Battle Emsisoft Anti - Malware / Eset Internet Security / F-- Secure Safe (second half of 2020)

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Emsisoft Anti - Malware
Eset Internet Security
F - Secure Safe
In-depth Comparison






Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
What kind of Phishing protection are you looking for;
  1. Do you use a desktop e-mail client, or web-based?
  2. Do you regularly receive junk e-mail?
  3. Have you set-up your email providers settings to send all non-contacts / non-safe senders to Junk/Spam folder?
Which extensions do you use on your Browser for content blocking (ie. block ads, and unsafe sites)?
 

SeriousHoax

Level 47
Well-known
Mar 16, 2019
3,630
ESET:
Pros: Great performance, better and faster signatures, better phishing and malicious web blocking protection.
Cons: Can't think of any at the moment.

Emsisoft:
Pros: Good protection, good performance, good looking UI with dark theme availablity, privacy friendly company.
Cons: Some users are facing a high CPU usage bug, false positive prone behavior blocker, so so web protection.

F-Secure:
Pros: Very good protection, great performance.
Cons: Lacks customizability, blunt UI.

Personally I would choose ESET but before you make a decision you should try the trial versions of the products.
 

Chausko

Level 1
Thread author
Verified
Mar 25, 2018
39
What kind of Phishing protection are you looking for;
  1. Do you use a desktop e-mail client, or web-based?
  2. Do you regularly receive junk e-mail?
  3. Have you set-up your email providers settings to send all non-contacts / non-safe senders to Junk/Spam folder?
Which extensions do you use on your Browser for content blocking (ie. block ads, and unsafe sites)?
I looking for protection for website. I watch a lot of movies on internet and some websites have very agressive ad systems with porn, hazard and more. (potencionaly phising or malware?)

I have monthly subscription on Hbo go and Netflix, but a lot of movies, what I want see isn't available on this services.
 

rain2reign

Level 8
Verified
Well-known
Jun 21, 2020
363
I have been using Emsisoft for 4 years now and i'm quite happy with it. One thing worth noting down however, is that the behaviour blocker of theirs is a bit
user-dependent. Which is also why some may view some of it's blocking as a false positive, this is especially true for digitally unsigned .exe files or .exe files trying to access .dll files in the windows or OS systems folders. By default it's configured to auto-resolve for the BB and block and notify for web. In regards to Web Protection in my experience it's decent, but then again it's also highly dependent on your surfing habits and behaviour. I only have had 1 alert for my use case regarding the browsing protection in the last 2 years and that number isn't much higher in overall use over the 4 years i have it.

Like Spawn already mentioned above: what do you already use in regards to protection? Think of browser-based content blocking like uBlock Origin or Adguard for example to network wide with pihole or nextdns to name others. Junk mail etc...

So far i think i'd say Eset or Emsisoft would both suit you. But can't go wrong with either, but i'd recommend a browser (extension) content-blocker nonetheless if you haven't already. Like already mentioned try them out for a couple days each and see which one you'd prefer more. If money is a factor, Eset has more discounted sales regionally as Emsisoft does not.
 

Back3

Level 14
Verified
Top Poster
Apr 14, 2019
654
Four months ago, my basic setup was WD with Configure Defender. I used Chrome with Ublock Origin and Malwarebytes Browser Guard. I made an image and tried Eset Internet Security. I got bugs with my printer. I reinstalled Eset and got it right.. When I saw on MT a F-Secure Safe giveaway, I restored an image and gave it a try. I Have been with F-Secure for the last 3 months. No bugs at all. I added the F-Secure browsing protection. It's very aggressive sometimes too much. I called support to understand something and they were friendly and knowledgeable. So far my experience is good.
 

Soulbound

Moderator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 14, 2015
1,761
ESET for all 3 however it also requires a tweak: set learning mode for HIPS and then use Policy Based mode or Smart mode.
ESET has best performance all around, Emsisoft the worse.
UI wise, its subjective.
Ultimately it depends what the user prefers, all 3 are viable but I would recommend ESET and F-Secure over Emsisoft
 

show-Zi

Level 36
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 28, 2018
2,463
In my country, F-Secure is a bit more expensive, eset and emisi are about the same.
If you want to enjoy software tuning, eset is a good choice. I'm not confident in that, so I'm choosing emisi, which doesn't require much adjustment. If you want to make adjustments aggressively, emisi will find it boring.
 

