Have you installed antivirus protection for your Mac yet? I know, I know, the "I'm a Mac" guy on TV told you that Macs don't get viruses, but it just isn't so.
Viruses aren't the only kind of malware, and Mac users have suffered Trojans, ransomware, phishing attacks, and more.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac) takes care of your macOS security, with a small footprint, the fastest scan around, and a newly improved phishing protection layer.
During its quick installation, Webroot asks for your registration key and an email address.
Registering an email address gets you access to 24/7 tech support and email alerts about new global security threats.
As with Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus on Windows, you can also opt in for "special offers and newsletters." I didn't.
Webroot handles installing its security extensions for Safari, Chrome and Firefox very smoothly, with minimal user interaction required.
It warned that a browser restart might be required, but I when I installed it on my Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch test system, I found that the extensions worked right away, with no browser restart needed.
More than most cross-platform antivirus tools, Webroot's main window on a Mac looks the same as that of its Windows counterpart.
Aside from the macOS window style, the only immediately visible difference is that the Windows edition includes a toggle for its firewall component, something not included on macOS.
Shades of green back most parts of the window, with a large light-colored panel that reports details on the latest scan and the next scheduled scan.
Naturally there's a big button to scan your Mac on demand.
That's a full scan by default, but, as I'll explain, Webroot's full scan is crazy fast.
Pricing and OS Support
As with Windows antivirus products, the most common price for a single Mac antivirus license runs just under $40.
Webroot fits that profile, at $39.99 per year, as do Bitdefender, ESET Cyber Security (for Mac), Kaspersky and Trend Micro.
But where most of the others jump to $59.99 for three licenses, Webroot charges $49.99 for three.
McAfee costs $59.99 per year, but that price lets you install McAfee's antivirus protection on all your macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS devices.
You pay $89.99 per year for Norton, quite a jump in price, but that gets you five cross-platform licenses, and Norton offers a full suite, not just antivirus.
At the other end of the spectrum, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac and Sophos are totally free.
You can run Webroot on a Mac running Lion (10.7) or newer; only ESET, ProtectWorks AntiVirus (for Mac), and ClamXav go further back, with support for Snow Leopard (10.6) or newer.
Avira requires a more modern OS—it only runs on El Capitan (10.11) or better.
As for Norton, it supports the current OS and the two previous ones.
With Mojave rolling out, Norton supports Sierra (10.12) and later.
Decent Malware Protection Lab Results
When I review a Windows antivirus utility, I turn to the latest reports from the big testing labs.
The more labs testing and the higher the scored achieved, the better.
I also perform my own hands-on tests, using live malware safely isolated in a virtual machine.
I can't do as much hands-on testing with macOS products, but fortunately two of the labs that I follow test Mac antivirus products, and one includes Webroot in its testing.
Lab reports for Windows antivirus products exhibit a much larger point spread than those for Mac antivirus.
In the latest report from AV-Comparatives, every product protected against at least 99 percent of the malware samples, and every product, including Webroot, received certification.
Webroot protected against 99 percent of the threats, which looks good, but is actually the lowest score among products tested.
Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, Intego, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac managed 100 percent protection.
All those products except Intego also detected 100 percent of Windows malware samples in a separate test.
As for Webroot, it detected 45 percent of the Windows malware samples.
Yes, Windows malware can't infect a Mac, but wiping out Windows malware keeps your Mac from being an uninfected carrier.
Bitdefender, Intego Mac Internet Security X9, Norton, and Trend Micro aced tests by both AV-Comparatives and AV-Test Institute.
Kaspersky came very close, but lost one half-point in AV-Test's performance evaluation.
Fast, Persistent Scan
Like most of its competitors, Webroot offers two types of malware protection scanning.
As the name implies, the default full scan looks at files and active processes.
The quick scan still checks active processes, but then only looks at files in startup locations and known threat locations.
You'll have to dig into Advanced Settings to select a quick scan.
