Cybercriminals are always inventing new ways to break into your computer to steal money or personal info they can blackmail you with. Using a good antivirus is essential to stop these attacks.

1. Free Antivirus For Mac Downloads
2. Free Mac Security Software
3. Free Antivirus For Windows 10
4. Antivirus Macbook
5. Best Security Software For Mac

Avira Free Security bucks the annual subscription trend by being entirely free to use. It does a pretty good job of catching and eliminating unwanted software, although it doesn’t have all the fine-tuning options of commercial rivals. It’s simple to use and doesn’t affect Mac performance much at all. Avira Launches an All-In-One Security Solution for Mac. One of the biggest names in antivirus software has unveiled its latest offering for Macs. German cybersecurity brand, Avira, has launched a new, complete antivirus suite for Mac. The antivirus solution, called Avira Security for Mac, comes with both free and paid versions. Product Review: Mac Security ‐ July 2018 www.av-comparatives.org 2 Contents Macs and Security Software 3 Security Software for macOS High Sierra 5 Malware Protection Test 6 Summary 8 Review format 9 Avast Security for Mac Free 10 Avira Antivirus Pro for Mac 13 Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac 15. 'New Free Antivirus for Mac OS X. ' Avira Free Mac Security is a highly efficient virus and malware file scanner. In testing and anecdotal reports from users suggests that the Avira Free Security package for the Mac is able to find trojans and other nasty infections better than most other similar software.

Avira Antivirus is one of the leaders in cybersecurity. Some of its many benefits include:

• Excellent malware protection
• Blocking phishing and infected sites
• Data and identity protection
• Powerful cloud-based AI
• Low resource requirements

Avira Antivirus has a subscription option for every budget (from one month to three years). And there’s also a free option that’s almost as good as Avira Pro.

Would you like to learn more about Avira Antivirus? Are you looking for an installation guide? You can find this and more in our article below.

Avira Antivirus is a virus scanner that protects internet users against malware attacks. It keeps your identity, money, and personal information safe at all times. Their new anti-ransomware feature stops unknown threats in their tracks. Avira is a German software company that was founded over 30 years ago. Since then, it has grown into a market leader in antivirus products. However, it’s still relatively small compared to Kaspersky, Bitdefender, Avast or AVG.

Avira recently backed its antivirus with comprehensive security packages, complete with a VPN, browser protection, software updates, password management, and free system optimization.

In this review, we’ll test Avira Antivirus across the board, including its free package and Avira Antivirus Pro. How will their protection, speed, and ease of use fair against our critical eye? You can read all about this and more in our extensive review below.

Avira Packages and Prices

In addition to their free version (Avira Free Antivirus), Avira offers three paid packages with various features.

All packages include some basic features, such as virus and malware protection. Moreover, the premium packages offer additional features.

You’ll find a summary of Avira’s various packages below:

For each package, you can select the desired number of devices you wish to protect. With Antivirus Pro and Avira Internet Security, you can choose between one, three, or five devices. With Avira Prime, you can choose either five devices or an unlimited number of devices. You can also determine the subscription’s duration (i.e. one, two, or three years, or monthly). Avira, therefore, offers a lot of flexibility and the possibility to tailor the packages to your needs.

You can see the various prices for Avira Pro below, which is the version we tested. If you adjust the number of devices from one to three or five, the price will of course increase slightly.

Not satisfied? Avira offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you’re impressed by Avira and want to try out a subscription right away, click on the button below:

Avira Antivirus Pro’s Features

The table above already specified which options Avira Antivirus Pro has to offer. The advantage of Pro over the free version is that it offers protection against ransomware. This version won’t bother you with advertisements, and it will give you access to customer service. Apart from that, there are no major differences between the Pro and the free version.

There are a number of features missing from Avira Antivirus Pro, while they are included in several other virus scanners, such as McAfee or Intego. Features like the vulnerability scanner aren’t included, for example. The vulnerability scanner allows you to identify the weak points in your system and thus provides additional protection against hackers.

Avira Antivirus Pro also doesn’t have its own firewall. Firewalls are essential when you want to prevent hackers and malware from reaching your computer. Nonetheless, Avira’s firewall manager can help you optimize the firewall built into Windows, called Windows Firewall.

Avira Free Antivirus Features

There are free virus scanners that are almost as good as their paid versions. However, free virus scanners often have several disadvantages. Consider, for example, annoying advertisements, privacy risks or unwanted browser messages. Free virus scanners sometimes also fail to provide basic protection. You might be wondering, is this the case for Avira Free?

