Avast can be an application for internet protection developed for MAC, Mobiles, and systems that are operating. Avast is a lot of the most company that is massive cybersecurity software and applications.

(Last updated on April 20th, 2019)

Malwarebytes or Avast, which antivirus software is a better option in 2019?

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Avast markets its computer security products as “anti-virus,” while Malwarebytes calls its tools “anti-malware.”

“What’s the difference between viruses and malware?” you may ask.

Put simply, a computer virus is a specific type of malware that replicates itself by changing other computer programs, while malware is an umbrella term which is used to refer to a variety of forms of harmful or intrusive software, including viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, and more.

Back in the day, the term “antivirus” made the headlines so a lot of cyber-security companies – including Avast – named their security products after it.

But that doesn’t mean an “antivirus” product would only protect against viruses; in fact, most modern antivirus products protect against a wide variety of malware threats.

Malwarebytes and Avast are two slightly different type of tools; the former’s specialty lies in hunting down previously unseen malware (also called zero-day malware), while the latter is a complete package that provides excellent protection against all sorts of new and old viruses, adware, spyware, ransomware, exploits, and more.

Now, let’s begin with the detailed comparison between Avast and Malwarebytes…

First, let’s look at the different antivirus (or anti-malware) suites both companies offer and the stuff included in each one of them.

If you want the answer straightway, take a look at the summary of this ultimate comparison below and also read our short verdict to make your mind.

Short Verdict

Avast is the winner as it offers more security-enhancing features and extra utilities in its security suites than Malwarebytes. Also, independent lab tests prove that Avast is better than Malwarebytes in terms of both malware detection and the impact on system performance.

Avast

Let’s begin with the detailed comparison.

What is Included in Malwarebytes Anti-malware Suites?

Malwarebytes offers a separate lineup of products for Windows and MacOS.

First, let’s see what is included in the two suites that Malwarebytes offers for Windows users: Malwarebytes Free and Malwarebytes Premium.

Unlike most of the modern free security tools, Malwarebytes’ freeware is a cleanup-only product, with no real-time (or on-access) protection. In simple terms, it doesn’t protect you against threats in real-time, but it can help you remove malware that has already infected your system.

It can also help you remove spyware and rootkits.

To prevent malware from sneaking into your system in the first place, you must purchase Malwarebytes Premium. It adds real-time threat monitoring capability, a powerful anti-exploit module (protects your system and other software against exploit attacks), an anti-ransomware, and protection against fake, malicious websites.

Of late, the company has started claiming its premium security product as “a next-generation antivirus replacement,” but I believe the product still has a long way to go to reach that status.

For MacOS, Malwarebytes offers two similar security solutions for home-based users: Malwarebytes Free and Malwarebytes Premium.

The freeware will only help you clean your infected Mac, while the premium one provides protection against viruses, spyware, ransomware, adware, and other types of malware. Also, it will automatically update to the latest version, so you don’t have to worry about updating it.

What is Included in Avast Antivirus Suites?

First, let’s see what Avast offers for home-based Windows users.

Avast’s freeware, popularly known as Avast Free Antivirus, is one of the best free antivirus software available in the market. It includes a lot of security-related tools and handy utilities (some of them are limited, which is expected as the software is completely free), along with great protection against all sorts of new and old malware threats.

A WiFi Inspector (scans for vulnerabilities in your home-network and exposes intruders), a limited Software Updater, and a password manager are all part of the free version.

A rescue disk option to remove deeply rooted malware infections and a silent/gaming mode feature for interruption-free experience are also included in the Avast’s free offering.

Avast Online Security free browser extension safeguards your online experience by blocking websites that are fake or known to be involved in phishing/fraudulent practices, while Avast SafePrice is a price comparison and coupon finder tool that can assist you in finding the cheapest deals from around the web.

With Avast Antivirus Pro, you get everything in the free plan plus Sandbox technology (lets you test and play with dangerous files in a virtual environment), a Real Site feature to prevent hackers from hijacking your DNS (Domain Name System) settings, and premium customer support.

The next level up is Avast Internet Security. It adds an advanced firewall, an anti-spam to filter out junk, phishing emails, and also includes an extra layer of ransomware protection to wall off your private folders and photos.

