Norton 360 review: How Norton 360 stacks up on Mac

The latest version of Symantec from his antivirus safety suite also includes a VPN (which we have examined here: Norton Ultra VPN Review), system cleaning and confidentiality features according to the subscription plan for which you opt.

Similar to its previous versions, Norton 360 downloads and easily installs and requests authorization to access all of your hard drive for file analyzes, as well as the authorization to create a new network extension if you decide to use its VPN features.

Take a look to see how Norton 360 compares to other mac antivirus applications that we have examined in our overview of the best mac antivirus applications.

Although navigation by the menu in Norton 360 can always feel a little complicated and take some time to get used to it, the program is always getting to work and does it well.

The application is more like a suite, offering antiviral tools as well as file cleaning, a cloud backup, an intelligent firewall, parental commands, intrusation prevention, safe web functionality, forty, browser extensions and access to the Norton private browser, which is based on Chrome Open-Source browser. These tools do a good job to warn you of websites based on spam and phishing, but it is not perfect and always allowed me to travel on doubtful websites that appeared via the spam folder of my Gmail.

Foundry

Regarding its basic antiviral characteristics, once you have allocated the application, full access to the hard drive of your Mac and you have let it work, the results are impressive. The external volumes were easy to analyze and configure to be automatically scanned, with only a few elements, such as Adwind, sliding in random tests. Rapid and complete analyzes on internal and external hard drives have proven to be rapid, Norton 360 offering a practical progress bar and a tracker for percentage in its user interface, and it was easy to scan specific files, external volumes and create white lists of regions to avoid scanning to save time.

Foundry

Symantec has worked and has been marketing Norton’s privacy tools for several years now, and the offers are useful, but still decidedly mixed. In addition to its confidentiality browser Norton, which works well but seems limited to a dedicated third -party safety browser such as Brave, Norton 360 offers its secure web extensions, which can be downloaded and installed for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge web browsers.

The results of the tests with them have proven to be mixed, and the safe web extension allowed visits to each spam website tested under the Microsoft EDGE browser, while issuing sporadic warnings and always allowing traffic to dubious websites under the Mozilla Firefox web browser. The SAFE web extension has done the best under the Google Chrome web browser, and the two warnings displayed as well as attempts to install malware blocked, but have always made it possible to access certain websites based on the scam.

Foundry

Other tools, such as the VPN function and the file cleaning module, worked well, even if their offers were less customizable than specific applications for these tasks. The fact that you can plan file cleaning for internal and external volumes is useful.

• The VPN is more basic than a dedicated customer, it is quite easy to configure your favorite country of origin and launch a connection. For other VPN options, see our gusts for the best VPN for Mac and the best VPN for iPhone and iPad.
• The password manager is reliable and includes a downloadable recovery key, if necessary, and there is an admirable level of personalization possible on the firewall, but you will need technical knowledge so as not to put yourself in difficulty. We have more password managers here: best password manager for Mac and iPhone.
• Intuitive Startup Manager module which offers a range of access to connection elements without going too much in weeds.
• The file cleaning module works well but no longer looks like an original idea, since it is almost a de facto function for most utility programs these days. The software tracks down gigabytes of foreign items in application covers (system and user), downloads and system log files, then offers a quick way to access it, choose what to delete and delete these elements. For more Mac cleaners, see: the best mac cleaners.
• The Dark web protection module also works well, and a quick analysis noted that my information was available on the Dark Web via an Adobe hack, although I changed my password a long time ago.

Foundry

It is sometimes a question of ambition, and although Norton 360 does an excellent job with its main functions, there are also times when it seems that Symantec tries to attract you in his assortment of other services when what you could simply need is a good antivirus program for your Mac. Yes, there is a good assortment of tools here, but they sometimes sacrifice the quality for the quantity, and the fact that the start -up feature only offered an approach to the surface regarding the applications that could be launched when your Mac boots, but have not plunged under the hood, illustrates this point. Beyond that, the fact that the application can still not scan the .zip archives for viruses, something we specifically highlighted last year, and the fact that Adwind malware has slipped and had to be deleted with another third-party utility, shows that the main function of Norton 360 could always use another work.

What is present in this version of Norton 360 is a set of viable tools that are motivated by a company that tries to offer everything both without really perfecting each tool to its full potential. The antivirus elements are good and Norton 360 effectively slams the door on an incredible quantity of potential viral activity, but always leaves viruses and occasional malware.

Its safe research extensions are affected, and although its user and personalization interface elements are impressive, it tries to offer and do everything at the same time, which harms the final product. Yes, the Cloud backup function is in better shape compared to previous versions, but there are still things that require attention, questions of questions and answers and debugging to put the Mac version up to Windows offers.

There is something good here, and it is viable as a versatile tool, but it might be preferable that these tools are all they could be.

Norton 360 Price

Norton 360, which requires MacOS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later to install and execute, is currently sold from $ 41.88 per year for the first year to cover three devices (or £ 34.99 per year for a device in the United Kingdom – we do not know why American users are authorized to more devices).

It is available as a free 7 -day try in exchange for your credit card and debit information, and Symantec offers a 60 -day refund guarantee. There is also Norton Antivirus Plus which covers a device for $ 29.99 for the first year, but does not have VPN and monitoring of the Dark Web.

Should you buy Norton 360?

Norton 360 for Mac is, in its heart, a viable tool capable of more than antivirus protection, and its basic scanning tools are fast, efficient and impressive. Although there is a questionable software on the occasion, it always blocks an impressive quantity of what exists, and additional tools like VPN, parental controls, file cleaning and Cloud backup offer a good deal at $ 41.88 for the first year for up to three devices.

Even thus, Norton 360 may sometimes have the impression of trying to do too much, and its additional features do not always correspond to the quality of the autonomous tools available through other third parties. Its secure web extensions, for example, operate inconsistently depending on the browser, and it still cannot scan archives .zip, something that we specifically highlighted last year. Yes, its antiviral elements are solid, but until Symantec draws its wide assortment from other online features, it is not a must for each Mac user.