In terms of protection, Avira’s free software, Avira Free Antivirus, is almost as good as the paid version, Avira Antivirus Pro. However, the free version offers no protection against ransomware. Avira Free Antivirus also isn’t equipped with a separate email scanner that checks email attachments for malware and infected links in advance. Nonetheless, the virus scanner does of course offer protection when you try to open malicious attachments.

Virus scanners are often provided for free by producers of antivirus software for marketing purposes. Consequently, Avira Free will occasionally bombard you with popups offering you great deals to get you to switch to the paid version. The free version also regularly tries to convince users that the paid version is necessary to solve certain problems. See the example below:

The advertisements and popups are major drawbacks of the free version. The only way to get rid of them is to purchase Avira Antivirus Pro.

Security: How Well Does Avira Antivirus Protect Your Computer?

What about protection against the latest viruses, spyware, Trojans, and malware? Can Avira’s virus scanner recognize active malware and detect phishing? That’s what we’ll be detailing in this section.

Virus detection

Once you’ve installed Avira, the virus detection feature will work all by itself. The virus scanner automatically scans your computer. Avira also offers the option to perform a quick or full manual scan at any time. You can manage these scans yourself, meaning you can decide how often the scan should run.

Avira’s virus scanner offers protection against ransomware and detects viruses, spyware, and Trojans. Infected files will be repaired, and infected sites are blocked. Avira also blocks phishing attacks.

Cloud-based technology

Avira uses the latest cloud technology to provide the best virus protection. When Avira spots a suspicious file, it’ll check it while it’s still in the cloud. This means that most malware detection and analysis won’t take place on your computer. Your device is connected to the global cloud-based threat detection system. Furthermore, since Avira only fights malware on its own servers, it can keep its methods secret.

Hackers won’t be able to figure out what Avira knows. Because of this, Avira is always one step ahead of them. Furthermore, low-resource cloud-based technology makes Avira a light virus scanner that won’t slow down your computer.

Avira Antivirus’s security score

We were impressed with Avira’s security and have calculated a security score for Avira Pro based on research by AV-Comparatives.

According to AV-Comparatives’ tests, Avira scores above average in blocking malware. Only 0.4 percent of the test attacks managed to bypass protection. This is below (and therefore better) the average of all providers tested, which was 0.8 percent.

The tests also looked at false positives. These are harmless files that are wrongly classified as malicious. Only one false positive was detected with Avira Pro. This is well below the average of 8.3.

In our tests, Avira Antivirus is one of the best in the field when it comes to security. There are only a few providers that score better in this regard. For example, Kaspersky protects against 99.9 percent of all threats, with no false positives.

The great security mark in combination with the low number of false positives results in a security score of 9.0 for Avira.

Privacy: How Does Avira Handle Your Data?

Avira states that they don’t just protect users against malware, viruses, and other threats, but also keep users’ personal data safe. This means that user data isn’t shared with third parties, such as governments or advertising firms.

As a German company, Avira has always been subject to one of the strictest data protection laws. This is because, in Germany, privacy protection is seen as one of the most important civil rights. Rules that protect against the misuse of personal data are included in the German constitution and in the Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (i.e. the German Personal Data Protection Act).

Avira declares that they adhere to applicable data protection legislation, in particular the German Telemedia Act (TMG) and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For privacy, we, therefore, give Avira a 9.0.

Ease of Use: How User-Friendly is Avira Antivirus?

Anyone should be able to use a virus scanner without difficulty. The installation should be easy, and in principle, the virus scanner should be able to function by itself once installed. In this section, we’ll look at Avira’s ease of use.

Avira’s website

Avira’s website is very user-friendly. At the top of the home page, you can select the antivirus software of your choice. You can choose between the free version, Avira Free Antivirus, and one of the paid Avira Antivirus packages. On the website, you’ll find a short description of each version. You’ll be able to download the chosen software with just one click. Still in doubt about which version to choose? Feel free to consult the detailed comparison of the various packages that can be found on their web page as well.

First, we tested Avira’s free version. This version is very easy to install. You just need to click the “Free Download” button to start the installation.

How do I install Avira Free Antivirus?

You can install Avira Free Antivirus by following these three steps:

1. Run the installation file. Double-click the downloaded file.
2. Confirm and click “Yes” in the dialog box to start the installation.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen. This only takes a few minutes.

