


As a Unix-based operating system macOS is sandboxed. On the technical side, macOS is a Unix-based operating system. Macs are generally more secure than their Windows brethren for two reasons. We’d argue that they are wrong – or a bit overconfident, at least. Plenty of Mac aficionados will tell you that Apple computers are inherently secure and don’t need protection. These alternatives include Avira and Avast, but we can’t confidently say how safe they’ll keep you or how much they’ll affect the performance of your machine. There are some antivirus solutions that we don’t have AV-Tests results for and therefore haven’t included in this article. So you need to balance cost against performance impact when selecting a product. You’ll see that even though the best free antivirus programs are good at protection, they tend to hurt your Mac’s speed much more than paid- for software. AV-Test also looks at the impact of these pieces of software on your system: in layman’s terms, how much the antivirus slows down your Mac, if at all.įor each of the security solutions we outline here, we have tested their ability to keep your Mac safe, and balanced that against the impact on your Mac’s performance. In order for an antivirus to work effectively it also needs to be unobtrusive. Thank you!īut security is only half the story. You can support the site directly via Paypal donations ☕. TNR earns Amazon affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases.
