NordVPN, one of the most popular names in the VPN market, is a great all-round service. It offers super-fast speeds thanks to its NordLynx protocol (based on WireGuard), and lots of servers around the world. And while there are cheaper options out there, Nord has a sensible price tag, including a hefty discount if you subscribe for two years.

It’s adept at unblocking popular video streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ and will, of course, unblock websites that you can’t otherwise access.

Nord’s iPhone app looks great and is easy to use. You can have a list of your favorite servers for even faster connection, as well as configuring the app so it connects to the VPN when your phone joins an unknown Wi-Fi network.

There’s a kill switch on both iOS and macOS (and Android and Windows)–which will keep your data and location hidden even if the VPON stops unexpectedly). The only missing feature is split tunnelling, so you can’t set it up so that only specific apps use the VPN. (Nord does offer this in its Windows and Android apps, but not on iOS.) But most people don’t need to do that anyway.

NordVPN is based in Panama, which has stringent privacy laws. Plus it doesn’t collect or store any information about how or when you use the service, so it would have no data to hand over even if authorities were to request it, which they won’t. These claims have been audited, most recently in December 2022.

The service lets you connect to up to six devices at once and also has apps for iPad, Mac, Windows, Android, and Amazon Fire TV.

See all prices and plans at NordVPN.com.

Read our NordVPN review.

Sometimes you get what you pay for, but that adage can’t be applied to VPN services… especially Surfshark. You might think it isn’t as good because it’s so inexpensive, but you’d be wrong.

There’s a lot to like. The iOS app has a slick, simple interface which makes it easy to pick from one of the 3,200-plus servers on offer. That’s almost double the 1,700 the company had a couple of years ago: it’s constantly improving.

In fact, Surfshark has released new features on a regular basis, and is still one of the few VPN services to offer two-factor authentication. It doesn’t put any limits on the number of devices you can use simultaneously either.

It will unblock streaming services, just like NordVPN, and has a few other handy features such as multi-hop which lets you route the connection through two VPN servers in different countries for another layer of privacy. Bear in mind, however, that it doesn’t support IPv6. This means it will block all IPv6 traffic and force your devices to use IPv4.

Surfshark is based in the Netherlands, which is privacy friendly and has recently commissioned an independent audit of its no-logs policy, which found no issues.

The main drawback is that the subscription price jumps steeply upon renewal, so do be aware of this, as with all VPNs, which tend to offer low prices for the first year and then high subscription prices later on.

You can see the low price on Surfshark’s website.

We also recommend reading our full Surfshark review for more details.

As one of the longest-running and best-known VPN services, CyberGhost is another top choice for the iPhone, as well as for other devices. It offers tremendous ease of use, and great connection speeds thanks to WireGuard.

The service is particularly good for unblocking video streaming services. Cyberghost was able to unblock every streaming service we tried including Netflix, Disney+, as well as U.K. based BBC iPlayer and ITV X–in the past we problems connecting to these U.K-specific on-demand, but issues with both disappeared when we used a server specifically optimised for ITV. (You get a phenomenal amount of choice here. There are at least 7,100 servers available to connect to 91 different countries.

The service is headquartered in Romania, which is good for privacy as it is outside the 14-eyes group of countries that share intelligence, and the company has a policy of not keeping logs of online activity, a claim that has been audited by Deloitte.

See all prices and plans on Cyberghost’s website.

Private Internet Access (PIA) is a great value and feature-packed VPN service. It’s not the fastest or cheapest out there, but it does have a heck of a lot of servers in 84 counties and is highly configurable.

It is based in the U.S. which isn’t usually ideal if you want to protect your privacy, but it now has the reassuring Deloitte audit which makes its US location a non-issue. It’s thousands of servers are set up well for privacy. You can even pay anonymously using cryptocurrency or gift cards.

It will unblock Netflix and more, but when we tried it didn’t unblock BBC iPlayer so it isn’t our first choice for unblocking streaming services, but it may unblock everything you need it to.

