Pros & Cons
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- Malware protection certified by one independent lab
- Inexpensive at entry-level pricing tier
- Includes full-featured firewall
- Free trial available
- Detects Windows malware
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- No protection against malicious or fraudulent websites
- Full protection, including tune-up and VPN is expensive
Intego ONE Specs
| Firewall | |
| On-Access Malware Scan | |
| On-Demand Malware Scan |
While early antivirus companies focused on defending PC’s against malware, only adding Macintosh protection years later, Intego, by contrast, has always been Mac-focused. The newly released Intego ONE combines antivirus protection with a full-featured firewall. Intego is effective against Mac malware, according to one lab, and the firewall component is welcome. However, Norton AntiVirus Plus for Mac has two perfect lab scores, and those two labs also vouch for Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac. They both excel at phishing protection, a feature that Intego currently lacks, and both offer a wealth of security bonuses, so these two are our Editors’ Choice winners for Mac antivirus utilities.
Intego ONE: A New Name and Appearance
For many years, and until recently, Intego’s Mac antivirus was called Intego Mac Internet Security. The extra-cost VPN was a separate app, better suited to users with a technical bent. The firewall component also opened as a separate app, with a sprawling, animated display. At its top pricing bundle, it included a personal backup system, a simple parental control system, and a system cleanup component called Washing Machine.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The current Intego ONE is different in many ways. As the name implies, it’s now a unified, integrated solution. The firewall component is streamlined and easier to understand. Parental control is gone, but it was never a big asset to begin with. SmartClean replaces Washing Machine. And, as noted, the VPN is fully integrated with the main antivirus app.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)Pricing: How Much Intego ONE Costs Depends on What You Want
At the entry-level Essential tier, which focuses on antivirus and firewall protection, Intego is a bargain. Its $39.99 yearly price is on par with CleanMyMac, ESET Cyber Security, G Data Antivirus, and Trend Micro Antivirus, and less than almost all the rest. For three licenses at the Essential tier, you pay $54.99—only ClamXAV, ESET, and K7 AntiVirus cost less for a threefer. Intego’s five-license price of $69.99 is the same as F-Secure Internet Security’s price and lower than all but ESET, K7, and Panda Dome Essential. And again, this tier gets you Intego’s full antivirus and firewall protection; it just doesn’t include system cleanup or a VPN.
With Intego’s Advanced tier, you get everything in the Essential tier plus the SmartClean system cleanup tool. At the Advanced tier, you pay $69.99 for a single license, $94.99 for three licenses, or $119.99 for five. The upgrade from Essential to Advanced costs $30, $40, or $50, depending on whether you’re going for one, three, or five licenses.
A year’s subscription for Intego ONE Complete costs $89.99, the same as a year of McAfee Total Protection. That’s a lot—most competitors cost less than $50 for a single license, but looking a bit deeper, it makes a degree of sense. Like McAfee, Intego’s Complete tier is a kind of security suite. It combines antivirus with system tune-up and a full-scale VPN. To protect three Macs, you pay $114.99, more than a three-license McAfee license, and more than all the competition. And at the five-license tier, it costs $139.99, compared with $119.99 for McAfee or Norton 360 Deluxe. If you’re keeping score, upgrading from Advanced to Complete costs another $20 per year, regardless of whether you’ve chosen to protect one, three, or five Macs.
You don’t have to lay out cash to get a feel for Intego’s protection, as a 7-day free trial is available with no credit card and no commitment. If money is tight, Avast One Basic, AVG AntiVirus, and Avira Free Antivirus are completely free.
Most Mac users either install operating system updates immediately or wait to see if any problems arise. If you’re stuck using an ancient Mac, you may not have the option to update. For quite some time, Intego supported versions back to Mavericks (10.9). This current revamped version needs at least Monterey (12), as do F-Secure and Sophos Home Premium. If you really need an antivirus for an old version of macOS, Bitdefender, ClamXav, K7, and Panda all support macOS versions back to Yosemite (10.10), which is more than 10 years old.
