Professional’s Ranking
Professionals
- Efficient antivirus safety
Cons
- Expenses an annual subscription for fundamental malware safety with no different options
Our Verdict
ClamXAV for Mac presents stable antivirus safety. However for a product that requires an annual subscription, it’s missing in superior options.
Some safety applications provide a variety of instruments and superior options to not solely fight malware however to guard you from ransomware, phishing assaults, suspicious web sites, intrusive on-line adverts, id theft, and extra. Others focus solely on antivirus protection, providing fundamental AV safety however little else. As designed for macOS, ClamXAV is a product that falls into the latter class.
See our full spherical up of the best antivirus software for Mac.
Set up
Putting in ClamXAV is fast and straightforward. Browse to the ClamXAV website and click on the Free Trial button, and the set up file is routinely downloaded. The trial model is totally practical and lasts for 30 days. After the guided set up, you’re prompted to click on the Free Trial button to attempt before you purchase or the Buy button ($29.95/£24 a 12 months) if you wish to begin your subscription proper off the bat.
The software program then takes you thru the required steps to grant it permission to your Downloads folder and modify your safety settings in order that it may scan sure folders for malware. The malware database can be routinely up to date, able to sort out the newest strains of malware.
After the preliminary setup, you’re positioned on the most important display screen, which is well-designed and straightforward to navigate.
Options
Following the setup or anytime thereafter, you possibly can run a guide scan in your Mac. Right here, ClamXAV presents a number of choices. Operating a fast scan checks solely system information and different areas in your Mac. Choosing your arduous drive runs a scan on all folders and information on the disk. Dragging and dropping a single folder or file onto the scanning pane checks it for malware. You possibly can choose an exterior drive or related USB stick for scanning. And the scanning pane shows a number of key folders—your consumer folder, recents, paperwork, desktop, and downloads—so you possibly can scan a particular space.
Foundry
Every sort of scan allows you to tweak sure choices. For instance, you possibly can schedule any sort of scan to run on particular days and instances, weekends, weekdays, or each day. You possibly can resolve whether or not or to not quarantine contaminated information. And with some scans, you’re capable of ignore particular information, corresponding to photos and PDFs in addition to information that match a sure sample.
Foundry
Naturally, there’s additionally a real-time scanning part. Often called Sentry, this function stays on guard for malware from downloaded information and different sources and routinely checks any disks or exterior drives that you simply join.
By default, any malicious information are routinely quarantined. By going by means of the Preferences menu, you possibly can open the quarantine folder to see what information had been caught. A experiences display screen retains monitor of each scan you run and each replace to the definitions database, so you possibly can evaluation the historical past.
Foundry
Subsequent, you’re capable of tweak sure settings. You possibly can allow or disable alerts in response to sure occasions, corresponding to malware detections and accomplished scans, select how usually the definitions database is up to date, and permit the software program to detect non-Mac malware. In any other case, there’s nothing extra to this system past the fundamental antivirus scanning and choices.
Efficiency
ClamXAV proved efficient at detecting and stopping take a look at malware information. It caught and quarantined the 4 completely different EICAR take a look at information I tried to obtain, together with the eicar.com file, eicar textual content file, and the 2 eicar.zip information. A June 2022 review by AV-Test gave ClamXAV high grades for defense, efficiency, and value.
Backside line
ClamXAV is actually efficient at virus scanning. However that’s a functionality discovered in lots of free and equally efficient safety merchandise for the Mac. By charging an annual subscription (even one as little as $29.95), ClamXAV ought to provide extra than simply the fundamentals. For that cause, you’re higher off turning to a free antivirus program or taking a look at different paid applications if you’d like extra superior options.
