Mac viruses might be rare, but they do exist. If you decide to protect your Apple device, these are the best tools for the job. Get free, legal antivirus & internet security software to protect your PC or Mac from viruses, malware, trojans, worms & more - without paying a penny. We use cookies to make the site easier to use. Read our cookies policy. Here at Top10BestAntivirus.com we have showcased some of the best free antivirus software for Mac to make it easier for you to find your perfect Mac protection. Use our comparison tools to help your fine the best free mac antivirus for your protection needs. Avira Free Mac Security provides one of the best free antivirus for Mac OS X. Avira is an award winning antivirus software for Windows and won AV Comparatives best antivirus award on September 2012. Avira is an award winning antivirus software for Windows and won AV Comparatives best antivirus award on September 2012. Best Mac Antivirus Software. You need an antivirus program on your Mac. That statement may cause some Apple users to argue or walk away, but 2017 has so far seen more Mac malware and adware than.

1. The Best Free Security Software For Windows 10
2. Best Mac Security Software
3. What's The Best Free Security For Laptops
4. Free Mac Security Software
5. What Is The Best Free Security For My Android
6. The Best Free Security Downloads

First things first: yes, your Mac needs virus protection. While malware that targets Macs isn't nearly as common as malware that goes after Windows, it does exist and is a growing problem.

Viruses specifically may not yet be the major concern for the Mac but there are many different kinds of malware to worry about: things like ​trojans, adware, ransomware, spyware, and lots of other dangerous wares so keeping your computer protected is smart.

Our advice? If you're not using an antimalware program for Mac yet, it's time! Below you'll find the 4 best ones we've found, any of which will keep your Mac safe from these growing threats.

If you're here because your Mac is already infected with some form of malware, try using a friend's Mac to create an emergency Mac OS boot device and then use that to download and install one of these antivirus apps to detect and remove the suspected malware.

Not on a Mac? Check out our updated best free Windows antivirus software and best free Android antivirus apps lists.

Avast Free Mac Security

What We Like

• Detects several types of malware.

• Blocks your computer from sending and receiving viruses in emails.

• Able to minimize its impact on system resources.

• Includes other security tools.

What We Don't Like

• Some features only work in the pro edition.

• Might take a while to install.

Avast Free Mac Security uses a traditional signature-based method to scan files on your Mac for known malware, Trojans, and viruses. Avast can root out rootkits and other methods that a hacker uses to gain control and is able to pry open compressed files to scan their content.

Beside malware designed for the Mac, Avast also looks for PC malware to help keep cross-platform infections from occurring. You don’t want to be the person sending off infected email attachments to your PC friends.

Avast uses real-time detection that runs in the background. Avast, like other antivirus apps that continually run in the background, can have an impact on your Mac's performance. Avast, however, gives you the option of using its real-time detection, or a scheduling system that can have less impact on your Mac's performance.

• Scheduled scans allow you to set the time for Avast for Mac to run its routine scans for the presence of malware. Moving the scheduled time to when it will least impact your workload is a big plus.
• File shield can check all of the files on your Mac for nefarious content. Files can also be checked by file type or location on your Mac.
• Web shield blocks unsafe websites from loading or downloads from those sites from occurring.
• Mail shield prevents dangerous email attachments from downloading or from being executed.
• Local network scan makes sure your home network and all connected devices are free from vulnerabilities that hackers could make use of to steal personal data.

Avast uses real-time detection that runs in the background. Avast, like other antivirus apps that continually run in the background, can have an impact on your Mac's performance. Avast, however, gives you the option of using its real-time detection, or a scheduling system that can have less impact on your Mac's performance.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac

What We Like

• Easy to set up and forget about.

• Finds malware automatically.

• Includes lots of really great features.

• Has a lightweight footprint.