Getting Started With Intego
Anyone can download Intego’s Mac antivirus and install a free trial. As usual, you must give the antivirus Full Disk Access and other essential permissions. Once Intego downloads the latest malware definitions, it’s ready to go.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)Clicking Intego’s castle icon in the menu bar at the top of the screen reveals a panel that displays security statistics and a button to launch a scan. To open the full security application, click the Open label near the top-right corner of the panel.
A menu down the left side of the main window offers six choices: Home, Antivirus, Firewall, VPN, SmartClean, and Settings. Depending on the tier you selected, VPN and SmartClean may be absent. The entire right-hand side of the main window is occupied by a status display—you want to see “Your Mac Is Actively Protected.” A big button launches a ONE scan that combines a system cleanup scan with a quick antivirus scan.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)Between the menu and the status panel, you’ll find a stack of rectangular panes representing Antivirus, Firewall, VPN, and SmartClean. Here, too, you may not see VPN or SmartClean, depending on your selected tier. Each panel displays stats related to its topic; the VPN panel even has a map. And clicking a panel naturally digs deeper into the corresponding feature.
One Testing Lab Certifies Intego’s Protection
Mac malware isn't as prevalent, varied, or virulent as what you find on Windows, but it still exists, and the independent labs that perform Mac security testing find plenty of samples to use. While I can and do perform extensive hands-on testing of Windows antivirus apps, I rely on the labs to identify which Mac antivirus apps are most effective.
A few years ago, Intego appeared in lab reports from both AV-Test Institute and AV-Comparatives. Both labs have reduced the number of Mac antivirus apps they test, and AV-Test does not currently include Intego. Intego did receive certification in the latest report from AV-Comparatives, though its 97.1% malware detection score didn’t quite match the 100% earned by Avast, AVG, and Norton.
Intego’s configuration settings reveal that it’s meant to detect not just Mac malware but threats aimed at Windows. It’s true that a malicious program written to run on Windows, like any other Windows-specific program, won’t run under macOS. Even so, you don’t want your Mac to potentially become a carrier for attacks that wind up affecting your Windows devices.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)When last tested, Intego detected 100% of Windows malware samples in an AV-Comparatives test. Avast, AVG, and Norton matched that score. In a separate test using less-risky PUAs (potentially unwanted applications), scores ranged from 97% for Intego to 99% for Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, and Norton.
Having very good scores from one lab puts Intego in good company, given that most competitors don’t have even a single certification. Of course, having more than one top score is even better. Avast, AVG, and Norton pulled in perfect scores from both labs.
Excellent Windows Malware Detection and Speedy Full Scan
Intego finished a quick scan of my test Mac in barely over a minute, as did Bitdefender and MacPaw Moonlock. The macOS antiviruses that offer a quick scan tend to be very quick. The current quick-scan average is less than three minutes.
Intego's full system scan took seven minutes to finish, way faster than the current average of 45 minutes. Only a handful of competing antiviruses finished their latest tests in less time. Testing suggests that Intego performs optimization to speed subsequent scans. A second full scan came in under two minutes.
I'm not equipped to test using real-world Mac-specific malware, but I have plenty of samples from my Windows-centered testing regimen. I copied those to a thumb drive and mounted it on my test Mac. Intego immediately offered to scan the drive and quickly detected 92% of the samples. That’s better than most of the competition, though Surfshark One, McAfee, Avast, and Webroot Essentials turned in scores ranging from 94% to 99%.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)Even though Intego quarantined 92% of Windows malware samples, the files remained visible on the USB. To remove the quarantined files, I had to open Quarantine, select all the files, and click Repair.
Intego’s previous incarnation offered scheduled scanning, prominently placing that option in the main window. Intego ONE joins Bitdefender, G Data, Sophos, and several others that eschew scheduling. Of course, you can click to run a full scan anytime, and it's so quick you can run it whenever you like.
