The free version is more than adequate for most users. There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is desshoigned solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it. Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance. They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware. The core antivirus technology consistently earns perfect and near-perfect scores from independent testing labs, and its ransomware-specific protection aced our tests. There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.ĪntiVirus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear.

This user tip describes what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community.

NO! There is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party 'cleaning', 'optimizing', 'speed-up', anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac.

Malwarebytes review cnet