Like Surfshark, it allows you to have an unlimited number of devices connected at the same time.

See all prices and plans on Private Internet Access’s website.

ProtonVPN has a free tier, that has restrictions on the number of servers you can choose, and the speeds on offer. Those who pay for ProtonVPN get access to excellent speeds, loads of options and can also use the Secure Core servers, which route your connection through multiple servers for increased privacy.

NetShield is included, which uses DNS filtering to protect users from website-hosted malware, ads and trackers.

ProtonVPN is good at unblocking streaming services, but the privacy credentials are really what you are paying for here.

The firm is based in Switzerland, which is ideal for privacy and a third party has audited Proton VPN and verified its privacy credentials.

See all prices and plans on ProtonVPN’s website.

ExpressVPN is another excellent choice for your iPhone. As well as offering excellent security and privacy, it also unblocks more streaming services than its rivals, and there’s friendly tech support available round the clock.

As with the other services here, there are also apps for other popular devices, and you can use it on five of them at the same time, so it should cover the whole family. (In fact, since you can connect your router direct to the VPN, and all devices connected to that router count as only one device, it’s easy to get around the limit.)

It’s worth noting, for those who plan to use this VPN on their non-iPhone devices as well, that the login process can sometimes be confusingly inconsistent between the various apps. Once you’re logged in, however, the apps all look and feel the same, and work in the same way.

ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands for privacy reasons and, like Nord and others here, doesn’t store any data about your use of its service.

It isn’t cheap, though, costing considerably more than rivals.

See all prices and plans on ExpressVPN’s website.

PureVPN is notable not just because it offers more than 6,500 servers, but because those servers cover a whopping 141 countries. You’re unlikely to need to pretend to be in most of them, but it could be a bonus if you do need to access something that’s not in one of the commonly covered regions, or live in one of those countries and prefer a local server for the best speeds.

The iPhone app, just like all PureVPN apps, was given a total makeover in 2021 and now looks bright and smart. More importantly, it’s quick and easy to connect to your favorite locations, and it unblocks the stuff you want to watch. That includes iPlayer, ITV Hub and other U.K. services that some VPNs struggle with, and U.S. Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Unfortunately PureVPN lacks many of the features offered by the competition, and even with WireGuard the speeds weren’t particularly impressive–you will notice a loss in performance if you are used to full fibre. That said, it is fast enough for streaming video. Our only notable reservation is that split tunnelling is limited to Windows and Android, and isn’t available on either iPhone or Mac. Another annoyance was the fact that PureVPN caused many websites to force us to answer one of those annoying verification quizzes to prove we were human.

PureVPN is now based in the British Virgin Islands, which is more privacy friendly than Hong Kong, where it used to operate. KPMG has audited and confirmed that PureVPN sticks by its no-logs policy.

Install the app on your iPhone and you can get a seven-day trial just by entering your email address. If you like it, you’ll be pleased to hear that subscriptions are very reasonably priced. 

VyprVPN is unusual in that it owns and operates all of its servers and network hardware. Most VPNs rent their servers, install custom software and manage it remotely, but not Vypr.

This is why VyprVPN is a great choice for privacy, and it also offers good speeds thanks to the introduction of WireGuard. It’s also why there are fewer servers, but they’re distributed among a good number of countries, including the ones which most people want.

It’s speedy, thanks to WireGuard, and lets you have five devices connected at the same time. 

Like its rivals, Vypr operates a strict no-logs policy and offers deep discounts on the regular monthly price if you’re willing to subscribe for a couple of years.

Ivacy isn’t a free VPN service, but it’s so cheap–not to mention impressively effective–that we’d strongly recommend this over a free alternative. With options like this available, there’s really no point in struggling along with the limitations of a free service.

It can’t match the very best services here for unblocking loads of video services–it wouldn’t unblock Netflix Japan when we tested it–but it did work with the U.S. library from the U.K.