  For Mac users, the stalwart tool has been the Microsoft Remote Desktop connection. Available now through the Mac App store, it allows users to remotely connect to a Windows desktop to access local. Many remote desktop Mac clients are available to access the computer from any location regardless of the distance. Experience the best of the features by selecting the one best Remote Desktop Clients for Mac that suit your needs and demands. Best remote desktop for mac. Microsoft RDP for Mac is now called Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac (confusingly also known as RDC for Mac or Remote Desktop for Mac). Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac is a Microsoft tool which allows you to connect your Mac to PC Windows machines and other devices. We tested remote access software by installing each app or service on four machines: desktops running Windows 10 and Windows 7, a laptop running Windows 7, and a Mac laptop running macOS.

What We Don't Like

• The free version is limited in several important ways.

Bitdefender offers two security apps for the Mac a free Virus Scanner for Mac and the paid Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac. Both use the same Bitdefender engine for finding and removing malware, but Virus Scanner for Mac uses a manual approach to scanning your Mac, while Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is loaded with features to make the process simple and, if you want to, as automatic as possible to ensure you are never the victim of a malware attack.

In fact, the Autopilot feature works so well that you can just about turn it on and forget about it, knowing that your Mac is protected from current and future threats from malware as well as ransomware, which is on the upswing in the hacking world.

• Time Machine Protection monitors your Time Machine backups and prevents ransomware attacks that may try to encrypt or remove your backups.
• Safe File allows you to specify folders that will be continuously monitored, preventing unauthorized apps from making changes to these folders.
• Adware removal can free your Mac from annoying ads, unwanted browser add-ons, and browser toolbars that may be added without your consent.
• Traffic Light browser extension works with Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to add advance phishing detection to your browser and warn you of dangerous websites.

Bitdefender makes use of traditional signature-based detection system as well as behavioral-pattern recognition. To help keep its database of devious malware types up to date, Bitdefender uses a cloud-based data collection system that stores the most recently detected Mac malware, adware, and ransomware information, allowing all Bitdefender users to have the latest updated detection system.

Malwarebytes for Mac

What We Like

• It's always active and running to find threats.

• Provides advanced options that can be tweaked to your desires.

• Doesn't use up lots of memory or CPU.

What We Don't Like

• The free version only works in manual mode (i.e., it can't catch malware automatically).

Malwarebytes for Mac has been a top choice for finding and removing Mac-based malware ever since its early appearance as Adware Medic.

Now under the guidance of Malwarebytes, the app retains its free ability to find and remove malware but has also expanded its capabilities to offer a premium paid version that can actively prevent Mac virus, spyware, and malware infections. It can also keep adware and unwanted apps from finding a home on your Mac.

• Detects and removes adware targeting Macs without requiring a separate browser add-on.
• Real-time protection can be disabled, allowing you to scan only when you wish.
• Includes an uninstaller for removing the Malwarebytes app.
• Low system overhead even with background scanning enabled.

Malwarebytes uses a signature-based system to determine the presence of Mac malware. The signature list can be updated as often as once per hour. Malware that is discovered can be automatically quarantined for easy removal at a later date.

Sophos Home for Mac

What We Like

• Provides real-time threat detection.

• Identifies and removes various types of malware.

• Includes unique features such as remote management.

• Protects against web threats via filtering.

What We Don't Like

• Several features are not included in the free edition.

• You must provide personal details to download the free version.

• It has a relatively large setup file.

Sophos has been a leader in business-grade antivirus and security protection apps for PCs and Macs for years. Sophos brings the same business-grade security system to the personal Mac (there is also a PC version) user for free.

Sophos Home for Mac can protect every Mac in your home from malware, viruses, and ransomware. It also can protect your web browsing from stumbling across inappropriate websites that may contain phishing schemes or malware.

Sophos uses signature-based as well as heuristic-based behavioral detection to monitor the unusual behavior of apps to identify suspicious activity. Like most antivirus apps for the Mac, Sophos can detect Windows-based threats as well, helping to prevent cross-platform contamination.

