Should you or shouldn’t you have antivirus on your Mac? This question is about as old as the first iMac. Long story short, it all depends on what you do with your Mac. But if you do need antivirus, Intego’s Mac Premium Bundle X9 is a great option.
Antivirus on Mac?
One thing is clear: the days of surfing the web with no security at all on a Mac are over. Apple has built a lot of security mechanisms into macOS, such as a firewall, the Gatekeeper function, and a super basic antivirus that can detect the most common Mac malware. It is a good idea to enable and use all of these features anyway. If you need a little extra security, there is the Mac Premium Bundle X9 from Intego that we review here.
Intego is made for Mac
Most antivirus programs are released for multiple operating systems. For example, Sophos and Kaspersky have versions for Windows and Mac, with the main focus being on the Windows version. Intego is different: since its founding in 1997, the company has only made security products for Macs and other Apple products.
This is immediately noticeable when using the Mac Premium Bundle X9. This program, consisting of five separate components, is perfectly adapted to macOS. Where you can clearly see the Windows origins in other programs, the Mac antivirus from Intego feels like a real Mac program. Nice, we like this.
VirusBarrier: The Antivirus App for Mac
As mentioned, Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 consists of five different program components. The most important one is VirusBarrier, which protects you from viruses, malware, and spyware. Although Intego is not a super famous name in the antivirus world, it still scores very well when it comes to recognizing viruses – see the test by the renowned AV-Test. Intego also scores in the area of user-friendliness.
Additional Features of Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9
NetBarrier is the second component and in our opinion at least as important as the antivirus. Compared to the built-in firewall of macOS, NetBarrier has many more functions. Not only to block incoming requests from the internet (or attacks) but also to prevent programs on your Mac from contacting the outside without permission. A program for parental control (ContentBarrier), a cleanup program (Mac Washing Machine) and a backup program (Personal Backup) complete the package. Not all of them are necessary, but nice to have.
Personal Backup in particular offers many more capabilities than the built-in backup features in macOS. For example, you can use it to create backups that you can then boot your Mac from, and you can store a backup on a second Mac instead of an external hard drive. Finally, you can specify exactly when backups should occur each day.
By the way: if you only want VirusBarrier and NetBarrier, without the aforementioned additional programs, get Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9. It’s cheaper ($49.99) than the complete package.
Antivirus Phishing?
Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 recognizes all viruses, monitors your internet traffic, is perfectly adapted to macOS, and has a lot of additional options. If we can grumble about something, it is the protection against phishing. Instead of having its own control mechanism, Intego only checks whether the built-in protection of Safari (or Chrome) is active. Now we trust that protection, but here we see potential for improvement for Intego, for example with a Safari extension.
Also an antivirus for iPhone
Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 recognizes all viruses, monitors your internet traffic, is perfectly adapted to macOS, and has a lot of additional options.
And what about your iPhone? Antivirus is becoming increasingly important on it, due to the arrival of alternative app stores and separate third-party apps. However, the security apps available on the iPhone really cannot recognize viruses. That is why Intego approaches this completely differently. As soon as you connect your iPhone (or iPad) to the computer, it is checked for viruses. If for some reason something does end up on your iPhone, then with Intego you will know. And if you have Windows on your Mac, then there is even a version for that.
In a nutshell
Like many other antivirus programs, Intego uses a subscription model. One year costs $84.99 – that is in line with the prices of other brands. For that, you do get an antivirus that is perfectly adapted to macOS. Via the following link, you can purchase Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9, with us even with an extra discount so that you only end up at $39.99.
Want to try out Intego Mac Premium Bundle X9 first? There is also a free trial where you can use all the features for 14 days, without limitations.
Pros
- Perfectly adapted to macOS
- Excellent virus recognition
- Many additional options
- iPhone support
Negatives
- Phishing protection could be better
- Slight impact on performance
Thank you for providing information.
most welcome