No Protection Against Malicious and Fraudulent Websites
One can argue that the best way to prevent malware from infecting your Mac is to ensure it never reaches the Mac. Most antivirus apps, whether for Mac or Windows, include protection against malicious websites. This almost always extends to detecting phishing sites as well. These fraudulent sites masquerade as bank sites or other sensitive sites, hoping to capture your password when you log in. If you do send your credentials to the fake site, the fraudsters own your account.
Some competitors handle this task using browser extensions. Others scan incoming internet traffic and filter out the dangerous pages below the browser level. At present, Intego does neither. It doesn’t try to detect phishing or malware-hosting pages.
In the antiphishing chart above, you can see that almost every other Mac antivirus app attempts to detect and deflect phishing attacks, and nearly all of them are more effective than the protection built into various browsers. Several competitors demonstrate that a macOS antivirus can effectively detect and defend against phishing fraud. A third of recent products achieved 100% detection in this test, including Bitdefender, Norton, Sophos, and Webroot.
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I’ve been griping about the absence of this feature for years now. I was pleased to hear from my Intego contact that “it has been added to our roadmap and will be available hopefully before the end of the year.” When this web-level protection becomes generally available, I’ll have another look at Intego.
Firewall: Updated and Much More Approachable
The last time I reviewed Intego’s Mac antivirus, it included a separate firewall application called NetBarrier. With Intego ONE, firewall protection is integrated right into the main app. On the firewall page, you can click a button to block all network access or flip a switch to disable the firewall’s filtering rules. Most users should leave both those settings alone. The main firewall page displays statistics on data sent and received and offers access to advanced reporting.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)One task of any firewall is to prevent attacks from across the internet or the network. Some firewalls expose detailed rules specifying which types of connections will be allowed or blocked. For example, incoming connections that weren’t requested typically get blocked. I always advise readers to refrain from touching any settings related to this type of firewall protection. Intego makes that easy by simply not exposing those rules, not even for viewing.
The other big task for a personal firewall is to control how programs access the network to head off potential abuse. Some firewalls maintain an internal list of known and trusted programs and automatically configure access to them. Intego simply gives a pass to apps published by Apple or by Intego. Every other app that attempts network access is subject to user verification.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)I’m not a fan of foisting this decision off on the uninformed user. Most users will just click Allow. Others may start off choosing Block for everything, until they break something. Then they switch to Allow.
If you do make a mistake responding to a pop-up, you can fix it in the firewall’s traffic control settings page. Each allow or block decision creates a rule, and this page lets you edit those rules. You can set the verdict to allow or to block, or have the firewall ask again next time it encounters the app.
You can also dig into Intego's Traffic Insights. This page lists all apps using your network connections (or that have used them recently), along with the amount of data uploaded and downloaded during the current session. A separate Traffic Stats page is essentially a cumulative version of the same data.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The firewall page also includes a built-in connection speed test. It graphs upload and download speed and (for those who understand such things) reports on jitter and ping latency. Interestingly, each test you run adds to a running score that’s kept separately for connections running through the VPN and for non-protected connections.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The current integrated firewall is a lot more approachable than the previous NetBarrier. Yes, NetBarrier included more detailed control over firewall rules, but most consumers aren’t equipped to use them.
SmartClean: Not Worth the Upgrade Cost
If you get fragged because your connection lagged, you may be tempted to blame the antivirus for hogging CPU cycles. From blaming it to turning off protection is just a short step. Intego is among the many antivirus and security apps that aim to head off this major security issue by actively improving system performance. That is, if you chose the Advanced or Complete tier. The Essential tier, while inexpensive, doesn’t include the SmartClean feature.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)Selecting SmartClean from the left side menu opens an overview page with plenty of stats and optimization actions. Near the top left, you see stats like CPU and RAM usage, along with how much junk the app could delete. That last stat comes from the heart of this feature, the optimization scan. In just a few minutes, this scan identifies junk files and other unwanted items.
SmartClean separates its results into two groups: one containing items that are definitely safe to delete and the other holding items that need your review. On my test Mac, it reported 2.8GB of junk, which I happily let it remove.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The scan also reports on the largest files it found and awaits your review. If you determine you can live without some of these large files, Intego makes it easy to check them off for removal.
