Some Mac antivirus products focus solely on protecting macOS devices against viruses and other types of malware. Others, like Norton 360 Deluxe (for Mac), represent the macOS manifestation of a multi-platform product. Norton’s macOS edition doesn’t have every feature you get on Windows, but it’s much more than a simple antivirus. It includes a firewall, exploit prevention, and a file cleanup scanner, as well as full-featured VPN protection. You can use your licenses to protect up to five macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS devices. Norton 360 Deluxe costs more than a simple Mac antivirus, but it’s well worth the price.
How Much Does Norton 360 Cost?
You pay $104.99 per year for a Norton subscription, which lets you install protection on up to five macOS, Windows, iOS, or Android devices. Intego costs nearly as much, though its $99.99 list price only gets you three licenses. However, both Norton and Intego offer more than simple antivirus protection. Norton’s price looks particularly good when you consider that it includes five licenses for Norton Secure VPN, which lists for $79.99 per year.
A Norton AntiVirus Plus subscription can also be used to install protection on your Mac, but it’s not a good deal. Protection on macOS is exactly the same as Norton 360, but without the VPN, and with just a single license. You pay $59.99 per year for that subscription, with no volume discounts.
The low end of the price range for Mac antivirus products is precisely zero. You don’t have to pay a penny for Sophos, Avast, or Avira Free Antivirus for Mac, for example. As with Windows antivirus, the most common single-license yearly price for a commercial macOS antivirus is $39.99, and several products, including Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, offer three licenses for $59.99. That same $59.99 per year lets you install McAfee antivirus on all the macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS devices in your household. There’s quite a spread here, both in pricing and in what you get for the price.
Which macOS Versions Does Norton Support?
A ridiculous number of Windows computers still run antique versions of the OS, including the defunct Windows 7. Old versions are much less common on Macs, as most Mac users keep up with the latest iteration. Norton supports the current macOS plus the two previous versions, so now that Monterey (12) is out, you’ll need Catalina (10.15) or better. Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac requires Mojave (10.14) or better.
Those stuck on an outmoded Mac operating system, perhaps due to antique hardware, should probably consider Intego, which extends support back to 10.9 (Mavericks), or ProtectWorks AntiVirus for Mac, which works with 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later.
Signup and Installation
As with many modern security programs, you manage your Norton subscription online. You create your Norton account (or log into an existing account) during the purchase process. You can then download and install Norton protection on your Mac or email a link to install it on another device. Like Intego Mac Internet Security X9, Norton requires a reboot to complete the installation. All the other Mac antivirus utilities I’ve evaluated install without a reboot.
The Norton 360 name reflects an emphasis on omnidirectional protection for your devices, your identity, your data, and more. You manage this protection through the My Norton dashboard. Here you can see all the security elements: Device Security, Dark Web Monitoring, Secure VPN, Password Manager, Parental Controls, and Cloud Backup. I’ll cover these in detail below. Right after installation, an optional tour walks you through the high points.
Don’t be deceived by the presence of Cloud Backup in the list. While you can access backups from your Windows devices online, there isn’t a component to back up files from your Mac. Likewise, you can click to manage Parental Controls online, but there’s no local agent to enforce rules on the Mac.
Dark Web Monitoring is a wholly online service, so it doesn’t matter what platform you’re using. Norton 360 Deluxe doesn’t include a LifeLock subscription the way Norton’s higher protection tiers do, but the Dark Web feature does get some information from LifeLock. I cover these alerts in detail in my full review of Norton 360 Deluxe.
Clicking Device Security brings up the familiar local protection window. As with the previous edition, it has a white background with a security status indicator occupying the top part of the main window and five green icons across the bottom: Security, Scans, LiveUpdate, Clean, and My Norton. Here again, Norton offers a quick tour for first-time users. Clicking My Norton takes you back to the dashboard, as on other platforms. When you click one of the other icons, its details and settings slide in from the side to replace the status indicator. It looks a lot like the Device Security component in the Windows edition.
Norton also prompts you to install its protective extensions for Chrome and Firefox. These include: Safe Web, which keeps you away from dangerous and fraudulent sites; Safe Search, which suppresses dangerous links in search results; Norton Home Page, which puts Safe Search front and center; and Password Manager, which I’ll discuss below. Safari just gets Norton Safe Web Plus. As in the Windows edition, Norton nearly automates the process of installing extensions for Chrome and Firefox. You just sit back and click to permit the installations.
According to the product’s documentation, SafeWeb protection on Chrome and Firefox has been upgraded to block a wider variety of threats. These include “malicious redirects, formjacking, and cryptojacking attacks.” It also warns when you visit common remote desktop services, as these can be used by fraudulent tech support scammers.
