LATEST AND UPDATED REAL WORLD COMODO REVIEWS
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Katarina Glamoslija is Lead Cybersecurity Editor. She has more than a decade of experience researching, testing, and reviewing cybersecurity products and investigating best practices for online safety and data protection.
August 23, 2024 — Comodo Review: Quick Expert Summary
Comodo is disappointing. Its malware scanner is worse than the competition — Norton, Bitdefender, and McAfee all achieved significantly better malware detection ratings in my tests. The developers have abandoned a lot of Comodo’s features over the years, and its other features either don’t work at all or don’t work as well as they should. The mobile apps are equally disappointing, and whatever you do, stay away from the premium package — you won’t gain anything worth having by spending your money on it.
Comodo is not very good. its features (including the virus scanner and phishing protection) are disappointing.
Comodo’s additional features are almost uniformly terrible. The phishing protection failed to block known phishing websites, the secure browser isn’t very secure, and the ad blocker didn’t block any ads. Worse still, the cloud backup and VPN that Comodo advertises are no longer available — they haven’t received any significant upgrades since 2021.
Depending on where you look, the discontinued cloud-backup feature and VPN are also still advertised as part of the upgraded paid plan, but they no longer exist — it’s actually pretty insulting that Comodo is still trying to charge for these features.
On a similar note, Comodo’s site states that it supports Mac and Linux, but these products have been discontinued — they just haven’t bothered (yet again) to update their website.
Honestly, I struggle to recommend Comodo right now — there are just too many things wrong with it. There are much better free options out there, and if you’re in the market for the best antivirus protection.
Comodo doesn’t detect malware as effectively as top antivirus competitors like Norton.
Comodo’s other features aren’t any good, though. Since Comodo hasn’t had a decent update since 2021, the anti-phishing, secure browser, and ad blocker all underperform.
Although all of Comodo’s core security features are free, you’re better off looking at other options if you want decent protection.
Comodo’s malware scanner is worse than all those on our list of the top 10 antiviruses.
I installed a repository of malware samples on my test PC before individually running all 4 scanners. The Quick Scan only took 3 minutes to complete, but I was disappointed with the results — it missed malware samples that competitors like Norton had detected in their quick scans. (Norton and other competitors like McAfee and Bitdefender regularly detect 100% of malware samples in our testing).
Overall, Comodo’s scanner isn’t the best on the market, by a long shot. You can’t fully rely on the Quick Scan, and the Full Scan’s detection rates aren’t as good as other competitors. If you want a free antivirus with a reliable scanner, you’re better off getting Bitdefender’s free package instead, which has one of the best malware scanners around.
Real-Time Malware Scanner
I tested the real-time scanner by attempting to download a collection of nearly 1,000 malware samples. Comodo’s real-time protection blocked over 90% of these samples before I could install them. Again, this isn’t terrible, but it’s not as good as premium antivirus suites like Norton and Bitdefender, whose real-time scanners can block 100% of malware files.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many customization options for the real-time scanner — you can’t adjust scan intensity, and it’s hard to whitelist safe files. In comparison, Bitdefender is highly customizable and lets you choose which objects the scanner should defend against.
Phishing Protection/Website Filtering
Comodo’s phishing protection didn’t perform very well in my testing. I visited hundreds of phishing sites and measured Comodo’s detection rate against Google Chrome, and Google Chrome blocked more phishing websites than Comodo. In comparison, Norton and McAfee blocked more phishing sites than Google Chrome.
The website filtering feature is also disappointing. It’s only compatible with Internet Explorer (an obsolete browser in 2024) and Mozilla Firefox. Most antiviruses, including Norton, McAfee, and Bitdefender, have web-protection tools that are compatible with all the top browsers.
Overall, Comodo’s anti-phishing feature is disappointing. It doesn’t work as well as Chrome’s default protections and lacks compatibility with most web browsers. If you’re worried about phishing attacks, you’re better off using Norton or McAfee (or even just sticking with Chrome’s default protections).
Comodo Virtual Desktop
Comodo Security Features
Comodo’s Virtual Desktop won’t be very useful for most users.
It’s definitely aimed at more advanced users. Your average everyday user only really needs a secure antivirus program, like Norton or Bitdefender, which will automatically detect and block all malware files on their system without requiring an additional testing step.
Comodo’s Secure Shopping is a decent tool for enhancing your privacy via a secure browser, but it was pretty buggy during my testing.