Let’s look again at the overview page for SmartClean. The right side of the page has five wide panels that let you get more information about your Mac’s performance. Two of them let you dig in for application-level details on CPU and RAM usage. One links to the output of the last optimization scan. And one lets you view optimization history.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)That leaves the App Uninstaller to round out this collection. This component’s description states, “Unlike macOS, Intego removes apps completely—including leftover files.” It’s certainly easy to use.
Here’s the important question—how much would you pay for SmartClean? Depending on whether you choose one, three, or five licenses, the Advanced tier, which adds SmartClean, costs $30, $40, or $50 more per year. I’m not convinced SmartClean is worth the upgrade price.
VPN: Streamlined and Easy to Use
Upgrading an entry-level Intego Essential subscription to the top-tier Intego Complete costs $50 for a single license, $60 for three, and $70 for five. This upgrade gets you the SmartClean tune-up tool described above and, more importantly, adds Intego’s full-powered VPN. Intego gets its VPN technology from sister company ExpressVPN. Both are owned by Kape Technologies.
Why do you want a VPN? Here’s the deal. Your antivirus does a fine job protecting files and data residing on the Mac, but once you send that data to the internet, it’s unprotected. A VPN connection encrypts all your internet traffic before it leaves your Mac. The VPN server forwards traffic in both directions without revealing your actual IP address. In fact, geolocation shows your traffic to be coming from that server location, which can be handy for accessing region-locked content.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The left side of the VPN page has a small world map with a list of recommended locations below it. When you choose a location, the map pans to make it visible.
Intego offers servers in almost 50 countries. On the page where you pick a location, it displays the average latency (lower latency usually means a better connection). You can flip to a page of recommended locations or view just the locations you’ve flagged as favorites.
(Credit: Intego/PCMag)The top-right portion of the VPN page shows your connection status. If you’ve connected through the VPN, it reports “Private & Secure.” Below the status indicator, you’ll find panels to select a VPN location, choose your VPN protocol, and enable the VPN’s kill-switch feature. That last item simply cuts all internet connections if the VPN drops, so no data goes out unprotected.
The only VPN protocols this app offers are variants of the Lightway protocol, developed by ExpressVPN. You can choose Lightway over TCP or Lightway over UDP. Don’t know enough to choose? Just leave it set to automatic.
We haven’t put Intego’s VPN through our grueling VPN tests. Indeed, we don’t often evaluate VPNs that are embedded as features in larger suites. We do have a review of ExpressVPN that you can reference, though there are significant differences. For example, ExpressVPN has servers in about twice as many countries as Intego. In addition to its proprietary Lightway protocol, ExpressVPN offers the open-source OpenVPN protocol (but not WireGuard). And ExpressVPN comes with a bunch of bonuses like password management, tracker blocking, and parental content filtering.
As noted, upgrading from the simple antivirus to the top-tier version with VPN adds from $50 to $70 to your yearly subscription price. The average yearly subscription for the VPNs we’ve covered is about $56. If you subscribe to protect more than a single Mac, Intego’s incremental price is more than that of the standalone average. Yes, you also get SmartClean, but that’s no benefit if you don’t want it.
I suggest you go for the inexpensive entry-level version of Intego. If you want VPN protection, we’ve identified several Editors’ Choice winners. The least expensive of these is TunnelBear VPN at $49.99 per year, followed by Hide.me VPN at $54.95 per year. The full ExpressVPN application is also an Editors’ Choice, but its somewhat complex pricing starts at $99.95 per year. In truth, the best free VPNs do as well as, or better than, Intego’s built-in VPN. The free version of Proton VPN is notable because it imposes no bandwidth limits. Intego is a better bargain if you're looking for VPN protection elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Intego ONE
Intego ONE is lab-certified to protect against macOS malware and includes a personal firewall, but we'd like to see it add web protection like that found in most competitors.