Between its full malware scan and real-time protection, Norton should take care of any malware attack, but on the off chance it doesn’t, the company’s Virus Protection Promise kicks in. You only qualify for this service if you enable automatic renewal, which seems reasonable. Norton’s tech support experts will analyze your problem and, if necessary, remote control your computer for a hands-on malware battle. In the unlikely event that malware wins the fight, you can apply for a refund. McAfee AntiVirus Plus for Mac offers a similar promise.
Top Scores From One Antivirus Lab
When I test Windows antivirus products, I evaluate their reaction to real-world malware, and to very fresh malware-hosting URLs. I have a collection of hand-coded tools to help with running tests and recording results. None of those tools can function on a Mac, and my malware collection process is specific to Windows, so I can’t apply the same level of hands-on testing to macOS security products. Fortunately, a couple of the big international antivirus testing labs include macOS products in their testing.
Two of the labs I follow regularly report test results for Mac products, but only one of them includes Norton in its collection of tested products. Specifically. the latest report from AV-Comparatives doesn’t include Norton.
As it does with Windows antivirus utilities, AV-Test Institute rates Mac antivirus tools in three categories: Protection, Performance, and Usability. In layman’s terms, that means accurate protection against malware, small effect on performance, and few false positive results (valid files or websites identified as malicious).
Products can earn up to six points in each category, and Norton swept the field, for a perfect score of 18 points. In truth, all but two products in the latest test matched Norton’s perfect score, among them AVG AntiVirus for Mac, Avira, and F-Secure Safe for Mac.
Avast Security for Mac, Bitdefender, and Kaspersky earned the highest scores from both AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, making them the lab test darlings. Avira and Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac also earned certification from both labs.
Schedules and Scans
Like most Mac antivirus products, Norton lets you choose between a full scan of your entire Mac and a quick scan that just looks at common malware locations. The time required for these scans varies wildly from product to product, but Norton is faster than many. Its quick scan proved to be truly quick in my testing, finishing in less than two minutes. Malwarebytes for Mac Premium ran even faster, with a 30-second quick scan, but Sophos and Airo beat the pack, completing a quick scan in just 10 and 20 seconds respectively.
The average full-scan time for recent Mac antivirus tools is just under 40 minutes. Norton finished a full scan of the MacBook I use for testing in 14 minutes, way ahead of that average. MacKeeper, Clario, and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac proved even quicker, completing a full scan in less than 1000minutes. At the other end of the scale, ESET took an hour and a half and McAfee took three hours to plod through a scan on the same Mac.
I copied the malware collection from my Windows antivirus testing to a thumb drive and challenged Norton to clean up the mess. It didn’t do so well, detecting just 54% of my assorted threats. At least it’s consistent—the last time I ran this test, with a completely different set of samples, Norton scored 55%.
It’s true that Windows malware can’t hurt your Mac, but eliminating it ensures your Mac won’t be a carrier bringing infection to other devices on your network. In its latest test, Webroot wiped out 97% of the samples and Avira caught 90%. Avast, Clario, ESET Cyber Security for Mac, and F-Secure all clustered in third place, with 89%.
In theory, once you’ve installed your antivirus and completed a full scan, real-time protection should handle any new infestations that crop up. That being the case, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Sophos Home Free for Mac, and a few others don’t bother with scheduling scans. Norton, on the other hand, lets you schedule a weekly scan for the day and time of your choice. You can choose whether to schedule a full system scan, a scan of all user folders, or a scan of just the startup disk.
Excellent Phishing Protection
Phishing websites are convincing frauds that masquerade as anything from financial sites to senior dating sites, hoping to steal login credentials from unwary victims. Where malware coders tune their attacks to one operating system or even a particular operating system version, phishing is totally platform-agnostic. If you fall for a phishing scam and give it your credentials, you’re hosed, whether you succumbed on your Mac or on an internet-aware stationary bike.
To test a product’s ability to detect and deter phishing sites, I start by scraping hundreds of reported frauds from phish-tracking websites. I set up four browsers, one protected by the product, the other three by the antiphishing built into Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. I launch each suspected phishing URL in all four browsers at once and note what happens. For this test, any URL that fails to load in all four browsers or that doesn’t clearly fit the phishing profile gets axed.
I tested the macOS product at the same time as Norton AntiVirus Plus on Windows. Both editions demonstrated runaway success, with 100% detection of fraudulent websites. McAfee also reached 100% in its latest tests under both macOS and Windows.
Somewhat Diminished Firewall
Like Intego and McAfee, Norton includes a firewall on the Mac. It warns when you’re connected to an insecure network, and automatically configures protection when you return to a trusted network. By default, it allows all outgoing network connections and blocks unsolicited incoming connections.
As on Windows, Norton goes beyond simple firewall features, adding active protection against exploit attacks on vulnerabilities in the operating system and popular applications. However, firewall protection seems to have diminished since my last review. Firewall settings still include Application Blocking, Connection Blocking, Vulnerability Protection, and Location Awareness. But a fifth item, DeepSight, is absent. According to my notes, DeepSight used to block any contact coming from a list of known attackers reported by other Norton instances.