In any case, Webroot's full scan finished in just 2.5 minutes, faster than the quick scan by many of the other products.
Trend Micro had the next fastest time, completing a full scan in 13 minutes.
F-Secure, Symantec Norton Security Deluxe (for Mac)($39.99 for 5 Devices, 1 Year Plan at NortonLifeLock), Avast, and AVG all finished in 15 minutes or less.
When I gave Webroot's quick scan a try, it went by in a flash, finishing in just five seconds.
Webroot runs a scan immediately upon installation, something that not all antivirus tools do.
Also, by default it schedules a full scan every day.
You can modify the schedule to run on just one day of the week, or to run on startup.
But since it's so crazy fast, there's no real reason to switch away from the default.
Like most Mac antivirus utilities, Webroot aims to eliminate any Windows malware it sees, so your Mac doesn't inadvertently infect other devices on your network.
To test this feature, I copied my Windows malware collection to a thumb drive.
I also turned on a setting called Automatically Scan Removable Drive.
Webroot started scanning the drive as soon as I plugged it in.
Webroot found malware samples right away, and displayed its findings with an offer to remove them.
On completing cleanup, it immediately launched a full scan of the whole system.
That scan reported all clear.
If it had found more malware, Webroot would have kept scanning and rescanning until it came up clean, just as on Windows.
When I checked the thumb drive, I found that Webroot had removed every malware sample, leaving behind a couple dozen legitimate Windows programs also residing on the drive.
Sophos Home (for Mac) is the only other macOS product I've tested that wiped out every Windows malware sample.
Phishing Protection Success Story
Why waste your time and energy writing malware to steal personal data when you can just trick people into giving it away? That's the mindset of the malefactors behind phishing websites, those fraudulent sites that emulate bank sites, email services, and even dating and gaming sites.
If you don't notice that the URL in the address bar doesn't match the real site, you can wind up giving away your account to fraudsters.
Phishing works by tricking the user, so the operating system and browser involved are irrelevant.
Any device that can surf the internet can be a conduit for phishing attacks.
When testing a product's ability to detect phishing frauds, I compare its detection rate with that of the protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
I start with a list of reported phishing URLs collected from websites that track such things.
I launch each URL in all four browsers and note the reaction.
If any one of the browsers can't load the URL, I discard it.
I also check to be sure that each URL really does fit the definition of phishing, meaning it imitates a secure site and attempts to steal user credentials.
In the Windows realm, antivirus products have been getting better at keeping their users safe from these nasty frauds.
Kaspersky and McAfee recently racked up 100 percent protection, and Webroot's Windows edition managed 97 percent.
However, success on Windows doesn't always translate to the macOS platform.
McAfee's 100 percent carried over to the macOS realm, for example, but Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac only detected 84 percent of the samples.
With Webroot, I tested the Windows and macOS editions simultaneously, and found that they aligned perfectly everywhere it mattered.
It did seem that the macOS edition occasionally flagged a URL as fraudulent where on Windows it showed up as missing.
However, since I only use URLs that loaded correctly for all four browsers, those instances made no difference.
On Windows, Webroot's 97 percent detection is very good, but still behind seven other products.
In the macOS realm, that same 97 percent earns second place, topped only by McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac).
The Webroot team promised a big improvement in phishing protection, and they delivered on that promise.
Webroot's web filter extension also checks the links in your search results, marking safe links with a green checkmark icon and dangerous ones with a red exclamation icon.
Point to the icon with the mouse for a pop-up that explains the link's status and, for dangerous links, its category.
With Norton's similar feature, clicking the pop-up explanation gets you a full page of analysis reporting exactly what problems triggered the warning.
Advanced Utilities
There seems to be a trend toward simplicity in some Mac antivirus utilities.
Sophos, for example, is so simple it doesn't even have the standard macOS main menu.
Webroot is also on the simple side, but it does throw in some advanced utilities.
Experts will appreciate them; ordinary users can safely ignore them.