Avast Premier takes things to the next level by adding a data shredder (lets you safely delete your sensitive files so they can’t be recovered), an automatic software updater, and a webcam shield.

Avast Ultimate is the company’s top-tier suite. It includes everything in the “Premier” plan plus Cleanup Premium (removes junk, saves disk space, and speeds up your system) and a VPN. It also includes Avast Passwords Premium, which is the same password manager that comes with the free plan but includes few advanced features.

Now, let’s see what Avast offers for MacOS users…

Avast Security and Avast Security Pro are the two Avast plans that are compatible with Mac platform. The former is a freeware that, much like Avast Free Antivirus for Windows, comes with basic anti-malware security, web and email shields, and a WiFi security scanner (checks your network and connected devices for vulnerabilities).

With Avast Security Pro, you get everything in the free plan plus ransomware protection and a WiFi intruder alert feature (instantly notifies whenever someone connects to your network).

Malwarebytes vs Avast: Which is Better in Terms of Protection?

Nearly all of the antivirus (or anti-malware) tools use signature-based detection (checking files against a huge database of definition files to detect known malware) and heuristic monitoring to detect previously unknown malware, as well as new variants of already-discovered malware. (More information on how advanced malware detection works can be found here.)

Any sample that is suspected to be dangerous is added to cloud servers and if confirmed to be malware upon further examination, it is then sent out to the users in form of latest definition updates.

Both Malwarebytes and Avast claim to protect against both all sorts of known and unknown malware (also called zero-day malware).

First, let’s see how Avast performed in the recent independent lab tests conducted by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives – two respected security labs that regularly test various top antivirus products on different levels.

In the ‘protection’ category of the AV-Test’s most recent review of Avast, they tested the product against 185 samples of zero-day malware and 10,684 samples of widespread malware in the months of November and December last year.

Avast came up with incredible results; it protected against 100% of the zero-day malware samples in both months, and 99.9% and 100% of the widespread malware samples in November and December respectively.

It received an excellent 6-star rating in the ‘protection’ category from the security experts at AV-Test.

Avast Free Antivirus for Mac is Avast's answer to concerns about how to browse safely. The application is packaged with a brand-new, easy-to-understand. Avast Security is a free antivirus that stops malware & finds Wi-Fi security weaknesses. Free Download! In order to view this page correctly, you must have a JavaScript-enabled browser and have JavaScript turned on. Free avast for macbook.

To test the protection level of different antivirus products, AV-Comparatives does two major tests: Real World Protection Test and Malware Protection Test. The former aims to test the product against real-world settings as experienced by users every day, while the latter assesses the software’s ability to protect the system against infections by malicious programs before, during, or after execution.

Avast received a perfect “ADVANCED +” award in both of the tests. (You can see the detailed reports here and here.)

On the other hand, it’s much more difficult to test the effectiveness of Malwarebytes since it doesn’t take part in the independent lab testing for a lot of reasons.

The major reason being that Malwarebytes is not like a traditional antivirus product as it identifies and blocks threats based on their behavior than simple signature-based detection. Its specialty lies in whipping zero-day or zero-hour malware – a type of malware that has been recently created or found on the internet – and not the malware that had originated several years ago.

In fact, to keep the product simple, the company may remove the signature of a particular malware if it hasn’t been spotted in the recent years.

So, a test that uses dated samples to gauge the product’s protection level will make the product look substandard, and is one of the biggest reasons why Malwarebytes doesn’t participate in the independent lab testing.

Also, Malwarebytes encourages its users to run their tool alongside another antivirus tool with stronger definitions like Avast or Bitdefender to stay protected at all times against both known and unknown malware.

Besides scanning, experts report that Malwarebytes has a great malicious URL blocking filter and an Anti-Exploit module.

All things considered, it can be easily said that Avast offers better overall protection against all types of malware threats.

Winner: Avast

Malwarebytes vs Avast: Which Offers a Better Interface?

Now, let’s see which of the two software provides a better user interface.

