The need for antivirus protection has been evident since the very beginning of Windows. As for the Mac, one of Apple’s early promises was that Macs are safe: Unlike Windows devices, they don’t catch viruses. Over time, as malware and even ransomware attacks took aim at macOS, it became clear that the myth of Mac invulnerability was just that—a myth. Security companies stepped up, adding protection for Macs to their product lines. A few companies arose with a Mac-only focus, but most of the Mac antivirus products you’ll find come from companies with a big presence in the more-lucrative Windows antivirus market, companies like Kaspersky and Norton.
We’ve identified Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac and Norton 360 Deluxe (for Mac) as Editors’ Choice products in the realm of antivirus protection for macOS. Both go significantly beyond simple antivirus protection. But which offers the best protection for your Mac? To figure that out, we’ve matched them up, head-to-head, comparing just how they rate in the main tasks of malware defense.
Firewall Protection
Antivirus and firewall protection form the core of most security suites, and it’s not uncommon for high-end antivirus utilities to include a firewall as a bonus. Norton 360 is a suite, one that you can use on macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS, and its macOS edition includes a full-scale firewall.
The Norton firewall fends off port scans and other web-based attacks. It also protects against exploits attacking vulnerabilities in the operating system. And its DeepSight feature prevents any connection with known attack websites.
On Windows, Norton’s firewall defines network permissions for known good programs. Known bad programs have already gotten the boot, but there may be some unknowns in the mix. For those, Norton monitors network activity for signs of misuse and smacks down misbehaving programs. Norton’s macOS firewall isn’t as elaborate, but it does include the ability to manage how programs access the network. Program control is disabled by default, however.
Kaspersky doesn’t offer a macOS firewall, but its Network Attack Blocker handles some common firewall tasks. Specifically, it watches for port scans and other network attacks and temporarily blocks all access by sites that perpetrate such attacks.
Winner: Norton
Let’s Ask the Labs
Independent testing labs around the world put Windows antivirus utilities to the test and release regular reports. Some of these labs also test macOS antivirus tools. We follow two such labs, AV-Test Institute and AV-Comparatives.
AV-Test rates products on three criteria: Protection, Performance, and Usability. The first two are self-explanatory. Products score high in Usability by avoiding the embarrassment of flagging a perfectly valid program or website as malicious. With six points available for each category, a perfect score is 18 points, and that’s exactly what Norton received in the latest test from this lab. Results for Kaspersky didn’t appear in that report, though it received 17 points in the previous test report.
Researchers at AV-Comparatives measure how well antivirus products detect and protect against macOS-focused malware—the most important measure. They also check each product’s success at detecting Windows malware on a Mac, on the chance it might reach a PC via that Mac. Kaspersky took a perfect 100% in both tests; Norton wasn’t tested.
So, two products, two labs, one perfect score for each product. It’s a wash.
Winner: Tie
VPN Variations
The ability of an antivirus product to protect your data ends when that data heads out of your computer into the wild, wild web. That’s why many security companies have begun including a Virtual Private Network, or VPN in their security suites or antivirus tools.
The VPN creates an encrypted connection between your device and a server maintained by the VPN company. Nobody can snoop on that connection, not even the owner of the network you’re using. And snoops trying to deduce your location from your IP address will get the VPN server’s address instead. As a side bonus, using a VPN to tunnel into a foreign country may get you (possibly illicit) access to region-locked content, such as Netflix shows that aren’t available in your area.
Both Kaspersky and Norton offer Mac users VPN protection for their communications, but the offerings are quite different. With Kaspersky, you get a limited VPN powered by Hotspot Shield. You don’t get a choice of which VPN server to use, and you’re limited to 200MB of bandwidth per day (300MB if you connect to the My Kaspersky online portal). Lifting those limitations costs an additional $39.99 per year. As you’ll see, that fee effectively doubles the base price of the product.