• Remote management allows you to monitor, configure and control Sophos Home on up to ten Macs or PCs.
• Parental controls can block viewing inappropriate websites while keeping a log of such web visit attempts for later review.
• Background scanning had a low impact on overall performance.
• On-demand scanning allows you to initiate a scan at any time.

Sophos runs primarily in the background scanning your Mac and detecting if malware or related threats are present whenever you download, copy, or open a file or folder. The scanner can also examine compressed files to make sure files contained within are safe.

We have compiled a list of top hacking software and tools of 2019 with their best features and download links. This list is based on industry reviews, your feedback, and our own experience. This list will tell you about the best software used for hacking purposes featuring port scanners, web vulnerability scanner, password crackers, forensics tools, traffic analysis, and social engineering tools.

Read about them, learn how to use them and share your reviews to make this list better. If you’re interested in ethical hacking, you can also check our dedicated article on operating systems for ethical hacking and pentesting.

13 Best Hacking Software for Windows, Linux, and Mac

1. Metasploit Best collection of exploit tools

Rather than calling Metasploit a collection of exploit tools, I’ll call it an infrastructure that you can utilize to build your own custom tools. This free software is one of the most popular cybersecurity tool that allows you to locate vulnerabilities at different platforms. Metasploit is backed by more than 200,000 users and contributors that help you to get insights and uncover the weaknesses in your system.

This top hacking tool package of 2019 lets you simulate real-world attacks to tell you about the weak points and finds them. As a penetration tester, it pin points the vulnerabilities with Nexpose closed–loop integration using Top Remediation reports. Using the open source Metasploit framework, users can build their own tools and take the best out of this multi-purpose hacking tool.

Supported platforms and download:

Metasploit is available for all major platforms including Windows, Linux, and OS X.

2. Acunetix WVS Vulnerability Scanner

Acunetix is a web vulnerability scanner (WVS) that scans and finds out the flaws in a website that could prove fatal. This multi-threaded tool crawls a website and finds out malicious Cross-site Scripting, SQL injection, and other vulnerabilities. This fast and easy to use tool scans WordPress websites from more than 1200 vulnerabilities in WordPress.

Acunetix comes with a Login Sequence Recorder that allows one to access the password protected areas of websites. The new AcuSensor technology used in this tool allows you to reduce the false positive rate. Such features have made Acunetix WVS a preferred hacking tools that you need to check out in 2019.

Supported platforms and download:

Acunetix is available for Windows XP and higher.

3. Nmap Port scanner tool

Nmap – also known as Network Mapper – falls in the category of a port scanner tool. This free and open source hacking tool is the most popular port scanning tool around that allows efficient network discovery and security auditing. Used for a wide range of services, Nmap uses raw IP packets to determine the hosts available on a network, their services along with details, operating systems used by hosts, the type of firewall used, and other information.

Last year, Nmap won multiple security products of the year awards and was featured in multiple movies including The Matrix Reloaded, Die Hard 4, and others. Available in the command line, Nmap executable also comes in an advanced GUI avatar.

Supported platforms and download:

Nmap is available for all major platforms including Windows, Linux, and OS X.

Video editing apps for mac. This is probably the most Photoshop-like application for the Mac, which can be downloaded from the App Store and is considered to be one of the best free Mac apps for photo editing. PhotoScape has almost everything you might need to view, optimize, edit, print or just having some fun with photos. Sublime Text is best for the individual who wants a utility that can edit any type of code imaginable. It’s not just built for the Web developer like most editors, but rather for the virtuoso. Like Brackets, this app has support for extension and lots of customization. No matter what category of programmers you belong to, you will need a tool to write down your code. These are some of the best code editor apps for Mac. BBEdit is a beautiful code and HTML editor for Mac. It comes with all the advanced features of a powerful code editor. Syntax highlighting, advanced find and replace, autocompletion, quick lookup, multiple tabs, splittable editing windows and much more.

