Does my MacBook Pro need antivirus?

mattlukea wrote:

Hey. Hope you’re all well. I’ve been using my MacBook Pro for years and I’ve always been under the impression that I needed antivirus software. I installed Bitdefender for Mac and while it ran perfect, my battery drained quicker. Do I really need antivirus software installed for daily browsing and usage and if so, what do you recommend? Thanks

Third party AV is not recommended— it typically does nothing but add issues to the macOS and competes directly with Apples own built in security:

Apple uses its Software Update service (which also drives system software updates that show in the App Store or via the softwareupdate command-line tool) as a mechanism for installing “background and critical” updates that are installed silently in the background with no notifications to the user.

You are not going to find detailed information on X-protect outside the walled garden of Apple.

Gatekeeper mechanism, central to security services, which tries to ensure that any code loaded is ‘safe’. Code signatures are only part of this.

XProtect checks the security and integrity of files, including in broader ways too, vulnerable document types, such as JPEG images, are also screened to ensure that they’re not malicious.

Apple’s Malware Removal Tool (MRT) an app which often complements XProtect’s signature-based screening, and can automatically remove all traces of many different species of malware.

System Integrity Protection (SIP) which ensures that nothing can tamper with key system files, or even Apple’s bundled apps.

Apple Platform Security - Apple https://support.apple.com/guide/security/welcome/web

I have never used any 3rd party antivirus. Also see: https://www.apple.com/macos/security/