Norton 360 Deluxe (for Mac): Tons of Features, at a Price
Our Verdict
Norton 360 Standard offers flawless malware protection, all-encompassing features and support for macOS, Windows and mobile platforms.
For
- Flawless malware protection
- Massive characteristic fix
- Cross-platform support
- Almost no functioning impact
- Excellent unlimited VPN
Confronting
- Expensive
- Mac version lacks some Windows features
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
Norton 360 Standard offers flawless malware protection, extensive features and back up for macOS, Windows and mobile platforms.
Pros
- +
Flawless malware protection
- +
Massive characteristic prepare
- +
Cross-platform support
- +
Well-nigh no performance affect
- +
Excellent unlimited VPN
Cons
- -
Expensive
- -
Mac version lacks some Windows features
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Specs
Malware protection: Excellent
System impact, background: Very light
System impact, scans: Very low-cal
macOS compatibility: x.xiv Mojave and later
Browser extensions: Yes
Firewall: Aye
Hardened/secure browser: No
Parental controls: No
Password director: Yep
Ransomware file protection: No
Scan scheduling: Yeah
Webcam protection: No
VPN: Yes, unlimited
Support options: 24/7 phone, email, chat, plus FAQs and videos
Norton 360 Standard offers some of the best malware protection of any antivirus app for the Mac, hands-downwards. Only information technology does so much more that, with an unlimited VPN service, an unlimited password manager and dark-web monitoring for your personal data.
While Norton 360 Standard is expensive, if you need some of its extras, you will chop-chop discover that the high price doesn't mean it'south a poor value.
The consistently perfect performance on third-party malware tests might exist enough to sway those who value security highly. If your arrangement performance is important to you, and then Norton 360 Standard has no equal at the moment. Due to its cost, Norton 360 Standard isn't the best Mac antivirus for everyone, but for those who will make use of its full feature set, it's worth the price of admission.
Read on for the rest of our Norton 360 Standard (for Mac) review.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Costs and what'southward covered
Norton is the only antivirus make nosotros tested that does not have a dedicated version for macOS. The basic Norton 360 Standard plan is $85 per year and covers just a single device, just this tin exist a Windows PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet. The bundle for Macs includes antivirus protection, 10GB of online storage, Norton'southward Secure VPN, a password manager and dark-web monitoring for your personal information that's powered by LifeLock.
If you need to embrace boosted devices, you'll accept to buy up to Norton 360 Deluxe for $105 per year. This allows you to install Norton 360 on upwardly to v Windows, Mac, Android or iOS devices. In addition to the Norton 360 Standard features, this bumps the online storage upwardly to 50GB and adds monitoring of people-search sites for your data, plus parental controls and a new School Time feature for kids using Windows, Android or iOS.
School Time is an addition to the parental controls designed to allow remote-learning students scheduled access to specific categories of apps and websites without opening the entire net to them. Parents tin can monitor School Time and the regular parental controls from a Mac.
Norton 360 Standard is uniform with the current and previous ii versions of macOS. At the fourth dimension of this review, that included macOS 11 Large Sur, macOS 10.xv Catalina and macOS ten.14 Mojave. Norton 360 Standard is also compatible with Windows (7 through 10), Android (6.0 and later) and iOS (current and previous ii versions).
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Antivirus protection
Following the initial browse, Norton 360 will provide real-time protection from any new threats. The service relies on artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure that emergent malware, viruses, spyware or ransomware volition exist detected.
Norton'southward first line of defence is its Smart Firewall, which monitors incoming network traffic and tries to screen out malicious content earlier it even makes it to your Mac. From there, protection is passed off to the Intrusion Prevention Organisation (IPS), which more specifically looks at efforts to gain access to your Mac. Finally, the firewall will once once again await at data leaving your Mac to ensure that information technology isn't being provided to an unintended source.
Information technology's worth noting that while Norton 360 Standard has a single license roofing macOS and Windows, the macOS version is missing a few of the more advanced antivirus protection methods that the Windows version has.
These include webcam protection, a reputation database that helps improve speed by establishing trusted and reputable sources, behavior monitoring that looks for suspicious activities with your data, and finally Power Eraser and Norton Boot and Recovery which can both be used to rectify more than serious malware infections.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Antivirus performance
In lodge to make up one's mind the overall efficacy of Norton 360's malware scanning, we relied on the Frg-based AV-Test lab, which conducts regular evaluations of major antivirus apps and services.
