Comparison of 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.

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 - December 2009)
59
52
42
16
49
Advanced+ Awards Tests of Proactive and On-Demand Detection
(AV-Comparatives.org, May 2005 - November 2009)
Advanced+/Advanced/Standard
17/2/0
8/6/5
3/12/4
0/0/3
12/4/3
Missed In-the-Wild Viruses in Virus Bulletin Tests between May 1998 and December 2009 (virusbulletin.com)
  - On-Access
  - On-Demand
0
0
31
4
71
72
73
69
35
15

Proactive Detection
Proactive Protection by AV-Comparatives (May 2009)
56%
35%*
25%
No Data
50%
Proactive Test by AV-Test.org on 1-Month Old Signatures
(January 2008)
68%
26%*
30%
27%
24%

Performance Advantages
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
 ** Symantec Norton AV

 ** Symantec is shown in second place in this table, but it failed the 3 Virus Bulletin tests prior to NOD32 making its debut, which means its actual overall success ratio is substantially lower than shown in the above chart. NOD32's scanning times are considerably faster than Symantec's, despite the fact that NOD32 has a much smaller system footprint and uses far less system resources.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security continue 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.

Missed in-the-wild viruses in virus bulletin tests