§ Alternatives
NexGuard vs. the alternatives
Not a ranking by detection rate — nobody outside an independent testing lab can honestly claim that, us included. This is a comparison on the things you can actually check yourself: whether the code is public, what the free tier really includes, and how each company prices it.
| Product | Open source | Free tier includes | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norton (Gen Digital) | No | None for Mac | Subscription only |
| Avast / AVG (Gen Digital) | No | Limited free tier; full protection requires a paid plan | Freemium, subscription for full protection |
| Malwarebytes | No | Manual scan and cleanup only; real-time protection requires Premium | Freemium, subscription for real-time protection |
| Bitdefender | No | None for Mac | Subscription only |
| Intego | No | 30-day trial, not a permanent free tier | Subscription only |
| ClamAV | Yes | Everything, forever, same as NexGuard's free tier | Free, no paid tier or company behind it |
| NexGuard | Yes | The full scanner, real-time watching, and manual feed sync | Free forever; $10/month for priority support and (soon) a premium feed |
Avast / AVG (Gen Digital). In 2024 the FTC fined Avast $16.5 million and permanently banned it from selling browsing data for advertising, after finding it sold users' browsing history collected by its antivirus and browser tools, the same tools it marketed as blocking tracking. Source.
ClamAV. A real, mature open-source engine, mainly built for mail-server scanning rather than a consumer desktop product: no GUI, no fleet dashboard, no support contract.
NexGuard. The only row on this table you don't have to take our word for.
§ Why this list exists
You shouldn't have to trust a comparison page either
Every other company on this list, ClamAV aside, is asking you to trust a closed-source program with deep access to your files based on a privacy policy and a marketing claim. We think that's a strange thing to ask of security software specifically, the one category of program where the stakes of "just trust us" are highest. NexGuard's code is public specifically so this comparison, and every claim on this site, is something you can check instead of something you have to take on faith.
ClamAV proves open source isn't unique to NexGuard. What's different is the rest of the row: a maintained premium feed, a dashboard, and support from a person, without ever closing the source to get there.