Even with Secure Shopping activated, I found I could still screen capture my online activity. This is obviously far from ideal, as that’s one of its core features in order to protect against hackers stealing your data.
Secure Shopping just doesn’t work quite well enough. Bitdefender’s Secure Browser is a much better feature that can successfully block screen capture, keyloggers, and unsafe connections, plus it didn’t block any of my games and apps during my testing.
Ad Blocker
Comodo’s Ad Blocker is impressively ineffective — it literally doesn’t work at all. It’s available as a Google Chrome extension, but there are many better alternatives out there.
When I downloaded the ad blocker and restarted my browser, I could still see advertisements on the web. In fact, I was staring right at numerous pop-ups while Comodo told me there were none detected on the page.
Competing antiviruses like Avira and TotalAV both offer good ad blockers, and ProtonVPN’s ad blocker is also really good.
Comodo’s Task Manager didn’t work on my system and just showed a blank screen.
Gaming Mode mutes Comodo’s notifications while running full-screen apps. It works well enough, but unfortunately, it doesn’t provide system optimization like Norton’s gaming mode. Comodo’s gaming mode also doesn’t turn on automatically when you enter full-screen mode, like Norton’s does.
The Cloud Backup feature theoretically allows subscribers to store up to 50 GB of data on Comodo’s cloud network — but it doesn’t work. When I went to register for the storage, I received an error. I contacted customer support, and they told me the cloud storage is undergoing maintenance. According to Comodo’s website, cloud storage is only compatible with computers running Windows 7 or older, meaning it’s been down since 2012.
And finally, Comodo advertises a VPN called TrustConnect as being part of its paid Pro plan, but again — it no longer works. Just as with the cloud storage, customer service said it’s currently under maintenance, but it actually looks to have been discontinued since 2012. I have no issue with products being discontinued, but Comodo needs to update its web pages and be more upfront with its customers.
Overall, Comodo has a lot of additional features — but the vast majority either don’t work particularly well or no longer exist at all.
Can Comodo Protect All of Your Devices in 2024?
In a word — no. Comodo is not a good antivirus in 2024, especially when compared to top competitors like Norton and Bitdefender.
Firstly, Comodo no longer supports macOS or Linux, and its iOS app is extremely limited, so Comodo is only really worth considering for Windows and Android users — despite Comodo’s own website suggesting otherwise.
Comodo’s antivirus scanner isn’t as good as any of those on our top 10 antiviruses in 2024 list, its anti-phishing feature is poor, and most of its additional features are also not very good.
Comodo’s developers have also abandoned many of its other features — namely the cloud storage and VPN. None of these features work in 2024, yet are still mentioned all over its website. The ones that haven’t been outright left behind haven’t seen a significant upgrade in several years, making them fall behind modern standards. That said, Comodo do have a beta for a new version of their antivirus on their forum — but I’ll test that when it’s officially released to the public.
But overall, I really wouldn’t recommend Comodo. Its free plan is simply not as good as others available, and its paid plan is definitely not worth the money. If you want a good free antivirus, Bitdefender is the best choice, and if you’re looking for the very best protection in 2024, I’d recommend Norton.
Is Comodo Antivirus good?
Honestly, no. Comodo Antivirus isn’t good. The malware scanner didn’t score well in my testing, the anti-phishing feature is weaker than Google’s default protections, and the ad blocker simply didn’t work at all. Also, many of the premium features are no longer available, even though Comodo still promotes them. It doesn’t even have an official Windows 11 version. If you want a good antivirus, you should check out our top 10 list of antiviruses in 2024).
Is Comodo Antivirus free?
Yes, but there are a lot of much better (and good-value) antivirus programs on the market, like Avira, which has an excellent free version and affordable plans.
Does Comodo Antivirus have a firewall?
Comodo does have a firewall, however, if the firewall is just one of many features you’re interested in, you’ll be better off going for a different premium antivirus suite — like Norton — which has an equally good firewall, plus a lot of other features that are much better than Comodo’s.
Is Comodo Antivirus safe?
Comodo Antivirus can’t fully protect you from malware or other online threats. Its malware scanner isn’t as effective at identifying, blocking, or removing malware as its top competitors, and the anti-phishing feature doesn’t even work as well as Chrome’s default protections. There’s also no way to protect your data on desktop PCs using a VPN — since Comodo’s VPN is no longer supported. If you want to ensure your PC is completely safe from online threats, you should opt for a more secure antivirus, such as Norton or Bitdefender.
