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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Malwarebytes Teams vs Symantec Endpoint Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 3.0%, down from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Malwarebytes Teams is 2.2%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 3.6%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Symantec Endpoint Security3.6%
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform3.0%
Malwarebytes Teams2.2%
Other91.2%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Tarkan GU - PeerSpot reviewer
Protects against threats and helps with ransomeware but needs optimization for lower resource usage
We are using ESET products for our clients, especially for entry-level protection tools. The demand for these tools is primarily coming from our clients, and we sometimes propose them to our clients as well We install the product in a standard way as a product. The primary purpose is to protect…
Anas Anas - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective threat predictions, simple to deploy, and light on resources
Malwarebytes's initial setup is simple. It is easy to deploy and configure the policies and the configuration. I deployed Malwarebytes for one customer and I did it in under two days. They had approximately 50 users, it took approximately an hour. The steps I took for the implementation were downloading the Malwarebytes management console from the site, installing it, then running the discovery tool, scanning my network, and checking all of the PCs on my network. It's already pre-configured, you don't need to configure anything. The only configuration that I did on the administration console was some of the exclusion from the scan. This is the only rule that I have created. I rate the initial setup of Malwarebytes a ten out of ten.
Kumbesh Rajagopal - PeerSpot reviewer
Management becomes easier with minimal complications, but improvement in support tools needed
Regarding areas of improvement for Symantec Endpoint Security, there are many changes, and the support portal tool is complicated compared to other tools. When trying to get service from Symantec, the process is complex. I'm not sure whether it's because of my project or something else. Though it is easy to manage, easy to get, easy to install, and works efficiently for managing policies, we faced a significant disadvantage. We wanted to add multiple hashes because of numerous new alerts coming, but we could only add them one by one, which is a considerable disadvantage in Symantec.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This is a product at the top of its game. That is the reason we choose to support and sell it."
"The protection and device control features are the most valuable. I found its user interface and integration pretty good. It is very user friendly as compared to other products."
"The potential threat protection feature is the most valuable. In the event that one of my computers is not on the network and gets a virus, ESET Endpoint Security quickly detects the malware, and in most cases, it removes the virus. It also has the ability to remotely shut down the computer. I like the remote control part the most."
"It can scale as well."
"The product offers great reporting tools"
"Technical support has been very good. They're quick to respond to any problems."
"ESET Endpoint Security’s most valuable feature is the management console."
"The solution provides good accessibility and is not heavy on resources when there are updates or when it is in operation."
"The most valuable features of the solution are malware scanning and malware removal."
"When it comes to frontend protections, it has some of the best definitions. In addition, they do traditional signature and heuristic detection a lot better than Microsoft and some other players in that space."
"I like the solution's ability to detect potentially unwanted programs. For some reason, it seems superior to other solutions, or at least in comparison to McAfee."
"Being able to cloud manage it from just a cloud login is valuable. We can get to it from anywhere, which is really helpful. The fact that we can remediate from the cloud console is one of our favorite features."
"The solution has a good management interface."
"I never have to look at it or do anything with it, and then my system just stays clean."
"It gets the job done, and they are consistently updating it monthly."
"It is intuitive and easy to use. For the most part, it does a good job of catching things. It is good at stopping stuff. I did a couple of tests with a password cracker. I tried to load that on, and Malwarebytes didn't let me do that, which was pretty good. It has a rollback feature that I haven't seen with any other company. If one of your endpoints are hit with mass ransomware, you could actually roll it back. I watched a demo of them do that, and it was pretty sweet."
"The solution, especially in older versions, is quite stable."
"It's a robust product."
"This product is valuable for ransomware protection, general malware protection, and network exploitation protection."
"The most valuable features of Symantec Endpoint Security are endpoint protection, antivirus, firewall, and policy creation."
"We use the solution for our endpoint security."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The product has been quite stable."
"No maintenance is required after a successful installation phase."
 

Cons

"The solution lacks the automation I need."
"Online security could still be improved in ESET Endpoint Antivirus because security is threatened by phishing."
"I suspect there will be some changes required to ESET because some experts I know just moved to MDR. I can imagine there might be some issues that were not fully covered by the ESET Endpoint that would be covered by MDR that we're on now."
"While we see dangers within our security system, it would help if there were popups that could immediately alert us or the user of the endpoint that something was detected."
"Data Leak Protection is is what we are searching for at the moment. It is not included with ESET."
"I saw a bunch of false positives which need to be fixed."
"Dual management for the customer, who needs to access the local on-premise console from a remote cloud-based console."
"iOS compatibility for mobile security and parental control."
