Competitive Advantages

Compare Antivirus Software

ESET products remain the best virus protection available in 2009, whether it's ESET NOD32 Antivirus or ESET Smart Security (built with the same ThreatSense® engine as ESET NOD32 Antivirus).

AV-Comparatives named ESET NOD32 Antivirus the "Best Antivirus Product" in 2006 and 2007 as they know that proactive, precise technology—not brand names— stop malware. ESET NOD32 Antivirus was then awarded "The Best Proactive On-demand Detection" and "The Best Overall Speed Performance" for 2008.

Direct comparisons with other antivirus solutions tell the story better than we ever could.

Using the in-depth chart below, you can compare antivirus software and find out which type will provide the kind of protection you need. The study stands ESET NOD32 Antivirus up to some of the biggest brand names - Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro and Kaspersky - comparing protection as well as performance.

Purchase and Trial

Comprehensive Protection	ESET	Symantec	McAfee	Trend	Kaspersky
VB100 Awards for Detection of All In-the-Wild Viruses in the VB Test Sets Without Any False-Alarms (virusbulletin.com, May 1998 - February 2009)	54	48	37	16	44
Advanced+ Awards Tests of Proactive and On-Demand Detection (AV-Comparatives.org, May 2005 - November 2008) Advanced+/Advanced/Standard	13/2/0	6/4/5	2/10/3	0/0/3	9/3/3
Missed In-the-Wild Viruses in Virus Bulletin Tests between May 1998 and February 2009 (virusbulletin.com)
- On-Access - On-Demand	0 0	29 2	64 71	70 68	34 16
Proactive Detection Click to learn more
Proactive Protection by AV-Comparatives (May 2008)	57%	14%*	32%	No Data	21%
Proactive Test by AV-Test.org on 1-Month Old Signatures (January 2008)	68%	26%*	30%	27%	24%
Performance Advantages Click to learn more
Boot Time Overhead Percentage by AV-Comparatives (November 2008)	12%	26%	70%	No Data	108%
File Access Lag Time (virusbulletin.com; August 2008)	0.02 MB/s	0.04 MB/s	0.08 MB/s	No Data	0.04 MB/s
Commit Charge (Clean Systems, West Coast Labs; September 2008)	100.63 MB	186.3 MB	157.93 MB	No Data	156.12 MB
Application Startup Time (Internet Explorer, West Coast Labs; September 2008)	1.94 seconds	3.1 seconds	3.74 seconds	No Data	2.17 seconds
Boot Times (West Coast Labs; September 2008)	157 seconds	229 seconds	187 seconds	No Data	168 seconds
* Norton AV

ESET is the only company with over 50 VB100 awards and continues to lead the industry with the highest detection rates and zero false positives — the winning formula in malware protection.

VB100 Tests Passed

"In-the-Wild" viruses are real viruses that have been reported to the Wildlist Organization by at least two independent reporters.
When it comes to In-the-Wild virus detection, no one even comes close to ESET as the following chart illustrates.

Missed in-the-wild viruses in virus bulletin tests