Avast’s modern-style interface follows a dark color scheme and looks nice, clean, and elegant on both Windows and MacOS. It has a vertical menu along the left edge that has the following categories: Status, Privacy, Protection, and Performance.

The Status category, which is the default window, shows a reassuring “you’re protected” message with a green check mark if everything is all right. It quickly turns to red when your computer’s health is in jeopardy. Just below the message is a button to which lets you run what Avast calls a ‘Smart Scan’.

The other three categories — when clicked — neatly open relevant features and their settings in a horizontal roll-out manner.

At the bottom left, there’s a button which takes you to the settings page, and just above is a button to get you to upgrade to a higher plan.

If you’re on the free plan, you’ll see many of the features that are reserved for paying customers have small padlock icons next to them, meaning they will be of no use to you. Also, it goes without saying that you’ll see unobtrusive ads in the freeware.

Now, let’s dive into the Malwarebytes’ interface…

When you download the free version of Malwarebytes, you automatically get all the premium features free of cost for 14 days.

The program’s interface is immaculate and user-friendly. At first look, it may appear as a little tricky but when you get used to it, you’ll see it’s very straightforward. Avast security for mac download. On most of the occasions, all you will do is to run a scan and look at the results.

Like Avast, there’s a vertical menu on the left with the following categories: Dashboard, Scan, Quarantine, Reports, and Settings. If you’re on the free plan, you’ll see a ‘Why Premium’ button on at the bottom-left which takes you the tour of Malwarebytes Premium.

The Dashboard window is the first thing you see when you open the software. It shows your protection status and also tells you about the number of days remaining in your free trial. You can quickly run a threat scan by just clicking the ‘Scan’ button. On the right side, you’ll see the list of modules that are currently active, your last scan status, and your protection history.

You can run different types of scans (i.e. Threats Scan, Custom Scan, and Hyper Scan) using the Scan button. The Quarantine, Reports, Settings windows are pretty much self-explanatory.

Overall, both Avast and Malwarebytes offer excellent user-experience. So it’s a tie in this category.

Winner: It’s a tie.

Malwarebytes vs Avast: Which Software Costs Less?

First, let’s see how much Malwarebytes costs.

Now, let’s see the prices of different Avast’s plans.

Winner: No comparison can be drawn

Malwarebytes vs Avast: Which Software is More Popular?

To figure out which software is more popular is a difficult task. I will look at the independent market share statistics, total downloads, and social media numbers to decide the winner in this category.

OPSWAT, which is an independent company, publishes monthly reports on the market share captured by the leading antivirus (or anti-malware) companies. According to their most recent report, Avast dominates the market with 19.3%, followed by ESET (4%) and Malwarebytes (12.72%).

On CNET’s download.com, which is the world’s most popular software download portal, Avast has far more total downloads than Malwarebytes.

If you look at the social media following, Avast once again leads the way with 4.1 million Facebook fans and over 182k Twitter followers, as opposed to the Malwarebytes’ 2 million and 50k respectively.

So, it’s clear that Avast is a more popular choice among users.

Winner: Avast

Final Verdict

Avast offers more protection-related features and extra utilities in its security suites than Malwarebytes. Also, Malwarebytes specializes in hunting zero-day malware, while Avast provides top-notch protection against all kinds of malware (including zero-day malware).

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Bitdefender Vs Avira

avast! Free Antivirus for Mac version 9

We review products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use.

• Pros

  Certified by one independent testing lab. Free. Speedy full scan. Network security scanner. Password manager. Website rating. Active Do Not Track.

• Cons

  Poor scores in phishing protection test. Password manager includes only basic features. SiteCorrect feature did not work in testing.

• Bottom Line

  Avast Security (for Mac) delivers effective malware protection along with unusual bonus features. It tanks our antiphishing test, but this free utility is still worth a look.

For years, Mac users basked in the mystique of virus-free computing. It wasn't true, alas, and as time goes on we see more and more Mac-specific malware attacks. The situation may not be nearly as bad as for Window or Android, but prudence still dictates that you install antivirus protection on your Macs as well. Avast Security offers Macs protection against malware along with advanced features including a password manager and a network security scanner, all for a cost of exactly nothing.

