One of the most asked questions on Google regarding of security is: "What is the best antivirus?". It is a legitimate question as most people are not security experts and need recommendations to identify the best antivirus product for their needs. The time has come for us to name the best antivirus product of the year, based on our experience in testing the many commercial antivirus products on the market. Here's the product we believe it offers the best experience for Windows users, in 2017:
Digital Citizen - The Best Security product award goes to ESET
Many different antivirus products fight for the title of being the best. Our testing is quite rigorous and only very few antivirus products have received the maximum rating of 5 stars. We cannot give this award to more than one product and choosing the best was a difficult task, as the few top products that we identified this year have many similar features. However, after careful consideration, our "Best Security" choice for this year is ESET Smart Security Premium.
ESET Smart Security Premium
Last year, ESET placed third in our ranking, but this year's improvements have turned it into a product that we love using, and we recommend it to all our readers.
Why we chose ESET Smart Security Premium as the "Best Security" product of the year
ESET has always been one of the best developers of antivirus products in the world. Their solutions are known for their quality, efficiency and low-performance impact.
ESET Smart Security Premium
Here are the reasons why we consider ESET Smart Security Premium the best security product of 2017:
Its antivirus engine is very efficient and fast. It will protect you against all types of malware, and it's also very fast at scanning your computer.
It has almost no adverse effect on your computer's speed and performance.
It includes a powerful firewall module which can protect you against all types of network threats.
It has a beautiful user interface that's easy to use by beginners and experienced users alike.
It bundles useful additional tools, like parental controls, a tool for encrypting files and removable media, a password manager that uses AES-256 encryption, a ransomware shield, webcam protection as well as banking & payment protection.
This year's ESET Smart Security Premium adds a very innovative protection feature called Home Network Protection. This tool is both useful and educational as it teaches home users how to secure their networks by improving the settings of their wireless router. This tool scans your router for vulnerabilities like weak settings or passwords and tries to identify whether it was hacked. At the end of the scan, it offers useful recommendations for improving the security of your home network. This feature also provides you with a handy list of the devices connected to your router, categorized by type. When new devices connect to your network, a generic notification is displayed, letting you know, so that you can react if unauthorized devices get connected.
ESET Smart Security Premium
ESET Smart Security Premium is an antivirus product which you can install and forget, but it's also a product which you can configure and control in detail, making it an excellent choice for many types of users.
What do you think about ESET Smart Security Premium?
In the end, we would like to congratulate ESET for the many improvements that they made to their antivirus products this year and for this award. We would also like to know your opinion about ESET's products. Have you used them? What was your experience? Do you agree with our award?
I subscribed to the paid version with the first month a free trial and it was absolutely the worst thing I ever did. In addition to a few other things, it did FUBARed my Outlook. I had to completely wipe my laptop clean, install a new operating system and when Outlook was reinstalled it was still FUBAR.
Eventually I upgraded my laptop and took it to the Microsoft store to see if they could un-FUBAR when they reinstalled Outlook, and even after spending four months in and out of the Microsoft Store Hospital, it’s still a mess and the workaround is not only barely satisfactory, it has a negative impact on other processes, software, you name it.
I cannot warn everyone strongly enough that ESET is a genuine threat and menace and not to use it.
Travis ·
While it is sad to read you had a bad experience with Eset, there is no way Eset could effect a new install of your OS unless you reinstalled Eset a second time.
Reads to me more of an issue with the laptop or a software config issue
Peter O ·
It seems farcical to me that you make this award & recommend it without any word on cost or whether there is available free version.
Most summaries of AV products compare free products because these are about 90% of installations.
Cost & relative cost compared to the other AV’s should have been at least mentioned – Tha’s your job surely?
Ciprian Adrian Rusen ·
Free antivirus products don’t compare in terms of features and effectiveness with commercial products. Also, you should not rely on free antivirus products as your only method of securing your computers and devices.
As for our award: we review commercial products, we classify commercial products and we identify the best commercial products.
Leo Graper ·
Thanks Ciprian,
Found all the data, but like I said earlier, the other sites that give us info on AV and other software that I visit supply it in a different manner.
