Symantec, ESET, McAfee rank first in Windows anti-malware market share

[Aggravatorx]

Antivirus programs from Symantec, ESET, and McAfee are today's most popular Windows-based anti-malware products, according to usage data gathered by enterprise software vendor OPSWAT.
For more than five years, OPSWAT has been collecting data and publishing monthly market share reports for the Windows anti-malware market.
The company says it collects its data from more than 30,000 enterprise and home systems where customers installed its free apps.
Avast, the market's leader for the past five years, has fallen to #6.
According to its latest report, published at the end of October, Symantec is today's top anti-malware vendor, with a market share of 13.56%, followed by ESET with 12.84%, and McAfee with 12.21%.

just thought i will strike a conversation with this

 

[elquenunca]

Symantec may be the most popular but it sure isn't the best

 

[MacDefender]

Symantec may be the most popular but it sure isn't the best

It's not exactly the worst either. Usually the reason a vendor is most popular is that they have a huge lineup of products to meet every use case and I think Symantec has that nailed down, especially in the enterprise marketspace.

I'm just super worried about the Broadcom partial acquisition. Usually companies do not survive being engulfed by Broadcom... Broadcom usually just sucks out all the talent and spits out an even more failing business unit to sell off to the next bidder.

 

[shmu26]

Is this report about the paid versions of the respective software? The three winners offer only paid versions.
I am surprised that paid AVs are so much more popular than free AVs. It doesn't sound like we are talking about the home market here.
The article says that the data was collected from computers on which OPSWAT free software was installed. I assume that means we are talking about corporate computers and IT professionals, because the average home user surely never heard of OPSWAT, and probably wouldn't want to install their products, even if they were offered to him.

 

[bribon77]

Symantec may be the most popular but it sure isn't the best

At the company level. Is very good .

 

[Venustus]

Symantec is a very good product these days

 

[Nightwalker]

The data in this report was generated on October 28th, 2019 and includes data collected in the last 6 months from users of our free tools including MetaAccess. MetaAccess prevents risky devices from accessing local networks and cloud applications using OPSWAT’s industry-leading endpoint security and advanced threat prevention technologies. The information in this report is representative of tens of millions of data points collected from over 30,000 live endpoints and includes both corporate and home users.

Although Microsoft is heavily saturated in the anti-malware product market, we have excluded this vendor because we feel that its products do not accurately represent the user's product of choice as they come pre-installed on many Windows systems and cannot be removed.

Data Collection

• For the purpose of the report, our sample size is assumed to be representative of the market, based on the wide accessibility of our free tools to a large range of users. As our sample size grows, we expect our report to more accurately reflect real world results.
• While our free products have international reach, their use is not commensurate with worldwide population distribution. Only English-language versions of our free products are available, so countries with higher numbers of English speakers are expected to use these applications at higher rates.
• These applications are marketed in OPSWAT’s own channels. Users sampled may not be representative of the general population. For example, this report may contain a different distribution of Windows operating systems and device types compared to what exists in the real world.
• The purpose of OPSWAT’s Market Share Reports is to inspire discussion, not to make any claims on which anti-malware vendors are the best or to compare these vendors in terms of quality or performance.

 

[MacDefender]

Symantec is a very good product these days

And it’s all around too! Like it’s a signature scanner, AI/ML heuristic scanner, cloud reputation engine, behavior blocker, application level outbound firewall, intrusion protection system with deep packet inspection, botnet C&C IP blocker, etc.

Sure we can come up with examples of specialty products doing one of those things better, but Symantec is above average at each of those features and it’s a single solution. It’s no wonder it’s so popular.

 

[notabot]

I see McAfee there as well.
I have to admit my only contact with McAfee in the last decade was seeing it pre-installed in a laptop and uninstalling it to replace it with Microsoft Security Essentials and this was already a long time ago.
Decades ago though, I remember McAfee being one of the top dogs.

How is McAfee these days ?

 

[harlan4096]

Malware Hub Report - McAfee Total Protection - October 2019 Report

McAfee Total Protection - October 2019 Report Due to the small number of samples used in this tests, you should take results with a grain of salt. We encourage you to compare these results with others and take informed decisions on what security products to use. __ C: Clean / P: Protected / P -...

malwaretips.com

 

[Paul.R]

Symantec is like Gandalf need the stick to do the magic, in this case a good network connection.