Norton, on the other hand, gives you a full-featured, no-limits VPN that you can use on five devices. You can also choose the server that suits you best.
Winner: Norton
Who Has the Best Price?
Like many macOS antivirus products, Kaspersky costs $39.99 per year. You can protect three devices by raising that to $59.99. Norton costs almost twice as much, $104.99 per year, but that subscription gets you five licenses.
For a fair comparison, let’s look at the price per device. Presuming you choose the three-license Kaspersky subscription, you pay $20 per device. At $21 per device, Norton is hardly different. There’s no clear winner here.
Winner: Tie
Which App Offers More Bonus Features
Both Norton 360 and Kaspersky Internet Security are security suites for macOS, and both offer quite a bit more than simple antivirus protection. We’ve already seen that VPN and firewall protection make an appearance, but they’re just the start.
A quick glance suggests that both suites come with a password-management tool. A closer look, though, reveals that in both cases it’s a tool that anybody can use for free, and not truly a suite component.
Kaspersky lets you monitor and manage your child’s computer and internet activities using the well-regarded Kaspersky Safe Kids parental control system. Admittedly, you pay extra to get the full range of features, but the premium up-charge is small. Norton gets kudos for its full-featured Norton Family system, but strangely that system doesn’t support macOS, just Windows, Android, and iOS.
A Kaspersky browser extension blocks advertisers and others from tracking your online activity. Norton’s dark web scan looks for evidence of tracking after the fact, checking underground sources for signs that your personal information has leaked. Kaspersky’s Safe Money feature checks the security of financial sites you visit. Norton Clean isn’t precisely a security component, but it helps recover disk space by finding useless and duplicate files.
Both products give you plenty of security bonuses, but Kaspersky has a slight edge, especially when it comes to parental control software.
Winner: Kaspersky
Hands-On Testing
We have all kinds of tools for hands-on testing of Windows-based antivirus, including a changing collection of real-world malware that we use to challenge antivirus products. In the Mac realm, our resources are much more limited. However, there’s one form of defense that we can test, because the attack in question is platform-agnostic.
Phishing fraudsters create websites that look exactly like secure sites, from banking sites to dating sites. If you log in to one of these fakes, you’ve given the fraudsters full control of your account. The smartest ones log you in to the real site after harvesting your credentials, so you’re none the wiser. Most antivirus products include some way to detect such phishing scams.
To test phishing protection, we gather hundreds of newly reported phishing URLs, making sure to include some that are too new to have hit the blacklists. We use a handy Windows-based utility that launches each URL in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, and helps us tally the results. On the Mac, testing is a matter of cut-and-paste from that same list into the browser, and recording results is a manual affair.
Before running the numbers, we discard any sample that didn’t load properly in all four browsers. We also discard any that don’t clearly fit the profile of a phishing fraud, meaning any that don’t attempt to capture login credentials. The very best products come in at or near 100% detection and handily outscore the protection built into Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.
Norton and Kaspersky both frequently appear at the top of the phishing score chart, but both dropped from that exalted position in their latest tests: Norton by a little, Kaspersky by rather more. Norton scored 94%, well above Kaspersky’s 84%.
Winner: Norton
Norton, by a Nose
Really, you won’t go wrong with either of these suites. Both go well beyond the basics of antivirus protection. On a per-device basis, they’re practically the same price. Both also earned a perfect score from one testing lab.
Looking at the wealth of bonus features both products offer, Kaspersky has an edge. However, Norton’s VPN is fully functional at the suite base price, while Kaspersky requires a hefty extra payment. Firewall protection in Norton is more complete, and it did better in our hands-on phishing test. In this shootout, Norton is the victor, with one more win overall than Kaspersky.
Editors’ Note: We are aware of the allegations of Kaspersky Labs’ inappropriate ties to the Russian government. Until we see some actual proof of these allegations, we will treat them as unproventreat them as unproven. We continue to recommend Kaspersky’s security products as long as their performance continues to merit our endorsement.
