As of writing, Premium costs $39.99 for an annual subscription. Malwarebytes Premium also comes with a browser guard not found in the free version. Malwarebytes Free is a good companion (to the free Windows Defender) to scan and eliminate threats found, but this has to be done manually. The most important difference is that Malwarebytes Premium adds real-time protection, which is the most effective way of preventing infection. What are the main differences between Malwarebytes Free and Premium? The paid-for version of the program called Malwarebytes Premium is highly recommended and does offer real-time protection and monitoring and can be used to replace an antivirus application. Malwarebytes Free is not an effective replacement for a traditional antivirus because it does not offer real-time protection. Is Malwarebytes an antivirus replacement? Malwarebytes offers most of the functionality found in traditional antivirus programs in addition to ransomware protection, anti-exploit technology, and machine learning to create a protection solution with a much wider scope of action. What makes Malwarebytes different from other anti-malware programs? Malwarebytes 4 combines all of our malware-fighting technology-anti-malware, anti-ransomware, anti-exploit, and malicious website protection into one program that scans 4x faster than previous versions of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium. Malwarebytes 4 is the next-gen security program that protects you from the most advanced (zero-day) threats, making antivirus obsolete.

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