ESET 2022 antivirus review
Our Verdict
ESET'south security software is fast, accurate and thorough. It lacks some extra features nosotros take for granted just has a very calorie-free impact on your organisation performance.
For
- Very skillful protection
- Remarkably light functioning penalty
- Includes webcam protection, secure browser and AES-256 encryption
- Single-license sales
Against
- Lacks file shredder or VPN
- Can get expensive
Tom's Guide Verdict
ESET's security software is fast, authentic and thorough. It lacks some extra features we have for granted but has a very light touch on your system performance.
Pros
- +
Very good protection
- +
Remarkably light performance penalization
- +
Includes webcam protection, secure browser and AES-256 encryption
- +
Single-license sales
Cons
- -
Lacks file shredder or VPN
- -
Can get expensive
ESET 2021: Specs
Malware protection: Good
Organisation impact, background: Very low-cal
System touch, scans: Light
Windows compatibility: 7 to 10
Anti-theft: Yes
Fill-in software: No
File encryption: Yes
File shredder: No
Firewall: Yes
Game style: Yes
Hardened/secure browser: Yes
Parental controls: Aye
Password manager: Yep
Operation scanner: No
Ransomware rollback: No
System optimizer: No
Webcam protection: Yeah
Virtual keyboard: No
VPN: No
Wi-Fi scanner: Aye
Support options: Business-hours telephone, email
ESET balances the competing interests of scanning accurateness and performance touch better than the competition — information technology has a very small performance punishment while quickly scanning through a system for threats.
ESET's malware detection is nigh every bit proficient as the best antivirus programs offered by Norton, Kaspersky or Bitdefender. It can stop the latest ransomware, phishing attempts and spyware, merely goes a step further with webcam protection, browser security extensions and an innovative scanner that looks for threats hiding in the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) repository.
The miser inside all of the states will dearest the ability to buy ESET antivirus licenses 1 device at a time so y'all won't have to pay for unused chapters. That said, there'southward no unlimited-device plan to help users with many devices save money. ESET software too lacks some features now commonplace in antivirus software, such as a Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, a file shredder and apps for iPhones and iPads.
Nonetheless, ESET security software is only a half-step behind the all-time in the business. With a few more well-chosen features, information technology could get even ameliorate.
Read on for the residue of our ESET 2021 review.
ESET 2021: Costs and what's covered
ESET offers a 30-mean solar day free trial to check out any of its three Windows antivirus programs. The company is unique in that it allows you to purchase exactly the number of device licenses you need rather than being stuck with three, 5 or 10 licenses at a time. On the other hand, this pricing scheme tin can get expensive if you have a lot of computers at dwelling, considering ESET lacks an unlimited-device plan.
ESET'due south NOD32 Antivirus is for Windows systems merely, while there are separate NOD32 Antivirus for Linux Desktop and Cyber Security for Macs programs. NOD32 Antivirus costs $forty per year for a unmarried PC and $x for each additional PC up to five in full.
It provides basic defenses confronting phishing, ransomware and script-based exploits and has a gamer manner, adware blocking, protection confronting phishing and spyware and defends the computer'south UEFI start-upward sequence. New additions include scanners for the Windows Registry and the Windows Direction Instrumentation (WMI) repository.
ESET Cyberspace Security adds hardened browser extensions for cyberbanking and shopping online, parental controls, webcam protection and a 2-way firewall. It bundles in antivirus software for Macs, Android devices and Linux computers. ESET Cyberspace Security costs $50 per year for one device, $threescore for two, $90 for v and $140 for ten systems.
At the top is ESET's Smart Security Premium, which sells for $60 per year for 1 computer, $70 for two, $100 for five and $150 for ten. It adds a countersign director and AES-256 file encryption, but there'southward no file shredder or VPN access. This puts it at a disadvantage compared to the likes of Bitdefender and Kaspersky, which charge less simply provide a fuller fix of security and privacy features.
Unlike its peers, ESET does not discount the first twelvemonth of coverage for whatever of its antivirus suites. It does, however, lower the price if you buy ii or iii years of protection at once.
The ESET applications work with Windows 7 (with Service Pack i), eight.ane and 10, plus Macs running macOS 10.12 (Sierra) through 11 (Big Sur). Linux systems need to have Debian, Fedora, Open up SUSE, Red Chapeau or Ubuntu distributions and Android devices require version four.ane or newer.