As the name implies, the Active Processes list displays all processes that are currently active in your Mac's memory.
For each process it shows a status of Allow, Monitor, or Block.
You can kill a process by changing its status to Block, though you shouldn't do so without good reason.
The Monitor status means that the verdict is still out on whether the process is safe or malicious.
Webroot records all activity by the process, and reverses everything it did if the cloud-based analysis system comes back with a guilty verdict.
Testing on Windows, I found that blocking a monitored program and running a scan correctly caused Webroot to undo all changes that program made.
In my previous review, I found a crash-worthy bug that involved using the arrow keys to navigate the list of active processes.
I'm pleased to say there's no sign of that problem now.
The other advanced utilities come in handy if you run into trouble.
You can use the Reports module to save a scan log for tech support agents to use in diagnosis.
You can also submit suspect files directly to Webroot research.
Super-Fast Scanner
A full antivirus scan with Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac finishes more quickly than the nominally quick scans by many of its competitors, and its quick scan goes by in a flash.
It schedules this super-fast scan to run daily, and if it detects any malware, it scans again and again until the system comes up clean.
Furthermore, AV-Comparatives certifies its malware protection (though its score barely made the cut).
It's a good Mac antivirus app, and its phishing protection has improved markedly since our last review.
But Webroot isn't the only speedy product.
A quick scan with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac finished in just one minute; Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac achieved the same speedy quick scan.
More importantly, these two received certification from both testing labs, Bitdefender with perfect scores across the board and Kaspersky with almost all perfect scores.
Webroot is good, but these two remain our Editors' Choice products for macOS antivirus.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac)
Pros
Very fast full scan.
Certified by one antivirus lab.
Excellent phishing protection.
Excellent detection of Windows malware.
Marks dangerous links in search results.
View More
The Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is by far the fastest Mac antivirus scanner we've seen, and it provides especially good phishing protection in our testing, too.
Have you installed antivirus protection for your Mac yet? I know, I know, the "I'm a Mac" guy on TV told you that Macs don't get viruses, but it just isn't so.
Viruses aren't the only kind of malware, and Mac users have suffered Trojans, ransomware, phishing attacks, and more.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac) takes care of your macOS security, with a small footprint, the fastest scan around, and a newly improved phishing protection layer.
During its quick installation, Webroot asks for your registration key and an email address.
Registering an email address gets you access to 24/7 tech support and email alerts about new global security threats.
As with Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus on Windows, you can also opt in for "special offers and newsletters." I didn't.
Webroot handles installing its security extensions for Safari, Chrome and Firefox very smoothly, with minimal user interaction required.
It warned that a browser restart might be required, but I when I installed it on my Apple MacBook Air 13-Inch test system, I found that the extensions worked right away, with no browser restart needed.
More than most cross-platform antivirus tools, Webroot's main window on a Mac looks the same as that of its Windows counterpart.
Aside from the macOS window style, the only immediately visible difference is that the Windows edition includes a toggle for its firewall component, something not included on macOS.
Shades of green back most parts of the window, with a large light-colored panel that reports details on the latest scan and the next scheduled scan.
Naturally there's a big button to scan your Mac on demand.
That's a full scan by default, but, as I'll explain, Webroot's full scan is crazy fast.
Pricing and OS Support
As with Windows antivirus products, the most common price for a single Mac antivirus license runs just under $40.
Webroot fits that profile, at $39.99 per year, as do Bitdefender, ESET Cyber Security (for Mac), Kaspersky and Trend Micro.
But where most of the others jump to $59.99 for three licenses, Webroot charges $49.99 for three.
McAfee costs $59.99 per year, but that price lets you install McAfee's antivirus protection on all your macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS devices.
You pay $89.99 per year for Norton, quite a jump in price, but that gets you five cross-platform licenses, and Norton offers a full suite, not just antivirus.
At the other end of the spectrum, Avira Free Antivirus for Mac and Sophos are totally free.