Click the link above and you’ll see a five-year subscription deal. While that length of time might put you off, the up-front cost is about the same as many of the two-year deals here. So you’re paying the same money (or less), but getting access for five years. If that’s not convenient, we don’t know what is.

As well as working on your iPhone, Ivacy has plenty of other apps, and you can use up to five devices at the same time with the service.

It doesn’t have the largest number of servers and you’re not going to get the absolute top speeds, but the appeal here is value: It’s a great service with only minor niggles.

Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 suite is a pair of utilities designed to help you keep your Mac safe and running smoothly. These are VirusBarrier and NetBarrier, which catch and kill malware threats plus spot potential intrusion attempts from outside as well as outgoing attempts from rogue software.

You can get Intego Mac Internet Security X9 here.

The Mac Premium Bundle X9 adds three more sets of capabilities to these: the backup prowess of Personal Backup (a good ‘belt’ addition to your Time Machine ‘braces’), the useful cleaning, tidying and general speed optimising tricks of Mac Washing Machine, and finally the multi-user safe surfing intelligence of ContentBarrier.

Sure, that last one is not something everyone needs, but it’s great for parents. Whichever one of these software suites you choose, you can be sure they offer some of the best protection available for your Mac.

Clario 1.5 for the Mac is much more than an antivirus package, it packs a healthy amount of security into one package, including real-time and on-demand malware scanning, ad blocking and website trackers, a VPN, and data breach monitoring to alert you if your email is caught and potentially exposed in a cyberattack. There’s also 24/7 live support.

Payment is by subscription, and currently Clario has 54% off the usual $107.88 / £107.88 a year, so you can pay $50.00 / £50.00 a year (billed at $4.17 / £4.17 a month). The three devices included in the plan can include a combination of Macs and iOS or Android devices. There’s also a 7-day free trial.

Set up is quick and painless with a wizard that takes you through configuration of all the key features while allowing you to evaluate the different options and determine which ones you want to enable. Once installed you can access information about the security of your Mac and monitor the status of your online accounts and personal data. The VPN will kick in if Clario detects you using an unprotected network. And from the Dashboard you can trigger a quick virus scan, which is actually quite thorough.

We did encounter some issues with performance, with the program sometimes running slow before we were fully set up, but once we were fully configured everything ran smoothly.

Whether you’re a novice or advanced user, Clario is an effective and supportive security program.

AVG Antivirus for the Mac is one of a handful of free antivirus for Mac programs. As such it is basic, but its effective at protecting you from viruses, spyware, and malware.

Despite being free, AVG covers all the bases: blocking viruses and malware from websites, downloads, and email attachments. AVG will scan applications and check every file and remove threats from your Mac. It auto updates so you shouldn’t miss out on protection from the latest threats.

Though it lacks the advanced features of paid antivirus products, it handles the core tasks cleanly and seamlessly. However, if you need to resolve any advanced issues you will need to pay to upgrade to the full version of the software, which is about $2/£2 per month for a one-year subscription. There is a 60-day free trial though, which could be enough for your purposes.

All in all this is a great option, despite being basic. You get much more than you ‘pay’ for.

McAfee Total Protection is a dedicated software security tool that will monitor your Mac as you work, looking for unauthorised software activity such as browser search engine hacks, attempts to trick you into installing unwanted software, and actual malware and virus attacks.

It is very simple to use; once you’ve walked through the guided steps for giving it permission to work behind the scenes it is essentially something you can just leave to get on with its job.

Total Protection also offers WebAdvisor as an option, steering you from known problem sites and warning you when you visit questionable ones. It also offers a software firewall for two-way network traffic monitoring.

We noted some occasional performance impacts as it ran in the background, but it was largely unobtrusive in its efforts. The option of protecting other devices is useful as well, covering smartphones and Windows PCs as you require.

It’s worth noting that the Windows version in particular offers more features, such as a native VPN, which you don’t get in the Mac app.

You can get McAfee Total Protection here.

Norton 360 Deluxe is a security utility that performs a range of different monitoring and safeguarding operations to keep your Mac free from threats such as browser hacks and search engine hijack scripts to intrusion attempts and actual malware.