4. Wireshark Packet analyzer

Wireshark is a well-known packet crafting tool that discovers vulnerability within a network and probes firewall rule-sets. Used by thousands of security professionals to analyze networks and live pocket capturing and deep scanning of hundreds of protocols. Wireshark helps you to read live data from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others.

This free and open source tool was originally named Ethereal. Wireshark also comes in a command-line version called TShark. You can also read our dedicated article on the newly released Wireshark 3.0.0.

Supported platforms and download:

This Qt-based network protocol analyzer runs with ease on Linux, Windows, and OS X.

5. oclHashcat Password cracking tool

If password cracking is something you do on daily basis, you might be aware of the free password cracking tool Hashcat. While Hashcat is a CPU-based password cracking tool, oclHashcat is its advanced version that uses the power of your GPU.

oclHashcat calls itself world’s fastest password cracking tool with world’s first and only GPGPU based engine. For using the tool, NVIDIA users require ForceWare 346.59 or later and AMD users require Catalyst 15.7 or later.

This tool employs following attack modes for cracking:

• Straight
• Combination
• Brute-force
• Hybrid dictionary + mask
• Hybrid mask + dictionary

Mentioning another major feature, oclHashcat is an open source tool under MIT license that allows an easy integration or packaging of the common Linux distros.

Supported platforms and download:

This useful password cracking tool can be downloaded in different versions for Linux, OSX, and Windows.

6. Nessus Vulnerability Scanner

This top free security tool of 2019 works with the help of a client-server framework. Developed by Tenable Network Security, the tool is one of the most popular vulnerability scanners we have. Nessus serves different purposes to different types of users – Nessus Home, Nessus Professional, Nessus Manager and Nessus Cloud.

Using Nessus, one can scan multiple types of vulnerabilities that include remote access flaw detection, misconfiguration alert, denial of services against TCP/IP stack, preparation of PCI DSS audits, malware detection, sensitive data searches etc. To launch a dictionary attack, Nessus can also call a popular tool Hydra externally.

Apart from the above mentioned basic functionalities, Nessus could be used to scan multiple networks on IPv4, IPv6, and hybrid networks. You can set the scheduled scan to run at your chosen time and re-scan all or a subsection of previously scanned hosts using selective host re-scanning.

Supported platforms and download:

Nessus is supported by a variety of platforms including Windows 7 and 8, Mac OS X, and popular Linux distros like Debian, Ubuntu, Kali Linux etc.

7. Maltego Forensics platform

Maltego is an open source forensics platform that offers rigorous mining and information gathering to paint a picture of cyber threats around you. Maltego excels in showing the complexity and severity of points of failure in your infrastructure and the surrounding environment.

Maltego is a great hacker tool that analyzes the real world links between people, companies, websites, domains, DNS names, IP addresses, documents and whatnot. Based on Java, this tool runs in an easy-to-use graphical interface with lost customization options while scanning.

Supported platforms and download:

Maltego security tool is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

8. Social-Engineer Toolkit

Also featured on Mr. Robot, TrustedSec’s Social-Engineer Toolkit is an advanced framework for simulating multiple types of social engineering attacks like credential harvestings, phishing attacks, and more. On the show, Elliot is seen using the SMS spoofing tool from the Social-Engineer Toolkit.

This Python-driven tool is the standard tool for social engineering penetration tests with more than two million downloads. It automates the attacks and generates disguising emails, malicious web pages and more.

Supported platforms and download:

To download SET on Linux, type the following command:

Apart from Linux, Social-Engineer Toolkit is partially supported on Mac OS X and Windows.

9. Netsparker Web app scanner

Netsparker is a popular web application scanner that finds flaws like SQL injection and local file induction, suggesting remedial actions in a read-only and safe way. As this hacking tool produces a produces a proof of exploitation, you don’t need to verify the vulnerability on your own. Just in case it can’t verify a flaw automatically, it’ll alert you. This hacking tool is very easy to get started with. Simply enter the URL and let it perform a scan. Netsparker supports JavaScript and AJAX-based applications. So, you don’t need to configure the scanner or rely on some complex scanning settings to scan different types of web applications.