The Ordynary

Level 3
Apr 26, 2020
105
It is not recommended to use antivirus without behavior blocker, Eset has no behavioral blocker, depends mostly on signatures, Avira has better signatures than ESET, it has always been like this, F Secure uses avira engine, however it has a very bad behavior blocker and cannot remove threaten properly. Emsisoft has a strong behavior blocker, which is no different from Bitdefender, which can generate false positives.
 

Soulbound

Moderator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 14, 2015
1,761
It is not recommended to use antivirus without behavior blocker, Eset has no behavioral blocker, depends mostly on signatures, Avira has better signatures than ESET, it has always been like this, F Secure uses avira engine, however it has a very bad behavior blocker and cannot remove threaten properly. Emsisoft has a strong behavior blocker, which is no different from Bitdefender, which can generate false positives.
ESET has HIPS and Smart mode works just fine for that matter.

Its a common misconception that a security solution must include a Behaviour Blocker.

Also in terms of ESET, you have to look at all the other security measures they have in place under the AV engine umbrella.

Each solution has different approaches.

i.e: The PC Security channel on youtube tested ESET against Ransomeware in the wrong way, then when he did the same in Kasperky it worked flawlessly, yet he added some incorrect and uneducated "rant" on his Kaspersky video targeting the valid comments in the ESET Video he did.
 

Kongo

Level 35
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 25, 2017
2,479
It is not recommended to use antivirus without behavior blocker, Eset has no behavioral blocker, depends mostly on signatures, Avira has better signatures than ESET, it has always been like this, F Secure uses avira engine, however it has a very bad behavior blocker and cannot remove threaten properly. Emsisoft has a strong behavior blocker, which is no different from Bitdefender, which can generate false positives.
Eset has no behaviour blocker?
 

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Soulbound

Moderator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 14, 2015
1,761
Eset has no behaviour blocker?
Many users dont see that as a behaviour blocker due to other solutions having different implementations. Again, common misconception.

i.e many are used to the style of Emsisofts one which was based of Emsisoft Mamutu that in a way worked like a HIPS displaying alerts.
 

Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
Once your Browser and VPN are secure and working, then look at your other security software.
I looking for protection for website. I watch a lot of movies on internet and some websites have very agressive ad systems with porn, hazard and more. (potencionaly phising or malware?)
Your browser can protect you from known phishing and malware downloads, but I recommend a content blocker such as uBlock Origin with Malwarebytes Browser Guard for additional protection against Ads, Trackers and Unsafe redirects. Both are free and available for popular browsers. Links in Spoiler tags below.

Check that these are enabled.

Microsoft Edge edge://settings/privacy:
  • Microsoft Defender SmartScreen - Help protect me from malicious sites and downloads with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen.
  • Block potentially unwanted apps - Blocks downloads of low-reputation apps that might cause unexpected behaviours.
Microsoft Edge edge://settings/downloads
  • Ask where to save each file before downloading [Turn on] - prevents automatic downloads from Internet
For Google Chrome / Mozilla Firefox
  • Google SafeBrowsing [Turn on]
Microsoft Edge works with Chrome Web Store

I have monthly subscription on Hbo go and Netflix, but a lot of movies, what I want see isn't available on this services.
A safer method would be to subscribe to a reputable VPN provider that can circumnavigate these regional restrictions.
  • ExpressVPN
  • NordVPN
  • SurfShark
RE: Q&A - ProtonVPN - what do you think about it? - Which VPN did you pick?

Avoid FREE VPN and BUNDLED INTERNET SECURITY SUITE + VPN apps and extensions.
 

The Ordynary

Level 3
Apr 26, 2020
105
ESET has HIPS and Smart mode works just fine for that matter.

Its a common misconception that a security solution must include a Behaviour Blocker.

Also in terms of ESET, you have to look at all the other security measures they have in place under the AV engine umbrella.

Each solution has different approaches.

i.e: The PC Security channel on youtube tested ESET against Ransomeware in the wrong way, then when he did the same in Kasperky it worked flawlessly, yet he added some incorrect and uneducated "rant" on his Kaspersky video targeting the valid comments in the ESET Video he did.
Hips that don't work, everyone knows that, ESET is weak in behavior. Yes, antivirus needs behavior module.

Eset has no behaviour blocker?
has but it doesn't work as it should. it is the same as not having.
 

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