comparatives, good scores from AV-Test. Cleaned most Windows malware in hands-on tests. • Cons Protection against malicious and fraudulent URLs requires separate download. Mediocre score in antiphishing test. • Bottom Line Avira Free Antivirus for Mac costs nothing, and it gets good scores from the independent labs, but it's not the best free Mac antivirus we've tested.

Dec 7, 2018 - For a free option, AVG AntiVirus for Mac is not too shabby, with its 99.9 percent detection rate and easy-to-use design. Unfortunately, other free.

Though some Mac enthusiasts might argue the contrary, Macs aren't invulnerable. You need protection on your macOS devices.

Sure, Windows and Android are much more popular targets, but Apple machines get hit with malware too, including nasty variants like ransomware. If you don't care to pay for antivirus protection on your Mac, consider Avira Free Antivirus for Mac. It doesn't cost a penny, and it did well in tests by the independent labs. Scheduled scanning is enabled by default, once per week.

You can add more scheduled quick or full scans, on a daily or weekly basis. Clicking Modules in the left-side menu displays the status of four security modules: Real-Time Protection, Protection Cloud, Firewall, and USB Scanner (the last is reserved for the Pro edition of this product).

Seeing the label Firewall, you might get the impression that Avira includes a firewall component, like Intego, McAfee, and Norton. However, this component simply controls the built-in macOS firewall component. Pricing and OS Support.

There's a big range of prices for Mac-based antivirus support. At the high end, Intego lists at $99.99 per year to protect three Macs, and asks $89.99 per year for five cross-platform licenses. Mac os system 8 emulator. Granted, these two are security suites, going beyond what a simple antivirus utility offers.

The most common pricing plan among products we've reviewed is $39.99 per year for one license and $59.99 for three. As for Avira, you don't pay a thing. Like, it's totally free. You do need a modern operating system to use this antivirus.

Avira requires macOS El Capitan (10.11) or better. If you're using an old operating system, you may need to consider a different Mac antivirus. Sophos support runs back to Mountain Lion (10.8), Webroot works on Lion (10.7) or better, and goes all the way back to Snow Leopard (10.6).

Good Malware Protection Lab Scores When evaluating Windows antivirus utilities for, I use a wide range of tests that I've developed over the years. I don't have anything similar in hand for the macOS platform, as my many hand-coded testing tools are Windows-only. For Mac antivirus, I necessarily rely more heavily on the independent testing labs to know which products are effective.

Fortunately, most of them do just fine. Two of the independent antivirus testing labs I follow include macOS products in their testing, and both have Avira on their test roster. Certifies Avira for malware protection, with the best possible scores. It achieved 100 percent protection against Mac-centric malware (to be fair, most of the products in this test reached 100 percent).