This lab rates antivirus products in three categories, Protection, Performance, and Usability, with six points available for each. Its scores have varied quite a bit, but it looks quite good in the latest report. More recently, Malwarebytes has been showing up in reports from AV-Test Institute (Opens in a new window). In the past, Malwarebytes didn’t submit even its Premium edition to most of the labs I follow. A lab test that uses outdated samples could make the product look bad. This emphasis on active, prevalent threats and advanced detection methods makes testing Malwarebytes tough. The anti-ransomware engine strictly uses behavioral detection. Exploit protection watches attack vectors and heads off exploits. In Malwarebytes Premium, machine learning and detection of anomalous behavior catch many malware samples. Every successful antivirus adds heuristic detection, behavior-based detection, and other non-signature protection layers. Simple-minded signature-based malware detection alone isn't enough in the modern world of zero-day attacks and polymorphic malware. The free version is full of subtle and not-so-subtle suggestions to spring for the upgrade to Premium. It does just one thing it cleans up existing malware problems. In particular, the free edition, reviewed here, doesn't include any real-time protection.

If you let the trial expire without upgrading, you'll find that you lose quite a few features. When you install the free edition, you can choose a 14-day trial of Malwarebytes Premium. Version 2 came out a couple years before that. The release of version 4 in 2019 was the first whole-number update since version 3 in 2016. While many security companies release product updates every year, Malwarebytes only does so when necessary. It can't help with attacks that do permanent damage, such as ransomware, but it's a handy tool when other approaches fail. Malwarebytes Free exists to wipe out attackers that get past your main defenses or that already compromised your PC before you could install protection. Or you might have an existing malware infestation that prevents installation of any full-scale antivirus. Some zero-day innovative malware attack might elude your protection, and then disable it.

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