___________________________________________________________________________
Katarina Glamoslija is Lead Cybersecurity Editor. She has more than a decade of experience researching, testing, and reviewing cybersecurity products and investigating best practices for online safety and data protection.
August 23, 2024 — Comodo Review: Quick Expert Summary
Comodo is disappointing. Its malware scanner is worse than the competition — Norton, Bitdefender, and McAfee all achieved significantly better malware detection ratings in my tests. The developers have abandoned a lot of Comodo’s features over the years, and its other features either don’t work at all or don’t work as well as they should. The mobile apps are equally disappointing, and whatever you do, stay away from the premium package — you won’t gain anything worth having by spending your money on it.
Comodo is not very good. its features (including the virus scanner and phishing protection) are disappointing.
Comodo’s additional features are almost uniformly terrible. The phishing protection failed to block known phishing websites, the secure browser isn’t very secure, and the ad blocker didn’t block any ads. Worse still, the cloud backup and VPN that Comodo advertises are no longer available — they haven’t received any significant upgrades since 2021.
Depending on where you look, the discontinued cloud-backup feature and VPN are also still advertised as part of the upgraded paid plan, but they no longer exist — it’s actually pretty insulting that Comodo is still trying to charge for these features.
On a similar note, Comodo’s site states that it supports Mac and Linux, but these products have been discontinued — they just haven’t bothered (yet again) to update their website.
Honestly, I struggle to recommend Comodo right now — there are just too many things wrong with it. There are much better free options out there, and if you’re in the market for the best antivirus protection.
Comodo doesn’t detect malware as effectively as top antivirus competitors like Norton.
Comodo’s other features aren’t any good, though. Since Comodo hasn’t had a decent update since 2021, the anti-phishing, secure browser, and ad blocker all underperform.
Although all of Comodo’s core security features are free, you’re better off looking at other options if you want decent protection.
Comodo’s malware scanner is worse than all those on our list of the top 10 antiviruses.
I installed a repository of malware samples on my test PC before individually running all 4 scanners. The Quick Scan only took 3 minutes to complete, but I was disappointed with the results — it missed malware samples that competitors like Norton had detected in their quick scans. (Norton and other competitors like McAfee and Bitdefender regularly detect 100% of malware samples in our testing).
Overall, Comodo’s scanner isn’t the best on the market, by a long shot. You can’t fully rely on the Quick Scan, and the Full Scan’s detection rates aren’t as good as other competitors. If you want a free antivirus with a reliable scanner, you’re better off getting Bitdefender’s free package instead, which has one of the best malware scanners around.
Real-Time Malware Scanner
I tested the real-time scanner by attempting to download a collection of nearly 1,000 malware samples. Comodo’s real-time protection blocked over 90% of these samples before I could install them. Again, this isn’t terrible, but it’s not as good as premium antivirus suites like Norton and Bitdefender, whose real-time scanners can block 100% of malware files.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many customization options for the real-time scanner — you can’t adjust scan intensity, and it’s hard to whitelist safe files. In comparison, Bitdefender is highly customizable and lets you choose which objects the scanner should defend against.
Phishing Protection/Website Filtering
Comodo’s phishing protection didn’t perform very well in my testing. I visited hundreds of phishing sites and measured Comodo’s detection rate against Google Chrome, and Google Chrome blocked more phishing websites than Comodo. In comparison, Norton and McAfee blocked more phishing sites than Google Chrome.
The website filtering feature is also disappointing. It’s only compatible with Internet Explorer (an obsolete browser in 2024) and Mozilla Firefox. Most antiviruses, including Norton, McAfee, and Bitdefender, have web-protection tools that are compatible with all the top browsers.
Overall, Comodo’s anti-phishing feature is disappointing. It doesn’t work as well as Chrome’s default protections and lacks compatibility with most web browsers. If you’re worried about phishing attacks, you’re better off using Norton or McAfee (or even just sticking with Chrome’s default protections).
Comodo Virtual Desktop
Comodo Security Features
Comodo’s Virtual Desktop won’t be very useful for most users.
It’s definitely aimed at more advanced users. Your average everyday user only really needs a secure antivirus program, like Norton or Bitdefender, which will automatically detect and block all malware files on their system without requiring an additional testing step.
Comodo’s Secure Shopping is a decent tool for enhancing your privacy via a secure browser, but it was pretty buggy during my testing.