During the March-April 2021 round of testing by AV-Exam, Norton 360 detected 100% of Mac malware. In this same round, Avast (100%), Bitdefender (100%), and Trend Micro (100%) matched the perfect operation of Norton 360. Intego and Kaspersky were not tested at this time, but detected 98.v% and 100% of Mac malware in their most recent AV-Test evaluations, respectively
In March and April, Norton detected more than 95% of Mac potentially unwanted applications (those pesky apps that become installed without your knowledge) and more than 70% of Windows malware present on a Mac. It likewise avoided whatever false positives, meaning all detections were accurate, but this was true of its competitors also.
| AV-Examination, well-nigh recent | AV-Test, previous | AV-Comparatives, nigh recent | AV-Comparatives, previous | |
| Avast | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Bitdefender | 100% | 97.3% | 100% | 100% |
| Intego | 98.5% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Kaspersky | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Norton | 100% | 100% | Non tested | Not tested |
| Trend Micro | 100% | 100% | 99.half dozen% | 100% |
This performance was completely expected for Norton 360 which has managed to detect 100% of malware threats in all of AV-Exam's Mac evaluations since April of 2017. Norton is the only Mac antivirus brand that we reviewed that never roughshod below 100% detection and was part of every circular of tests during that timeframe.
Norton 360'southward Mac functioning is not tested past Austrian lab AV-Comparatives, and then we can only become off of its operation with AV-Test.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Security and privacy features
Norton 360 Standard gives you lot quite a chip more than simple antivirus protection, including a number of helpful extra features that could perhaps save you from paying for additional services from other brands.
One of the more unique features is Night Web Monitoring powered by LifeLock. This service will scan the night web for whatsoever personal information that you provide and alarm yous if any of it is institute on the nighttime web. This isn't as extensive as a full identity theft protection service, simply information technology tin can search for bank accounts, credit cards, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers and more.
Norton'south Secure VPN will help protect your privacy when searching the web, and unlike many of its competitors, Norton gives you unlimited data usage on the VPN. Most other antivirus brands that include VPNs, such every bit Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac or Kaspersky Internet Security for Mac, limit usage to a few hundred megabytes per twenty-four hours unless you pay extra.
Norton's VPN even allows you to set your virtual location to any of approximately xxx different countries, allowing you to work around location-based content blocks. While the all-time VPN services offer some extra features that users with complex needs or extremely enervating performance requirements will appreciate, a full-fledged unlimited VPN at no boosted cost is an splendid bonus feature for Norton 360 customers.
Norton's born password managing director is far from one of the best countersign managers out there, but to paraphrase a famous photography quote, the best password director is the ane that you have with you.
Norton'southward password managing director covers the nuts as a trustworthy cloud-based vault to store and sync your passwords across your devices, then if not having to pay separately for information technology convinces you to utilize a password manager that's a victory for your online security. Like the VPN, the password manager is unlimited and works across all major platforms.
Cloud backup space is mayhap the most head-scratching feature found in Norton 360 Standard for Mac, because you can't really utilise it. The active backup software is restricted to Windows users. You can view and access whatsoever Windows backups from a Mac, but if you lot are macOS-only, this feature is useless to you. Every bit information technology is only 10GB of cloud storage, it's inappreciably challenging the all-time cloud fill-in services anyway, just this is only flatly a bad user experience.
While it isn't function of Norton 360 Standard itself, you will be prompted during setup to install the Norton Safe Search browser extension. This can and so be your principal search method on the spider web and volition also protect you lot from malicious sites to block the malware before information technology gets to your system.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Functioning and arrangement affect
In order to measure the performance impact of Norton 360 Standard, we ran the Geekbench 5 benchmarking test prior to installing the app, and then ran a serial of tests with the tool after installation. The 2016 MacBook Pro 13-inch laptop that nosotros used for the review had a 2.9Ghz Intel Core i5-6267U processor, 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM and a 256GB SSD with 42.18GB of files installed.
When nosotros ran our Geekbench v examination prior to installing Norton 360 Standard, it achieved a score of 1,836, dropping to i,835 following the installation of the app. While that may be an excellent result, information technology was replicated past nigh of the antivirus apps that I reviewed, with Kaspersky showing the biggest drop at a mere 3%.
| Post-installation | Full scan | Quick scan | |
| Avast | 0% | 27% | iii% |
| Bitdefender | 0% | 19% | 1% |
| Intego | 0% | 34% | iii% |
| Kaspersky | iii% | 12% | iv% |
| Norton | 0% | 12% | 0% |
| Trend Micro | 1% | 46% | 1% |
A total browse obviously had more of an touch on, but at 12% Norton tied with Kaspersky for the least performance drop-off. Bitdefender (19%) was close behind, followed by Avast (27%) and then Intego (34%) and Tendency Micro (46%) considerably behind.
A quick scan showed about no impact on Norton, with a 0% drop. While that gave it start place, Bitdefender (1%) and Trend Micro (1%) weren't far behind. Intego (iii%) and Kaspersky (four%) brought upwardly the rear, but none of them showed anything besides severe.
