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ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs MetaDefender comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Users report mixed ROI experiences with ESET, appreciating its efficiency, cost savings, enhanced security, and streamlined patch management.
Sentiment score
4.3
MetaDefender improves ROI by automating threat detection, reducing manual work, and lowering malware incidents, benefiting larger organizations.
Regarding cost savings, ESET Endpoint Protection Platform definitely saves money because if my system or organization is hacked or ransomed, the potential financial loss would be far greater than the cost of the solution.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
I saw the return on investment with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform within months.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Having both cloud and on-premise solutions enables effective file sanitization and vulnerability detection while preventing attacks that save costs and protect reputation.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
MetaDefender has positively impacted my organization by reducing the risk of file-based attacks, which has significantly improved our overall defense against phishing and malware delivery techniques.
Manager at Cyvogenix
I believe it is worth the money, as it brings time-saving, cost-saving, and efficiency improvements, especially in large environments.
Network Security Engineer at EMAK For Integrated solutions
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
ESET Endpoint Protection receives positive feedback for support, though availability issues exist, especially in certain regions.
Sentiment score
6.4
MetaDefender support is praised for responsiveness, professionalism, and expertise, especially Vlad, with efficient AI-assisted and clear communication.
They have great technical support.
Owner at Online IT
I typically receive support from the distributor, and the customer support team is also responsive and helpful.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
Normally, I cannot give a ten for support of all brands, as it is not always possible to get full support from companies.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
This can save time because many vendors, when they check something and ask for logs, need those logs from the beginning.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
When it comes to my communication with agents, I find they are responsive and professional.
Integration Technician at danet
Their customer service team, distribution team, and regional sales managers provide excellent aftercare and set us up for upselling across the entire MetaDefender portfolio.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is scalable, versatile for various environments, and praised for ease of use and minimal hardware needs.
Sentiment score
6.2
MetaDefender supports high file volumes and scalable automation, adaptable for banking, defense, with flexible deployment for complex networks.
In terms of scalability, I can rate it eight or nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Their support is phenomenal, offering quick assistance.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Minimal system performance impact is very important when choosing endpoint protection solutions, and I believe ESET uses minimum hardware of the PC.
Owner at Online IT
You need to do some sizing before installation and understand exactly what you are seeking from the solution and how it fits your organization.
Infrastructure Securiy & Cyber Engineer at El Al
When you use one database for all instances, you can deploy ten different servers or ten different instances with a separate database for each one.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
We handle vast amounts of traffic from banking, defense, and critical national infrastructure.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
ESET Endpoint Protection is highly stable and reliable, with minimal issues, consistently receiving high ratings for performance.
Sentiment score
8.2
MetaDefender is stable and reliable, performing well with high file volumes and smooth integration despite occasional minor issues.
In terms of stability, I can rate it at nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Our experience with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform's centralized management console is mostly fine for managing security policies across endpoints.
Owner at Online IT
The stability of the system is very high.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
MetaDefender is 100% stable, making it one of the best cybersecurity solutions we offer.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
I find it stable as it maintains good external stability with good availability and no major issues.
Network Security Engineer at EMAK For Integrated solutions
 

Room For Improvement

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform struggles with updates, complex interface, integration, and needs enhanced features and support improvements.
MetaDefender users seek improvements in scanning speed, cost, AI explainability, UI, documentation, automation, deployment, and notifications.
A lightweight version of ESET might be beneficial as many of our clients have older CPUs and RAM.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
When we were using CrowdStrike, it used to detect and block pirated software, but ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is not doing that.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Extensive APIs to easily integrate our own systems with the platform for user configuration via their company portal.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
I want to see enhancements allowing for automatic ticket creation using APIs to streamline the workflow and assign tickets to respective teams.
Packaged Application Development Team Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
MetaDefender should have a wizard or general policies that can be used for 80 percent of customers.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
Pricing is an important aspect in catering to customer budgets and is a must-have consideration for organizations.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is considered cost-effective by enterprise buyers, with competitive pricing and flexible licensing options.
MetaDefender's extensive security justifies its high price, with better value than competitors; custom quotes are recommended.
The pricing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is a bit high compared to other competitors.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
The price is very reasonable compared to the features provided.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
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 expensive.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
When someone attempted to buy from us one instance of OPSWAT, it was about nine thousand dollars for multi-scanning with eight engines and also the CDR module.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
The price varies based on deployment types; we only used it for file transfer and cloud integration rather than email, which kept it within our budget.
Senior Associate at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
Regarding pricing, setup cost, and licensing, I find the pricing for kiosks, cloud, deep CDR, and adaptive sandbox appropriate.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
 

