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Avast Free Antivirus for Mac User Reviews

CNET Editors' Rating 4.5 stars

Outstanding

Average User Rating stars

out of 896 user reviews

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All User Reviews

Results 1-10 of 140

  • 4.0 stars

    "Best "free" antivirus software I have found."

    May 24, 2013  |   By pmatthews

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    It's always working in the background to make me feel secure.

    Cons

    It bothers me that it keeps trying to sell me the "not free" version.

    Summary

    I am grateful that my hardware salesman recommended Avast to me.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Excellent, if you have a Mac get this!"

    May 23, 2013  |   By goldenrulejoe

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    works on macs and gives peace of mind. scans my macbook fast. my macbook seems to have gotten faster.

    Cons

    none I can see

    Summary

    if you have a Mac, get it! you cant go wrong.

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  • 4.0 stars

    "nice antivirus for Mac"

    May 23, 2013  |   By billhuds

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    works on my Snow Leopard

    Cons

    some viruses still can't be detected

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  • 4.0 stars

    "nice antivirus for Mac"

    May 22, 2013  |   By javasunshine

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    it works on my Snow Leopard

    Cons

    some viruses still can't be detected

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Love it, love it, love it!!!!"

    May 22, 2013  |   By Starlitte

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    I used this program on my windows pc...finally found it for my mac!!! There is nothing better...

    Cons

    none that I can see...free program, excellent protection...you do the math

    Summary

    Thanks for turning out a wonderful product!!!

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Best free antivirus software out there!"

    May 22, 2013  |   By aussiefeld

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    fast, easy to use, low resource usage

    Cons

    no spyware or firewall protection in the free version

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  • 5.0 stars

    "The best AV for Mac or PC that's FREE!"

    May 21, 2013  |   By Peetskee

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    After much "Curious George "experimentation on my part ( opening attachments just to see what happens, going to places YOU wouldn't go) I found a product that works . It stops my stupidity in it's tracks with a BIG red page warning me it's at my own risk and I'd have to disable it to get there . Since I burned out my CD/DVD optic I'd have to go to Apple to reboot; I haven't been there in over a year now except buy iTunes cards .Really works ; wish I did as well .

    Cons

    It does slow down loading a homepage but with all the ads I could see why . On video I didn't notice it unless it was updating while I was watching .I have a 2006 MacBook Pro ; it's age and old processor are probably the reason I notice it at all .

    Summary

    I've tried almost all of the antivirus programs on both my Mac and a Sony Vaio and found this to work . After the subscription to Norton expires it starts to go rogue .Upon the reinstall of the operating system I deleted it and went straight here to cnet to download and install this as soon as I could connect . Then we updated the system and have been secure since .

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Gets the job done...and how do you beat free."

    May 20, 2013  |   By SUPERDOMEcq

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    Better than some software that I dropped several hundreds of dollars for.

    Cons

    Sometime overly protective.

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  • 3.0 stars

    "Good program but with issues"

    May 18, 2013  |   By Rumboogy

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    Seems to be best free AV for Mac. Perhaps the best overall, even considering the paid versions.
    Reputable company.
    Seems to be actively supported where other AV products for Macs only get attention when there is a big malware scare on the Mac platform.
    Some small level of email support which is good given that it is free.

    Cons

    Lots of bugs that don't get fixed:
    I get "Internal error" on startup half the time.
    Keeps on flagging files as being "ARJ archives" which they are not.
    Has real problems with VMware files. Can exclude them in "File System Shield" (real-time) but not in "On-Demand" scans. Need to fix this or just add a universal exclusion.

    Summary

    Pretty good program even though it is free. AVAST needs to fix the outstanding glaring bugs though. Presumably, they give this away to get users signed up in case they decide to charge in the future (if/when malware becomes more of a visible problem on Macs). It is hard to charge Mac users now given that there is a general perception that malware does not impact macs.

    But if this perception changes, and there is a real market to make money selling Mac AV software, they want to have a good reputation to stay ahead of their competition. They could greatly improve that reputation now by fixing these glaring bugs now.

    Updated on May 20, 2013

    Ran into another problem with Avast for Mac. It seemed to be interacting with Adobe Reader when I tried to print a PDF file. I would see the print daemon and AVAST running at full CPU. So I just gave up on it and uninstalled it.

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  • 5.0 stars

    "Avast beats Mackeeper hands down, and it's free."

    May 17, 2013  |   By gridg123

    Version: Avast Free Antivirus 7.0.38501

    Pros

    Finds problems which Mackeeper could not. Appears to work very well, which Mackeeper did not. Free, which Mackeeper was not. Don't need tech support to use it as I did with mackeeper (I had to reload Mackeeper three times before i just deleted it. It left my mac unprotected most of the time. It is an appallingly bad product)

    Cons

    Can't think of any - well, you can't schedule scans, or else I haven't found out how to do so yet. But it's free, so I can't complain.

    Summary

    If you were considering buying Mackeeper, don't. Get this instead. I really want you to know how bad Mackeeper is.

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Results 1-10 of 140

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