Installation went quickly, though I did find I had to separately activate the password manager and the Online Security browser extension from the Tools page. You'll also find Avast's SecureLine VPN on that page, but it's not free like the others. When you click to activate, you get a choice of signing up for $2.99 per month or starting a 30-day trial.

The product's spacious main window features a large status indicator centered in an otherwise-empty white region, with a menu down the left side. It's a very different appearance from Avast Free Antivirus on Windows, which uses pops of purple and green on a dark gray background.

Pricing and OS Support

Like Bitdefender and Kaspersky, Avast supports macOS versions back to 10.9 Mavericks. If you have an antique Mac that for some reason can't even run Mavericks, consider ESET Cyber Security (for Mac), ProtectWorks, or ClamXAV (for Mac) all of which support versions from 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on. At the other end of the spectrum, Avira, Trend Micro, and Symantec require macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or better.

Like Sophos and Avira, Avast offers full antivirus protection for free. Avast Security Pro (for Mac) costs $59.99 per year for one license or $69.99 for three. The Pro edition adds ransomware protection and real-time notification when new devices connect to your network. The free edition is strictly for non-commercial use; in a business setting, you must pay up.

Good Malware Protection Scores

When reviewing a Windows antivirus utility, I report how it scored with four independent antivirus testing labs. The very best products earn top scores from all four labs. But even if no test results exist, I can run my own hands-on tests using real-world malware and malware-hosting URLs.

It took years to develop my hands-on tools and tests for Windows. Most of them don't carry over to the macOS platform. Hence lab results become extremely important for my Mac antivirus reviews. Two of the labs I follow, AV-Test Institute and AV-Comparatives, test Mac antivirus, and Avast participates with one of them.

Experts at AV-Comparatives test Mac antivirus products using the latest macOS malware. They also evaluate each product's ability to detect Windows malware. Why? While a Trojan written for Windows wouldn't run on a Mac, the Mac could serve as a carrier.

Avast managed 99.9 percent protection against Mac malware. That's very good—better than most. However, Bitdefender and Kaspersky exhibited 100 percent protection. In the Windows malware test, Avast detected 100 percent of the samples. Most competing products also took 100 percent. However, Webroot only caught 75 percent, and Intego Mac Internet Security X9 got just 18 percent. Like most tested products, Avast received certification from AV-Comparatives for Mac antivirus protection.

Having one certification is good; having two is better. Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Sophos are among the products that received certifications from both labs for Mac malware protection.

Scan Choices

Silent Gaming Mode Avast For Mac Review

Avast offers several scans to improve your Mac's security. A full scan on the Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch that I use for testing took 14.5 minutes, just a hair over Intego's 14 minutes, and quicker than the 18 minutes required by Avira. The average for recent products is 24 minutes, so Avast proved quite speedy. Norton is the current speed champ, completing a full scan in 10 minutes.

Comparing to Avast for Windows, Avast for MAC has limited functionalities. The left navigation panel consists of 8 options and an area to drop the files to scan. The left navigation panel consists of 8 options and an area to drop the files to scan. Jun 29, 2016  Review of Avast Free Antivirus for Mac. Avast is one of the most popular free antivirus programs, and they have a version for Mac OS X. Avast Free Antivirus for Mac offers most of the same features, is free to download, doesn’t include advertisements, and is generally unobtrusive. Our free Mac antivirus protects on 3 fronts. Malware isn’t the only threat to your Mac. Malicious websites and vulnerable Wi-Fi networks can also jeopardize your safety. Avast Security provides essential free protection against all 3 threats, and our new Pro version goes the extra mile to expose Wi-Fi intruders and stop ransomware. Does avast for mac protect against fruitfly. Nov 08, 2009  I am afraid, that avast do not protect the whole Macintosh machine, but only the Mac OS X partition' I wasn't offended by your post, it's just that I don't see any point to it as you're not asking any question nor does it inform the users.

There's a separate scan for removable volumes, though you can configure the full scan to include them. I scanned a thumb drive containing my Windows malware collection and found that it quarantined 85 percent of them. For comparison, Avira detected 82 percent of these, while Sophos Home (for Mac) wiped out every single one.