Opening settings for Vulnerability Protection reveals more missing features. When I last reviewed it, this page included tabs for AutoBlock, Exclusions, Signatures, Advanced, and URL Monitoring. Currently, only the first three appear. And where opening the Signatures tab used to reveal a huge list of attack signatures, the current list contained exactly one when I checked. I tried the button labeled Reset to Defaults, hoping that might bring back the full list. Instead, it wiped out the one remaining list item.
Application blocking, disabled by default, keeps unauthorized programs from using your network and internet connections. If you turn it on, you get a pop-up query each time Norton sees an unknown program attempting a connection. When I turned it on for testing, it didn’t generate popups for known programs like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. However, it reacted when I installed and launched the Brave Browser.
Norton’s Windows firewall is vastly more sophisticated. To start, it automatically configures permissions for a huge collection of known and trusted programs. The Mac edition clearly doesn’t. When the Windows version doesn’t recognize a program, it monitors that program closely for suspect behavior and cuts the network connection if it detects abuse. It doesn’t ask the user to make important security decisions.
Norton’s macOS firewall doesn’t come up to the level of the Windows firewall, and it seems to have lost a few features since my last review. Even so, the firewall in Norton’s Mac edition does more than most. If you enable application control, be prepared for a few pop-ups to start. Once those are past, it should be smooth sailing.
Decent Password Management
The inclusion of Norton Password Manager isn’t precisely a bonus, since you can get it for free, but having it integrated is convenient. Read my review for full details. Briefly, Norton Password Manager handles basic password manager tasks such as password capture, password replay, and filling web forms, and it can sync your data across all your Windows, Android, iOS devices, and macOS devices. It includes an actionable password strength report with automatic password updates for a growing number of popular sites. However, it lacks advanced features, among them secure password sharing, digital inheritance, and two-factor authentication.
Norton Clean
No matter how big your device’s hard disk, it eventually gets full. Norton Clean aims to reclaim some disk space for you by deleting files you don’t need. It can remove duplicate files, including duplicates in your photo collection and iTunes account. It separately flags similar files, for example, 720p and 1080p versions of the same movie. Finally, it gets rid of junk files left by applications and other temporary files.
On my test system it quickly found many unnecessary files. I let it eliminate the junk and temporary files, and I deleted all but one from each set of true duplicates.
As for the files Norton reported as merely similar, not duplicates, I found many that shouldn’t be deleted. For example, it matched a simple image of a company’s logo to a box-shot of that company’s product. Before deleting files marked as similar, you should review them carefully.
Full-Powered VPN
Over the last few years, consumers have become more and more aware of the need to enhance local antivirus protection with a virtual private network, or VPN. Security companies have responded by creating their own VPNs or licensing VPN technology, and many have begun to add the VPN as a security suite component. However, all too often suite users get nothing more than the equivalent of the company’s free, feature-limited VPN.
As an example, the entire Panda product line, starting with the free antivirus, includes a VPN. However, in every product except the expensive top-tier Panda Dome Premium, VPN use is limited to 150GB per day. Kaspersky and Bitdefender also offer bandwidth-limited VPN support and charge $4.99 per month (Kaspersky) or $49.99 per year (Bitdefender) to lift that limitation.
With Norton, you get the full power of Norton Secure VPN on all five of your devices. After a first-year discount, you’d pay $79.99 per year as a standalone. Getting it as part of Norton 360 is a huge bargain. Note that you launch the VPN from the My Norton dashboard, not from the main Device Security application.
You can read PCMag’s review of Norton Secure VPN for a deep dive into this product. Briefly, it’s a simple but effective VPN, with a decent number of servers in a variety of locations. It earned better than average results in our speed tests, the company maintains a no-log policy for your privacy, and as a bonus it can block ad trackers. However, it lacks advanced features and bans BitTorrent. You could do better choosing a standalone VPN, but you won’t go wrong using it as part of Norton 360.
A Security Bargain
With Norton Security 360 Deluxe, you get the antivirus protection your macOS devices need, and quite a bit more. At $104.99 per year, the suite looks expensive, but the price gets you five licenses, including five installations of Norton’s powerful VPN. Considering the standalone price of the VPN, this product is a bargain. One test lab has certified it as effective, and after you’ve installed it on all your Macs you can use the remaining licenses on your Windows, Android, or iOS devices.
Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac also includes suite-level features, though with a different feature set from Norton, and it’s priced the same as many standalone Mac antivirus utilities. In addition, it has certifications from two independent labs to Norton’s one. Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac also earned two lab certifications. Along with Norton 360 Deluxe, these are our Editors’ Choice picks for macOS antivirus.
