Panda antivirus for macOS 2024 review

In this post, we take an in-depth look at Panda antivirus for macOS. Its Windows version got favorable reviews, so I was curious to see what its macOS version had to offer. Unfortunately, as we’ll see, the answer is ‘not much.’

Before we dive into the review, I just want to highlight the summary below, which you can read if you’re pressed for time. If not, and you want all the details, then I recommend reading through the whole thing.

Panda Antivirus for macOS summary

Although the Windows version of Panda antivirus includes some fluff, it nevertheless touts some appreciable features. Rescue Kit allows you to create a “rescue USB drive” to remove malware and restore the infected system to its non-infected state. The file encryption and file shredding tools in the Windows version can also be useful.

Sadly, none of those features are present in the macOS version. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews , you’ll know I’m not a fan of fluff. The macOS version only provides the antivirus engine (which isn’t very good), a real-time malware blocker for web browsing, and a generic VPN with virtually no settings, and that’s capped at 150 MB per month. No settings to play with, as Panda’s app allows for minimal customization. Its price, which isn’t too high, is still difficult to justify.

If Panda’s antivirus engine was actually good, I could recommend a lean antivirus for no-nonsense virus protection. But it simply isn’t. Panda’s macOS antivirus isn’t rated on AVTest or AVComparatives, so we only had our in-house tests to go on – and the results were surprising. Panda didn’t block any of our virus samples (EICAR), whether zipped or unzipped (ouch). It also failed to detect our malware samples when zipped – despite the fact that I explicitly enabled the “scan compressed files” setting. The malware samples were promptly detected and quarantined once unzipped. Its MacOS version clearly still needs a lot of work before a recommendation can be earned.

On the plus side, I contacted its Support Department to inquire about its refund policy and got a prompt and polite answer. But that won’t be enough for a favorable review. When you’re selling antivirus software and your antivirus engine is subpar, it’s hard to generate a positive buzz.

In short, Panda for macOS is not recommended.

Panda Antivirus for macOS pros and cons

What are the system requirements for Panda Antivirus?

These are the system requirements to run Panda antivirus for macOS .

So, that’s macOS Yosemite or later. I’m testing on macOS Sonoma.

The Panda sign-up process

Panda offers a free month trial for its antivirus for macOS. However, a credit card is required, and you do need to sign up for it.

Panda’s signup process is what you’re used to. You select your plan, enter your details, and make a payment. Once your payment goes through, you’ll receive an email from Panda with your activation code (you’ll need it during app installation). The same information will be displayed on-screen after your purchase.

How to install Panda for macOS

The installation process is your standard click-through installation. However, you will be prompted to create an account password and enter your email address and activation code.

1. Purchase a Panda subscription.
2. Download the Panda installer for Mac from its Downloads page.
3. Locate the downloaded .dmg file in your Downloads folder and double-click it.
4. Double-click the Panda Installer in the open window to begin the installation.
5. If prompted with a security warning, click “Allow” to allow the installation.
6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.
7. Create your account password when prompted.
8. Enter your username and password when prompted.
9. Enter your activation code when prompted.
10. Enter your Mac’s administrator password to allow Panda to install its components.
11. Once installation is complete, the antivirus will launch automatically.

You will be asked to enable some system permissions upon the first launch. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Once it has the required permissions, the app automatically starts a full virus scan . The Scan menu is unresponsive during this time.

Let’s now look at the app’s functionality.

The Panda for macOS app

While Panda’s app is functional, it’s not the most intuitive app to navigate. And many times, you land on screens that have so few options that you’re left wondering if you’re in the right place. You’ll end up finding everything that’s available in a short time simply because there simply isn’t much to find.

The Scan menu

The Scan menu is where you’ll find all the settings related to scans. When you click on it, the menu expands and gives you three options:

• Critical Areas (quick scan)
• Full Scan
• Custom Scan

Clicking Critical Areas starts a quick scan immediately. Clicking Full Scan starts a full scan immediately. Clicking Custom Scan opens a pop-up menu (a file-picker) from which you can select the files to be scanned.

The Safe Browsing Menu

Panda’s Safe Browsing feature is its antivirus’ real-time protection. As you browse the web, if you encounter any malware , it should be automatically blocked. I use the word ‘should’ because the antivirus engine isn’t the best at blocking threats (as we’ll see later).

Clicking the Safe Browsing menu displays the full range of options available to customize the feature to your needs. The irony is on the house. You’re welcome.

The VPN menu

Clicking the VPN menu brings you to the VPN Settings page.

The big Settings button at the top right would make you think there are VPN settings to configure, but it instead takes you to the app’s generic Settings page that doesn’t include anything about the Mac VPN .

So your only options with the VPN are to connect or upgrade to lift the daily 150 MB cap (and perhaps even get some configuration options, I don’t know).

The Products menu

The Products menu displays the Panda products you purchased as its name indicates.

The Improve button is simply a poorly worded upgrade option. It takes you to its website to upsell you on a larger subscription.

App settings

To access the app’s Settings menu, click on the small gear icon in the middle of the page towards the bottom.

This brings up the Settings menu, comprising three main sections.

• General
• Anti-virus
• Safe Browsing

General

The General Settings display the email address associated with your account. They also allow you to choose the app’s language and configure a proxy server through which the app will connect to the Internet.

Anti-virus

The Antivirus Settings menu gives you the most options and is arguably the only useful settings menu in the app. From here, you can customize the behavior of the antivirus scans. You can also add or remove file and folder exclusions. Further down on the page, you have the option to include or exclude system extensions.

Safe Browsing

This one’s an absolute behemoth.

