Malwarebytes vs. Norton

There are hundreds of antivirus software out there, ranging from titans such as Norton and McAfee to more obscure ones such as Sophos out of the U.K. and Quick Heal in India. In a saturated market, we want to help you get a sense of the best digital security tools available, so we’re comparing head to head two antivirus programs, Malwarebytes and Norton Antivirus. We’ll be looking at their cost, overall value, ability to detect and prevent viruses, and additional features. Ultimately, we’ll deliver a verdict on which one you should go with. Let’s get into it.

Comparing Malwarebytes and Norton By Price

Malwarebytes comes at three price points, starting with Basic Security ($44.99) and ending with Complete Protection ($119.99). Norton Antivirus, meanwhile, has a lot more bundles, starting with AntiVirus Plus for $19.99 (which works on one device) and going all the way up to 360 With LifeLock Ultimate Plus for $299.88 (which works on unlimited devices).

Range and flexibility will be a common theme when it comes to Norton, and one of the areas in which the program separates itself from the field, including when stacked against Malwarebytes, which is a lot more bare-bones.

The good news is that each program is always running promotions, discounts, and trials, so you can take them for a spin before you make a full commitment. Below is a table with more detail on the pricing and features of various Malwarebytes and Norton antivirus products.

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Malwarebytes’ and Norton’s Interfaces

Think of Malwarebytes as a reliable antivirus program that’s a bit more bare-bones than Norton. It has a very friendly user interface with a simple and clear dashboard that shows the last time you’ve scanned your device, an indication of real-time protection, and a VPN. We also liked its Protection Score, which ranges from poor to excellent based on the protection features you have enabled. That helps clarify Malwarebytes features and leaves no ambiguity. And, hey, we all want an A+ on that test.

We tried Norton 360 Deluxe and found the interface to be a little less inviting, especially when using the newer My Norton interface. Luckily there’s an option to turn it back to Classic (yes, we’re old school!). On the plus side, Norton does a great job of showing how many devices it’s installed on and makes the process of adding a new device crystal clear. From your phone, for instance, you can even screenshot a QR code for easy installation.

>> Read More: Malwarebytes Review and Norton Antivirus Review

Safeguards: How Malwarebytes and Norton Protect You

True to its name, Malwarebytes makes malware removal its bread and butter. Along with real-time protection, the program is able to manage situations in which a device is already infected and needs malware removed — offering anti-malware, anti-spyware, and anti-ransomware options. Norton, meanwhile, provides far-reaching cybersecurity options, including identity and email protection, as well as parental controls. Malwarebytes is missing some of the add-ons Norton provides, including a password manager and firewall protection.

Time to Scan: Malwarebytes vs. Norton

Initiating a scan with Malwarebytes was a breeze. Notably, though, there is only one scan option. When we initiated a scan, it took a quick two minutes and 23 seconds to scan 275,000 files. When we initiated a scan a day later, it completed it in only a few seconds, suggesting that Malwarebytes does a quick scan of new files at times. You can, however, initiate a scheduled scan through settings.

We appreciated that in our advanced settings, Malwarebytes showed us how much CPU we were using. High CPU usage means faster scans, but it may slow down system performance on older computers. We saw that CPU usage peaked at nearly 80 percent during our test, but we didn’t notice any slowdowns on a pretty serviceable computer we were using.

Malwarebytes also offers real-time protection, which focuses on malware protection and app blocks.

Malware protection: This layer of protection on Malwarebytes blocks malware, viruses, potentially unwanted programs (PuPs), and adware.

App blocks: This layer on Malwarebytes blocks malicious applications from bad developers, stopping them from running. The program also provides a notification, confirming the block.

Norton, meanwhile, is a lot more nimble. It has the option for both a quick scan and a full system scan. Our full scan on Norton Deluxe 360 took 15 minutes and scanned quite a bit more of our hard drive — over 1 million files.

We followed it up with a quick scan, which took one minute. Norton also offers the option to schedule a scan, as well as scan specific files.

Detection and Prevention Accuracy

Now we come to the fun part: assessing Malwarebytes’ and Norton’s ability to detect and prevent viruses. First, let’s talk about what the industry is saying. We looked at AV-Comparatives, which runs real-world protection tests of the leading antivirus software. The test aims to find out how effective the products are in protecting computers against active real-world malware threats while using the internet. Here’s what they found about Norton and Malwarebytes:

• Between winter 2020 and winter 2024, Norton detected between 99.2 percent and 100 percent of AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection tests.1
• Between winter 2021 and fall 2022, Malwarebytes detected between 99.2 percent and 100 percent of AV-Comparatives’ real-world protection tests.2

In the competitive world of tic-tac-toe, that’s what we call a cat’s game. But will our own analysis break the tie? Our experts did their own test of Malwarebytes by installing five different viruses, including a .doc file and an .exe file. In that analysis,3 Malwarebytes managed to detect only one — just a 20 percent success rate. Not exactly encouraging.

In a similar test, Norton detected three out of five4 — a 60% success rate. That’s much more encouraging, especially since only a small percentage of the dozens of software we’ve tested have detected 100 percent of the five viruses. Norton is at least on par with the competition, and it outshines Malwarebytes.

Customer Support

Malwarebytes has pretty basic customer-service options, and it lacks even a toll-free customer-service line. Instead you can chat with an agent or an AI chatbot. Norton, in contrast, offers 24/7/365 customer service, along with an FAQ section, message forums, and an online live chat.

Tabulating the Results and Picking a Winner

Before we reveal our winner, let’s review where we are with Malwarebytes and Norton Antivirus across several categories.

Antivirus scan speed: Malwarebytes takes this one, finishing a scan faster than Norton. The one concern is the lack of different types of deeper scans you can perform on the system.

Pricing: At similar price points across their bundles, both Malwarebytes and Norton are affordable and offer good value.

Range of features: There’s a question of pricing, but also of value. Norton offers a lot more services at each of its price points, with VPN and firewall options coming into the picture fairly early on.

Antivirus-detection strength: Norton delivers better here, too, offering deeper scan options and performing much better in our tests.

In a battle between Malwarebytes and Norton, Norton came out the winner.

>> Up Next: Our Top Alternatives for Malwarebytes Antivirus