Valuable Features

ESET Endpoint Protection offers lightweight antivirus, robust protection, ease of use, and affordability, ensuring efficient and scalable security.
MetaDefender offers advanced malware protection features including multi-engine scanning, threat intelligence, sandboxing, and seamless system integration for enhanced security.
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform provides ransomware prevention, which prevents attackers from encrypting my files and demanding ransom payments.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The best feature of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is that I get all the details about which user is using it, how much time they spend on websites, and all related information.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Machine learning, especially through live detection, detects threats that are blocked based on reputation or sandbox detection.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
I believe this is very effective and is the most effective engine of OPSWAT because customers ask for OPSWAT for two main reasons: the CDR capabilities and the multi-scanning engines.
Cyber Security Architect at Diffiesec
MetaDefender's core philosophy of trusting no file means it scans files, rebuilds them, and verifies their reputation, ensuring they contain no malicious content.
Partner Account Manager at a wholesaler/distributor with 51-200 employees
The integration of multi-scanning and Content Disarm and Reconstruction is truly helpful because we can utilize it in other products such as email integration with ICAP capability, and we are also using it in web scanning.
Project Engineer at i-Secure Networks & Business Solutions Inc.
 

Categories and Ranking

ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
21st
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
104
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (10th)
MetaDefender
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
12th
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (6th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Anti-Malware Tools category, the mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 2.0%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MetaDefender is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Anti-Malware Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MetaDefender2.1%
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform2.0%
Other95.9%
Anti-Malware Tools
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Owner at Online IT
Cloud-based protection has simplified daily client support and keeps threats under control
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in reducing network-level intrusions, but sometimes it prevents local devices on the network, which are well-known and good devices, from being recognized, treating them as a threat. So it requires more administration than usual. ESET could implement a good solution for remote support in ESET Endpoint Protection Platform for improvement in the future. Since you have the cloud console, ESET could have something similar to AnyDesk or TeamViewer, but from ESET.
RS
Senior Associate at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
File protection has improved and now keeps millions of daily transfers secure and compliant
In my organization, while using this tool, we found that there were a few files flagged as suspicious; however, those were not suspicious and it was a false positive, so that can be improved. False positive results were an issue, and it took time to scan files if the file size was greater than 1 GB. For larger files greater than 1 GB, it needs to be improved. In some cases, the reconstruction of the file led to a failure of code deployment and it flagged a valid file as malicious, which was not effective; however, in other types of files, it was very effective and could scan files properly. We have already covered all the main suggestions; however, it can be improved to reduce false positive results, and scanning could be faster to process more files in a day.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Educational Organization
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business69
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise11
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The pricing, setup cost, and licensing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform are good with no issues. The price is very reasonable compared to the features provided.
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform could be improved by offering integrations and user-friendly dashboards that could enhance the overall experience and reliability. ESST Endpoint Protection Platfor...
What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
My main use case for ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is preventing malware and preventing outside attackers. When attackers target my system, ESET catches and scans the threat with its signature ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MetaDefender?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is good and at par with other competitors.
What needs improvement with MetaDefender?
I would like to see improvements in the tool's automation capabilities. It would be beneficial if it could automatically create tickets and notify responsible teams about any identified vulnerabili...
What is your primary use case for MetaDefender?
The major use cases of MetaDefender in my work environment involve preventing malware updates, data breaches, and compliance violations through scanning files for malware, vulnerabilities, and sens...
 

Also Known As

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
OPSWAT MetaDefender, MetaDefender Core
 

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
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. MetaDefender and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.