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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 February 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Malwarebytes is 1.7%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 4.0%, down from 5.0% 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

"The pricing of the product is very good."
"The installation process is very easy, especially since it is on the cloud."
"Malwarebytes is a comprehensive solution for keeping endpoints safe and secure from intruders, viruses, malware and so on."
"The most valuable features of the solution are malware scanning and malware removal."
"The most valuable features of Malwarebytes are the EDR and the complete feature set provided."
"The protection is really good with Malwarebytes. It's also user friendly and quite easy to set up."
"Provides successful ransomware shut down operations."
"We don't have to spend any time remediating bad things happening: Not viruses nor ransomware."
"I have found the solution to be very scalable, we have 700 employees using the solution in our organization."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The firewall, IPS and device control are useful at protecting the environment."
"The administrator's console is very good and easy to manage with it. Deploying patches, definition updates and report is simple."
"We are using it on 1,600 computers. All the systems and servers are protected with the Symantec solution. Our environment has an uptime of 99.9% because we never had any attack or issue related to viruses. There is zero downtime."
"The most valuable features of Symantec Endpoint Security are endpoint protection, antivirus, firewall, and policy creation."
"This product is valuable for ransomware protection, general malware protection, and network exploitation protection."
"Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets."
 

Cons

"Strictly in terms of cyber security, the release cycle should be quarterly, at most. It shouldn't be more frequent than that because, for one thing, keeping up with tech support is difficult."
"The free version is effective, however, the paid version is pricey compared to it."
"We had a little performance problem with the solution, but that's been resolved. Since then, it's been running well."
"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."
"Notifications are lacking."
"Malwarebytes can improve its network database. Malwarebytes can scan the files and registry. It can scan the system with a light agent. It will not impact the performance of your PC. You can do the full scan and database scan using the EDR, and the RAM and CPU consumption will not increase."
"I would like to see a little more detail in the log. So, when an event occurs, I'd like to know not just when it happened and on what device, but what activity was taking place on the machine at the time so that we can drill down. If we get a false positive, we have to do a lot of research and go back and forth with our end-users to know why it was a false positive. So, having a little more detail around detections and events would probably be my most asked feature."
"Every once in a while, it gets clobbered by updates from other places. I don't think this should happen."
"The solution could improve by having a better graphical interface."
"If Symantec wants to improve, they should have a single event for all their products."
"The solution already has support for Windows, Mac, and Linux but it could improve by having better support for Linux. We have run into some problems when there are upgrades. If they can improve this point, Symantec would be good for endpoint protection as well as for a critical server."
"Multi-domain policy options for exceptions and global blocks."
"There is no local support for Symantec products in Hong Kong."
"Difficult to set up on older systems."
"The biggest thing I would like to see is malware remediation, if there is some kind of outbreak. We'd like to see better remediation and better detection and response. It's pretty good at capturing things, but it doesn't stop everything, so better machine learning would be helpful."
"We were having a problem in Version 14, where the client machines used to go into the health state and once it restarted, and never came back again."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"We expect to pay $1,000 USD a month, depending on the number of users."
"The cost may be something in the ballpark of $20-25 a year per computer."
"I believe the retail price is between $40 and $50 per copy."
"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."
"It is really expensive. We've got between 30 and 40 licenses every year, and for the number of licenses that we have, we're finding that Malwarebytes on average costs between $900 and $1,000 more per year than comparable options. We're paying about $3,300 per year for these licenses. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"It is expensive."
"Malwarebytes is a cost-effective 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."
"Its price should be reasonable."
"It could be cheaper."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"When it comes to pricing, Sophos is preferrable to Symantec."
"I am not sure of the initial cost, but the yearly renewals are quite affordable, which is a good thing. The price seems to have come down in recent years, and with the alternatives that are out there, such as Microsoft Defender, it needs to maintain that affordability to make it attractive."
"Zero-day threat or advanced attacks should be part of the endpoint. The product should not require you to buy a separate license."
"The prices fluctuate, but this year I think it was maybe around $12,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
University
11%
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?
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.
838,640 professionals have used our research since 2012.