 

[Cortex]

(This week) I feel Symantec is the best all rounder taking everything into consideration - ESET, Emsisoft too fulfill my needs but Symantec is my favorite (not saying the rest aren't absolutely amazing as I don't want to start a another ginormous thread)

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

Symantec may be the most popular but it sure isn't the best

for those who don't know how to use it, sure.

The purpose of OPSWAT’s Market Share Reports is to inspire discussion, not to make any claims on which anti-malware vendors are the best or to compare these vendors in terms of quality or performance.

I like this, unlike all those crap test labs.

 

[Aggravatorx]

I would like to know on article what other Security software is being used 14.73% that is a big percentage

 

[elquenunca]

for those who don't know how to use it, sure.


I like this, unlike all those crap test labs.

I do not agree with your comment, I have a university degree and you imply that I do not use the symantec products, maybe the error is from that antivirus company that believes that its users have an IQ above normal
sincerely an eset user

 

[ForgottenSeer 823865]

I do not agree with your comment, I have a university degree and you imply that I do not use the symantec products, maybe the error is from that antivirus company that believes that its users have an IQ above normal
sincerely an eset user

Don't care your degree or whatever IQ you have, you have good knowledge of security or not, you can be a genius in your field and still be a noob in security; not the first time i teach security to people smarter than me.
And what is this nonsense about the IQ of the users? and what it has to do with any company...
The masses can't handle complicated security software, they need something that does everything for them, automatically and silently as much as possible; this is a fact. Reason why Microsoft made Windows Defender built-in Win10 and why many don't bother anymore to buy 3rd party AVs.

What triggered my reaction is you using the word "not the best".
In computer security, there is no such thing as "the best". The best, the strongest, the most powerful, all this is plain crap where noobs fight upon.
In security, what matters is the all-around strategy you can deploy based on your knowledge, skills and available tools.
It is not the tool that makes security efficient, it is how it is used, hence my reply.

Also, did you ever used Symantec EP (managed)? Remember Norton product line isn't Symantec's line.

 

[elquenunca]

Don't care your degree or whatever IQ you have, you have good knowledge of security or not, you can be a genius in your field and still be a noob in security; not the first time i teach security to people smarter than me.
And what is this nonsense about the IQ of the users? and what it has to do with any company...
The masses can't handle complicated security software, they need something that does everything for them, automatically and silently as much as possible; this is a fact. Reason why Microsoft made Windows Defender built-in Windows 10 and why many don't bother anymore to buy 3rd party AVs.

What triggered my reaction is you using the word "not the best".
In computer security, there is no such thing as "the best". The best, the strongest, the most powerful, all this is plain crap where noobs fight upon.
In security, what matters is the all-around strategy you can deploy based on your knowledge, skills and available tools.
It is not the tool that makes security efficient, it is how it is used, hence my reply.

Also, did you ever used Symantec EP (managed)? Remember Norton product line isn't Symantec's line.

I think your tone is not right, maybe you should calm down and think a bit before answering nonsense

 

[SeriousHoax]

@Umbra
Slightly off topic but the problem you have is, you are often disrespectful to people with your comments. Your constant use of words such as noob, LOL, etc to objectify people and in arguments seems pretty childish and often makes your comments more offensive and you also seem to have a mentality of thinking your always right about everything. You may have a lot of experience in security but those means nothing if you don't show respect to other members of this community. We have all kinds of members here, from people working in security to people to whom PC security is an uncharted territory. Share your knowledge, opinion, help those who asks for if you can without getting toxic. Whether you agree with me or not that's up to you.
Anyway, I'm not going post anymore reply here cause I don't want to start an off topic argument. Maybe an admin but I felt like someone needed to say this to you so let it be me in this case. Peace ✌

 

[Venustus]

you are often disrespectful to people with your comments.

It does come across that way but I don't really think @Umbra is the kind of guy to genuinely or intentionally insult other members..I think it's more "tongue in cheek" comments..Nevertheless he should calm down

 

[low L!fe]

I prefer McAfee