ESET Antivirus Review 2025: Is the Protection Worth the Price?

ESET provides powerful antivirus protection for Windows and Android users. Its plans include additional features meant to keep your browsing safe, and even anti-theft protection for your computer. 

Although the price per device is higher than that of its competitors, like McAfee and Norton, ESET is a great option if you only need minimal device coverage. Just note that it doesn't have the most straightforward language on its app, so it could be difficult for antivirus beginners.

We'll cover pricing and plans, security features, test results, and more in the following ESET review. 

At a glance

Price	$49.99–$204.99/first yr
Free plan	No
# of devices protected	1 – 10
Malware scans	Manual and scheduled
Real-time protection	Yes
EICAR test results	2/3
Firewall	Yes
Phishing protection	Yes
Compatibility	Windows, macOS, Android
Extras	Password manager, secure data encryption, identity theft protection, VPN
24/7 customer support	No
Details	Get ESET

We last tested ESET on September 18, 2025.

Our experience

There was a lot to like about ESET, but we experienced some bumps along the way. During setup, ESET informed us of useful protection settings and provided a quick tour of the program once installation was complete. 

The overview tab on the dashboard links to all the other ESET features like your password manager, browser privacy and security, safe banking and browsing, and more.

Once installed, we started a scan. Prior to installing, we placed malware test files on our laptop to see if ESET would detect them, so we were pleased to find that ESET detected all four this time around. 

However, ESET only has a "computer scan" and custom scan options. There's no way to run a quick scan of your device for all the places that commonly have malware, so you'll have to run a full system scan every time. We tried this two times and our scan times were 24 and 26 minutes. 

ESET also gave us some trouble when we tried to use ESET Browser Privacy & Security. Our ESET program wasn't detected on our device, so we couldn't enable the browser extension that's supposed to be included with all plans. 

We also found that the dashboard could be confusing for beginner antivirus users. Along with the cyberthreats found, our virus results have mentioned "Detection engine used" in the past without an explanation of what it meant.

Other antivirus programs we've tested provide explanations or helpful tips throughout their dashboards, which we think would be a good addition to ESET.

Otherwise, ESET worked well to detect threats on our device without impacting our device performance. 

Who is ESET best for?

• Recommended for advanced antivirus protection for one or two devices

ESET has a lot of features like anti-phishing protection, an exploit blocker, and advanced machine learning that provide superior protection against viruses and malware. 

Its essential security features, alongside additional features such as Gamer Mode and cloud-powered scanning, offer a well-rounded security option that’s constantly evolving to keep you protected.

Unfortunately, ESET’s price is determined by how many devices you’re looking to cover. If you have one or two devices, you’ll reap many benefits of this antivirus. If you have a family to cover with multiple devices between family members, it's probably best to find an antivirus program that offers more devices at a single price.

ESET prices and subscriptions

ESET has a wide price range of $49.99–$204.99/first yr. Your plan price depends on three factors: how many devices you want to cover, how many years you need coverage for, and how much protection you need beyond the standard antivirus. 

As you increase each of these factors, your price continues to rise. This is a reasonable yearly price for one person with one device, but this could become expensive quickly if you need a family subscription.

The Premium Security plan seems the most beneficial to most people. Although it doesn’t include the identity theft protection or the virtual private network (VPN) that comes with Ultimate Security, it does include a password manager along with everything in the Essential Security plan. 

	ESET Essential Security	ESET Premium Security	ESET Ultimate Security
Starting price	$49.99/first yr	$59.99/first yr	$179.99/first yr
# of devices supported	1 - 10	1 - 10	5 - 10
Manual and auto scan
Phishing protection
Firewall
Real-time protection
Ransomware protection
Parental controls
Performance optimization tools
Password manager
VPN
Identity protection features
Details	View plan	View plan	View plan

Compared to other popular antivirus programs, ESET is on the higher end, but the difference is minimal if you opt for the starting plan:

• ESET: $49.99/first yr
• TotalAV: $19.00/first yr
• Bitdefender: $34.99/first yr
• Norton: $29.99/first yr

ESET security features

ESET provides a long list of features for customers that only expands as you go up in price plans. Protections such as antivirus and advanced machine learning are available to all users, while most privacy and identity protection features are exclusive to Advanced and Premium subscriptions. 

That doesn’t exclude ESET from the conversation, as all pricing tiers have useful tools for every need.

Malware and antivirus scan

Malware is a constant threat in all its forms. ESET’s anti-malware protection provides you with manual scan options for all types of malware, such as ransomware, spyware, adware, and other viruses. 

