Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Easy to create a whitelist of safe/protected files and folders within the macOS.
- Robust Total Defense Shield and Safe Files features allow for an impressive level of protection against malware and ransomware efforts.
- Good user interface and layout.
Cons
- Left chunks of known malware in place during testing.
- TrafficLight anti-phishing add-ons seem almost ineffective for Safari users, allowing access to highly questionable websites.
- Excessively long initial scan time.
Our Verdict
Unfortunately, Total Defense has a few issues, including long initial scan and the failure to remove some malware. With some bug fixes it could be better.
Price When Reviewed
$39.99 for 3 Macs, 1 year
Best Prices Today: Total Defense Antivirus for Mac
Sometimes there’s a great utility at hand that is entirely useful for your Mac, but it’s buried under an assortment of issues that need to be cleared out by an update somewhere down the road.
First and foremost, Total Defense Antivirus for Mac, developed by Total Defense, is based on BitDefender thanks to a license between the two companies. This works out well for both parties, and the software itself is easy to download and install after creating a 30-day free trial account with no credit or debit card needing to be entered, which comes as a welcome surprise given recent industry trends.
The software itself, as of this writing, retails for $39.99 (approx. £31.54) to cover three Macs for one year, with plans and tiers adjusting accordingly. From there, it’s easy to assign full hard disk access to the application for its initial full scan to get an idea of what’s on your Mac and what it’ll be dealing with.
We have a round up of the best Antivirus software for Macs.
Total Defense installation and performance
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This is where the trouble begins. After completing the installation, I commenced my initial scan, sat back, and watched the progress bar and elapsed time kick into action. The initial scan took no less than 41 hours, 42 minutes, and 42 seconds to complete, and although the application allows you to minimize total Defense Antivirus and continue using your Mac as you see fit, this dragged on for the better part of two full days. To its credit, the initial scan was able to find a small remnant of the Genieo malware I had used for testing, but this number seemed appalling, even for a 2023 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro with 908GB of space used on the solid-state drive.
Throughout testing, some features shone brightly, while others needed work. Following the initial scan and its startling 41+ hour run time, follow-up scan times improved to normal, including just under six minutes for a quick san and three hours for a full scan, and Total Defense Antivirus’ Total Defense Shield feature was able to detect and remove a remarkable amount of malware during testing, even stopping it from being installed after finding it on the hard drive. Still, the application allowed both the OSX.DazzleSpy malware and the controversial Wave web browser to slip through during scans, which would later have to be removed by a free copy of Malwarebytes I keep on hand as a handy backup.
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Total Defense features
Total Defense Antivirus markets itself heavily around its TrafficLight feature to help prevent phishing-based attacks, which function as cross-browser add-ons that can be installed for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Following installation, I tested these across the dozens of spam and phishing-based emails that arrive without end in my Gmail’s spam folder to find that TrafficLight works well on Chrome and Firefox, but allows Safari to visit questionable websites without much warning or effort to stop it. This isn’t exactly encouraging if Safari is your web browser of choice and feels as if Safari was fairly low on Total Defense’s priority list.
Similar to other utilities, Total Defense Antivirus offers a Safe Files whitelist feature that allows you to create a list of files and folders that are safe, or that the application can bypass. In the wake of recent ransomware attacks, Total Defense has also added a protective layer for Time Machine backups as well, which is robust and appreciated, especially given that outside parties sometimes try to encrypt backup files in their attacks.
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Verdict
While Total Defense Antivirus has its strengths, it’s the little things that drag it down. The extremely long initial scan time defied belief, TrafficLight seemed to allow Safari access to every UPS and USPS page claiming you had a package waiting to be picked up to be visited without warning, and chunks of malware that should have been detected and removed remained in place. These aren’t insurmountable issues, and a few days spent testing and performing a bug fix could readily address most of the problems found.
These are points of contention and could be deal breakers for some users. This application has its strengths, its weaknesses need to be fixed and improved upon, and until its parent company gives it the fixes it deserves, your money might be better spent on another utility.
