Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes Home Antimalware (primary)Compare with others in Home Antimalware

Product

Malwarebytes is anti-malware software for home users. Its paid Premium tier adds real-time protection and scheduled scans. Malwarebytes Free is a cleanup tool for cyberattacks that have already damaged a device. Malwarebytes helps protect you from scams, phishing sites, fake downloads, malicious ads, and the threats traditional antivirus often misses. Malwarebytes is designed to help protect against the real-world tactics cybercriminals use today—not just the traditional malware threats of the past. Malwarebytes covers Android, iOS, macOS and Windows.

Current Version: 5.35
Product Page: malwarebytes.com/premium
Market: Consumer
Licence: Paid
Price: USD 44.99 / annual
Record Created: 2026-08-20
Last Updated: 2026-10-29

Vendor

Malwarebytes began as a teenager's fix for his own infected computer: Marcin Kleczynski wrote the first version in the mid-2000s after malware his antivirus could not remove got onto the family PC, and built the company around cleaning up machines that other products had already failed to protect. That remains its distinctive position — for years it was the second opinion people installed alongside their antivirus rather than instead of it, and it still sells a free on-demand cleaner as well as full protection. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with offices in Ireland, Estonia, Italy, Spain and Israel. In 2024 it split its business in two by brand: consumer products keep the Malwarebytes name, and everything sold to organisations moved to ThreatDown. Households buy Malwarebytes Premium, with Malwarebytes VPN, Malwarebytes Mobile Security, Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection and the free AdwCleaner and Browser Guard tools. Organisations buy ThreatDown Endpoint Protection and the managed detection service above it. Vendor page →

Website: malwarebytes.com
Country: United States
Headquarters: Santa Clara, United States
Year Established: 2008
Customers: 20K organisations
Users: 25M users
Revenue: $126.2M (2017)

Platforms

Android	native
iOS	native
macOS	native
Windows	native

Target Market

Consumer primary

Capabilities

Pricing

Plan	Licence	Priced per	Billed	Price
Summary	Subscription	not stated	yearly	USD 44.99

Versions

5.35iOSreleased 2026-10-26
5.28.3macOS
5.7.3.376Windows

The newest release each source names per platform, not every release the vendor has shipped. A release date is shown only where one is recorded.

Independent Tests

At a glance — latest result per lab test

AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection TestStandard

Tested: Windows2026-06-15lab report ↗

AV-Comparatives Malware Protection TestTested

Tested: Windows2026-10-15lab report ↗

AV-Comparatives Performance TestAdvanced

Tested: Windows2026-10-20lab report ↗

SE Labs Home Anti-Malware ProtectionAA

2026-06-30lab report ↗

Each bar is one lab’s own figure on that lab’s own scale. Labs test different models at different times, so the figures are not combined into one score.

All results

AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection TestAV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test — February–May 20262026-06-15

StandardProtection Rate: 98.8%False Positives: 11

AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection TestAV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test — July–October 20252025-11-17

TestedProtection Rate: 98.1%False Positives: 42

AV-Comparatives Malware Protection TestAV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test — March 20262026-04-15

TestedOffline Detection Rate: 92.4%Online Detection Rate: 98.3%Online Protection Rate: 99.59%False Positives: 23

AV-Comparatives Malware Protection TestAV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test — September 20252025-10-15

TestedOffline Detection Rate: 94.7%Online Detection Rate: 98.8%Online Protection Rate: 99.88%False Positives: 28

AV-Comparatives Malware Protection TestAV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test — September 20262026-10-15

TestedOffline Detection Rate: 84.2%Online Detection Rate: 94.6%Online Protection Rate: 99.65%False Positives: 32

AV-Comparatives Performance TestAV-Comparatives Performance Test — April 20262026-04-22

AdvancedImpact Score: 17.6AV-Comparatives Score: 75

AV-Comparatives Performance TestAV-Comparatives Performance Test — September 20252025-10-15

AdvancedImpact Score: 17.5AV-Comparatives Score: 75

AV-Comparatives Performance TestAntivirus Performance Test September 20262026-10-20

AdvancedImpact Score: 19.1AV-Comparatives Score: 75

SE Labs Home Anti-Malware ProtectionHome Anti-Malware 2026 Q2

AAOverall 94Protection Accuracy: 98%Legitimate Accuracy: 92%Total Accuracy Rating: 94%

SE Labs Home Anti-Malware ProtectionHome Anti-Malware 2026 Q1

AAAOverall 97Protection Accuracy: 97%Legitimate Accuracy: 98%Total Accuracy Rating: 97%

Certifications

OESIS Framework SupportSupported1 activeSupported

OPSWAT Certified Security ApplicationGold1 activeGold

Change History

This record was created 2026-08-20. Everything below is what has changed since.

2026-10-29Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-28Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-28New versionNew version: 5.35 (iOS)evidence
2026-10-28Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-28New versionNew version: 5.7.3.376 (Windows)evidence
2026-10-26Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-25Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-24Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-23Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-22Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-21Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-21Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Performance Test result: Advancedevidence
2026-10-20Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-19Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-17Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-16Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-15Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-15Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test result: Testedevidence
2026-10-14Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-13Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-12Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-11Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-10Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Performance Test result: Advancedevidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Performance Test result: Advancedevidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test result: Testedevidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Malware Protection Test result: Testedevidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test result: Testedevidence
2026-10-09Test result addedNew AV-Comparatives Real-World Protection Test result: Standardevidence
2026-10-09Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-08Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-06New versionNew version: 5.28.3 (macOS)evidence
2026-10-06Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-05Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-05New versionNew version: 5.7.2.358 (Windows)evidence
2026-10-04Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-03Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence
2026-10-02New versionNew version: 5.27.1.4191 (macOS)evidence
2026-10-02Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Gold)evidence
2026-10-01Certification addedCertified: OPSWAT Certified Security Application (Platinum)evidence

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Malware Detectionkey	native
Ransomware Protectionkey	native
Behavioral Detectionkey	native
Web Protectionkey	native
Email Protection	Not known
Host Firewall	Not known
Sandbox Analysis	Not known
Cloud-Assisted Scanning	Not known
Heuristic Detection	Not known
Device Control	Not known
Vulnerability Shielding	native
Central Management Console	Not known