You can scan your entire device, run a custom scan and define your scan targets, and schedule scans to run on a recurring basis. 

ESET will even alert you to potentially dangerous files that couldn't be scanned. You can find these by going to the Tools section of your dashboard, then selecting Quarantine.

Phishing protection

ESET protects you from phishing attempts through a series of safety measures. If you go to Setup < Internet protection, you'll find a series of toggles to protect against various types of phishing.

ESET compares websites you’re visiting with its own database of safe or suspicious websites.  If you do happen across a malicious site, it severs the connection to the site. 

ESET does this through its proprietary phishing detection, which is always up-to-date, and by learning the behaviors of malicious sites and scripts. All this boils down to a safer way to browse online.

Firewall

All ESET plans include a firewall. It has several different methods for configuration including integrating Windows firewall rules into its own firewall. Because the firewall filters out content on multiple levels, you can configure those settings within its portal. 

If you aren’t comfortable configuring your firewall, no worries; ESET has permissions for the most common usage already set up and ready for you. All you’ll need to do is turn it on.

Network protection

The Network Inspector feature scans the network you’re connected to so you can find devices that shouldn’t be connected as well as see the vulnerabilities of devices you have authorized.

Real-time protection

The real-time protection feature is set to launch and scan automatically without you needing to configure anything. 

ESET also scans files as you receive and open them to ensure they don’t contain anything malicious. Because these permissions are always looking at what’s passing over your machine, it’s not recommended to disable them.

Ransomware protection

Ransomware is just one form of malware, but it’s the one that gets most the most attention. A ransomware attack can devastate a business (or your personal finances). 

ESET protects you from ransomware with the Ransomware Shield. This feature blocks any malware that tries to lock you out of your personal data. It even goes a step further to provide you with free cybersecurity training to help you become a more vigilant internet user.

Anti-fraud protection

ESET provides you with a secured browser to help thwart fraudulent attempts when you’re using the internet for sensitive information. It works through your default browser and can be accessed through your ESET portal on your device when you go to Advanced setup then Browser protection. 

ESET even includes a handy guide for adding or blocking websites within the browser configurations.

Bonus features

Depending on what plan you choose, ESET offers a variety of bonus features to enhance your security and performance. Antivirus protection and performance optimization tools come standard with every pricing tier, but tools for privacy and identity protection are only available with the Premium and Ultimate plans.

Tools like parental controls, webcam protection, anti-theft, and brute force attack protection are included with all plans.

Performance optimization tools

The performance optimization tools offered by ESET include Gamer Mode, cloud-powered scanning, and a small system footprint. Gamer Mode disables pop-ups and notifications when you’re gaming so you can have an uninterrupted experience.

Cloud-powered scanning whitelists files to speed up scanning. The small system footprint feature takes the majority of the computing power off your computer so more memory is left for you.

Secure web browsing tools

In addition to ESET’s safe browsing tools, you'll have access to network attack protection, antispam, banking and payment protection, and botnet protection. Each of these tools employs various filters to keep potentially harmful executables from planting themselves on your device. 

An executable is anything that executes on your computer, like when you download an attachment from your email or a file from the internet.

ESET test results

We conduct three types of tests on all antivirus programs we review. First, we run multiple scans to test for speed and measure how much they impact our device performance.

Second, we use malware and phishing test files, provided by EICAR, to determine the antivirus program's protection abilities. 

Finally, we review third-party test results from organizations like AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives to review how well they performed in categories like protection, performance, and usability.

Scan speeds

• Result: Average 

ESET doesn't seem to have a quick and full scan. When we selected "Scan your computer," ESET automatically began to scan our device without giving us any options. 

Scan type	Time spent
Computer scan	24 minutes, 17 seconds

The computer scan finished in about 24 minutes, and it detected all the malware test files we hid on our device prior to installing ESET. We expect full scans to take 10 to 20 minutes, so this scan time was slower than our expectations. 

However, our CPU load only reached about 17% during the scan, so its impact wasn't noticeable.

EICAR test results

• Result: ESET only passed the EICAR malware protection tests.

One way to test an antivirus program yourself is through EICAR testing. The European Institute for Computer Antivirus Research (EICAR) developed test files that mimic malware and phishing links. That way, you can test antivirus programs without downloading real viruses. 

Test	ESET score
Malware detection	Pass
Drive-by malware downloads	Pass
Phishing pages detection	Fail

ESET easily passed the EICAR malware tests. It was quick to block the malware test files from downloading and quarantine them. 

But when we opened the phishing test link, ESET allowed us to access the page without warning. We were surprised because ESET has passed this test in our previous rounds of testing. 