I debated whether or not to write anything here. You can enable or disable the Safe Browsing feature from here (as you could from the Safe Browsing menu). One could legitimately wonder why this menu is here…

The hidden Settings page

I have to admit, I discovered this one by accident in my desperate search for settings. If you double-click the blue antivirus section on the right side of the app, it displays a “hidden” settings menu. And, no, there is no other way to reach that menu.

And here’s the menu:

You can enable or disable the antivirus from the top of the menu and access the Settings menu we detailed earlier by clicking the Settings button.

Below that, the page displays the number of files scanned, the number of threats blocked, and the number of quarantined items at the top. But why would it state that it blocked nine threats and only quarantined three files? Its numbers are off.

Underneath that, it appears to list the number of threats detected through scheduled scans. I haven’t run any scheduled scans, so the section is empty. However, clicking VIEW FULL REPORT underneath displays all the scans and all the detected threats, so it’s not empty.

I guess the full report isn’t exclusive to scheduled scans. But being right under it can lead one to believe they’re linked.

You can schedule a scan at the bottom right of this page by clicking the + button (the – button is to delete a scheduled scan). This displays the Scheduled Scans menu, which includes three sub-menus.

General

The page is pretty self-explanatory: you provide a name for the scan, set the schedule, and select what is scanned. The scan drop-down contains three options:

• Critical Areas (quick scan)
• My entire PC (full scan)
• Other items (custom scan)

If you choose the latter option, you must manually add the files and folders to be scanned by clicking the + button.

Exclusions

You can add or remove excluded files, folders, and system extensions from here.

Advanced

You can fine-tune the antivirus detection settings from the Advanced sub-menu, such as scanning compressed files (more on that below). Remember, the above settings only affect scheduled scans. For quick, full, and custom scans, their settings are in the main Settings menu that we looked at above.

Antivirus test results

Panda Antivirus for macOS isn’t rated on either AVTest or AVComparatives, so we don’t have that data. We’ll be relying on our in-house tests.

I started my tests using the European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) virus samples. Two samples were zipped for this test, and two others were not. Panda didn’t detect any of them, whether zipped or unzipped, in real-time or custom scans.

Needless to say, that’s not the result we were looking for.

Moving on to our malware sample tests, the results were better but still not great. Panda didn’t detect any malware samples when zipped in real-time or custom scans. But it detected and quarantined them when unzipped in both real-time and custom scans. So that’s a half-hit or a half-miss, depending on your perspective.

I don’t want to add insult to injury, but these results surprised me. Panda has settings for scanning compressed files, and I dutifully enabled them prior to testing (and I did not configure any exclusions).

Panda’s impact on system resources

Below is an overview of Panda’s impact on system resources when running quick (smart) and full scans:

Quick (Smart) Scan

Full Scan

While I had no trouble using my computer during Panda’s scans, I must say that its scans take a long time to complete—full scans run for multiple hours (i.e. roughly six hours). Even Quick scans take approximately 30 minutes).

How much does Panda for macOS cost?

Panda offers three subscriptions that vary in price based on the number of devices supported. It has plans for one, three, five, and ten devices:

One device

Three devices

Five devices

Ten devices

The Essential plan ranges from $34.99 (one device) to $69.99 (ten devices).

The Complete plan ranges from $58.49 (one device) to $110.49 (ten devices).

The Premium plan ranges from $83.99 (one device) to $155.99 (ten devices).

These prices aren’t terrible. But why would you pay anything for an antivirus that underperforms?

Panda support options

Panda provides four options when it comes to getting support:

• Online knowledge base
• Phone
• Email
• Chat

The chat option is accessed via a chat icon at the bottom of its Support pages.

As I mentioned previously, I contacted Panda’s Support (over the phone) to inquire about getting a refund before the trial expires. Some of its online help documents state that you can cancel through your Panda account page. I couldn’t find that option, so I contacted support, and the rep confirmed that you need to call them to cancel. And that’s not ideal for two reasons:

1. Panda’s support docs provide incorrect information.
2. Calling a service to cancel is a hassle, and support reps are invited to use their canned retention tactics. Users should simply be able to cancel online without speaking to anyone.

I also contacted Panda Support to find out about its data collection practices. This time, I used email.

I received a polite response within 24 hours that provided a link to Panda’s privacy policy. As you may have guessed, Panda collects quite a bit of data. Most of it is for services rendered. Still, other antivirus vendors fulfill their mission while collecting fewer data points.

Conclusion: Do I recommend Panda antivirus?

Nope. I really don’t.

I can’t recommend Panda antivirus for macOS because of how poorly its antivirus engine performs. It’s one thing not to detect all threats when they’re compressed, but it just doesn’t look good when your app exposes an explicit setting to scan for compressed files and systematically fails to detect them.

Its app is quite ugly, and navigating it is confusing at best. There are duplicate pages or pages with no options beyond on/off. It’s not a great app experience. There are no parental controls or a password manager .

When you compare Panda antivirus for macOS to its Windows counterpart – which is way more polished and provides more useful features – it’s clear that supporting macOS isn’t a priority for Panda. I know why use it?

Panda Antivirus for Windows

Panda needs to up its macOS game if it wants to be taken seriously by Mac users. As it stands now, Panda antivirus for macOS is not recommended. You can get much better for less, too.

Our antivirus testing methodology

We’ve structured our antivirus testing methodology to provide reliable data on the software’s effectiveness at malware protection and performance.

Our Antivirus testing process includes:

• Using malware test samples from EICAR
• Testing live malware samples, including Adware and Trojans
• Comparing our own tests with independent antivirus lab test results
• Measuring the impact on PC performance

In addition, we analyze pricing, ease of use, compatibility, and additional features.

If you want to know more about how we analyze antivirus software, we have a dedicated post detailing our antivirus research and testing methodology .