Malwarebytes Review 2022 – Features & Pricing
Windows 7/8/10, Android, Mac
Yes* - For Premium only
No
No
Yes* - "Browser Guard" for Premium only
Yes
No
No
No
Yes
$120 - 1 year/3 devices
Market compatibility: able to work in a no-conflict regime with its peers. In other words, Malwarebytes is compatible with Norton, Bitdefender, and other products.
The refund policy doesn’t become relevant to the business and renewal subscriptions.
No good anti-phishing protection: Malwarebytes detected near 29% of the phishing URLs
Installation Process
Malwarebytes Installing takes 3 minutes and is possible via the “open the downloaded file” option and execution suggestions proposed on the dashboard. The software package size is smaller than 250 MB. For comparison – the average antivirus size is near 1 GB. The dashboard is intuitively understandable and very simple in navigation. When the program started, the user requested to begin scanning the computer.
Virus and Program Updates
Malwarebytes intakes suspicious software to analyze it and then to provide daily updates. And, of course, there is every hour, an automatic update is available. The Premium Edition version updates every hour. The user can tune the update frequency to 15 min. — 14 days interval.
Signature-based detection is one of Malwarebytes’ features. The team of Malwarebytes constantly deletes the unnecessary signatures to hold the antivirus scan time short. If a definite threat hasn’t appeared in user logs for half a year or near, the signature is wiped out from the list.
Malwarebytes Functions
Malwarebytes possess three different scan types: Threat Scan, Custom Scan, and Hyper Scan. The Threat Scan is a speedy and deep scanning process that searches for files with a high probability level contaminated by malware. The scan process can take about 10 min to finalize. If the user asks for an on-demand scan, Malwarebytes will run a full Threat Scan by default. Usually, the Threat Scan time is near 4-5 minutes. If any malware contaminates the system, the scanning procedure will take about 7 minutes. Informatively: usually, full scans from other antiviruses consume nearly 1 hour.
The core function of the Custom Scan is to identify an infected file or folder. The Custom Scan time is about 25 min to process 700 K of files. The next Malwarebytes service is Hyper Scan, the fastest scanning option. Hyper Scan scans computer memory and startups. As usual, Hyper Scan processing speed is under 10 seconds.
In most cases, Malwarebytes will check the computer for cybersecurity hazards automatically. When and where the user selects the Scheduled Scans tab in the settings, he will be able to choose to shape a Malwarebytes scans frequency on a device. These include hourly, daily, monthly, and more detailed scan versions. The user also can tune multiple scans and set if the scans are delivering automatically or if the scans avoid non-desirable programs — PUPs.
💡 Ransome Protection
Ransome Protection monitors the activities when a non-identified program is striving to encrypt the PC’s files. Malwarebytes Protection can also stop a zero-day ransomware attack and make encryption impossible. But despite the all relevant Ransomware Protection options tuned, the entries for the malware to come still exist. A kind of protection described above is unified protection against well-known viruses, but not an effective shield from a specific non-identified new malware.
💡 Anti-phishing Protection
Malwarebytes team doesn’t advertise concrete phishing protection. During the last lab – test, Malwarebytes detected near 29% of the phishing URLs. For comparison: McAfee Total Protection and Comodo identified 100% of the rogueries during the recent lab tests. Bitdefender gathered 99%. But what is new in this edition, is that phishing shield receives a boost from Browser Guard.
Malwarebytes will show a notification about blocking the website due to phishing, and Browser Guard echoes that tab if a phishing attempt is detected. At the same time, Browser Guard proceeded with about 25% phishing links.
💡 Support
The company holds live chat support available from Monday to Friday from 8 am to 11 pm UTC. The other option for reaching a customer assistant is via an email support system. In addition, a community forum for posting a request and a user’s guide page with several videos and explanatory articles is available.
Malwarebytes Plans and Pricing
New users can obtain a 60-day money-back guarantee line. But refund policy mentioned above doesn’t sound relevant to the business and renewal subscriptions. Malwarebytes’s mobile products owned via Google Play or the Apple App Store are subject to a different store’s reimbursement policies.
💡 Free Plan
Malwarebytes doesn’t deliver an antivirus-free version.
The free download is available within the free 14-day trial of the Premium package, which is a great way to see if the user likes the software. But, again, it’s a marketing ploy to deliver the opportunity to compare how good the paid version is vs. the free version.
Malwarebytes Free doesn’t come with any Real-Time Protection features, which are the core of the software. Instead, once the 14 – day trial expires, the user is left with the Threat Scan feature, which can only detect and clean one device already infected with malware.
💡 Paid Plan
There are two different packages for Malwarebytes Premium — Premium for You and Premium for Home. The price tag and the amount of devices covered is the main difference between them. Premium for You package is available on one device and is slightly cheaper.
The Premium for Home applies up to 3 devices. If necessary, the user can use plus up to 10 devices for an additional cost. Of course, the wide devices range the user selects, the bigger the discount he gets. Having the Premium for Home plan, the user can mix and apply Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, iOS, and Android.
💡 Enterprise Plans
Malwarebytes Premium proposes three different business plans – Malwarebytes for Teams, -Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection, – Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection and Response.
Malwarebytes for Teams – accessible works with Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, and Android. And have the lowest price — the Malwarebytes for Teams can cover from 1 to 20 devices. According to expert estimations, this package is suitable for small businesses. The significant otherness between this version and the personal plans is priority support and additional Android protection.
Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection – created for Windows and Macs. The package covers 10 – to a complete line of devices. This plan delivers the user the service performed in Malwarebytes for Teams plus centralized cloud management, security policies, and a polite technical account manager. On Windows only, Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection and Response provides endpoint detection and response (EDR) facilities.
