Avast checks for updates right after your Mac starts and every 6 hours after that, the company releases updated database files usually twice a day. Sophos checks for updates every hour and the company releases a new database file every 6 hours so you’ll be sure to have the latest version at least within one hour after it becomes available. A few hours can mean the difference between becoming infected or blocking the threat. Let’s say a new piece of malware hits the internet on a large scale like MacDefender or FlashBack did, you want your AV to be able to detect these things asap. Sophos and Avast rely on these updates to protect you from malware as they do not have heuristics (actually none of the applications that are available for OS X use true heuristics). Unless you have a truly advanced AV with proper heuristics, you need the AV company to push out frequent updates to it’s definitions database. A few people I know still use G5’s with an old version of Photoshop as it simply does what they need it to do, they have no need for an Intel Mac or the latest Creative Suite. They are still used as servers, family computers and test machines. PowerPC Macs may be old but are not obsolete (even thou Apple labels them as such). While most won’t care about legacy support it is important to a lot of people out there still. Avast offers only an Intel version and supports OS X 10.5 – 10.8 (works on 10.9 Mavericks too). Sophos offers both an Intel and a PowerPC version and supports OS X 10.4 – 10.8 (works on 10.9 Mavericks too). Overall we’re just talking a few minutes faster but on an old Core 2 Duo Mac mini Avast beat Sophos by a good hour. In this aspect Avast outperforms Sophos but again the difference is small. If your system runs a scan at a set interval as some companies require, even while you are working, a few percent can matter.Īs scanning impacts performance you want it to be over as soon as possible unless you run your scans at night or while you are at lunch. Depending on what you use your Mac for these numbers may or may not be a big deal to you. Avast had an impact of 5.16 – 20.39% on various Intel Macs, no PowerPC version available.
In the latest test Sophos impacted system performance by 8.86 – 12.53% on various Intel Macs and 18.25% on a PowerPC G5 when performing a full system scan. (Norton’s current version (12 at the time of writing) is actually a very well written application that performs beautifully, McAffee is unfortunately still garbage.) Sophos has less of an impact on the system than Avast, possibly because Avast has more features or maybe because Sophos is written better, I don’t know. This reputation is very hard to shake, not just for them but all those that offer AV products for Mac.
Norton and McAffee gave AV for Mac in general a bad reputation back in the day because they simply crippled even the most powerful Mac. How an AV impacts system performance is very important.
Also because they are free there is no support in the form of an online or phone support service, user forums are available though where users just like you help eachother out.
The AV is offered for free because both companies feel if their free product makes people happy they will (hopefully) spend money on other products and services they offer. With detection rate being pretty much the same for both products, we’ll have to start comparing other features.īoth Sophos and Avast are free. This is by no means definitive as it may change again next time I add samples to the pool (currently 300 with over 250 still being analyzed and tested to make sure they are valid samples). So which one is the best?Īs of this moment Avast ranks number one in detection tests with a 97% score, Sophos follows very closely with a 96% score. I am asked which AV is the best and I will usually recommend the one with the best detection rate as this is the most important feature, detect malware and quarantine/remove it or at the very least notify of it’s detection.
( NOTE: The AV field changes quick, check the latest test results PDF to see if the previous statement still applies) After updating the malware sample pool a few days ago and re-testing several applications I noticed that Avast overtook Sophos again, a battle for the best position that has been going on for a while now. Since the testing of Mac antivirus (AV) applications began in April 2013, Sophos and Avast have been consistently taking up the number one and two places in a list of 35 applications.