There's no predefined quick scan, which makes sense given the speed of the full scan. The custom scan settings confused me, though. As with the full scan, you can add file locations to exclude from scanning, and configure it to scan Time Machine backups. But the full scan's settings include those options, and also let you include removable volumes and network volumes, while the custom scan's settings do not. Puzzling.

You can schedule a daily, weekly, or monthly scan if desired. Settings for a scheduled scan include two additional choices. You can set it to skip scanning if your device is running on batteries, and you can have it wake from sleep if necessary, to perform its scheduled scan. Avira Free Antivirus for Mac not only offers scheduled scanning, it defaults to a weekly scan with no effort on your part. Sophos skips scheduled scanning, relying instead on real-time protection.

Network Security Scan

The final scan choice doesn't look for malware. Rather, it collects information about all the devices on your network and flags any security problems. On my own network, the scan finished in just under three minutes.

The scanner correctly reported that my main router has an open port that could theoretically become a point of attack. It's true that the port is open, as my ISP uses it to run remote diagnostics when necessary. But that function requires a key that only the ISP has.

More interestingly, it found serious problems with a network storage device (fortunately, one that I'm not currently using). Not only does this device have numerous open ports, it's vulnerable to a buffer overrun attack. Avast advised updating the firmware; I just unplugged it.

The report also serves as a list of everything that's connected to your network, identifying each by name and type. It's similar to the output of Bitdefender Home Scanner. With both products, I found devices with names like unknown6542990b6483—not much help! Bitdefender includes an option to edit the name and type, and it remembers your edits in subsequent scans. I'd like to see that ability in Avast.

Excellent Phishing Protection in Chrome and Firefox

In the Windows realm, one thing that differentiates Avast's premium product is better protection against phishing sites, those fraudulent sites that imitate secure sites and try to steal your login credentials. The free Windows edition scored very poorly, while the premium edition did an extremely good job. Based on initial round of testing, the Mac product's phishing protection, both free and Pro, seemed to match that of the free Windows product, meaning it's not very good.

I learned later that Avast's phishing protection is not fully functional in Safari. The developers are working on making it completely browser-independent. In the meantime, they advise using Chrome or Firefox. Norton was also having problems during my original test, so I tossed those results and started fresh.

My phishing protection test uses URLs reported as fraudulent, but not yet verified. Typically, these are only a few hours old. That's important, because phishing sites are ephemeral. Once they've been identified and blacklisted, the fraudsters just create new ones.

I simultaneously launch each URL in Safari on the Mac and in a browser protected by long-time antiphishing champ Symantec Norton Security Premium. I also launch each in Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, relying on the browser's built-in protection. If any of the five browsers throw an error message, I discard the URL. A true phishing fraud masquerades as a secure site and tries to capture your login credentials. Any URL that doesn't match that profile also gets junked.

I've written a Windows-based tool that handles launching URLs and capturing results. On the Mac, I copy and paste each URL into Safari and manually record the result. When I have enough data, I dump the five reports into Excel for comparison.

The malefactors that perpetrate these phishing frauds are clever. They're always devising new techniques to get past security software. That being the case, I report results not as hard figures but as the difference between the product under test and the others.

Tested using Safari's incomplete phishing protection, Avast's detection rate lagged Norton's by 32 percent, and Norton itself was having a bad day. All three browsers soundly drubbed Avast. When I retested using Chrome, Avast tied with Norton and beat the detection rates of the three browsers. That's impressive. Of the Mac security products I've tested, only Bitdefender did better, beating Norton by 5 percentage points.

While phishing is browser-agnostic, phishing protection is not. Bitdefender beat Norton by 5 percentage points, but its Windows cousin more than doubled that gap. Even Symantec Norton Security Deluxe (for Mac) didn't detect many frauds that its Windows edition caught.

Site Rating and Do Not Track

Like McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac), Avira, Trend Micro, and several others, Avast marks up results in popular search engines with green for safe, red for dangerous, and gray for unknown. You can click to vote a page up or down. Simple!

