App Review Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home 2024

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Shadowra

Shadowra

Level 37
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Malware Tester
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Sep 2, 2021
2,619
Emsisoft is a New Zealand company that has been offering anti-malware software for several years.
Formerly A-Squared, the company has evolved over the years to offer a very solid solution.

For 2024, there are few changes in the program, but let's see if Emsisoft is still effective...



User interface :

The interface is very clear, suitable for both novices and geeks addicted to configuration.
Emsisoft has 2 engines: Bitdefender and its own.
On the other hand, the software is as heavy as ever, and disk impacts are quite violent...


Web protection: 10/10

Emsisoft offers excellent Web blocking by blacklisting at source. It also offers a Web extension, but this is a bit useless for me.


Fake crack : 1/1

Emsisoft intercepts the file directly with its behavioral protection.

Malware Pack : Remaining 17 out of 698 threats.

Emsisoft has 2 excellent detection engines capable of detecting all kinds of threats.
At runtime, the anti-malware was able to intercept attacks by multiplying its shields: Web blocking, proactivity and Cloud blocking.
An infection seems to have passed, but I suspect Emsisoft has blocked it, as I can't see any activity and the disinfection solutions don't notice anything...

Final scan :

Emsisoft : 1
Autoruns : 0 malicious keys (KillSwitch AutoRuns)
NPE : 0
KVRT: 0
Malwarebytes : 0

Final opinion:

Emsisoft is a powerful, highly protective anti-malware program capable of protecting any machine.
With its powerful shields against malware, Emsisoft has made a machine healthy.
However, memory and disk impacts clearly need to be improved, as it can really slow down the machine...
Emsisoft is recommendable.
 

Bot

AI-powered Bot
Apr 21, 2016
4,450
Thank you for your detailed review and analysis of Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home 2024. It's great to see it has performed well in various tests, especially in web protection. Your feedback about its memory and disk impacts is noted and hopefully, Emsisoft will address these in future updates.
 

BigWrench

Level 19
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Well-known
Apr 13, 2014
937
Great test and review. Too bad their business model sucks, and they treat longtime customers like pawns. Christian has started filling his pockets and has forgotten how they struggled at first, and people jumped onboard to purchase aSquared, and Online Armor, even how ghastly heavy and buggy it was. Now things are polished and those who helped him make it are long forgotten 👎
 
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F

ForgottenSeer 109138

Lets be honest about products now days. The combination of engines is semi effective. Although as revealed before, testing methods to truly test these components is another story, but lets get down to the basic facts about products like this one.

Its proprietary in house engine is decent with PUPS , something like a (74%) detection rate real world, and monitors for suspicious files. The Bitdefender engine literally fills the gaps on everything else, meaning this product piggybacks mostly on an already established engine. Without the BD engine, its effectiveness will drop drastically.

Now I will give the Devs some credit when it comes to fetching Keys to ransomware and helping folks out this way, but for the most part, I generally do not recommend this product to others.
 
A

Azazel

Lets be honest about products now days. The combination of engines is semi effective. Although as revealed before, testing methods to truly test these components is another story, but lets get down to the basic facts about products like this one.

Its proprietary in house engine is decent with PUPS , something like a (74%) detection rate real world, and monitors for suspicious files. The Bitdefender engine literally fills the gaps on everything else, meaning this product piggybacks mostly on an already established engine. Without the BD engine, its effectiveness will drop drastically.

Now I will give the Devs some credit when it comes to fetching Keys to ransomware and helping folks out this way, but for the most part, I generally do not recommend this product to others.
What products would you recommend?
 

Shadowra

Level 37
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Content Creator
Malware Tester
Well-known
Sep 2, 2021
2,619
Lets be honest about products now days. The combination of engines is semi effective. Although as revealed before, testing methods to truly test these components is another story, but lets get down to the basic facts about products like this one.

Its proprietary in house engine is decent with PUPS , something like a (74%) detection rate real world, and monitors for suspicious files. The Bitdefender engine literally fills the gaps on everything else, meaning this product piggybacks mostly on an already established engine. Without the BD engine, its effectiveness will drop drastically.

Now I will give the Devs some credit when it comes to fetching Keys to ransomware and helping folks out this way, but for the most part, I generally do not recommend this product to others.

And why is that?
Isn't protection good?
Then again, no AV is perfect
 

ErzCrz

Level 23
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Aug 19, 2019
1,214
Great review. I used it for the better part of last year having won a free copy here. It does use a lot of ram but didn't really slow down my machine much. Surprised that it's on-demand EEK isn't as great at detecting and removing malware in recent tests by I think yourself and cruelsister.
 

