It’s important to know the amount of computer resources your antivirus program will consume. The most effective programs are those that have little impact on your system’s performance while still providing excellent security against viruses and malware.
Most antivirus software companies publish comprehensive tests in PDF format. The reports give a quick overview of the protection as well as the performance and usability of each suite. They also provide detailed graphs and charts that illustrate the results of a few test elements. The most important figures to keep an eye out for include the proportion of real-world and reference set malware vulnerabilities that are blocked, neutralised or compromised by the program and the percentage of false positive detections by benign software.
In AV-Comparatives’ tests from June 2023, Avast Free Antivirus for Mac had the highest rate of success in blocking Mac malware and PUAs (potentially unwanted programs) and the second highest score for Windows virus detection. It also scored high in the passive, full-scan and quick-scan categories.
Bitdefender Total Security was the least intrusive paid program, followed by Kaspersky Total Security, and ESET Security Cloud Free. It was the slowest in both full-scans and quick-scans. The program’s relatively light background impact could be due to the fact that it doesn’t run by default on Windows 10 and 11, like its competitors do.
Intego X10 had the smallest overall background and full-scan system impacts however it was able to catch every single piece of malware tested. It’s a rare company that try this out only focuses on Macs and is an essential part of any security arsenal.