Malwarebytes for Teams combines an effective antivirus, a VPN with no bandwidth limits, and priority business-focused support, but it omits many typical suite components.
When your business graduates from tiny to small, you can sometimes find yourself in a gray area, security-wise. Continuing to add business computers to your personal security suite isn’t sustainable, yet big business security systems often require a full IT department to support. Malwarebytes for Teams is designed to help you out in that awkward stage. It includes an effective antivirus and integrated VPN, along with priority support and some business-centered features. That said, Editors’ Choice Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security does everything Malwarebytes does, as well as being built on top of a full security suite with options for multiple employee devices, identity protection for employees, and even asset exposure warnings for your business. Malwarebytes also doesn’t offer the powerful remote management capabilities found in our other Editors’ Choice, Avast Premium Business Security.How Much Does Malwarebytes for Teams Cost?
You can select a Malwarebytes for Teams subscription covering one to 20 devices. That’s a common range—Norton Small Business Premium also tops out at 20. With Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security and ESET Small Business Security, the maximum is 25. Note, though, that with Bitdefender, that number refers to 25 employees, with support for twice that many devices.
Pricing for Malwarebytes is simple. A yearly subscription costs $29.99 plus $30 per device for up to three devices. If you’re protecting four to twenty devices, you pay $40 per device per year, minus one cent. So, for example, for five devices, you pay $199.99, while coverage for 20 runs $799.99 per year.
That same $799.99 gets you Bitdefender protection for 25 employees and 50 devices. With ESET, the yearly cost for 5 to 10 devices is $154.99 plus $5 per device, while pricing for 10 to 25 devices is $20.50 per device. So, a 20-pack with ESET costs $410 while a 25-pack goes for $512.50.
Avast Premium Business Security and AVG Internet Security Business Edition both officially support up to 999 devices, though I’d be surprised if many installations go higher than 25. In both cases, a subscription covering 25 devices costs more than $1,000 per year.Getting Started With Malwarebytes for Teams
As with other Malwarebytes products, you start by activating your subscription in the online secure hub. You can now download and install protection on the current device, or invite someone else to join the team. The latter is accomplished either by sending a link or by using the unusual quick access code system. The quick access code is valid for only 90 seconds and allows your new team member to join simply by entering a six-character code.
On each platform, Malwarebytes includes a component called Trusted Advisor, which displays a protection score from 0 to 100. If you’re anywhere short of a perfect 100 score, you can click for advice on what steps will raise your score. Smart users will work through all the advised activities, because you don’t get full protection from this app until you’ve taken care of those tasks.Features Shared With Premium Antivirus
When you install Malwarebytes for Teams on Windows, the result looks almost (but not quite) identical to an installation of Malwarebytes Premium Security.
I’ve mentioned the Trusted Advisor panel, which is located at the top right of the main window. Below it is a panel that encourages adding more devices, with links. In the middle, three wide panels represent Scanner, Detection History, and Real-Time Protection. Under them is a large rectangle devoted to the VPN.
