Best free antivirus software for Mac

Look at the calendar. macOS was first released for Macs over a quarter century ago. If not for the traditionally virus-prone Windows platform this topic would have ceased to exist by now.

Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community describes the reasons no third party "anti-virus" products should ever be installed on a Mac.

There are no computer viruses that affect macOS. There will never be any computer viruses that affect macOS. Rule 1 of Macs is don't install junk.

None.

Macs do not need antivirus free or otherwise. Mac has active malware protection for different kinds of malware including viruses which are actually extremely low quantities these days and quite difficult to actually come by.

click here ➜ Protecting against malware in macOS - Apple Support

Anti-Virus apps just tend to muck things up and cause issues performance drops on Macs and as mentioned are pretty much unnecessary.

Agree 100% with our friend, @Phil0124. 👍🏽

Your Mac requires no third-party, always-on anti-virus software.

Apple has built its XProtect anti-virus software into macOS and keeps it updated regularly.  Who better knows how to protect your Mac and macOS than Apple?

More info is in the link provided by Phil0124.

And for good measure:

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

MacOS 26.6.2