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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)
16th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
36
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 January 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Malwarebytes is 1.7%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 4.1%, down from 5.1% 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

"Provides successful ransomware shut down operations."
"The solution has a good management interface."
"The technical support services are good."
"Malwarebytes is a comprehensive solution for keeping endpoints safe and secure from intruders, viruses, malware and so on."
"The product keeps our company safe."
"The dashboard actually is good and it is simple."
"Ten times a day, improved signatures will be downloaded, so it is very up-to-date in terms of malware experience."
"Being able to carry out a full scan on your system."
"I like the malware threat control policy and USB blocker. In Symantec Manager, we use multiple available features, so we created firewall policies to prevent any malware attack from the network or device controls."
"I think the key thing for me, is interoperability, in that you can deploy it to Windows, Mac, and Linux. That's been a really important feature in the last two years. Now there's one management console to cover all three OSs."
"The installation was very easy."
"It's a robust product."
"The solution detects malware very well."
"The product has valuable features for insights."
"There is no other endpoint solution that will help you in preventing lateral-movement attacks on Active Directory. And Active Directory is one of the more critical assets within an organization."
"Symantec has cloud-based endpoint protection, so whether a user is off the network or on the network, the endpoint will be protected by the cloud."
 

Cons

"The EPP solution lacks the sophisticated artificial intelligence required for automating reports and letting you know about things in real-time. It stops a suspicious activity in real-time, but it doesn't let you know in real-time. You have to look at a report, and then you find out that something is wrong. You have to manually kick off a scan. With the Advanced EDR solutions, Malwarebytes has the ability to alert you in real-time, but they still don't do automatic remediation or quarantining of devices. That is something that you still have to do manually. So, the endpoint protection piece, which is just like their basic endpoint protection, lacks AI. For the advanced detection and response piece, there is an add-on that comes with it, but it still doesn't go far enough in terms of automatic remediation of viruses. It won't separate that virus from your network if something happens. You have to manually go there and do it."
"Overall, I haven't found any ways the solution lacks in features or usability."
"Malwarebytes is too simplistic. From a SOC IR perspective, it doesn't give you very much data around it. It doesn't tie things or provide SHA-1 and SHA-256 detection information, which makes it hard to do an additional investigation."
"They could come up with better reporting capabilities."
"It would be better if updates could be downloaded, and deployed, on-premises to avoid low bandwidth causing issues."
"The product's stability needs improvement."
"The product is a little bit more expensive than the other brands."
"The free version is effective, however, the paid version is pricey compared to it."
"There was an administrative feature, which was available in the previous version, which has been removed. We would like that feature to be added again."
"Need to improved orchestration for broken clients fixes."
"The Symantec Endpoint Manager is very difficult to use and extremely old."
"The artificial intelligence of Symantec End-User Endpoint Security could be better."
"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."
"It is only available to use on computers with higher-end specs."
"The malware and ransomware protections could be improved, which was ultimately the reason why I stopped using the solution."
"It would be nice to see more antivirus features for USB control."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We expect to pay $1,000 USD a month, depending on the number of users."
"It is expensive."
"The platform pricing is competitive with other antivirus products."
"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."
"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 price of Malwarebytes is in the middle range compared to other vendors."
"There are subscription costs, we typically purchase the annual subscription. There can be other expenses too, for example, we use CrowdStrike also as part of our policy."
"Pricing and licensing are important to us when choosing a product."
"It's pretty awesome price-wise. That's why we give it to most of our clients. It isn't very expensive. Compared to Cisco AMP, which is very expensive, its price is okay. It's also cheaper than Malwarebytes."
"We pay our licensing fees on a yearly basis, and everything is included in that price."
"Its price is reasonable."
"We receive a discounted price for this solution because we are a non-profit organization."
"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."
"It's not cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
University
10%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
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?
Malwarebytes is a bit pricey for some regions, such as Ukraine, since it's priced in US dollars. I prefer to use the paid version, and I am a pay-to-play person.
What needs improvement with Malwarebytes?
There are no built-in backups or integrated backup options, which could be an opportunity. The free version is effective, however, the paid version is pricey compared to it. Other customers have me...
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: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.