Clicking the Online Safety toolbar button displays the status for the current page. It also lists all the elements on the site that can track your online activity, including analytics, social media, ad trackers, and more. By default, it doesn't do anything, but you're free to block any tracker or category. Websites are free to ignore the official Do Not Track header sent by your browser, but Avast's active Do Not Track feature has teeth. Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac offers a similar active Do Not Track feature.

Digging into the settings for Online Safety reveals a hidden gem: SiteCorrect. If you mistype a site name, this feature offers to change to the correct name. You can even set it to automatically make the fix, with no prompt. However, in testing, I couldn't tease it into action. I tried pyapal.com, pcmga.com, whitehous.gov, wallmart.com, and many others, with no reaction from SiteCorrect.

Basic Password Manager

Like Avast's Windows antivirus, this product includes a password manager. Where the Windows product invites you to install on Android, the Mac one suggests adding password management to your iPhone. On Windows, the password manager is integrated with the antivirus; under macOS, it's a separate app.

There's no limit on the number of devices, and you can sync your passwords between them all, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android. Avast doesn't keep your passwords in the cloud. Rather, it uses your Avast account to authorize syncing data that's stored locally on your devices.

Once you've enabled syncing on a device, that device becomes an authenticator for adding more devices. The new device displays a numeric code, and the existing device gets a notification with the same code. If the numbers match, just click to approve. What if you lose all your devices? On installation, Avast sends an email with a recovery link; don't lose that email!

On each of your devices, you create a master password to protect the local password stash. The master passwords need not be the same, but who'd want the confusion of making them different? Avast offers advice on creating a strong password, with a color-coded line representing the strength of what you've typed. It's not easy to get all the way to green, but Avast doesn't require it. In fact, it accepted 'Password' as a master password.

Avast offers browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. When you log in to a site, the extension offers to save your credentials. If you come back to the site, it fills your saved credentials. Clicking the key icon in one of the fields brings up a menu showing all the credentials you've saved. And it handles two-page logins like what Google uses.

Avast doesn't use the typical menu of logins attached to its toolbar button. Rather, you click the button and launch the main application. Unlike the Windows edition, this is a separate app, not integrated with the main antivirus. Its main window is seriously tall and skinny, like something you'd find on a smartphone, and you have only limited control over its size. Clicking an item opens its details, with a link to open the site itself.

Avast Gaming Mode

You can also use the password manager to sync and share secure notes between your devices. These are simple, unformatted text snippets, suitable for saving such things as locker combinations and non-digital passwords.

The left-rail menu offers simple icons to manage passwords and secure notes, and one to bring up the password generator. By default, it generates 18-character passwords using all character types. You can set the length anywhere from four to 30 characters using a slider.

Avast analyzes the strength of your master password when you first create it, but not when you update it. Avast Pro Antivirus on Windows can analyze your passwords, flagging any weak or duplicate ones. The free Windows edition used to include this feature, but it was recently enhanced and redefined as a Pro-only feature.

This password manager handles all the basic tasks and no more. Fancy features like secure sharing, two-factor authentication, and password inheritance aren't here. But you do get it along with the antivirus, at no charge, so if it does enough for you, go ahead and use it.

Worth a Look

AV-Comparatives certified Avast Security as an effective Mac antivirus. Impressively, it offers a network scanner and password manager, features often reserved for full security suites. On the other hand, the password manager handles basic functions only—nothing advanced. And while Avast earned great stores in my hands-on antiphishing test, that function currently works well in Chrome and Firefox, but not Safari. But the pros outweigh the cons. If you're looking for free Mac antivirus protection, give it a try, along with Sophos and Avira, and see which you like best.

For truly top-notch Mac security, you'll need to lay out some cash. Our Editors' Choice products in this realm are Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac. Both received certification from two labs. Both scored well in our hands-on antiphishing test. Bitdefender's AutoPilot mode means you can set it and forget it. And Kaspersky goes above and beyond feature-wise, with full-scale parental control, protection against webcam peeping, a network attack blocker, and more.

Avast Security (for Mac)

Bottom Line: Avast Security (for Mac) delivers effective malware protection along with unusual bonus features. Phishing protection only works well in Chrome and Firefox, but this free utility is still worth a look.