You can run Webroot on a Mac running Lion (10.7) or newer; only ESET, ProtectWorks AntiVirus (for Mac), and ClamXav go further back, with support for Snow Leopard (10.6) or newer.
Avira requires a more modern OS—it only runs on El Capitan (10.11) or better.
As for Norton, it supports the current OS and the two previous ones.
With Mojave rolling out, Norton supports Sierra (10.12) and later.
Decent Malware Protection Lab Results
When I review a Windows antivirus utility, I turn to the latest reports from the big testing labs.
The more labs testing and the higher the scored achieved, the better.
I also perform my own hands-on tests, using live malware safely isolated in a virtual machine.
I can't do as much hands-on testing with macOS products, but fortunately two of the labs that I follow test Mac antivirus products, and one includes Webroot in its testing.
Lab reports for Windows antivirus products exhibit a much larger point spread than those for Mac antivirus.
In the latest report from AV-Comparatives, every product protected against at least 99 percent of the malware samples, and every product, including Webroot, received certification.
Webroot protected against 99 percent of the threats, which looks good, but is actually the lowest score among products tested.
Avast, Avira, Bitdefender, Intego, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac managed 100 percent protection.
All those products except Intego also detected 100 percent of Windows malware samples in a separate test.
As for Webroot, it detected 45 percent of the Windows malware samples.
Yes, Windows malware can't infect a Mac, but wiping out Windows malware keeps your Mac from being an uninfected carrier.
Bitdefender, Intego Mac Internet Security X9, Norton, and Trend Micro aced tests by both AV-Comparatives and AV-Test Institute.
Kaspersky came very close, but lost one half-point in AV-Test's performance evaluation.
Fast, Persistent Scan
Like most of its competitors, Webroot offers two types of malware protection scanning.
As the name implies, the default full scan looks at files and active processes.
The quick scan still checks active processes, but then only looks at files in startup locations and known threat locations.
You'll have to dig into Advanced Settings to select a quick scan.
In any case, Webroot's full scan finished in just 2.5 minutes, faster than the quick scan by many of the other products.
Trend Micro had the next fastest time, completing a full scan in 13 minutes.
F-Secure, Symantec Norton Security Deluxe (for Mac)($39.99 for 5 Devices, 1 Year Plan at NortonLifeLock), Avast, and AVG all finished in 15 minutes or less.
When I gave Webroot's quick scan a try, it went by in a flash, finishing in just five seconds.
Webroot runs a scan immediately upon installation, something that not all antivirus tools do.
Also, by default it schedules a full scan every day.
You can modify the schedule to run on just one day of the week, or to run on startup.
But since it's so crazy fast, there's no real reason to switch away from the default.
Like most Mac antivirus utilities, Webroot aims to eliminate any Windows malware it sees, so your Mac doesn't inadvertently infect other devices on your network.
To test this feature, I copied my Windows malware collection to a thumb drive.
I also turned on a setting called Automatically Scan Removable Drive.
Webroot started scanning the drive as soon as I plugged it in.
Webroot found malware samples right away, and displayed its findings with an offer to remove them.
On completing cleanup, it immediately launched a full scan of the whole system.
That scan reported all clear.
If it had found more malware, Webroot would have kept scanning and rescanning until it came up clean, just as on Windows.
When I checked the thumb drive, I found that Webroot had removed every malware sample, leaving behind a couple dozen legitimate Windows programs also residing on the drive.
Sophos Home (for Mac) is the only other macOS product I've tested that wiped out every Windows malware sample.
Phishing Protection Success Story
Why waste your time and energy writing malware to steal personal data when you can just trick people into giving it away? That's the mindset of the malefactors behind phishing websites, those fraudulent sites that emulate bank sites, email services, and even dating and gaming sites.
If you don't notice that the URL in the address bar doesn't match the real site, you can wind up giving away your account to fraudsters.
Phishing works by tricking the user, so the operating system and browser involved are irrelevant.
