AVG Internet Security for Mac review: Solid protection, but the free version could be enough

Best Prices Today: AVG Internet Security for Mac

There’s always the question of what you get with the full/paid version of a software application, especially if the free/demo version already provides a respectable feature set. Following up on my review of AVG AntiVirus Free for Mac comes AVG Internet Security for Mac, the full-fledged, if somewhat confusingly named, version of AVG’s antiviral/anti-malware protection. Another of the solutions we are looking at in our round up of the best Mac antivirus apps for Mac users.

The paid version offers purported hacker and payment protection tools in addition to the core antiviral/anti-malware feature set found in the free version.

Like the free version, AVG Internet Security requires macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later to run, and downloads and installs easily, requesting access to your Mac’s entire disk as well as permission to set up networking tools as needed.

Unlike the free version, AVG Internet Security asks for your payment credentials, whereupon you can either start a one- to three-year subscription or begin a 60-day trial period; AVG then emails an activation code to unlock the application’s full feature set and removes reminders to upgrade.

Everything that excels in the free version stands just as well in the paid version. AVG’s antivirus and malware protection remains sharpened. The application syncs nicely with macOS’s built-in Gatekeeper and XProtect elements to catch just about all the malware samples thrown at it.

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Yes, occasional malware can still slip through the cracks, but you’ll have to bypass multiple warning screens to install and execute them.

Like the free version, it’s easy to use AVG Internet Security to schedule and execute the scan types (Smart Scan, Deep Scan, Targeted Scan, External Storage Scan), though the user-interface quibble remains: you’ll have to dig through menus to monitor scheduled scans after they begin.

AVG’s paid feature set comes under four core modules: Computer Protection, Web & Email Protection, Hacker Attacks, and Payment Protection.

The Hacker Attacks module offers a Network Inspector and a Ransomware Shield. The Payments module offers a Fake Website Shield (and related phishing protections).

The Network Inspector is nifty for checking exactly how many and which types of devices are on your network; it can alert you when a new device joins, which is handy for spotting intruders or unexpected devices on your home Wi-Fi.

The Ransomware Shield acts as an encryption-layer safeguard, preventing ransomware (or malicious software) from changing, deleting or locking protected folders like Documents or Pictures. You can customize which folders are protected, which is a nice touch.

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Fake Website / Web & Payment Protection is designed to help stop you from visiting phishing or scam websites, prevent inadvertent downloads of malware, and stop your payment credentials from being sent to shady sites. In testing, AVG generally warns when we were about to click into suspicious links — which is a useful first line of defense.

Furthermore, AVG Internet Security handles external drives, .zip or .dmg archives, Time Machine backups, and offers customisable whitelists/exclusions. This is handy if you deal with many archives, external media, or backup volumes.

Scans tend to be fast: a quick scan only takes a few minutes, while a full scan of a large NVMe drive may take several hours — reasonable for what you get.

All that said, the software isn’t perfect. Even though AVG blocks the vast majority of tested malware, it’s not bulletproof. In our testing, a fake copy of Adobe Flash Player slipped through initially (though it was later removed via Gatekeeper).

It’s possible, as with any security suite, to override protection if you insist on installing something malicious. Also, scheduled scans, while reliable, don’t trigger obvious UI notifications by default, so you might not realize when a scan is happening unless you check manually.

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Most importantly, while the additional tools (Network Inspector, Ransomware Shield, Fake Website Shield) sound great in theory and are welcome in practice, they don’t guarantee complete protection. The “Web & Payment Protection” module can guard against many phishing or scam sites, but occasionally questionable websites, spam links, or shady adverts may still slip through without warning.

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This undermines part of the value proposition for paying for the full version. (In my own testing, I noticed this gap: some suspicious spam-related links in an email spam folder still allowed access to dubious websites; while AVG sometimes stopped accompanying malware, the lack of warnings undermines user confidence.)

Should you buy AVG Internet Security for Mac

If you’re a fan of AVG Antivirus Free for Mac, then migrating to AVG Internet Security (via the 60-day trial or a paid subscription) will feel familiar and comfortable. The core antivirus and anti-malware protection remain strong, the software’s performance is responsive and quick, and features like Network Inspector and Ransomware Shield are genuinely useful and worth their weight.

However, whether the paid features are head and shoulders above what the free version already offers is debatable. The Payments/Fake Website protections sometimes feel lacklustre, and the occasional gaps in web-threat blocking make it harder to unreservedly recommend the subscription, especially if the main motivator is web/payment security.

Unless you’re particularly concerned about ransomware, want external-drive scanning, or need extra network-level protection, the free version (or at least a thorough try-out of the 60-day trial) remains a reasonable, low-cost way to see whether the extras justify the cost.

Best Prices Today: AVG Internet Security for Mac