AV-TEST results

• Result: ESET received perfect scores for Windows and Android, but its macOS app struggled with performance.

AV-TEST is one of the third-party testers we reference during our antivirus testing. It reviews antivirus programs for the following:

• Malware protection: How well does the antivirus detect and block malware?
• Performance: How much does the antivirus impact your device's speeds?
• Usability: How effective is the antivirus at detecting cyberthreats correctly?

Test type	Windows score	macOS score	Android score
Protection	6/6	6/6	6/6
Performance	6/6	5.5/6	6/6
Usability	6/6	6/6	6/6
Total	18/18	17.5/18	18/18
Date	June 2025	June 2025	July 2025
Link to test	Link	Link	Link

ESET received perfect AV-TEST scores for Windows and Android. It had perfect malware detection rates for both programs. It also had a lower influence on computer speeds compared to the industry average and no false positives. 

The only ESET app that received a lower score was the macOS app. It was docked 0.5 points in the Performance category. 

The ESET macOS app had a higher influence on computer speed when installing frequently-used applications. The industry average was only 23%, while ESET had a 33% influence.

Based on these results, you can feel protected using ESET on any of your devices. 

AV-Comparatives results

• Result: Solid protection rates and performance impact score

ESET has also submitted for testing to AV-Comparatives, another third-party tester. The three sections tested were real-world protection, malware protection, and performance. We also check the mobile security results. 

Test type	Mobile security	Real-world protection	Malware protection	Performance impact (Lower is better)
Score	99.6%	99.1%	99.95%	9.5
Platform	Android	Windows	Windows	Windows
Date	May 2025	July- August 2025	March 2025	April 2025
Link	Link	Link	Link	Link

ESET was in the middle of the pack for all of AV-Comparatives tests. In the real-world protection test, ESET was in the middle with its score alongside Avira, G Data, Kaspersky, Microsoft Defender, and TotalAV. Avast and AVG both received a perfect 100% score. 

ESET came in sixth for malware protection, but was still in the high-performing antivirus group. Kaspersky had the best malware protection rate at 100%.

And for performance impact, ESET came in seventh. McAfee received the top spot with a 2.6 impact score.

In addition to the Windows program, ESET also submits its Android app for AV-Comparatives' mobile security test. ESET came in fourth, while Bitdefender came in first with a 100% mobile protection rate. 

SE Labs results

• Result: 100%

SE Labs is the final independent organization we refer to for third-party tests. It calculates a total accuracy rating based on protection accuracy rating (how effectively threats were blocked) and a legitimate accuracy rating (how efficiently true threats were detected).

Test type	Home Anti-Malware Protection
Protection accuracy rating	99%
Legitimate accuracy rating	100%
Total accuracy rating	100%
Date	2021 Q1
Link	Link

ESET hasn't submitted itself to SE Labs since 2021, so the most recent results are with AV-TEST and AV-Comparatives. However, ESET still had impressive results. 

It was ranked among the most effective programs next to Sophos, AVG, and Microsoft Defender because of its ability to block malicious URLs, handle exploits, and correctly identify legitimate applications and websites.

ESET compatibility

ESET compatibility is relatively simple, but note that there's no coverage for iOS or Linux. ESET does cover the following:

• Windows 10+
• macOS 12+
• Android 8+

Plus, the ESET Browser Privacy & Security extension is available for the following browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Brave

ESET customer support

ESET has a wide range of customer support options. For human support, there's phone, email, and live chat.  

Note that all the human support options are only available Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PT. The live chat support is listed as being able to help with basic support like product installation and activation, lost license key or activation email, and error messages from your ESET product. 

We reached out to ESET customer support, and the agent was quick to respond and friendly.

You can also pay $20.00 per hour to chat with an ESET Home Adviser, who can help with advanced issues and troubleshoot other software.

ESET also has an extensive list of online guides and support forums where you can chat with other ESET users.

Top alternatives

ESET offers lots of features but could be expensive depending on your budget and device coverage needs. Here are some of the best antivirus programs to consider if you're not sold on ESET:

ESET FAQs

Bottom line: Is ESET good?

Yes, ESET is a good antivirus product with high ratings from independent testing and tons of useful features. ESET's use of advanced machine learning, real-time protection, and global research to identify new and emerging threats provides a well-rounded shield of protection to any device.

The cost can be a little higher than some of the best antivirus programs, but it’s still a trusted product. And if you need fewer devices, then ESET’s pricing falls on par with its competitors.

See how ESET compares to some of our recommended alternatives:

• ESET vs. Norton
• ESET vs. Bitdefender