App Review Emsisoft Anti-Malware 2021 by Shadowra

It is advised to take all reviews with a grain of salt. In extreme cases some reviews use dramatization for entertainment purposes.
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Shadowra

Shadowra

Level 33
Thread author
Verified
Top Poster
Content Creator
Malware Tester
Well-known
Sep 2, 2021
2,243
Hello all,
Today we will observe the behavior of Emsisoft to protect the computer!

Emsisoft, formerly A-Squared, is a New Zealand company that has been offering their flagship antimalware for several years.
Formerly, it was with IKARUS and their engine to them, but signed with Bitdefender during 2012.
The product is very complete, offers several levels of protection, but... is it really?

The protection is excellent!
Very good web protection, as well as file protection!
Emsisoft has also caught several infections during the test pack and blocks my home Ransomware!
During the scans, only some remained, doing no damage.
The PC is healthy, no active threats.
Emsisoft is recommended.

RAM Usage : High
Phishing Test : 3/5 (2 missed)
Malware URL test : 10/10 (all detected)
Fake crack : 1/1 (detected by databse, Cloud, BB....)
Malware Pack : Remaining 356 files to 12043 malwares
Result :
- Emsisoft : 1
- Zemana : 0
- Hitman Pro : 2
- McAfee : 7
- NPE : 7
- KVRT : 0

 

rain2reign

Level 8
Verified
Well-known
Jun 21, 2020
363
RAM Usage : High
Regarding this point, it might be interesting to point out that It's a default behaviour for years, but it can be toggled off by enabling/ticking the setting “memory usage optimization” if you would like it to use less RAM.

The definitions (by default setting) are loaded into the RAM itself and then used for scans and protection. Which makes scanning faster, than doing from a drive, like a SSD, which you can test the difference with Emsisoft Emergency Kit (EEK) or by simply turning on the memory optimization setting.

Both have their pro's and cons. In general, you'd want it to use RAM, rather than pagefile and disk activity for better perfomance. I think Bitdefender and one or two others started using the same idea in their security solutions. If the RAM is around 300-400 MB, then it's operating within expected RAM usage.

memory usage optimization - Disabled/unticked (default setting)
pros:​
Considerably fast scans;​
Entire Database and definitions loaded into RAM for better performance.​
cons:​
A significantly higher Ram usage. Not desirable for low RAM systems (< 4 GB RAM).​
memory usage optimization - Enabled/ticked
pros:​
lower ram usage;​
cons:​
Scanning speed slower in comparison;​
Parts of the database offloaded onto the pagefile which in turn increases disk activity.​
 

Farhad24

Level 1
Mar 24, 2021
24
The product is very complete
No it is not.
a complete product especially a "very complete product" has a password manager built in, some kind of ID Protection especially if it calls itself a company that cares about users privacy. list goes on for a complete product.
list of some complete products if you're interested to know which ones they are:
Bitdefender Premium Security
Kaspersky Complete Cecurity
F-Secure TOTAL
etc

Emsisoft is a "decent" product in terms of features.
 

Digmor Crusher

Level 23
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Well-known
Jan 27, 2018
1,236
No it is not.
a complete product especially a "very complete product" has a password manager built in, some kind of ID Protection especially if it calls itself a company that cares about users privacy. list goes on for a complete product.
list of some complete products if you're interested to know which ones they are:
Bitdefender Premium Security
Kaspersky Complete Cecurity
F-Secure TOTAL
etc

Emsisoft is a "decent" product in terms of features.
Thats called bloat, I know most here are not looking for a password manager or driver updater that is packaged with an anti-virus.
 

rain2reign

Level 8
Verified
Well-known
Jun 21, 2020
363
No it is not.
a complete product especially a "very complete product" has a password manager built in, some kind of ID Protection especially if it calls itself a company that cares about users privacy. list goes on for a complete product.
list of some complete products if you're interested to know which ones they are:
Bitdefender Premium Security
Kaspersky Complete Cecurity
F-Secure TOTAL
etc

Emsisoft is a "decent" product in terms of features.
I think you may be confusing the term Anti-malware/anti-Virus with either Total Security or Internet Security? Or at least that's how I always thought about it, being anti-malware/virus just being the essential necessity for the security solution to function. And either Total- or Internet security being the more feature filled big brother (more robust?) packages, with the named features you just mentioned. It's also in the name of the examples: Premium, Total, Complete. :D
 
Last edited:

CMLew

Level 23
Verified
Well-known
Oct 30, 2015
1,251
No it is not.
a complete product especially a "very complete product" has a password manager built in, some kind of ID Protection especially if it calls itself a company that cares about users privacy. list goes on for a complete product.
list of some complete products if you're interested to know which ones they are:
Bitdefender Premium Security
Kaspersky Complete Cecurity
F-Secure TOTAL
etc

Emsisoft is a "decent" product in terms of features.
Those additional features you mentioned are bloats in my terminology. Having so much "complete product" where there is a possibility that it is not 100% utilizing it is kinda waste of $$, and space.
 

dinosaur07

Level 12
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 5, 2012
572
Very useful the comments. I'm currently using this solution since 3 weeks now, after dropping Eset AV and I like it more. Now it seems lighter and their BB is awesome. Also, their signature protection improved a lot. I went back to Emsisoft after a while with Eset and I don't regret it at all. Not a single FP till now and I scanned lots of files recently. So far so good.
 

Minimalist

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Oct 2, 2020
439
Very useful the comments. I'm currently using this solution since 3 weeks now, after dropping Eset AV and I like it more. Now it seems lighter and their BB is awesome. Also, their signature protection improved a lot. I went back to Emsisoft after a while with Eset and I don't regret it at all. Not a single FP till now and I scanned lots of files recently. So far so good.
Hi. Did you check for FPs only with scanning or also by executing files? When I use Emsisoft I hardly ever get FPs from file scanning component, but I do ge some from their behaviour blocker.
 

Bushman

Level 2
Verified
Sep 9, 2017
55
Emsisoft is still a very good product, without unnecessary features and very close to the support of its customers. I haven't had any particular problem with Emsisoft in the 3 years that I've been using it and when I had it, the support was very responsive. Marketing is not their main function and that's good
 

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