During the installation of Avira Free Antivirus, various other tools are automatically installed as well. Programs such as Software Updater, Phantom VPN, System Speedup, and Safe Shopping are added to your system automatically without asking you for confirmation first. If you don’t want these unnecessary extras, you’ll have to remove them manually afterwards.

After installation, you’re asked whether you want to perform a smart scan. If you say yes, Avira Free will immediately start the first scan. During this scan, files will be updated and the computer will be scanned for viruses. This all happens automatically.

Avira Antivirus Pro’s installation process

Free Antivirus For Mac Downloads

Installing Avira Antivirus Pro is very quick and easy to do as well. The only possible drawback is that the available payment methods are limited, as you can only pay by credit card or PayPal. If you use the latter, your account will automatically be linked to the email address of your PayPal account once your payment and installation are complete. If you pay for someone else or if you purposefully use a different email address for your PayPal account, this could cause issues.

Avira software

Avira Antivirus works on laptop, smartphone, and tablet and has been developed for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. The software is available in twelve languages. To change the language, click on the “settings” icon in the top right corner of the screen (the one that looks like a cogwheel).

Avira’s software has a clear user interface. On the start-up screen, it instantly shows the “Status” of your antivirus protection. You can also see when the last update was carried out. Moreover, you can click the option “Smart scan” to instantly start a smart scan of your system.

The virus scanner itself is also very user-friendly and separates its scan results into three sections: security, privacy, and performance. Green ticks indicate that all is well. Any issues are also clearly displayed.

Avira’s customer service

If you have an Avira Antivirus Pro subscription, you can make unlimited use of Avira’s customer service. When you log into your Avira account on the website, simply select the option “Support.” To receive support, you need to complete three steps:

1. Choose between “technical support” or “payments and licenses questions”.
2. Indicate which product your question relates to.
3. Complete Avira’s contact form.

The contact form is automatically linked to the email address of the PayPal account with which you completed your payment. As mentioned earlier, this can be inconvenient. Support is offered in a number of languages: English, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian. After completing the contact form, you’ll receive a standardized email stating your query will be answered as soon as possible. When we contacted Avira’s customer service, we received an email response the next day. The speed of this service definitely impressed us.

Avira’s free version doesn’t offer customer support. By checking email addresses, the system recognizes premium users and prevents free users from receiving customer support. Users without a paid subscription will get a message stating they aren’t entitled to that service. They’ll be presented with advertisements for Avira’s premium products instead. Nonetheless, you can of course consult the extensive FAQs on the Avira website. Furthermore, you’ll probably be able to get clear answers to your questions by referring to the videos and useful images available on the website. Unfortunately, there’s no live chat function.

In conclusion, the comprehensive and clear FAQ page in combination with the lack of customer support with Avira Free Antivirus brings us to a 7.0 for Avira’s customer service.

Final assessment for usability

We were pleased with Avira’s ease of use. The antivirus program is easy to install and both the software and the website are very comprehensive. However, the advertisements shown in the free version can be quite annoying, although buying the premium version will easily solve this. That’s why we reward Avira with a 7.0 for ease of use.

Avira’s Speed and System Load

Many will agree that protection is more important than speed, but it’s still preferable when a virus scanner is reasonably fast so you don’t have to wait for hours for a scan to be completed. We ran both a quick antivirus scan and a full scan with Avira Free and Avira Pro, the speed results of which are provided below.

Fast scans versus comprehensive scans

A smart scan takes just a minute with both Avira Antivirus Pro and Avira Free Antivirus. In both versions, the smart scan only scans the most vulnerable areas of the computer. A thorough scan took us about 30 minutes and scans the entire system for viruses. Such scan times are decent and will probably be perfectly acceptable to most users.

The above scan times may vary from user to user and can depend on the number of files on your computer.

System load when running in the background

In addition to speed, it’s also important to look at system load. Virus scanners can overload systems and take up a large part of your CPU’s resources. This can drastically slow down your computer. Slow computers after installing a virus scanner are a major annoyance for many users. Having said that, you might wonder: does Avira slow down your system as well?

We tested the effect of Avira’s virus scanner on our system load. When Avira is running in the background, the processor utilization is 0%. In other words, users won’t notice the difference in computer performance. The maximum RAM usage when running in the background is around 58 MB. During a full scan, the processor’s utilization goes up to 26% with peaks as high as 30%. While performing a fast scan, working memory usage is 64 MB. During a full scan, this goes up to 180 MB. Interestingly, there is no noticeable difference in system load between the free version and the paid versions.

