I had a couple of questions about Malwarebytes this week.
“I have Malwarebytes Premium. Is that enough?”
“I have been using Malwarebytes (Free some time but they have become aggressively
more persistent that we buy the upgrade which is 39 dollars a year. I have two computers, so it gets more than I want to pay. I think they tricked me into getting it.
Is Bitdefender good, or Spybot or AVG Antivirus? I have Microsofts Windows Defender and I keep it up to date and run the scan once a week at least.”
First, Malware Bytes is a great product. The company says that if you’re running the Premium version of Malwarebytes 3.0 that it can serve as an antivirus replacement.
But I’ve heard differing opinions from a lot of corners on whether that’s the case. Malwarebytes still works in conjunction with antivirus software so I might be more comfortable in using it in conjunction with an Antivirus. Antiviruses look for signatures or identifying characteristics of malicious files. Malware programs tend to look for suspicious actions. Both are legitimate ways of finding malicious files and programs. At this point, I’d probably want to have both types of program. You could just turn on your built-in Windows protection and add Malwarebytes Premium.
Remember, the heightened capabilities for Malwarebytes are only for the Premium version of the program. Even at $40, I don’t think it’s a bad deal. We’re talking about software that has to be updated pretty much every day to stay on top of new threat. The difference between the free and paid versions of Malwarebytes is that the paid version stops threats in real time as they’re working their way onto your PC. The free version scans for them after the fact and then removes what it finds. Sometimes that can be a little late.
The free version will bug you to upgrade to Premium. But the free version of almost any security program usually will hit you with nags to move to the paid version. They have to make their money somewhere. There’s no way you can be signed up to the paid version of Malwarebytes unless you put in your credit card info. So, simply ignore the nags if you don’t want to pay for increased protection. If you did subscribe to the paid version, but want to cancel the subscription, click here for information on how to do that.
Bitdefender and AVG are antivirus programs and not a good idea to run at the same time you’re running Windows Defender. Spybot is an anti-malware program. The paid version also features an antivirus. Spybot is better at somethings than Malwarebytes, Malwarebytes surpasses Spybot is some tests. These are all fine programs. Expect to be nagged to upgrade to the premium version of any of these if you go for the free version.