Norton 360 Standard'due south beginning deep scan took xi minutes and 45 seconds and scanned 610,035 files. That placed it behind Intego (half-dozen:22) and Avast (10:25), but in a reasonably tight cluster toward the elevation with Trend Micro (12:03) just behind information technology. Bitdefender (27:55) and Kaspersky (39:05) were the outliers.
Norton's quick scan looks at the about mutual areas for viruses or malware. For my organization, this scanned 591 files in just 13 seconds. While that was the 2nd-fastest fourth dimension, information technology's worth noting that Norton scanned far fewer files than the rest. Intego (00:11) was the fastest, with Bitdefender (00:16) and Avast (00:eighteen) close behind. Kaspersky (00:53) and Trend Micro (one:06) were nowhere near the rest.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Interface
Norton 360 Standard's interfacemakes things somewhat confusing for users, with features carve up across two distinct app interfaces and and so several features that either link out to a web interface or rely on a Chrome extension.
That sounds a little more confusing than it is to use in practice, and this is in part due to the book of features you go with Norton 360 Standard, but it would be nice if at a minimum Norton could unify the user interface.
The master screen when launching the app is the My Norton dashboard, which gives you a quick view of the v primary features of Norton 360 standard: device security, nighttime spider web monitoring, secure VPN, password managing director and cloud fill-in.
Opening Device Security takes you to the other app interface for Norton 360. This is the classic interface, and if you are primarily using Norton 360 for its security features, y'all can default to this screen in settings.
Device Security gives you a status screen at the top and and so the four sections of device security at the bottom (Security, Scans, LiveUpdate and Clean) forth with a link to return to the My Norton dashboard.
Scans is the about critical of these sections, and selecting it gives you lot the option to run a quick scan, a full browse or a file scan. You tin can also schedule a scan of your choice to run at weekly intervals. While scheduled scans are arguably unnecessary due to the real-time monitoring, it'south nice to have the choice and peradventure will give you some added peace of heed.
Clean is the other active feature found in this part of the app. Information technology isn't security-related, just it is part of device health. Clean searches your Mac for any extra junk files that it can get rid of to free up infinite on your hard bulldoze. This includes duplicated and similar files, uninstalled awarding files, broken system files and space-wasting files.
You tin either run these cleaning scans as one-offs or schedule them to run on a regular schedule. Within the settings, you lot likewise accept the option to restrict what Clean searches for with specially granular controls for where the similars and duplicates searches happen. By default, it just moves the files to the Trash rather than permanently deleting them. I personally would stick with that option simply to be sure I didn't lose anything critical.
Returning to the My Norton dashboard, the next major feature is Night Web Monitoring. Again, this feature is entirely on the web and powered by LifeLock. It merely scans the night web for the data that you have input into the system. This is a set-information technology-and-forget-it feature, and it will alert y'all if anything is plant.
Adjacent up is the Secure VPN, the just other feature that is actually managed within the app itself. Turn it on, and the button side by side to information technology will say "Open," and clicking on that will produce a pop-up. The pop-up has iii tabs that respectively confirm that the VPN is agile, let you to select your virtual location and optionally block advertizing trackers.
Countersign Managing director is purely a link out to the browser extension, which is free for all users. If information technology will go you to apply a password managing director because it is integrated into something you lot are already using, that'southward great, simply in that location are far better options for password managers available.
Final, and unquestionably least for Mac users, is Cloud Backup, which is just a web link and is completely useless to y'all unless you besides are using a Windows PC.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac: Installation and support
After paying for your subscription, you accept the pick to either download the installation software direct from Norton'south site, or, if yous completed the buy on another device, y'all tin can have a download link sent to you.
The download file is a small 8.4MB zip file and the installation file itself is barely larger at 14.3MB. The installation itself took approximately vii minutes every bit it required a restart of my MacBook Pro before and so granting some permissions to Norton 360, including full disk access.
From there, you are just moments away from the basic antivirus scanning being up and running. Setting up most of the balance of the components volition take merely a few minutes equally well.
The dark-spider web monitoring and password manager could take a bit longer depending on how much information you want to provide and whether yous are importing an existing countersign database, merely within 30 to 40 minutes you should be able to be entirely finished fifty-fifty if you make utilise of every feature that Norton 360 Standard has to offering.
Norton's support staff are available 24/7 past phone, online chat or email, and at that place are with extensive support documents and videos available on the company'due south website.
Norton 360 Standard for Mac review: Bottom line
Norton 360 Standard may non get quite all the features on macOS that it enjoys on Windows, but the considerable collection it does offer, along with arguably the best malware protection available, go far a compelling option despite the high price.
Norton has done an incredible job of ensuring that despite all of those features it still avoids taxing your organisation, with no perceptible affect exterior of a full scan, and even then, merely a moderate slowdown. Peculiarly for those customers who tin can make use of the unlimited VPN, Norton 360 Standard belongs on your shortlist as it delivers solid value and astounding protection.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/norton-security-mac
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