I’m more-a-less used to reading the articles in sequence (which is done by most major Dutch sites), this is somewhat different way of making such an article.
Although I know about your site for some time, this was the last couple of articles were interesting too me :-O
Once again, thanks for replying on both places!
Regards, Leo.
Leo Graper ·
I would like to see some proove of this statement, anybody can just say something, please provide a link with the test results…
Ciprian Adrian Rusen ·
Hello Leo. If you read this article carefully as well as the articles we link to in this article, you have all the answers you seek.
1. In the post for giving this award, we highlighted some of the reasons why we chose ESET.
2. We have a public review of ESET, just like we do for other products. This review was referenced in our announcement. You can find it here.
3. We also published a large Excel spreadsheet where we compare all the security products that we have reviewed. This comparison is linked at the end of this article. You can find it here.
4. We also have a summary of our testing procedure, detailed here.
john ·
Excellent choice. Until recently, I was using Kaspersky, but I wasn’t happy with the performance impact their products had. Also, it seemed like Kaspersky was lowering the speed of my web browsing. I tried ESET after reading your review and managed to find a good offer online. Since then I’m using ESET, and I love it. The performance impact is low, I get complete control, and the feature you highlighted has helped me improve my router’s settings. I had no idea that it left its Telnet service open and ESET taught me that.
Discussion (8)
I subscribed to the paid version with the first month a free trial and it was absolutely the worst thing I ever did. In addition to a few other things, it did FUBARed my Outlook. I had to completely wipe my laptop clean, install a new operating system and when Outlook was reinstalled it was still FUBAR.
Eventually I upgraded my laptop and took it to the Microsoft store to see if they could un-FUBAR when they reinstalled Outlook, and even after spending four months in and out of the Microsoft Store Hospital, it’s still a mess and the workaround is not only barely satisfactory, it has a negative impact on other processes, software, you name it.
I cannot warn everyone strongly enough that ESET is a genuine threat and menace and not to use it.
While it is sad to read you had a bad experience with Eset, there is no way Eset could effect a new install of your OS unless you reinstalled Eset a second time.
Reads to me more of an issue with the laptop or a software config issue
It seems farcical to me that you make this award & recommend it without any word on cost or whether there is available free version.
Most summaries of AV products compare free products because these are about 90% of installations.
Cost & relative cost compared to the other AV’s should have been at least mentioned – Tha’s your job surely?
Free antivirus products don’t compare in terms of features and effectiveness with commercial products. Also, you should not rely on free antivirus products as your only method of securing your computers and devices.
As for our award: we review commercial products, we classify commercial products and we identify the best commercial products.
Thanks Ciprian,
Found all the data, but like I said earlier, the other sites that give us info on AV and other software that I visit supply it in a different manner.
I’m more-a-less used to reading the articles in sequence (which is done by most major Dutch sites), this is somewhat different way of making such an article.
Although I know about your site for some time, this was the last couple of articles were interesting too me :-O
Once again, thanks for replying on both places!
Regards, Leo.
I would like to see some proove of this statement, anybody can just say something, please provide a link with the test results…
Hello Leo. If you read this article carefully as well as the articles we link to in this article, you have all the answers you seek.
1. In the post for giving this award, we highlighted some of the reasons why we chose ESET.
2. We have a public review of ESET, just like we do for other products. This review was referenced in our announcement. You can find it here.
3. We also published a large Excel spreadsheet where we compare all the security products that we have reviewed. This comparison is linked at the end of this article. You can find it here.
4. We also have a summary of our testing procedure, detailed here.
Excellent choice. Until recently, I was using Kaspersky, but I wasn’t happy with the performance impact their products had. Also, it seemed like Kaspersky was lowering the speed of my web browsing. I tried ESET after reading your review and managed to find a good offer online. Since then I’m using ESET, and I love it. The performance impact is low, I get complete control, and the feature you highlighted has helped me improve my router’s settings. I had no idea that it left its Telnet service open and ESET taught me that.