That’s because the installation routine is not deliberately paused to display page after page of ads touting features you are hoping to try soon and upgrades in which you have little or no interest. The installation of MalwareBytes is equally crisp and succinct, over in a matter of seconds. The four layers are: “anti-malware, anti-ransomware, anti-exploit, and malicious website protection.” These are the same layers that other suites lay on, but MalwareBytes describes them in plain English.

It's the security you've been looking for.” That pretty much sums it up! There is not a lot of marketing hype in MalwareBytes Premium, the company’s subscription product for Windows home users.

You get to try MalwareBytes Premium free of charge for 14 days after that, the proactive protection (sometimes called 'real-time' or 'always on' protection) becomes merely an on-demand scanner or post-infection cleanup tool that you run whenever you choose. Which brings me to MalwareBytes, the youngest of these five security suites by seven years, and the one with the best manners.įirst, the difference between the free and paid versions is simple. Norton shrieks at its customers with new products on nearly every interaction with it, and will not let you delete your My Norton account it’s like the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme!īitdefender, founded eight years after the youngest elder developer, AVG, has a lot less bloat and upsell obnoxiousness. Their products seem to have as many upsell features as security features, perhaps more.Īvast has been getting on my nerves with its steadily increasing popups urging me to try this or that feature which is only available by “upgrading,” which means “spending more money.” AVG exposed its trusting customers to hackers in order to earn a few pennies with a fatally flawed toolbar.

They have become what their idealistic shareware founders abhorred: greedy, tricky, bloated, complacent corporations preying upon people’s FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. The elder companies seem to have lost their way, frankly. Avast and Norton emerged in 1991, while AVG appeared in 1993 and Bitdefender in 2001.

MalwareBytes, founded in 2008, is by far the youngest of the security software companies I have reviewed so far.

Malwarebytes vs avast for mac 2018