ESET 2021: Antivirus protection
In add-on to conventional comparisons of doubtable files to a database of known threats, ESET's malware engine continually monitors the behavior of key system activities for the signs of an infection.
New potential threats are uploaded to the company's Live Grid cloud lab where automobile learning techniques dissect the software. ESET distributes new malware signatures and other updates to its 110 million users as needed.
All three ESET security suites have defended anti-phishing defenses, block script-based attacks and protect the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) commencement-upward code. The improved Ransomware Shield uses heuristic monitoring to uncover threats, such as unwanted programs subconscious in the system Registry.
ESET is one of the start security programs to look for threats within the Windows Direction Instrumentation (WMI) repository, which stores the organisation's metadata and definitions that the operating arrangement and apps employ to function.
None of ESET'southward programs have a quick-scan pick to examine files probable to go infected. On the other hand, its full scans are and so fast and efficient that after a couple of passes, they are almost as fast.
Should your computer become overwhelmed by malware, the visitor's downloadable SysRescue Live software can help; the ESET programs include a link to it. After installing the software on an external drive, wink central or optical disc and starting the organisation with information technology, the computer is scanned and cleaned in a secure Linux environment.
ESET 2021: Antivirus functioning
ESET'south malware scanner offers very practiced protection against all sorts of threats. Combined with ESET's fast scans and low system bear upon, this makes it amongst the nigh efficient antivirus programs in the concern.
| Malware detection rates | AV-Exam zero-day | AV-Exam widespread | AV-Comparatives | SE Labs |
| Bitdefender | 100% | 100% | 99.half dozen% | n/a |
| ESET | 100% | 100% | 99.3% | n/a |
| Kaspersky | 100% | 100% | 99.vii% | 100% |
| McAfee | 100% | 100% | 98.5% | 100% |
| Microsoft | 100% | 100% | 99.5% | 97% |
| Norton | 100% | 100% | 99.5% | 100% |
| Sophos | 100% | 100% | 98.3% | 86% |
| Trend Micro | 100% | 100% | 100% | 92% |
Results from the German AV-TEST lab in Nov and Dec 2020 showed that the ESET scanner detected 100% of both known, widespread malware and brand-new "zippo-day" threats. It registered no erroneous false positives during the examination menses.
ESET did nearly as well in the September-October round of tests, once again catching all malware while registering two false positives. Both sets of evaluations improved on ESET's scores in some earlier 2020 rounds, in which ESET failed to grab all nix-day malware.
Most of the other paid antivirus products we review besides had perfect AV-Examination scores in recent tests. That wasn't the example with Austrian lab AV-Comparatives, whose tests brand information technology hard to go a perfect score without racking up lots of false positives.
In four rounds from July to October 2020, ESET blocked an average of 99.iii% of "real-globe" online malware, a mix of widespread and zero-mean solar day threats. Trend Micro led the grouping with 100% detection, only at a cost of 63 false positives compared to ESET'south one.
London-based SE Labs goes a stride further and examines how antivirus products handle malware after it'due south been detected. ESET slipped a bit here in the lab's July-September exam run, letting one piece of malware infect the car despite information technology beingness detected and coming out with a 97% protection score.
That's not terrible, but ESET wasn't back for SE Labs' October-December 2020 round. Of all the antivirus products we review, merely Kaspersky consistently gets perfect scores in SE Labs' tests.
ESET 2021: Security and privacy features
All three of ESET's antivirus programs can block phishing attempts, dangerous scripts and ransomware. It scans the UEFI boot-up sector, the Windows Management Instrumentation interface and the Windows Registry looking for bug.
ESET'southward Host-based Intrusion Protection, which acts similar an early-alert tripwire, has been made more sensitive for 2021. The protection at present offers the choice of several modes, including a self-learning pick that improves over time. Nonetheless, ESET'southward Social Media Scanner has been discontinued.
ESET Internet Security and Smart Security Premium include ESET Parental Controls, online services that accept a few minutes to prepare it up for each child. The software allows website filtering based on category or historic period, lets y'all control what apps your kids tin use and locate a kid (or at least his or her telephone).
The acme ii ESET suites too cake spam, have a two-manner firewall to replace the Windows Defender Firewall. ESET'southward Banking and Payment Protection browser extensions work with Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox (only not Safari) to secure online commerce and banking past requiring an encrypted session, blocking other extensions and encrypting your keystrokes.