The decent scan times along with the low system load result in a 7.0 for Avira’s speed and performance.

Final Verdict: Is Avira Antivirus a Good Virus Scanner?

Both Avira Free Antivirus and Avira Antivirus Pro offer excellent protection against malware. In addition, Avira is a lightweight virus scanner. Consequently, your computer’s system performance is scarcely affected.

We calculated a final score by looking at security, speed and system load, privacy, ease of use, and customer service. Security counts most strongly in our score and has a 0.5 weighting. Speed and system load come next with a weighting of 0.2. Privacy, ease of use, and customer service each have a weighting of 0.1.

Below are the scores for Avira per component:

• Security: 9.0
• Speed and system load: 7.0
• Privacy: 9.0
• Ease of use: 7.0
• Customer service: 7.0

We arrive at a final mark of 8.2.

Did this review convince you of Avira’s quality and would you like a subscription? Or do you simply want more information about one of the packages? Click on the button below to go to the Avira website.

Do you have a question about Avira Antivirus? We’re happy to help. Check the FAQs below to see if your question is listed. Simply click the question to see your answer.

In addition to the free version, called Avira Free Antivirus, there are a number of paid versions. You can purchase Avira Antivirus Pro for $44.99 per year (one device). Avira Internet Security is more comprehensive and offers extra options. You can buy this package for $57.99 per year (one device). Avira Prime is the most expensive and the most complete Avira package and can be bought for $99.99 per year (covering five devices). Want to know more about what all these subscriptions will get you? Check out our review of Avira right here.

Follow the steps below to remove Avira Antivirus:

1. In Windows 10, right-click the “Start” button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen to open the context menu.
2. Select “Apps and Features”.
3. Click on the Avira product you want to remove and then click on “Uninstall”.
4. Confirm the message you receive regarding uninstalling the product.
5. Click “Yes” to confirm the “User Account Control” request.
6. Click “Yes” to confirm the Avira setup request.

“Avira Setup” will take a few minutes to remove the product. Click the “Yes” button on the dialog box requesting to reboot your system. After restarting your computer, the Avira product will be completely removed.

Free Mac Security Software

Yes, Avira also has a free version, namely Avira Free Antivirus. The free Avira package is almost as good as its paid version, Avira Antivirus Pro, in terms of protection. Unfortunately, the free version doesn’t offer protection against ransomware. Furthermore, in the free version, you will also regularly see advertisements.

There is a significant list of antimalware solutions available for macOS. And Avast Security for Mac is definitely one of the most impressive ones on the market.

And when I say it is impressive, I know what I am talking about. I tested more than dozen antiviruses for Mac, and only Avast has so many features in the free version, that it makes buying a premium unnecessary. Unless, you need a protection from Ransomware.

In this post, we will do a full review of Avast Security forMac, both free and paid versions.

But before we move forward, let’s address the safety and trust questions.

Is Avast Security for Mac Safe?

According to AV-Test and AV-Comparatives antivirus testing labs, Avast Security is considered a legitimate antimalware program and it is safe to install on Mac. Avast Security comes with three protection layers called Core Shields: for File, Web, and Mail.

However, there were reports that the company was selling user data to various organizations.

Does Avast Sell Your Data?

Avast was selling the data about user’s behavior on the internet (including Google searches) since 2013 when they acquired the company called Jumpshot.

They claimed that the data was anonymized before being sold to interested parties, but the damage to the reputation was already done. Some tools even decided to label Avast as spyware. Mozilla and Opera browsers removed the software from their bundles.

After the data collection practices were discovered, the company decided to shutdown Jumpshot. However, it is not clear if they stopped collecting user data or not.

So, at this time, the company is not selling data, but nobody knows what can happen in the future. And it’s up to users to decide whether Avast can be trusted or not. To learn more, read the Privacy policy on their site.

Is Avast for Mac any Good?

In general, Avast Security is one of the best free antivirus solutions for macOS. The free version of Avast comes with all features available only in premium antimalware products, such as real-time malware scanning of files, emails, and the Internet sites.

And unlike other antimalware programs, Avast does not require user data, such as email for installation.

Let’s check the testing reports from two independent research labs. I could’ve read user reviews, or base the research on articles from bloggers (Avast affiliates), but I only trust companies that perform AV testing professionally.

There are multiple AV testing labs, but only two providetests for Macs.

Avast Security Is Good According to AV-Test

AV-TEST GmbH is an independent IT security research institute from Germany. They do not recommend any products but produce the test results free of charge, and it’s a job of a consumer to decide which AV is the best.

