Intego ONE: Top-tier Mac malware protection with powerful Firewall controls

Intego ONE delivers excellent malware protection, fast scans, and strong firewall controls for Mac users, but missing features and performance issues hold it back from perfection.

- CHRIS BARYLICK

Intego ONE (fave.co/4fjbhsy) is Intego's new antivirus anti-malware package, which replaces Intego's Internet Security X9 package. We have long recommended the latter as the best antivirus utility for Mac users (fave.co/3Gaf9tt) thanks to its excellent malware detection, strong ransomware protection, and tools built specifically for macOS. Intego ONE tops its previous efforts in some respects.

There are three plans available, each of which covers one, three, or five devices.

Intego ONE Essential: Antivirus protection and a firewall.

Intego ONE Advanced: Adds SmartClean to free up disk space and remove junk files.

Intego ONE Complete: Adds Intego VPN.

We tested Intego ONE Complete, including the Antivirus, Firewall, VPN, and SmartClean modules. Each module offers its own functions and customization settings.

Intego ONE requires macOS 12.4 (Monterey) or later to install and run, and, like Intego's previous products, it is easy set up: The software asks for permission for full disk access as well as permission to create a network extension for firewall and filtering functions.

An Intego ONE Complete Quick Scan in progress.

ANTIVIRUS

Perhaps the strongest feature of the package, Intego ONE's antivirus module took just about everything I threw at it from over 130 viral samples from the Objective-See malware collection and came out smiling.

Scan performance improved dramatically with version 1.2.3 (compared to our initial tests of the Release Candidate), with the software processing more than 2 million files in roughly 8 minutes in testing—placing it among the fastest options currently available for macOS.