The Connected Dwelling house Monitor scans your home network, looking for rogue connections, such equally a neighbour using your Wi-Fi, and searching for out-of-appointment firmware and weak passwords on any connected device, from a calculator or tablet to a network-accessed hard drive or a smart thermostat.
While none of the ESET products accept a file shredder, Smart Security Premium does have AES-256 encryption to create a virtual encrypted bulldoze or a removable ane.
ESET Smart Security Premium's password manager stores an unlimited number of encrypted login credentials and works with Edge, Chrome, Firefox and Safari, merely requires a carve up download and installation.
ESET 2021: Performance and system touch
ESET does an excellent job in balancing the competing interests of operation and malware detection with ane of the lightest and virtually effective scanners available. To measure ESET's impact on performance, we used our custom benchmark examination, which measures how long the CPU takes to lucifer 20,000 names and addresses in an Excel spreadsheet. Our Lenovo ThinkPad T470 test bed had a two.5GHz Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-land storage with 61.2GB of files.
| System striking | Postal service-installation | Total browse | Quick scan |
| Bitdefender | 19% | 33% | 31% |
| ESET | 2% | 12% | n/a |
| Kaspersky | 12% | 26% | 22% |
| McAfee | 9% | 96% | 37% |
| Norton | 5% | 51% | 22% |
| Sophos | 6% | 47% | north/a |
| Tendency Micro | 4% | 57% | 35% |
Prior to the installation of the ESET software, the ThinkPad took an average of 10.2 seconds to cease the name-matching benchmark. That rose to 10.4 seconds later on ESET Smart Security Premium. This 2% loss in groundwork performance is negligible, particularly compared to Bitdefender'south 19% drop under the same weather.
While ESET ran a full organisation scan, the ThinkPad took 11.4 seconds to churn through the benchmark, resulting in a 12% functioning decline from the pre-installation baseline and a 10% drop from the post-installation background load.
Like the 2% background hit, these are the smallest browse-time performance drops we've seen for any 2021 antivirus products and are well below the average, in a good fashion. You probably won't notice whatever system slowdown when ESET's scanner is operating.
Not only does it have a light impact, merely the ESET scanner is quick. It took 29 minutes and 40 seconds to consummate its get-go run through the system drive, examining 352,358 items.
After ESET learned which files to ignore, subsequent passes averaged 5 minutes and 20 seconds, merely slightly longer than Trend Micro and Bitdefender'southward quick scans, which look only at certain parts of the system. That may exist why ESET doesn't accept its own quick-scan option.
ESET 2021: Interface
ESET's interface pattern hasn't inverse much over the past few years. The dwelling page prominently displays ESET's mascot robot; a big green bar and checkmark adjacent to the robot's caput indicates that the organisation is secure. The interfaces for all iii of ESET's antivirus products tin can be viewed at full screen size, a big do good for anyone tired of squinting.
ESET's Taskbar notification icon lets yous pause the firewall or antivirus protection plus cheque for updates or block network traffic. That said, scheduling an ESET nightly scan is tedious; it'due south a five-step process that many users volition non run across to through to the stop.
ESET 2021: Installation and support
It took me less than vi minutes to install ESET Smart Security Premium, plus another two minutes to prepare the password manager, making it 1 of the fastest security suites to fix.
Y'all first need to download and run a 6MB beachhead installer, which in turn downloads and installs the master program.
I needed to turn iii items on or off during installation: ESET's power to collect data from my system, a detection monitor for Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP) and whether I wanted to transport feedback to ESET. All three settings can also be changed later.
ESET support technicians are available on the phone simply from 6 a.grand. to five p.chiliad. Pacific Time for U.S. customers; Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Norton provide 24/7 support. Y'all can besides seek help via email and ESET's website offers troubleshooting help, instructional videos and descriptions of commonplace attacks.
ESET 2021 review: Bottom line
Only a one-half-step abroad from the meridian security suites, ESET'south malware defenses are very adept and improving with an enviable combination of fast scanning, and a light touch.
With AES-256 encryption, webcam defenses and secure browser extensions, ESET's defenses are nearly consummate and, unlike its competitors, you lot can purchase private licenses to customize protection.
On the other manus, all of its products lack a few mainstays of mod antivirus suites, such as a VPN or a file shredder. Those looking for the consummate approach to security should check out the pinnacle suites from Bitdefender, Kaspersky and Norton, but each comes with greater performance impact. If you like things calorie-free and efficient, ESET provides your kind of protection.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/eset
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