Malwarebytes Ultimate is a handy bundle that combines an effective antivirus, a VPN with no bandwidth limits, and a familiar identity protection service, though it doesn’t include some other expected security suite components.
Malwarebytes is well known for its antivirus capabilities that keep your devices safe. Malwarebytes Ultimate reaches into the security suite realm, adding VPN protection and a full-scale identity theft remediation service. However, the TransUnion-powered identity theft system is the same as what you get with several competitors, and they outshine Malwarebytes with a wealth of security features. Bitdefender Ultimate Security stands out in that group, combining identity protection from TransUnion with an award-winning security suite. Norton 360 With LifeLock also starts with an excellent suite and adds the most feature-rich identity system around. Malwarebytes is no slouch, but Bitdefender and Norton are our Editors‘ Choice winners.How Much Does Malwarebytes Ultimate Cost?
When identity protection is added, the price of a security suite jumps. Malwarebytes Ultimate starts at a list price of $239.99 per year, which gets you security protection for a single device and identity protection. You can protect three devices for $279.99 or five for $319.99. To install protection on 10 or 20 devices, you pay $399.99 or $499.99. This covers devices running Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS.
It’s not immediately obvious, but Malwarebytes offers two other tiers of security with identity protection, Advanced and Essential. Pricing for the Essential tier starts at $99.99 per year for one device and goes up to $331.99 for 20, but you get only the essentials—simple identity monitoring, live agents to help with remediation, and the typical $1 million guarantee. This tier doesn’t even track your credit.
Malwarebytes Advanced adds credit reporting for one bureau and social media monitoring. Its pricing ranges from $189.99 to protect one device up to $454.99 for 20. With Malwarebytes Ultimate, reviewed here, you get credit reporting for all three bureaus, a personal data removal system, a $2 million guarantee, and all identity theft protection features supplied by partner TransUnion.
You pay $179.99 for a five-pack of ESET Home Security Ultimate licenses. A basic five-pack of Bitdefender Ultimate Security goes for $159.99, but to get the equivalent of Malwarebytes Ultimate, you’d have to opt for the Plus Extended tier, which costs $249.99 per year. A five-device subscription to Webroot Premium costs $129.99, though Webroot’s identity features are sparser than some. The $319.99 price for a Malwarebytes five-pack is a little on the high side.
A 10-device subscription for Malwarebytes costs $399.99. Norton 360 With LifeLock Select looks quite a bit less expensive, at $189.99. However, to get Norton’s maximum protection, you’d pay $364.99 per year for the Ultimate Plus edition. Admittedly, that top Norton tier gets you security suite and VPN protection for unlimited devices as well as every identity theft feature, and it costs a bit less than a Malwarebytes 10-pack.
Malwarebytes Ultimate’s pricing maxes out at $499.99 for 20 devices. With Bitdefender, $349.99 protects 25 devices. Avast One Platinum costs $299.99 for 30 devices, and you can protect 50 devices with Aura for $444. But why impose limits? A $279.99 subscription for the Ultimate version of McAfee+ protects all your devices, as does the top-tier Norton subscription mentioned above.Do My Family Members Get Identity Protection?
If you subscribe to Malwarebytes Ultimate at the top two tiers, 10 or 20 devices at $399.99 or $499.99 per year, you get identity protection for two adults, not one, plus up to 10 children. You also get personal data removal services for two individuals. ESET’s entry-level subscription covers two adults and unlimited children.
All the Bitdefender products come in individual or family packs, protecting five or 25 devices. If you choose Bitdefender Ultimate Security at the $349.99 family level, you also get identity protection for five individuals.
To protect the whole family at the McAfee+ Advanced tier costs $424.99 per year. As for Norton, each of the pricing tiers (Select, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus) can protect just one individual, a couple, or a whole family. This system maxes out at $819.99 per year for whole-family protection at the Ultimate Plus level.Getting Started With Malwarebytes Ultimate
When you activate your subscription to Malwarebytes Ultimate, you’ll probably be directed to set up your identity protection right away. You can put this off if you don’t have time. I’ll discuss the full identity onboarding in detail below.
From the online Secure Hub, you can also download Malwarebytes Premium for the device you’re using or send a code to install it on another device. Your subscription allows you to protect as many Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices as you need.Features Shared With Malwarebytes Premium
On Windows, what you get is precisely Malwarebytes Premium Security, except that the VPN component is enabled. The same is true of Malwarebytes Premium Security for Mac. That being the case, I’ll refer you to those two reviews for full details and just summarize here.
