There’s a decent core functionality here, but it falls short in a few places and could use an update. But at a $10/£10 price point and no need for a subscription it’s worthy of consideration.
There’s generally a difference between a product’s marketing copy and what the software is capable of living up to. For all its bluster on the Mac App Store, BitMedic Pro Antivirus (v3.1.3 at time of writing), developed by Pocket Bits LLC, is a good antiviral program, albeit with some shortcomings that need to be worked through.
The program, which retails for $10/£10 on the Mac App Store, features a nice complement of tools, including an Antivirus Scan module, an Adware Cleaner module, a Result Log, a Custom Scan module, a Browser Privacy module, and a System Settings module that allows you to schedule deep scans, customize system behaviors, and create a whitelist of files not to scan. Just download the software, assign it the requisite permissions, and you’re good to go.
Initial tests with the Antivirus Scan module’s quick scan and deep scan went well and BitMedic Pro Antivirus was able to find several phishing-based emails in an archive I didn’t know about. Still, this felt hampered by the fact that the application crashed twice during testing under macOS Ventura 13.5.1, the tests having to be restarted afterward.
A lack of specific descriptions as to what the infected files were and their full location, even after a drop-down arrow was clicked, felt frustrating. While BitMedic Pro Antivirus downloads an updated list of virus definitions before each scan, this, along with the lack of an elapsed time for the scans, felt like a part of the user interface that had been skimped on.
The inclusion of an Adware Cleaner module is a nice touch, performs well, and runs quickly. It’s curious to see this tacked on as its own unique feature, though, as this could have fallen under the general category of viruses or malware.
While it’s nice to have a Results Log module, this doesn’t feel like it could offer everything it could. The reports divide results into categories of Summary, Viruses, and Adware, and offer a Time Machine-esque timeline as to when each instance was discovered, but don’t offer a full file name, location, or description of what each infection does on your Mac, which any user would be curious about.
The Browser Privacy module functions as a quick and easy way to clean up your history, auto logins, bookmarks, remove all extensions, and reset the preferences on your browser, but this also feels overbroad. Yes, a given extension might be causing problems, but this feels as if you’re destroying the entire category of software as opposed to opening the web browser, going into the extensions menu, and specifying which extension to disable or delete. Clicking the “i” icon next to each function failed to pull up an information window describing the choice at hand, and this risks potentially deleting useful extensions that’ll have to be relocated and reinstalled again after getting rid of the problematic element.
The Custom Scan and System Settings modules are where BitMedic Pro Antivirus shines. It’s easy to designate where a custom scan takes place with the Custom Scan module, and this came in handy for quickly scanning a USB flash drive in a pinch. It’s simple to use the System Settings to schedule a scan as well as create a whitelist of files to avoid scanning as well as designate custom system behaviors, such as scanning an external drive once it’s mounted by the macOS.
Still, there are issues to contend with. While the virus database that’s downloaded and referenced against is frequently updated, the BitMedic Pro Antivirus application itself hasn’t been updated since 2020, and the antiviral cleaning seemed to be hit or miss. A deep scan removed a chunk of the controversial MacKeeper utility but still left other elements, which proved curious. Add in the fact that even after paying the $10/£10 fee for the software, the application continually bugs you to write an App Store review and rate it, and this gets annoying quickly.
Verdict
There’s a decent core functionality here, but it feels as if it’s lost in Pocket Bits’ portfolio of products. If the developers took the time to see what their competitors were doing well, where they might be falling short, and what could be fixed in version 4.0, you’d arguably have a great contender. Until then, this might be worth its $10/£10 price point that doesn’t argue for a subscription, but not much more.