It focuses on catching unwanted software, but it also offers some useful additional features including a VPN for securing personal data while online, and a tool for managing passwords, bank card details and similar data.

There are three different versions, two of which can also be used to secure your iPhone as well as Android smartphones and Windows PCs, should you require that. In tests it proved to have little to no detectable impact on performance, and it spotted all the challenges in our test macOS setup.

Note that the Cloud Backup feature doesn’t work on macOS, but that is more of an extra rather than a vital part of the package.

You can get Norton 360 Deluxe here.

Avast Premium Security for Mac does its job well overall. There are a few niggles such as the unwanted upselling for Cleanup Premium and the fact that the File Shield monitoring slows down file copy times a bit.

Otherwise, it’s a well-featured suite which will protect from all sorts of nasties including watching for browser script hacks, potential ransomware and other remote attack activity. It will, of course, also scan for potentially unwanted programs and actual malware threats, whether on your Mac or your removable media or in email attachments.

Custom scheduled scans can be set up, although the automatic background monitoring teamed with occasional specific manual scans is likely to be enough for most requirements. Wi-Fi network monitoring for vulnerabilities is another feature this software offers, and the Real Site option watches for fake sites pretending to be legitimate shopping or banking sites, a serious risk that goes beyond just watching for unwanted files on your own Mac. It is very effective at all these things, although we found that customising its behaviour can be a little fiddly.

Bitdefender Total Security is a very effective tool for keeping your Mac safe, and it will also protect Windows PC, an iOS and Android devices. The bundled VPN is very basic and gives you only 200MB of data per day, but the rest of the suite of tools is effective and easy to manage.

But when you compare what the Mac version offers compared to the Windows version, you’ll feel quite hard done by. There’s no password manager, no social network protection, no webcam or microphone protection, no Wi-Fi security advisor and plenty of other features that Windows users get for the same price.

Bitdefender is also lagging behind its rivals with no identity protection. If your goal is simply to keep your Mac protected from malware, then Bitdefender does a great job. But you can find better value elsewhere.

Eset Cyber Security Pro is a useful security tool that protects your Mac – and your Windows PC, Linux box and even Android phones, although not your iPhone – against unauthorised software behaviour, network intrusions, search engine hijack scripts and worse.

It stands out from its competition through its comprehensive range of preferences controls that can fine-tune many aspects of its behaviour, and its relatively low price.

It isn’t the most unobtrusive in terms of background performance impact, although most of the time this was minor enough to be not really noticeable.

As well as real-time and on-demand monitoring it also provides a useful firewall, dedicated tools for spotting web-based threats including spyware, and protection against phishing attempts to trick users into divulging private data. It also offers parental controls with three user categories and detailed control over what kinds of sites each user is allowed to visit.

Trend Micro Antivirus is a good program with well rated antivirus protection, and a simple, straightforward interface that users will appreciate.

Anyone looking for additional features will be disappointed with this suite, but it offers good protection at a fair price.

In March 2022 AV-Test gave Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac a 99 percent protection score against 200 samples.

Our own spot checks produced similarly good results. Lining up against the Objective See malware library Trend Micro had no trouble detecting most threats. However in a few cases it didn’t detect all the malware contained in a folder until a scan had been run.

Trend Micro is an excellent choice for those looking for something that’s simple and easy to use. There are options with better protection, but Trend Micro’s protection is still good and pricing is fair.

Avira Prime is a security utility designed to keep your Mac safe from potentially unwanted programs; which covers everything from simple scripts designed to compromise and redirect your browser searches through to actual malware.

A single large window presents the various features, from scans to app management and cleanup, although a couple of its features use a separate panel for a web-based console. In our tests it detected all our compromised files and installers.

It doesn’t look inside zip archives or disk images, but it pounces as soon as items are extracted from these.

