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Malwarebytes vs Symantec Endpoint Security comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 9, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Malwarebytes
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Endpoint Security
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
142
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Malwarebytes is 1.7%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 4.0%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

Anas Anas - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective threat predictions, simple to deploy, and light on resources
Malwarebytes's initial setup is simple. It is easy to deploy and configure the policies and the configuration. I deployed Malwarebytes for one customer and I did it in under two days. They had approximately 50 users, it took approximately an hour. The steps I took for the implementation were downloading the Malwarebytes management console from the site, installing it, then running the discovery tool, scanning my network, and checking all of the PCs on my network. It's already pre-configured, you don't need to configure anything. The only configuration that I did on the administration console was some of the exclusion from the scan. This is the only rule that I have created. I rate the initial setup of Malwarebytes a ten out of ten.
Hakeem_Abdulkareem - PeerSpot reviewer
The solution has given us visibility into compliance within our whole system and helped us ensure everything is updated
Symantec's application security module needs some improvement. You need to create a lot of fingerprints for application security. For instance, let's say I have different brands of ATMs in my environment, like Wincor and NCR. I use GRG to deploy an application control to whitelist some applications. I have to get the exact image of the different models of ATMs. When I tested in the past, some machines would not connect to the server without that. Only the approved software on the ATM should run. Anything outside that should not even come up at all. We did this so that an outside person doesn't introduce malicious software to the ATM. That's the essence of locking down with application control. Using Symantec for application control has been hectic, so I use Carbon Black to do the lockdown. Checking that data security will work fine with Carbon Black. Carbon Black worked fine. Setting up approval in Carbon Black works differently than Symantec. In Symantec, we first need the fingerprints of the applications running underneath. Before setting up Carbon Black, you first install the agent, allowing it to learn the environment. It will analyze all the software's behavior and provide recommendations for what should be allowed. It's more straightforward, whereas configuring application control in Symantec is a bit cumbersome.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I never have to look at it or do anything with it, and then my system just stays clean."
"It's very versatile and thorough."
"I like the solution's ability to detect potentially unwanted programs. For some reason, it seems superior to other solutions, or at least in comparison to McAfee."
"Being able to cloud manage it from just a cloud login is valuable. We can get to it from anywhere, which is really helpful. The fact that we can remediate from the cloud console is one of our favorite features."
"The installation process is very easy, especially since it is on the cloud."
"The endpoint protection and response that allows us to restore a machine back to a pre-infected state are the most valuable features."
"The central management of devices from different sites is a very good feature; this has made them much easier to manage."
"The pricing of the product is very good."
"The product has valuable features for insights."
"It's a good proxy to control the user's access to the website."
"Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets."
"Can detect and prevent attacks that are exploring common software vulnerabilities."
"Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is easy to use."
"The features I find the most valuable are the protection, the encryption, and the DLP."
"The IPS function (with no firewall needed to be installed in the SEP client) is quite good."
"The performance of Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is very good. It does not slow down the computer like other solutions."
 

Cons

"The product could be improved in blocking malicious traffic, such as communication with known malicious IP addresses."
"A solution must be installed in the main gateway to give an overview of the incoming and outgoing traffic. The technical support team's response time should be faster."
"They can include advanced scanning and improve reporting. I scan malware on the pen drive. Some more reports need to be added for that. It should also provide better protection because we have a new version of the malware."
"The product update capability needs to be improved."
"We had a little performance problem with the solution, but that's been resolved. Since then, it's been running well."
"This solution reports far too many false positives!"
"Overall, I haven't found any ways the solution lacks in features or usability."
"It would be better if updates could be downloaded, and deployed, on-premises to avoid low bandwidth causing issues."
"It's not cheap."
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"It seems that its not working very well with VMWare."
"There are limitations because everyone these days has hybrid working; however, the endpoint does not work for us unless we are connected to a VPN, which is a major limitation."
"Symantec needs to develop some reporting features and notifications. For instance, if the server is not on or it's shut down. There should also be time-based USB control."
"If a machine is infected by ransomware, it's hard to recover the data. We don't have any data on the client, so we're not overly concerned about that. Still, it would be nice to have this feature if there are any future problems."
"I would like to see even more customization, the possibility to do whitelisting. It needs to be a little bit more liberal on whitelisting, even to use the name if needed, instead of hashes."
"Difficult to set up on older systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform pricing is competitive with other antivirus products."
"Yearly, it is around $50 per client."
"Malwarebytes is a cost-effective product."
"Its cost is around $60 a machine. The cost of the total solution for 250 people is about $8,500 a year. If we add EDR to it, it will bring that cost up to about $15,000. The cost for Carbon Black is about $25,000, which is $10,000 more, but you get all AI functions with it."
"I believe the retail price is between $40 and $50 per copy."
"The licensing is per seat, with clients being a little less expensive than servers. If we need more licenses, we can accomplish that within a day. As Malwarebytes adds new features to their product, such as DNS filtering and a patching module, they want to charge us more even though we're a premium user, which isn't ideal."
"It is expensive."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price and ten is a high price, I rate the product's pricing a seven."
"Licensing is per user. Therefore, it makes it easy to do licensing."
"The pricing is pretty much at the market standard... Symantec is not that cheap and it's not that expensive compared to CrowdStrike. I would put them in the 'middle block.'"
"We pay our licensing fees on a yearly basis, and everything is included in that price."
"It is normal. If you are an educational institute, they give you a very good discount. If you are coming from the banking side, they may or may not give you a discount. I'm working with seven companies, and normally, they get a 65% to 70% discount on everything."
"When it comes to pricing, Sophos is preferrable to Symantec."
"One great benefit is we do not need to activate a license for every endpoint. The price is fair."
"It is the better product, even if it is a little on the higher side."
"Symantec Endpoint Security is a moderately priced solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
University
12%
Government
7%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Malwarebytes?
Ten times a day, improved signatures will be downloaded, so it is very up-to-date in terms of malware experience.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Malwarebytes?
I really hate the automatic rebilling without officially confirming it with me. It's an annoyance and they should at least confirm with me, like a month before they bill me.
What needs improvement with Malwarebytes?
It takes up too much space when it's trying to run in the background.
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Knutson Construction
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Malwarebytes vs. Symantec Endpoint Security and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,388 professionals have used our research since 2012.