“With the launch of Malwarebytes 3.0, we are confident that you can finally replace your traditional antivirus,” the company said in a blog post. That all changed in December 2016 when the company announced its paid version, Malwarebytes Premium, was capable enough to be your primary security program. It was a backstop to catch and remove particularly troublesome malware that your primary security program couldn’t.
Malwarebytes began life as a complement to antivirus suites.