Most importantly, even while Avira Prime is actively scanning for trouble it has such a small impact on the general performance of our Mac that we wouldn’t notice it without comparing timings. You can get the basics of the security features with Avira Free Security but Prime’s annual subscription provides useful additional capabilities, if you can stomach the high cost.

Sophos used to offer a free version of its Home product with antivirus protection and website protection, but in 2021 that version was discontinued, leaving Sophos Home Premium as the only option for personal use.

There’s now a 30 days full trial, but after that it costs £37.46/$44.99 for the first year and £49.95/$59.99 for each subsequent year. You can install on 10 Macs or PCs though.

Setup was confusing. Initially the software guides you through the process, but then setup stops and you have to sign into your
Sophos Home dashboard to complete setup (it’s not at clear that you need to do this step).

There’s also no Dock icon to launch the program, instead you use a menu bar icon to access the online dashboard where you can control the five types of protection including:

• Antivirus protection – real-time scanning for local and network drives, perform a manual scan or schedule one, plus a quick scan can be triggered from the menu bar icon.
• Web protection
• Ransomware protection
• Privacy protection
• Malicious traffic detection
• Web filtering

A
2017 evaluation of macOS security software by AV-Test gave Sophos Home outstanding grades for protection, performance, and usability. We ran the EICAR test, which simulates a virus, and Sophos detected and blocked it with no trouble. The website filtering worked well.

Sophos Home Premium provides effective protection, but the setup process and cloud-only features are drawbacks. It needs clearer set up and the ability to do more locally.

Installing ClamXAV from the ClamXAV website is quick and easy. Either click the Free Trial button or sign up for a $29.95/£24 a year subscription and the installation file is automatically downloaded. After the initial setup, where you need to grant permission to access the Downloads folder and modify security settings, you are all set.

You can run a manual scan from the main screen, but there are several other options. A quick scan checks system files and other areas on your Mac, you can select just your hard drive to runs a scan on all folders and files on the disk, and dragging and dropping a single folder or file onto the scanning pane checks it for malware. You can also select an external drive or connected USB stick for scanning. There’s also a real-time scanning component–Sentry–that is always on guard.

It is possible to schedule any type of scan to run on specific days and times. By default, any malicious files are automatically quarantined, but you can decide whether or not to quarantine infected files. You can open the quarantine folder to see what files were caught.

ClamXAV proved effective at detecting and stopping test malware files, but there’s nothing more to the program beyond the basic antivirus scanning and options. ClamXAV is certainly effective at virus scanning, but that’s a capability found in many free and equally effective security products for the Mac.

Malwarebytes comes in both free and premium editions for personal use. Unfortunately the Mac version falls short of many of the features of the Windows version. Malwarebytes Premium for Mac includes the basis virus and malware scanning as well as the ability to detect malicious apps, or PUPs (potentially unwanted program). The real-time protection constantly monitors your system for security threats, automatically blocking and quarantining anything that could infect your computer.

But it doesn’t directly come with the protection against malicious links and phishing attempts. Nor does it offer the safeguards against ransomware and zero-day exploits.

There is a free version of Malwarebytes, but that just includes just basic virus scanning. The premium version costs $3.33/£2.50 billed monthly or $39.99/£29.99 billed annually for one device, and $6.67/£5.83 billed monthly or $79.99/£69.99 billed annually for five devices. There’s a free 14-day trial.

Malwarebytes Premium on a Mac is accessible through a menu bar icon. Clicking the icon displays a menu with options to start a scan, temporarily turn off the malware protection and malicious app blocker, update the program, view and tweak its settings, and open the management console.

From the management console you can trigger a manual scan and set up scheduled scans to run on a recurring basis. A detection history displays all quarantined items. There’s an Allow list to add legitimate files or programs that were mistakenly flagged as malware to.

Malwarebytes Premium has regularly and consistently gotten top marks from AV-Test for protection, performance, and usability. In real-world testing conducted by AV Comparatives during February and March of 2022, the software scored 100% at blocking malware, though it had a high number of false positives.

It’s just a shame that the Mac version feels like an also-ran compared with the Windows edition.