Khushal

Level 2
Apr 4, 2024
76
Lets be honest about products now days. The combination of engines is semi effective. Although as revealed before, testing methods to truly test these components is another story, but lets get down to the basic facts about products like this one.

Its proprietary in house engine is decent with PUPS , something like a (74%) detection rate real world, and monitors for suspicious files. The Bitdefender engine literally fills the gaps on everything else, meaning this product piggybacks mostly on an already established engine. Without the BD engine, its effectiveness will drop drastically.

Now I will give the Devs some credit when it comes to fetching Keys to ransomware and helping folks out this way, but for the most part, I generally do not recommend this product to others.
I completely 👍
 

Emsisoft

From Emsisoft
Verified
Developer
Jul 27, 2013
43
Final opinion:

Emsisoft is a powerful, highly protective anti-malware program capable of protecting any machine.
With its powerful shields against malware, Emsisoft has made a machine healthy.
However, memory and disk impacts clearly need to be improved, as it can really slow down the machine...
Emsisoft is recommendable.
Thanks very much for your review! Much appreciated.

Anyone who experiences (or experienced) performance issues, could you please get in touch with our customer support to help us trace the issue? We've had a number of updates related to disk and CPU use improvements in the previous few months and we'd like to know if those issues still persist so we can address that asap. Thanks
 

partha_roy

Level 3
Well-known
Oct 16, 2022
127
Lets be honest about products now days. The combination of engines is semi effective. Although as revealed before, testing methods to truly test these components is another story, but lets get down to the basic facts about products like this one.

Its proprietary in house engine is decent with PUPS , something like a (74%) detection rate real world, and monitors for suspicious files. The Bitdefender engine literally fills the gaps on everything else, meaning this product piggybacks mostly on an already established engine. Without the BD engine, its effectiveness will drop drastically.

Now I will give the Devs some credit when it comes to fetching Keys to ransomware and helping folks out this way, but for the most part, I generally do not recommend this product to others.
I think you are being a little harsh to Emsisoft here; Emsi's inbuilt behavior blocker is extremely effective in blocking ransomware and besides, their engine complements BD's quite well (saying this from personal experience); I don't understand how that would make it semi-effective.

Even though Emsisoft might rely on a different engine, its additional anti-ransomware features and utilization of a broad threat database leads to an even more comprehensive defense.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 109138

I think you are being a little harsh to Emsisoft here; Emsi's inbuilt behavior blocker is extremely effective in blocking ransomware and besides, their engine complements BD's quite well (saying this from personal experience); I don't understand how that would make it semi-effective.

Even though Emsisoft might rely on a different engine, its additional anti-ransomware features and utilization of a broad threat database leads to an even more comprehensive defense.
Key words here (your personal experience) what ever that may entail.

Mostly the product is/was heavy handed when I applied it, certainly strained the system during updates and scanning at the time. Its effectiveness back when I tested it was as any product of its type. The fact it has to rely upon the BD engine says plenty though.

Your comment on vast improvement in customer support and staff certainly hits home more of why I would never recommend this product. While you may have dealt with a front end Sales rep whose job is to be kind to make sales, maybe I have dealt with a Developer who thinks all people are ignorant and treats them as such, especially members from this forum as he has openly stated. Maybe this was all I ever needed to see from a company to lose any respect for it and or want to support it and its "just ok" product. Maybe I was actually being kind in what I wrote that you perceived harsh.

Perspective and Comprehension are everything.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

partha_roy

Level 3
Well-known
Oct 16, 2022
127
Key words here (your personal experience) what ever that may entail.
It entails my pleasant experience overall with Emsi, and I've put it through its paces. Of course, this is just my view; like everyone else, I can only speak from my own experience using the product.

While you may have dealt with a front end Sales rep whose job is to be kind to make sales, maybe I have dealt with a Developer who thinks all people are ignorant and treats them as such, especially members from this forum as he has openly stated.
I am sorry for your experience with the dev but would need some context on the situation before I offer my perspective.
 

Xtwillight

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jul 1, 2014
298
Great test and review. Too bad their business model sucks, and they treat longtime customers like pawns. Christian has started filling his pockets and has forgotten how they struggled at first, and people jumped onboard to purchase aSquared, and Online Armor, even how ghastly heavy and buggy it was. Now things are polished and those who helped him make it are long forgotten 👎
100 Points Abomenten Falle / Subscribers fall ,
I have spoken here and elsewhere with Fabian Wosar about the Subscribers fall, but you stay with the Auto-Renewal which you can only cancel afterwards.
This and other decisions by the company have prompted me, as a long-time user, to stop using the product .
 

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