"The EPP solution lacks the sophisticated artificial intelligence required for automating reports and letting you know about things in real-time. It stops a suspicious activity in real-time, but it doesn't let you know in real-time. You have to look at a report, and then you find out that something is wrong. You have to manually kick off a scan. With the Advanced EDR solutions, Malwarebytes has the ability to alert you in real-time, but they still don't do automatic remediation or quarantining of devices. That is something that you still have to do manually. So, the endpoint protection piece, which is just like their basic endpoint protection, lacks AI. For the advanced detection and response piece, there is an add-on that comes with it, but it still doesn't go far enough in terms of automatic remediation of viruses. It won't separate that virus from your network if something happens. You have to manually go there and do it."
"A solution must be installed in the main gateway to give an overview of the incoming and outgoing traffic. The technical support team's response time should be faster."
"Requires increased efficiency in terms of detecting false positives."
"They can include advanced scanning and improve reporting. I scan malware on the pen drive. Some more reports need to be added for that. It should also provide better protection because we have a new version of the malware."
"The online reporting needs to be improved. Currently, we have to look at it online, and if we want to download a report, it just downloads as an Excel file. It's just raw information. There needs to be some way to better display it when it's downloaded."
"Notifications are lacking."
"Malwarebytes is too simplistic. From a SOC IR perspective, it doesn't give you very much data around it. It doesn't tie things or provide SHA-1 and SHA-256 detection information, which makes it hard to do an additional investigation."
"There is room for improvement in the way it is deployed, in terms of being able to distribute it. Right now we have to get our hands on a machine to deploy it. It would be nice if there was an easier system."
"I find the documentation on Symantec.com to be not very updated. It seems like Symantec focuses more on their product than on documentation."
"There is a lack of reporting and alerts."
"More control features can be added, and its performance can also be better. Sometimes, the performance is not good when we access the cloud console. Moving to each tab is slow. The dashboard can be a little bit user-friendly. For some users, it is a bit difficult. If someone is a little bit familiar with it, then it is fine. Otherwise, it is hard to find policies in Symantec."
"The reporting could be improved."
"They should work on making the virus definition file lighter."
"Need to improved orchestration for broken clients fixes."
"The virus definitions could be updated more frequently."
"The Symantec Endpoint Manager is very difficult to use and extremely old."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing can be a bit more flexible."
"This is not an expensive solution."
"I rate the product’s pricing a three out of ten. It is neither cheap nor expensive for our clients."
"Its price is fair. If we compare it with any other retail product, it is a little harder to compete with."
"The cost of the solution is hard to justify even if the EDR operates well."
"There is a license needed to use the solution and the price depends on the features you want to use. The overall price is reasonable."
"This is not an expensive product."
"There is a license needed to use this solution and there is an annual subscription. The price is inexpensive."
"The cost may be something in the ballpark of $20-25 a year per computer."
"It is expensive."
"It is really expensive. We've got between 30 and 40 licenses every year, and for the number of licenses that we have, we're finding that Malwarebytes on average costs between $900 and $1,000 more per year than comparable options. We're paying about $3,300 per year for these licenses. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"We expect to pay $1,000 USD a month, depending on the number of users."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price and ten is a high price, I rate the product's pricing a seven."
"I would say that it's affordable. It costs much less than Sentinel One, CrowdStrike, or anything of that nature. But, at the same time, you are getting what you pay for. So I would say it's one of the best when you're comparing traditional NextGen AVs like Webroot that aren't the best in the bunch."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"Yearly, it is around $50 per client."
"Licensing is based on a yearly subscription."
"The pricing is good, very moderate, and the licensing is also good. It gives you more room to install a lot of endpoints and it even gives you the opportunity to install it on your mobile phone without any extra cost."
"The price of the product is competitive if compared to its competitors in the market."
"Symantec is expensive."
"The pricing is a little bit more expensive than other competitors, if you compare it to Kaspersky, for example, or McAfee."
"I’d say SEP deserves the money."
"Its price is reasonable."
"Each annual client license is around 1200 or 1600 INR."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
11%
University
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business67
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise62
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is...
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The areas where ESET Endpoint Protection Platform could be improved include implementing single sign-on for the cloud...
What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The main use case for ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is endpoint protection and blocking malware, making sure that...
What do you like most about Malwarebytes?
Ten times a day, improved signatures will be downloaded, so it is very up-to-date in terms of malware experience.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Malwarebytes?
I really hate the automatic rebilling without officially confirming it with me. It's an annoyance and they should at ...
What needs improvement with Malwarebytes?
It takes up too much space when it's trying to run in the background.
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valu...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior sol...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
No data available
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ERSTE Group Bank, Miller Solutions, Wesleyan University, The Hospital Center of Luxembourg, Deer Valley USD, SPAR, Industrial Federal Credit Union, Honda, City Hall of Palmela, Hays CISD, Lester B Pearson School Board
Knutson Construction
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about CrowdStrike, Microsoft, SentinelOne and others in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP). Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.