The latest Avast product review can be found here: Avast Home User Products.

AV-Test tests security programs in three categories:Protection, Performance, and Usability. The highest score in each category is6.

In the latest test, Avast was given the highest score in protection against malware infections (viruses, worms, and/or Trojans). It was able to detect 100% of threats in the test samples, higher than the industry average of 99%.

In the Performance test, which gauges the impact of the product on the system, Avast was also awarded the perfect score of 6.

The effect of the antivirus on the speed of downloads, installing and launching apps, and copying files, was between 1-4%, which is lower than the industry average.

Free Antivirus For Windows 10

And finally, Avast excelled in the Usability test, whichmeasures false positives (false detection of legit software as malware, ordisplaying unnecessary warnings).

However, it is helpful to see things in perspective. While the last results were impressive, over the years Avast did not consistently get good marks in some of the tests:

Avast Security is Good According to AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an antimalware testing lab based in Austria, and the certifications it awards are globally recognized.

According to the AV-Comparatives, in the latest tests, Avast received an Approved Security Product award along with products such as Avira, Bitdefender, CrowdStrike, F-Secure, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro.

In the lab’s main test, Real-World Protection Test, Avastwas able to achieve Advanced level, which is higher than Standard, but lowerthan Advanced+.

I have to note that Avast Security program performance inAV-Comparatives tests has also fluctuated over the years.

So, if you read this article two-three years after its publication, I suggest checking the latest results from both labs, so that you have freshest data.

Avast for Mac is Good Enough According My Tests

Did anybody else test Avast antivirus?

Well, I did.

I was lucky to find a place with hundreds of malware targeting Mac users. And I was dumb enough to download all of them on my MacBook and test 13 antimalware products.

What did I find?

I found that while Avast was not the best in the class in my testing, it was good enough. It missed a few malware samples.

I also found two (or strictly speaking only one) antivirus programs which detected and removed all viruses, including trojans, worms, adware and ransomware.

A link to the post with the results of my test and the name of the winners is down below in Conclusion.

Avast Security for Mac Review

Installation

The free download of Avast Security for Mac is availablefrom the company web site avast.com.

• On Mac, the install media will be saved as a DMG file in the Downloads folder.
• Just run the installer from there.
• Double click on Install Avast Security.pkg file and keep clicking on the Continue button where appropriate.
• Agree to the terms of the software license.
• Hit the Install button. The software will download the latest virus definitions.
• Enter the password when the installer tries to install new software.
• At the end of install Mac’s System Security will pop up a message if you want to install System Extension.
• Open System Preferences, click on the padlock icon, and then click Allow.
• While you are in the System Preferences app, click on the Privacy tab, select Full Disk Access on the left pane, then find Avast in the right pane and check the box next to the app name.

Some users do not feel comfortable allowing Full Disk Access for Avast, but any Mac antivirus will require such access. Avast needs full disk access to scan all folders on a Mac. Without permission, the tool can not read files in all folders and quarantine malware if found on a disk.

What’s interesting about the installation is that it didn’task for my email or any other information like almost all other free apps.

Scanning

Once the antivirus is installed, you should run the scan.

If you didn’t give Full Disk Access during installation, theapp would ask it again during the scan. This is expected from any antimalwareprogram.

How long does it take to finish the initial scan depends onthe size of the disk. Just minimize the app and keep doing what you were doing.Avast does take some CPU resources, but do not slow down other processes on Mac.

On my MacBook Pro Avast scanned 159095 files in 10 minutes and 45 seconds with default settings.

It classified one of the Mail attachments as a threat andoffered to resolve the issue by moving it to the Virus Chest.

Virus Chest

Avast uses a special isolated space called Virus Chest tocontain the infected files. The files get automatically moved there during thescan.

You can also add files manually.

Sometimes, the file can be placed in Virus Chest by mistake.In this case, you can restore it by opening the Virus Chest from the mainwindow, scroll and find the file. When the file is selected, you can see thetrash icon and three dots next to it.

To restore the file, click on three dots, and in thedrop-down menu, select either Restore or Restore as action. Restore as actionlets to restore the file in a user-specified location. Both actions requireentering the admin password.

Is it safe to delete files from the Avast virus chest?

Clicking on the Trash icon in the chest deletes the file permanently. It does not go to MacBook Trash, so they will be gone forever. The only option after removing the file is to try special tools such as Disk Drill, but the results are not guaranteed.

