ESET Review — Antivirus Comparison (2012)

ESET offers antivirus and security software for personal and small business use. ESET has two software packages, ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4 and ESET Smart Security.

ESET NOD 32 Antivirus 4 has sped up its system so that you can still receive all your files securely, but without the wait that you’ve come to expect while files are being virus checked. The software has been certified by several third-party test labs to have high performance when it comes to virus identification and removal.

ESET Smart Security 4 is not only antivirus software, but also includes firewall protection. Also third-party lab certified, this software is password protected to keep it from being uninstalled by unauthorized users.

• ESET offers proactive threat detection, it doesn't just wait for a file to harm your computer then handle the problem.
• ESET fast file scanning reduces lag on your computer while the scan is running.
• ESET offers security for removable media such as DVDs and thumb drives.
• ESET is currently running a 20% off sale for new years.
• ESET offers a 30-day free trial on all software.

Norton Antivirus is a major competitor of ESET NOD32 Antivirus. One-year of Norton Antivirus costs the same as one-year of ESET NOD32 Antivirus, but a two-year subscription to ESET NOD32 is $58.99, $16 cheaper than a two-year subscription to Norton Antivirus.

Norton Antivirus does not currently support Windows 2000 whatsoever, so users of that operating system must make another choice. ESET NOD32 Antivirus, however has no current plans to downgrade its Windows 2000 support, making it an obvious choice for Windows 2000 users.

Norton Internet Security 2011 is comparable to ESET Smart Security 4. Again, the ESET package is cheaper than the Norton package, this time by $10.

In this case, ESET also seems to have the better product. In comparisons from independent labs, ESET was shown to show fewer false positives when detecting unknown viruses. ESET’s at rest memory usage is lower, 162MB vs. 363MB for Norton’s product.

ESET’s security software seems to beat Norton’s in both price and quality.

ESET offers antivirus and computer security software comparable to that of Norton. There are several benefits to using ESET software:

• Independent labs have certified the software.
• ESET software has won several awards in its class
• ESET is much cheaper than the competition
• ESET software saves energy when installed on your laptop to extend battery life.
• ESET software can identify new viruses by how they act on your computer instead of waiting for new virus definitions to be downloaded.
• ESET software provides security for removable media.

ESET security and antivirus software is a great choice for those on a budget. Running more than $10 cheaper than the competition, it offers similar or better security for your computer. It is also great for those who surf the web and use a lot of media files, as you don’t have to wait several minutes for the software to scan each file before you use it.

ESET software has received 5 out of 5 stars from the editors of CNET. Here is what some CNET users of ESET had to say.

"It just works and doesn't get in your way. I'm a web engineer and IT guy. I've used all the "big name" products in the past and at my home and office we use ESET because it just works. Small footprint too, unlike the so-called big boys' solutions which just take over your whole machine and slows it to a crawl. I gave ESET NOD32 five stars because it has saved me from numerous disasters on multiple occasions by nailing persistent threats and some really aggressive websites that attempt to "auto-install" all kinds of nasty stuff. However, no AV will protect you from your own stupidity. It won't keep you from installing every trojan out there if you really want to, frankly none of the AV suites will. Bottom line: if you can only afford a free AV, well then you'll need to be more careful. If you're surfing the web and you don't really feel like re-imaging your machine every month to clean it up, ESET is the only AV (free or paid) I use now!” – WebTigers

“Catches what others miss”- tower4guy