Malwarebytes 3.0 aims to replace your antivirus

Malwarebytes has released Malwarebytes 3.0, a new package which combines its anti-malware, anti-exploit, anti-ransomware and web protection technologies. You won’t see most of these in the free version, unfortunately. That’s still strictly on-demand anti-malware only, although the new product does allow you to check out the new features with a 14-day Malwarebytes Premium trial.

Both the free and Premium builds see major performance improvements, with scan speeds up to 4x faster than the previous editions.

Usability tweaks include integration with the Windows Action Center, automatic update checks (no scheduling required) and fewer reboots after some malware removals.

A redesigned and simplified interface ties all this together and gives you complete control over the new functionality. If you don’t need Malwarebytes’ anti-ransomware technology, for instance, you can turn it off in a couple of clicks.

Existing customers won’t have to pay anything extra for the new release. Just install Malwarebytes 3.0 over Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and it’ll automatically adopt your current license.

New users can purchase Malwarebytes 3.0 for $39.99 per year, 20 percent less than the previous combination of Anti-Malware and Anti-Exploit, and with Anti-Ransomware thrown in as well.

The company says this is "33 percent less than an average traditional antivirus", but if you want to use another antivirus as well, that’s okay too. Malwarebytes 3.0 still has a strong focus on compatibility, and should run happily alongside most other security tools.

Malwarebytes 3.0 is available now for Windows XP and later.