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- https://youtu.be/PC1aeZDTgA4
Avast Antivirus vs ESET Antivirus Test and Review | 2025
- Thread starter Khushal
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It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.
Hello Khushal,
Thanks for sharing the YouTube video! If this is related to PC security, malware removal, or any tech tips, feel free to add more details—we're all about helping with that here on malwaretips.com. What's the video about?
Posted on 2025-10-03 at 03:45. If you have questions, let me know!
Is this mean that avast better than ESET now?
I believe it is considering it's the flagship engine of GenD.
By mentioning Gen digital, I feel that Avast owns Gen, not the opposite, what do you think?
I find it funny that despite Norton buying Avast/AVG they basically abandoned their own engine and just used the Avast engine.
It's like how in the 90s, Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas, but let MD take control of the company. And look how that ended up, lol. Any plane nerds here will know exactly what I'm talking about.
If the old engine of Symantec was doing better than Avast engine, Gen Digital would not pay for aquiring Avast.
It’s like buying a mansion, then handing the keys to your weird cousin who immediately replaces all the furniture with beanbags and decides the plumbing is optional. History lesson: when the acquired company starts running things, sometimes you don’t get synergy—you get a sitcom.
Avast became Gen's champion for a reason. Despite the fame and previous accomplishments of Symantec, Avast made great strides modernizing and distinguishing their own technology.
K is trying to follow Avast footsteps regarding https scan.
Norton opting for a different engine is down to how their business division Symantec was sold to Broadcom and the patents that went along with it. Many of the core components were patented under Symantec like all the network protection related patents like IPS and even the behavior blocker SONAR I think.
Symantec and Norton probably had a temporary agreement of a few years where Norton would still be able to use shared technology in their home products. So, in that temporary/transitional period Norton acquired companies like Avira, Bullguard to begin with. Then maybe they realized that Avira's tech is not enough and needed something bigger and better. That's when they acquired Avast.
So, it's not about Norton abandoning their own engine for Avast. They simply had to.
Symantec and Norton probably had a temporary agreement of a few years where Norton would still be able to use shared technology in their home products. So, in that temporary/transitional period Norton acquired companies like Avira, Bullguard to begin with. Then maybe they realized that Avira's tech is not enough and needed something bigger and better. That's when they acquired Avast.
So, it's not about Norton abandoning their own engine for Avast. They simply had to.
But actually avast engine is better than Symantec's.
It's better at somethings, not everything, I think. Norton's behavior blocker SONAR was better against certain type of malware. But maybe overall, Avast is better
They are consistent. Never miss too many. But Avast's engine still doesn't have memory scanning capability which is surprising.
Does Symantec have?
Yeah, they have but I don't know how effective or necessary it is for them since a lot of their detection seems to be from static analysis. Memory scanning is often vital for fileless malware detection. It is very prevalent in ESET and Kaspersky's detection.
Edit: Symantec doesn't as explained by Trident below.
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I doubt it has; Symantec if well-known for weakness regarding script files, especially js.
Erm Symantec hasn’t got memory scanning. They have access to script interpreters memory through the AMSI, but not proper scanning like Trend Micro, CrowdStrike and so on.
As to why Norton switched to Avast, leasing technology under agreement gives them a set of clauses and limitation. Gen Digital would have had very little control over the product as long as Broadcom is involved.
It may seem as a temporary downgrade (and maybe for a year or so more it will be) but the Avast engine will undergo a lot of optimisations and improvements and will be brought on par with Symantec’s engine.
In any case, the Symantec technology had several limitations, mainly:
-Slow processing of new threats and submissions, Norton Community Watch previously would submit only when the machine is idle and it would take a fair amount of time for Symantec to react. In comparison, Avast reaction time is on the minutes scale.
-No remediation on malicious traffic: IPS would block continuously but the offending process will not be remediated. That’s not how Avast Web Shield works.
-Poor HTTPS support, poor system-wide web blocking (signatures required).
-SONAR may or may not have been better than Avast IDP but the IDP platform in the early years of AVG acquisition was expanded to support behavioural profiles and Avast added quite a lot on top (staff can use human language descriptors to write profiles for example). Behavioural blocking can be improved.
I would say give Norton a year and all engines will be in top shape again.
As to why Norton switched to Avast, leasing technology under agreement gives them a set of clauses and limitation. Gen Digital would have had very little control over the product as long as Broadcom is involved.
It may seem as a temporary downgrade (and maybe for a year or so more it will be) but the Avast engine will undergo a lot of optimisations and improvements and will be brought on par with Symantec’s engine.
In any case, the Symantec technology had several limitations, mainly:
-Slow processing of new threats and submissions, Norton Community Watch previously would submit only when the machine is idle and it would take a fair amount of time for Symantec to react. In comparison, Avast reaction time is on the minutes scale.
-No remediation on malicious traffic: IPS would block continuously but the offending process will not be remediated. That’s not how Avast Web Shield works.
-Poor HTTPS support, poor system-wide web blocking (signatures required).
-SONAR may or may not have been better than Avast IDP but the IDP platform in the early years of AVG acquisition was expanded to support behavioural profiles and Avast added quite a lot on top (staff can use human language descriptors to write profiles for example). Behavioural blocking can be improved.
I would say give Norton a year and all engines will be in top shape again.
When I tried to do some research on the Broadcom sale I didn't find information about NortonLifeLock transferring vital patents like SONAR, but that would be a gamechanger. Avira certainly wouldn't have been the ideal foundation moving forward. Avast is still a reasonable contender, all things considered.
The patents were about 2500, of which around 1600 belonged to Symantec and Norton, being a separate legal entity way before the split, held around 900. This is why a complex agreement was formed (no one can use the technology without the other one being involved, because different components from the STAR platform communicate).
Anyway, Symantec should still pay royalties.
I have the latest version installed from Norton, and it is already so much better then when they first released it.
For example :
- Browser extensions not needed anymore, all handled by Safeweb from within the program
- All the new malware is immediately detected so far i could test it
- It runs very smooth, no delay on my i5 16GB laptop
- Offcourse its a tiny bit bloated but there is a switch to disable all promotion notifications
- The notifications if any infected file is found are very clear and understandable, option to report as false positive is included in the notification
- Basically a lot of improvements, like @Trident mentioned, within a year its top notch again!
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