F-Secure Total for Mac is a simple-to-use security software suite that works on macOS, iOS, Windows and Android devices and protects your data from a wide range of threats. It includes several useful features, but lacks certain key options, especially in the virus scanning.

The program is $59.99 a year for one device, which is steep, but there’s a free 30-day trial that requires no credit card and even gives you free technical support if you need it.

Clicking the Scan button runs a full virus scan that checks your entire system, while clicking the link for Viruses & Threats takes you to another screen where you can scan just specific folders. But there are no options to run a quick scan or even to schedule a scan, unlike the Windows version which includes a quick scan. It provides real-time virus and spyware scanning to automatically block malware, and ‘DeepGuard’ monitors applications for any changes indicative of a malware infection.

You can set up the ID monitoring to check your email address for data breaches among your online accounts. The VPN is another defense and includes tracking protection to prevent advertisers from monitoring your online activity and a kill switch to quickly cut off all internet traffic.

F-Secure offers a password vault that creates and stores secure logins for all your accounts. The password vault requires an extension that supports Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Safari isn’t yet supported.

Unfortunately, F-Secure doesn’t let you review blocked or deleted malicious files, and no setting allows you to quarantine files instead of remove them.

MacKeeper 5 is the reborn version of a security utility that has been around for many years. The reputation of previous versions seems just old news now – today, it’s a useful and comprehensive tool for keeping your Mac secure and optimised as you work, play and use the internet.

The range of tools it offers in addition to watching for unwelcome software is wide ranging. There’s a memory optimiser, an update tracker to spot outdated applications, a smart uninstaller to clean up after other software and a VPN feature for secure browsing.

There’s even identify protection, which monitors password databases to catch possible ID theft efforts. While we noted occasional performance impacts from its real-time antivirus monitoring, it wasn’t something that happened all the time.

Ultimately, we liked MacKeeper’s easy and helpful interface, which makes what could be a daunting task quite approachable.

Avira Free Security for Mac seems to offer a lot of features for free. But most actually require a paid subscription, so the product’s overall usefulness is limited and the constant sales pitches annoying.

You can run a quick scan to check out system files and other vulnerable areas or a full scan to analyze your entire Mac for malware. These scans can run daily, weekly, or monthly. You can also create a custom scan. There are also real-time virus protection scans to scan new files saved to your computer or downloaded from the internet. You have to pay to scan a USB drive. Malware discovered is automatically quarantined. Avira was effective at detecting and stopping malware when we tested it.

The free version of Avira includes a junk cleaner that can identify issues via a smart scan, but you need to pay to actually clean up anything beyond the junk files.

The old adage of “you get what you pay for” is certainly true with Avira Free Security. Take away the tools that require a subscription, and you’re left with the antivirus feature, a limited VPN, a password manager that works only in Safari, and a junk file cleaner.

The 2022 version of Kaspersky Total Security offers a raft of features, including antivirus and anti-phishing protection, ad blocking and private browsing, webcam spying protection, a VPN, a child locator with parental controls, screen time management, and a password manager.

The main disappointment with Kaspersky Total Security 2022 is the installation process on the Mac – made all the more frustrating by the fact that installing on Windows is quick and easy.

Mac users have to download and install the Internet Security product and then download and install the password manager and Safe Kids tools as separate apps. Kaspersky doesn’t make this clear.

Once installed, the product is robust and effective. Based on 2021 testing for anti-virus products, Kaspersky received top marks for protection, performance, and usability from
AV-Test and solid grades from
AV Comparatives. The product also was rated the best antivirus software for 2022 from
Security.org.

Total Security offers access four key features: scanning, updating, privacy, and Safe Kids. To hunt down malware, you can run a full scan, a quick scan, or a scheduled scan. The Safe Money feature protects your credentials when you shop or bank online, while the Kaspersky password manager sets up strong passwords.

There is also an easy to configure VPN and the Safe Kids app (which can be accessed via a smartphone app) brings parental controls.