PC Matic Review: Don’t bother

Sometimes an application that could have been outstanding shoots itself in its own feet, a series of corporate and engineering decisions as well as bugs twisting a potentially great idea into something clunky and awkward to use. This may have been the case with PC Matic, as the macOS version stumbles out the gate, never regains its stride, and a series of infuriating corporate decisions makes a frustrating interface only that much more infuriating.

First and foremost, PC Matic is an application for macOS that, like similar applications, works to scan for and remove viruses and malware–take a look at our round-up of the Best Antivirus for Mac. The app takes a unique approach in that it’s centered around customizable blacklist and whitelist classifications, which designate which applications and file systems are safe to use and which not to use within its SuperShield Protection feature. PC Matic also includes powerful tools such as Remote Access and File Manager, which allow for even greater control of file systems. This is all available within PC Matic’s $60/£60 annual license for the Standard Security package, and a Lifetime package can be purchased for $180/£180. The standard license fee covers up to five devices, and you’ll have to download and install the software and log into each device to begin using it.

PC Matic downloads and installs as expected, requesting full disk access on Apple’s more recent operating systems. Disk scans are customizable and various folders and file types can be targeted or ignored as needed, and the application’s SuperShield feature can prevent questionable software from running. Blacklist and whitelist files can be readily customized, and it’s simple enough to teach the application which files should be run and which should continue to be blocked. The application can also readily check for virus definition updates, and future scans can be scheduled for later. For power users, the application can create a custom blocklist of file hashes, certificates, file paths, and scripts, and can report the data to Excel or upload a file to other users as needed.

Foundry

That’s the good news. Unfortunately, there’s a litany of issues to contend with, and while the scan tests are customizable and effective, each one took over 50 minutes to completely scan my M2 MacBook Pro’s SSD. While the scan features a progress animation, there’s no live count as to how many files have been scanned, and the user interface, which lacks a minimize feature, either stays in place or has to be dragged down to the bottom of the screen if you want to work with any other applications while a scan is running.

The SuperShield feature can be overzealous, and although it blocked all of the suspect software I installed for the tests, it also blocked out legitimate applications such as World War II Online and Parallels Desktop, which later had to be added to the whitelist to run again. PC Matic, for its part, offered no error window indicating that the SuperShield function was blocking the applications from launching. Add in the fact that the Scheduler feature failed to initiate a scan that had been scheduled and there’s work to be done on the engineering end.

Foundry

There seem to be some questionable corporate decisions at play here, and chief among them is the fact that with the lack of a trial version of PC Matic for macOS, you effectively can’t begin using the software unless you buy a license key for it. Yes, you can download and install the software, but until you purchase a license and create an account to log into the software, you won’t be able to test it. This, along with the fact that the basic package includes Dark Web monitoring, but lacks a VPN or firewall and doesn’t include phone support or identity protection feels as if the company is truly making the customer pay for any amount of its attention. Emails to support and public relations personnel within the company went unanswered, and while it was easy enough to call and get a refund from an automated phone tree system, it just feels as if PC Matic is arguably busy chasing after B2B and federal markets.

There’s arguably a good security application for the macOS to be had here, along with some impressive features, and perhaps a few weeks with a debugging sprint and a significant revision of corporate policies could bring it to the surface, but for now, there’s a considerable amount of work to be done. Trial versions of software existed for a reason and allowed people to make up their minds without surrendering at least $60/£60 to a company to see if they even liked the software in question, and the lack of a minimize feature for PC Matic’s windows feels entirely lazy, especially when it’s one of the first things addressed in Apple’s software development kits.

Verdict

There’s a way to program an application and a way to treat your customers, and while it may be more fun and lucrative to chase down bigger game from the corporate end, this detracts from what PC Matic for macOS could have been and what was expected. Yes, there’s a good engine here, but until these problems have been fixed, it might be best to look elsewhere for your macOS security needs.