If you don’t wish to pay money for the professional version of Netsparker, they’ve also got a demo version that you can use.

Supported platforms and download:

Netsparker web app scanner is available for Windows

The Best Free Security Software For Windows 10

10. w3af Web app scanner

w3af is a free and open source web application security scanner that’s widely used by hackers and penetration testers. w3af stands for web application attack and audit framework. Using this hacking tool, one can get security vulnerability information that can be further used in penetration testing engagements. w3af claims to identify more than 200 vulnerabilities (including the likes of cross-site scripting, SQL Injection, PHP misconfigurations, guessable credentials, and unhandled application errors) and make a web application (and website) more secure.

w3af comes both in command line and graphical user interface to suit the needs of a hacker. In less than 5 clicks and using the predefined profile for the beginners, one can audit the security of a web application. As it’s well documented, the new users can easily find their way. Being an open source hacking tool, an experienced developer can play with the code, add new features, and create something new.

Supported platforms and download:

w3af is available for Linux, BSD, and OS X. On Windows, its older versions are supported.

11. John The Ripper

When it comes to the password cracking tools, John The Ripper turns out to be the top-most choice of most of the ethical hackers. This free and open source software is distributed in the form of source code.

John The Ripper is primarily written in C programming language. It has been able to achieve the status of a great companion due to the fact that it’s a combination of many password crackers into one. Different modules grant it the ability to crack the passwords using different encryption techniques

Best Mac Security Software

Supported platforms and download:

John The Ripper hacking software is available on a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, DOS, OpenVMS, and Unix.

12. Aircrack-ng Password cracking tool

What's The Best Free Security For Laptops

When it comes to password cracking, Aircrack-ng is another option that you can explore. This network suite consists of a detector, traffic sniffer, and password cracker tool. All these tools are command line based and allow heavy scripting.

Using Aircrack-ng hacking software, you can capture the packets, export data to text files, perform different attacks, check WiFi cards and drivers capabilities, cracking WEP and WPA PSK, etc.

Supported platforms and download:

Aircrack-ng is available for different platforms like macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Windows. The Linux version has also been ported to Android as well.

13. Ghidra Reverse Engineering Tool

Ghidra is NSA’s home-grown reverse engineering tool that has been recently open sourced by the American agency. As per NSA, the tool is internally used to dig deep into malware and software to spot vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

One of the most important features of this hacking software is the feature of multi-user support that lets researchers collaborate and reverse engineer a single binary. One can also use the exposed API and create own Ghidra plugin and add-ons for extra functionality.

Supported platforms and download:

Ghidra hacking software is available for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

Other top hacking and security tools of 2019 in multiple categories:

Web Vulnerability Scanners – Burp Suite, Firebug, AppScan, OWASP Zed, Paros Proxy, Nikto, Grendel-Scan

Vulnerability Exploitation Tools – Netsparker, sqlmap, Core Impact, WebGoat, BeEF

Forensic Tools – Helix3 Pro, EnCase, Autopsy

Port Scanners – Unicornscan, NetScanTools, Angry IP Scanner

Free Mac Security Software

Traffic Monitoring Tools – Nagios, Ntop, Splunk, Ngrep, Argus

What Is The Best Free Security For My Android

Debuggers – IDA Pro, WinDbg, Immunity Debugger, GDB

Rootkit Detectors – DumpSec, Tripwire, HijackThis

Encryption Tools – KeePass, OpenSSL, OpenSSH/PuTTY/SSH, Tor

Password Crackers – John the Ripper, Hydra, ophcrack

We hope that you found this list helpful. Share your reviews in the comments below and help us improve this list.

The Best Free Security Downloads

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