The AV-Test Institute tested 19 antivirus solutions for company networks under Windows 10. 12 products achieved the full number of points and it was enough for a certificate for all of them.
Enlarge
Antivirus software for business on Windows 10
© AV Test
In November and December 2021, the Magdeburg AV-Test Institute extensively tested antivirus solutions for company PCs running Windows 10 Pro (64-bit). 17 manufacturers submitted 19 products for this certification test. Bitdefender and now again Kaspersky are participating with two solutions. With Trellix and WithSecure, two new names appear, but behind them are old acquaintances. Symphony Technology Group (STG) has merged McAfee and FireEye under the name Trellix. F-Secure has spun off its business division under the name WithSecure. Sangfor is not there this time. Otherwise, the test field is unchanged from the previous test except for version changes. AV-Test also tested security solutions for private computers.
The best in a nutshell:
Of the 20 products tested, these 12 candidates scored the full 18 points:
This is how it is tested
Tests are carried out in the categories of protection, speed and usability. The protection programs have to recognize and ward off almost 15,900 malware samples from the reference collection that are no older than four weeks. In the so-called real-world test, they are also confronted with 405 malware that is updated daily (0-day malware). The testers check how much the antivirus programs slow down common everyday processes, such as calling up websites, downloads, copying files or installing and using legitimate software. The rating for the usability results from the number of false alarms that occur during such processes. The software is tested with default settings and can pull out all the stops, including cloud functions.
There are a maximum of six points in each category, i.e. a maximum of 18 in total. Those products that achieve a total of at least ten points and at least one point in each category receive a certificate. In addition, AV-Test awards the title “Top Product” to solutions that perform excellently in all test criteria and achieve a total of at least 17.5 points.
The test results
All test persons met the minimum requirements for a certificate without any problems. This time, 12 protection solutions shared first place with full points. This is followed by five programs that are only missing half a point. AV-Test gave these 17 products the title “Top Product”, i.e. almost all of them.
Enlarge
Antivirus software for business – test results
© AV Test
The level of protection solutions in this test field is almost consistently very high. The scatter of the results is quite small. 16 products achieved full marks for malware detection. VMware Carbon Black and Seqrite let too many malware through in the real-world tests.
How much do the protection programs slow you down?
Once again, there are clear losses in the working speed, especially with VMware Carbon Black. The cloud product noticeably slows down both when installing common application software and when starting it: This takes between 33 and 45 percent longer than without protection. Check Point also noticeably slows down during the software installation, as well as when copying many files. When downloading, all products remain unobtrusive.
Which programs often give false alarms?
The false alarms paint a very pleasing picture. Eleven candidates passed all tests without any false positives: Avast, Comodo, ESET, G Data, Kaspersky (both), Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec, Trellix and Trend Micro. The two Bitdefender products, like WithSecure, each got three wrongs, Malwarebytes twice. The false alarms mostly occurred during the system scan (complete check of a clean system). After all, almost 1.2 million virus-free program files had to be checked. When surfing the web, once again not a single program produced false alarms. It was also mostly quiet during the installation and use of common application programs.
Conclusion
There is no clear winner in this test. The top two-thirds of the table are equal – the decision for a product can therefore be based on other criteria that are not the subject of this test. VMware Carbon Black pays for its still good malware detection and the low false alarm rate with quite clear skid marks.
The results table is sorted by the last column. In it, we placed more weight on the protective effect (60 percent), while AV-Test gives all three categories equal weight (penultimate column). This has no effect on the order in this test, which, as always, is just a snapshot.
The detailed results of this and previous tests can be found on the AV-Test Institute website.
|
Points |
total with weight | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
manufacturer/product |
protection |
speed |
usability |
1:1:1 |
60:20:20 |
|
AhnLab V3 Endpoint Security 9.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Avast Business Antivirus 21.11 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Bitdefender Endpoint Security 7.4 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
ESET Endpoint Security 9.0s |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
G Data AntiVirus Business 15.1 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Kaspersky Endpoint Security 11.7 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Kaspersky Small Office Security 21.3 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Microsoft Defender Antivirus 4.18 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete 14.3 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Trellix Endpoint Security 10.7 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Trend Micro Apex One 14.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
With Secure Elements Endpoint Protection 21 & 22 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
|
Comodo Client Security 12.10 |
6.0 |
5.5 |
6.0 |
17.5 |
17.7 |
|
Sophos Intercept X Advanced 10.8 |
6.0 |
5.5 |
6.0 |
17.5 |
17.7 |
|
Bitdefender Endpoint Security Ultra 7.4 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
5.5 |
17.5 |
17.7 |
|
Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection 1.2 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
5.5 |
17.5 |
17.7 |
|
Seqrite Endpoint Security 18.00 |
5.5 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
17.5 |
17.1 |
|
Check Point Endpoint Security 86.10 |
6.0 |
4.0 |
6.0 |
16.0 |
16.8 |
|
VMware Carbon Black Cloud 3.8 |
5.0 |
5.0 |
6.0 |
16.0 |
15.6 |