Core Shields

Several protection components in the app block malware in real-time. They are called Core Shields, and they include File, Web, and Mail.

File Shield

This is the main layer of protection, and this is the core functionality you expect from any antivirus to do in real-time. Every time any file gets saved, copied, modified, it gets triggered.

It also scans the files when they get opened or executed. If malware detected during a file scan, the shield protects the Mac from being infected.

Web Shield

As the name suggests, it protects a user when she browsesthe internet from downloading malware or executing malicious scripts.

Mail Shield

This is the final component. It scans incoming (andoutgoing) messages in the email clients, such as Mail.app or Microsoft Outlook.It does not scan Gmail when the user accesses it from the browser. Browser, asI mentioned above, is protected by Web Shield.

By default, all shields will be enabled, but they can bedisabled at any time.

For instance, the Mail Shield had problems with the MacMyths.com mail server.

Basically, Avast told me that I might be connected to a server that pretends to be my mail server in order to get confidential information. And all my accounts went offline.

I had to turn off Mail Shield and turn all accounts backonline.

Configuration

It is possible to use the antivirus as is with the defaultsettings, but I suggest to check some configuration settings anyway.

Click on the Menu button in the top right corner of the appscreen, and then click on Preferences.

General

In this section, make sure that the following settings areenabled:

• Turn on automatic updates
• Open Avast Security when computer starts up

Personal Privacy

Remember how the article about the company selling data?Usually, when I download an app, it asks me if I allow sharing my data, but notthis program. All three checkboxes in the Personal Privacy were enabled bydefault. So, go ahead, uncheck all of them.

Core Shields

Enable all settings in this section. Additionally, it ispossible to exclude certain files or web/mail servers from scanning. It isuseful for test servers if you are a developer or the files that you know arenot malware.

Scans and Wi-Fi Inspector

Leave default settings as is.

Ransomware Shield

It’s a premium feature, not available in the free version.

Premium Features

As you know, Avast is not a charity company. It’s afor-profit corporation, and they make money only when users buy their premiumproducts. They are not making a single penny from their free software.

So, I don’t understand people who complain that the company is aggressively promoting Avast Premium Security.

For instance, at the bottom of the main screen of the free app, you can see a bar with a message “You are not protected in 3 areas”. Clicking on the Resolve button brings another screen with an offer to:

1. Protect primary folders from Ransomware
2. Monitor Wi-Fi
3. Protect from DNS hijacking

All of those features are part of the Premium package, which costs $69/year.

Is Avast Premium Security for Mac Worth the Money?

The only feature, interesting to me, is Ransomware protection. If you don’t know what it is, it’s malware that encrypts the entire computer disk and then asks money in order to decrypt it again.

One of the examples of Ransomware attack happened in Baltimore when all computers in the city government were compromised, and the city lost all its data.

The best prevention against such attacks, however, is periodic backups. If you keep backing up the Mac, it is easy to restore it later in case of malware attack (assuming the backup drive was not encrypted either).

So, to conclude, I wouldn’t pay for Premium. In my opinion,the free version is pretty good. It performs very well in malware detection andremoval, and it does provide real-time protection.

How to Uninstall Avast Antivirus from Mac

Since Avast gets access to the various system folder, do noteven try to delete the app by moving it to Trash. That won’t work.

To remove the program completely, click on Avast in the Apple menu bar. In the drop-down menu, select the Uninstall Avast Security item. Enter the admin password if needed. The uninstall process will start, and in the end, all you need is to click on the Quit button.

In case you don’t trust Avast to clean up after itself, you can try CleanMyMac or AppCleaner. Both apps will remove the app without leaving any traces.

Antivirus Macbook

Do You Need Avast for Mac?

Macs do get viruses, and most users need an antivirus solution that provides more protection than macOS built-in mechanisms, such as GateKeeper and X-Protect. However, for someone who can not afford a premium antimalware program, Avast Security for Mac provides many protection features for free.

The free app from Avast is an excellent antivirus approved by independent testing labs. It is safe to use Avast; however, there are still some concerns about their user data collection practices.

Best Security Software For Mac

However, while Avast is a good free tool, in my experience, it does not catch all viruses.

How do I know?

I tested them myself along with a dozen other antimalware products. I intentionally downloaded 117 malware samples to find out which software is best for scanning and removing viruses.

Needless to say that I was surprised by my findings. Enough, to say that Avast removed 98.3% of samples after multiple scans.

Best Free Antivirus for Mac

This article is one of the “Best Free Antivirus” series, which also include reviews of: