Malwarebytes Antivirus Review (2025) Is it the right choice?

Full Review

Malwarebytes provides essential security features like real-time malware protection, ransomware protection, and web protection, along with identity theft protection. However, it lacks many of the extra features offered by competitors, such as system tuneup tools and parental controls. While it includes a VPN, its competitors like Norton and TotalAV offer superior VPN services and additional tools. Nonetheless, Malwarebytes remains a strong, budget-friendly option for users seeking solid malware protection without extra frills.

Anti-malware

Malwarebytes effectively blocks most malware on Windows, Mac, and Android using a robust database and machine learning for detecting new threats. It offers three types of scans: Threat Scan, Quick Scan, and Custom Scan. However, there’s no dedicated full system scan option, requiring users to select their entire drive manually. The Threat Scan is fast, and Malwarebytes achieved a 97% malware detection rate in tests, which is slightly lower than top competitors like Norton and Bitdefender.

Real-time protection

Malwarebytes performs well in real-time malware protection, blocking 98% of threats during tests, including worms, viruses, and web-based attacks. It also offers features like exploit protection, web protection, and app blocking for Mac. However, its ransomware protection could be improved, as it only blocked two-thirds of the simulated ransomware files during testing, compared to competitors that blocked 100%.

Anti-phishing

Malwarebytes’s Browser Guard is a free browser extension available for Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox that offers strong protection against phishing, malware, pop-up ads, trackers, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs). It’s easy to use, with all protections enabled by default, and allows users to toggle specific protections as needed.

In testing, Browser Guard successfully blocked nearly 96% of phishing sites, performing well against phishing threats. It also acts as a decent ad blocker, blocking about 80% of ads on most websites, though it struggled with video ads on platforms like YouTube. While Malwarebytes claims the extension can make your browser run up to 4x faster, real-world results didn’t reflect this claim.

Overall, Browser Guard is effective at blocking phishing sites and provides reasonable ad-blocking capabilities, though it’s not the best choice for users who want more aggressive ad-blocking features.

VPN

Malwarebytes’s Privacy VPN, included in the Plus plan, provides solid privacy features, such as:

• 500+ servers across 45+ countries, more than what antivirus competitors like Norton offer.
• WireGuard protocol, known for its speed and security.
• No-logs policy, ensuring user data remains private.
• A kill switch on Windows and Mac for added security if the VPN connection drops.

In speed tests, the VPN reduced download speeds significantly, cutting them to about one-fifth of their original rate—worse than top VPNs like ExpressVPN. Additionally, Malwarebytes’s VPN struggles with streaming services like Netflix, and isn’t functional in restricted countries.

The VPN supports torrenting and includes split-tunneling, which allows users to route specific app traffic outside the VPN to minimize slowdowns. However, for better streaming or usage in restricted regions, alternatives like TotalAV or standalone options like ExpressVPN are recommended.

Overall, Malwarebytes’s VPN is adequate for basic privacy and anonymity but falls short in performance and streaming capabilities.

Other security features

Identity theft protection

Malwarebytes provides identity theft protection in three main areas: identity monitoring, credit tracking (US-only), and assistance in case of identity theft. This service is available in over 70 countries, with US users enjoying additional features like credit tracking and insurance coverage of up to $2 million (or $1 million for users in other countries).

Key features include dark web monitoring for personal data, alerts for suspicious activity, and social media monitoring for harmful or unauthorized posts. If identity theft occurs, Malwarebytes offers comprehensive support, including reporting, disputing fraudulent charges, and restoring your identity. The service also includes lost wallet assistance and identity restoration insurance.

However, social media monitoring may raise privacy concerns for some users, as it scans for content flagged as violent, discriminatory, or otherwise inappropriate. Users can choose whether to enable this feature.

Malwarebytes’s identity theft tools are integrated into its Windows app but aren’t part of its core antivirus plans. You’ll need a dedicated identity protection plan, which includes antivirus and VPN coverage. While Malwarebytes offers solid ID protection, Norton LifeLock provides more extensive features, such as 401k and home title monitoring, making it a slightly better choice for those seeking more comprehensive coverage.

Test score comparison

We conduct in-house anti-malware tests and review the results from AV-Test, a German lab renowned for its objective evaluations. Below is the average of the last 10 AV-Test results for Windows. Their scoring criteria are:

• Protection (1-6): Effectiveness in blocking malware.
• Performance (1-6): Impact on system speed.
• Usability (1-6): Frequency of errors like false alarms.

We calculate a final score using this formula:

Final Score = 60% Protection + 20% Performance + 20% Usability.

While these results influence our choice of the best antivirus for Windows 11, other factors like privacy and identity protection also play a key role. For a similar analysis for Android or macOS, visit our other comparisons:

• The best antivirus for Android.
• The best antivirus for Mac.

Note: Brands not listed in the table either do not participate in AV-Test trials or are tested too infrequently, such as Surfshark Antivirus.

Source: AV-Test (Last updated: December 2024).

Price comparison

We’ve compared the prices of the top antivirus products for Windows. To make it a fair comparison, we looked at what it would cost us, to protect a  single Windows PC with the most essential features:

• Anti-malware
• Anti-phishing (web protection)
• Firewall
• Password manager
• Unlimited VPN (no data limit)

A few notes:

• Some brands are missing features, lowering their value for money.
• Prices are second-year prices in the USA, without first-year discounts.
• Prices are rounded up for readability (e.g., $99.99 becomes $100).

Brands have different prices outside the USA. See those on their website.

User reviews

We’ve compared the user reviews of all antivirus brands. We’ve used the scores and review count of TrustPilot, a leading user review platform. 

We consider scores above 4.0 very good. Lower scores indicate that the brand might have a poor product or customer service. McAfee’s scores, for instance, are worrying.

Source: TrustPilot. Last Update: December 2024.