Only 2 of the solutions for consumer users experienced a few problems with detecting the malware. For example, the package from Trend Micro identified 98.5 percent of the attackers and Avira only 97.5 percent, meaning both products lost several points. For this reason, the lab awarded Trend Micro with 4.5 out of 6 points and Avira with only 3.5 points.

As for both corporate solutions from Crowdstrike and Sophos, they encountered no problems whatsoever. For their high level of performance, they all received the full 6 points. Trellix and Trend Micro ran into a few issues, detecting 99.3 and 99.0 percent, respectively, of the attackers, which naturally led to point deductions. Trellix received 5.5 points and Trend Micro only 5.0 points.

Performance testing of the security solutions 

As part of testing, the lab experts examine the extent to which the MacOS systems are impacted by the various security solutions. To do so, several operations are executed on a system without a security solution. The amount of time required to execute these operations establishes the baseline for the tests, such as copying data locally and to the network, accessing hundreds of websites, downloading numerous files and installing and launching popular applications. Finally, the test experts activate the security packages and perform all operations again.

The test team awarded nothing but top scores in this test area. The outcome of the performance test was positive in all cases, leading to a score of 6 points for each of the 14 products examined.

Friend or foe, harmless or malicious?

A security solution needs to accurately detect dangerous malware and leave harmless files untouched. Unfortunately, false positives are a reality in testing and an otherwise harmless program gets flagged as an attacker. So the lab team also evaluates this aspect by copying more than 40,000 files onto each and every test system. They record everything that the security components report back. In addition, nearly 200 harmless applications are also installed and executed on the systems. The protection tools should not raise the alarm here either.

Fortunately, all 14 security solutions performed well, and none of the products produced false alarms. Thus, all products were able to receive the full 6 points.

Extra test: is it possible to detect Windows malware and PUAs?

All of the MacOS security packages are put through an additional test that is not scored as part of the main testing. The test experts want to determine whether the products are also capable of handling Windows malware and PUAs (potentially unwanted applications), in addition to MacOS malware. The test is intended to establish whether the packages could detect Windows malware on a Mac device before it could infect a Windows computer over a mixed-use network.

In addition, the test experts checked how well the programs detected the pesky PUAs. They, in contrast, are not dangerous, but they can be a bother to many users.

The MacOS security packages for consumer users from Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, Kaspersky and Norton detected more than 99 percent of Windows malware and PUAs, whereas F-Secure managed just over 95 percent. The scores for Trend Micro and Intego were even lower yet in part.

Among the solutions for corporate users, Sophos und Trellix each detected over 95 percent of the Windows attackers. The rest of the values were lower. Crowdstrike only focused on malware for Mac systems.

Conclusion: excellent protection for MacOS based on the 01/2026 quarterly test

The majority of security solutions demonstrated an excellent ability to protect users’ systems in the first round of testing for 2026. Among the packages for consumer users, 8 of the 10 products completed the test with the highest score of 18 points: Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, Intego, Kaspersky and Norton. Trend Micro and Avira attained acceptable scores of 16.5 and 15.5 points, respectively.

The difference in the scores for the packages for corporate users is not as large. Crowdstrike and Sophos each scored the full 18 points. And Trellix followed hot on their heels with 17.5 points and Trend Micro with 17 points.

However, it stands to note that the point deductions were in the category of malware detection, which means that the vendors need to make some improvements in this area.