Even with Secure Shopping activated, I found I could still screen capture my online activity. This is obviously far from ideal, as that’s one of its core features in order to protect against hackers stealing your data.
Secure Shopping just doesn’t work quite well enough. Bitdefender’s Secure Browser is a much better feature that can successfully block screen capture, keyloggers, and unsafe connections, plus it didn’t block any of my games and apps during my testing.
Ad Blocker
Comodo’s Ad Blocker is impressively ineffective — it literally doesn’t work at all. It’s available as a Google Chrome extension, but there are many better alternatives out there.
When I downloaded the ad blocker and restarted my browser, I could still see advertisements on the web. In fact, I was staring right at numerous pop-ups while Comodo told me there were none detected on the page.
Competing antiviruses like Avira and TotalAV both offer good ad blockers, and ProtonVPN’s ad blocker is also really good.
Comodo’s Task Manager didn’t work on my system and just showed a blank screen.
Gaming Mode mutes Comodo’s notifications while running full-screen apps. It works well enough, but unfortunately, it doesn’t provide system optimization like Norton’s gaming mode. Comodo’s gaming mode also doesn’t turn on automatically when you enter full-screen mode, like Norton’s does.
The Cloud Backup feature theoretically allows subscribers to store up to 50 GB of data on Comodo’s cloud network — but it doesn’t work. When I went to register for the storage, I received an error. I contacted customer support, and they told me the cloud storage is undergoing maintenance. According to Comodo’s website, cloud storage is only compatible with computers running Windows 7 or older, meaning it’s been down since 2012.
And finally, Comodo advertises a VPN called TrustConnect as being part of its paid Pro plan, but again — it no longer works. Just as with the cloud storage, customer service said it’s currently under maintenance, but it actually looks to have been discontinued since 2012. I have no issue with products being discontinued, but Comodo needs to update its web pages and be more upfront with its customers.
Overall, Comodo has a lot of additional features — but the vast majority either don’t work particularly well or no longer exist at all.
Can Comodo Protect All of Your Devices in 2024?
In a word — no. Comodo is not a good antivirus in 2024, especially when compared to top competitors like Norton and Bitdefender.
Firstly, Comodo no longer supports macOS or Linux, and its iOS app is extremely limited, so Comodo is only really worth considering for Windows and Android users — despite Comodo’s own website suggesting otherwise.
Comodo’s antivirus scanner isn’t as good as any of those on our top 10 antiviruses in 2024 list, its anti-phishing feature is poor, and most of its additional features are also not very good.
Comodo’s developers have also abandoned many of its other features — namely the cloud storage and VPN. None of these features work in 2024, yet are still mentioned all over its website. The ones that haven’t been outright left behind haven’t seen a significant upgrade in several years, making them fall behind modern standards. That said, Comodo do have a beta for a new version of their antivirus on their forum — but I’ll test that when it’s officially released to the public.
But overall, I really wouldn’t recommend Comodo. Its free plan is simply not as good as others available, and its paid plan is definitely not worth the money. If you want a good free antivirus, Bitdefender is the best choice, and if you’re looking for the very best protection in 2024, I’d recommend Norton.
Is Comodo Antivirus good?
Honestly, no. Comodo Antivirus isn’t good. The malware scanner didn’t score well in my testing, the anti-phishing feature is weaker than Google’s default protections, and the ad blocker simply didn’t work at all. Also, many of the premium features are no longer available, even though Comodo still promotes them. It doesn’t even have an official Windows 11 version. If you want a good antivirus, you should check out our top 10 list of antiviruses in 2024).
Is Comodo Antivirus free?
Yes, but there are a lot of much better (and good-value) antivirus programs on the market, like Avira, which has an excellent free version and affordable plans.
Does Comodo Antivirus have a firewall?
Comodo does have a firewall, however, if the firewall is just one of many features you’re interested in, you’ll be better off going for a different premium antivirus suite — like Norton — which has an equally good firewall, plus a lot of other features that are much better than Comodo’s.
Is Comodo Antivirus safe?
Comodo Antivirus can’t fully protect you from malware or other online threats. Its malware scanner isn’t as effective at identifying, blocking, or removing malware as its top competitors, and the anti-phishing feature doesn’t even work as well as Chrome’s default protections. There’s also no way to protect your data on desktop PCs using a VPN — since Comodo’s VPN is no longer supported. If you want to ensure your PC is completely safe from online threats, you should opt for a more secure antivirus, such as Norton or Bitdefender.