The Windows and macOS editions are nearly identical in appearance. Both have a left menu with options for Dashboard, Identity Protection, and Settings. The Windows edition adds a Tools menu item, and the menu items display just as icons, with labels sliding in when you point to them. Both have a Trusted Advisor panel at the top right showing your security score, with the option to dig in for actions to raise that score.
Between the menu and Trusted Advisor, you find a stack of three panels labeled Scanner, Detection History, and Real-Time Protection. Even Malwarebytes Free has these three panels, but Real-Time Protection is disabled in the free edition. Finally, below those three stacked panels is a larger pane that displays the status of the VPN component, including a map showing just where you’re connected.
AVLab Cybersecurity Foundation awarded Malwarebytes a perfect score in its latest test, but that’s the only current score held by this antivirus. It earned a near-perfect score in my malware blocking test on Windows. Its Browser Guard component did well in testing against malware-hosting URLs and scored identically on both platforms in my phishing detection test, reaching 96% detection.
The Windows-only Tools page warns that the tools are experimental and suggests creating a System Restore Point before using them. Tools include a collection of configuration controls to manage the built-in Windows Firewall and a very simple manager for programs launched at startup. Those using Windows 11 also get a collection of System Tweaks, things you could do yourself in Control Panel or Settings.VPN Protection
Antivirus protection is just fine for defending the files and documents on your computer or other device against malicious attack. However, when your data goes traveling across the interwebs, your antivirus is powerless to protect it. That’s where a VPN’s protection takes over. When you connect through a VPN, your communications travel an encrypted connection to the VPN server before emerging into the wild web.
That encrypted connection means that even if you’re using a compromised network, nobody can snoop or modify your traffic, not even the network’s owner. At the other end, your traffic seems to come from the VPN server, so the websites you visit can’t scrape your actual IP address and use it to physically locate you. As a bonus, surfing through a foreign VPN server may let you access content that would be blocked at your actual location.VPN Server Locations
The more choices a VPN service gives you for server locations, the more chances you have to spoof your location to somewhere beneficial. A wide range of choices also means that wherever you are, you can find a server that’s reasonably close. To select a location with the Malwarebytes VPN, you simply click the currently selected location or the adjacent map.
Malwarebytes offers locations in five dozen cities within 34 countries. Almost half are in Europe, another one third in North America, 10% in Asia, and 5% each in Oceania and South America. There are no server choices in Africa, and dangerous locations such as China, Russia, and Turkey are not represented, though Malwarebytes does maintain servers in Kyiv, Ukraine.
If you’re looking for VPN support worldwide, consider ExpressVPN, which has roughly 3,000 server locations in 105 countries. It’s particularly good in underserved regions such as Africa and South America.VPN Settings
The most important setting in this VPN, next to choosing your server location, is the big on-and-off switch. If you simply click it to turn on protection when required, you’re doing fine. However, if you dig into the simple settings, you can make your protection even more seamless.
To start, you can configure it to connect automatically when the app launches, or to spring into action when you connect to an unsecured network. That way, you don’t even have to remember to flip the big switch. You’ll want to turn on the kill switch feature, which ensures that your device doesn’t leak unencrypted traffic if the VPN connection drops.
You might not realize it from the name, but the setting titled Connection rules refers to what we call split tunneling. This technique lets you define specific apps or websites that will skip VPN protection, either because they’re just not important enough to merit protection or because you can’t afford even the slightest drag on speed. You can define apps, IP addresses, or ports that will bypass the VPN. On the flip side, you can also identify apps, IP addresses, or ports that aren’t allowed to connect without VPN protection.
There are various techniques, called protocols, for a VPN to encrypt your internet traffic. We at PCMag prefer the WireGuard and OpenVPN protocols. Being open-source projects, they’ve been checked and double-checked by experts worldwide. Malwarebytes defaults to WireGuard, specifically the speedy WireGuardNT version. You can optionally switch to Malwarebytes MBtun, a proprietary WireGuard variant. And you probably should, because the split tunneling feature only works if you choose MBtun. Don’t be confused by the fact that the settings page labels this item Tunnel driver rather than Protocol.
That’s it for settings. You don’t get advanced features like multi-hop, which runs your traffic through two VPN servers. Nor does this VPN include the option to masquerade as non-VPN traffic, so as to get past countries and websites that restrict VPN usage.Hands On With Malwarebytes VPN
Given that this VPN is fully integrated into the Malwarebytes app, there’s no setup required. Getting started is just a matter of selecting a server location and flipping the switch. The map marker jumps to your selected location and, once the connection has been made, you see the IP address that will be displayed to sites you visit.