Any device that can surf the internet can be a conduit for phishing attacks.
When testing a product's ability to detect phishing frauds, I compare its detection rate with that of the protection built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer.
I start with a list of reported phishing URLs collected from websites that track such things.
I launch each URL in all four browsers and note the reaction.
If any one of the browsers can't load the URL, I discard it.
I also check to be sure that each URL really does fit the definition of phishing, meaning it imitates a secure site and attempts to steal user credentials.
In the Windows realm, antivirus products have been getting better at keeping their users safe from these nasty frauds.
Kaspersky and McAfee recently racked up 100 percent protection, and Webroot's Windows edition managed 97 percent.
However, success on Windows doesn't always translate to the macOS platform.
McAfee's 100 percent carried over to the macOS realm, for example, but Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac only detected 84 percent of the samples.
With Webroot, I tested the Windows and macOS editions simultaneously, and found that they aligned perfectly everywhere it mattered.
It did seem that the macOS edition occasionally flagged a URL as fraudulent where on Windows it showed up as missing.
However, since I only use URLs that loaded correctly for all four browsers, those instances made no difference.
On Windows, Webroot's 97 percent detection is very good, but still behind seven other products.
In the macOS realm, that same 97 percent earns second place, topped only by McAfee AntiVirus Plus (for Mac).
The Webroot team promised a big improvement in phishing protection, and they delivered on that promise.
Webroot's web filter extension also checks the links in your search results, marking safe links with a green checkmark icon and dangerous ones with a red exclamation icon.
Point to the icon with the mouse for a pop-up that explains the link's status and, for dangerous links, its category.
With Norton's similar feature, clicking the pop-up explanation gets you a full page of analysis reporting exactly what problems triggered the warning.
Advanced Utilities
There seems to be a trend toward simplicity in some Mac antivirus utilities.
Sophos, for example, is so simple it doesn't even have the standard macOS main menu.
Webroot is also on the simple side, but it does throw in some advanced utilities.
Experts will appreciate them; ordinary users can safely ignore them.
As the name implies, the Active Processes list displays all processes that are currently active in your Mac's memory.
For each process it shows a status of Allow, Monitor, or Block.
You can kill a process by changing its status to Block, though you shouldn't do so without good reason.
The Monitor status means that the verdict is still out on whether the process is safe or malicious.
Webroot records all activity by the process, and reverses everything it did if the cloud-based analysis system comes back with a guilty verdict.
Testing on Windows, I found that blocking a monitored program and running a scan correctly caused Webroot to undo all changes that program made.
In my previous review, I found a crash-worthy bug that involved using the arrow keys to navigate the list of active processes.
I'm pleased to say there's no sign of that problem now.
The other advanced utilities come in handy if you run into trouble.
You can use the Reports module to save a scan log for tech support agents to use in diagnosis.
You can also submit suspect files directly to Webroot research.
Super-Fast Scanner
A full antivirus scan with Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac finishes more quickly than the nominally quick scans by many of its competitors, and its quick scan goes by in a flash.
It schedules this super-fast scan to run daily, and if it detects any malware, it scans again and again until the system comes up clean.
Furthermore, AV-Comparatives certifies its malware protection (though its score barely made the cut).
It's a good Mac antivirus app, and its phishing protection has improved markedly since our last review.
But Webroot isn't the only speedy product.
A quick scan with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac finished in just one minute; Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac achieved the same speedy quick scan.
More importantly, these two received certification from both testing labs, Bitdefender with perfect scores across the board and Kaspersky with almost all perfect scores.
Webroot is good, but these two remain our Editors' Choice products for macOS antivirus.
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus (for Mac)
Pros
Very fast full scan.
Certified by one antivirus lab.
Excellent phishing protection.
Excellent detection of Windows malware.
Marks dangerous links in search results.
View More
The Bottom Line
Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus is by far the fastest Mac antivirus scanner we've seen, and it provides especially good phishing protection in our testing, too.
