Test Results are in that Answer the Question: “What is the Best Antivirus Software?”

The AV-Test Institute has been conducting antivirus comparisons and reviews for over 15 years. By using their documented method for comparison, the institute gives numeric ranks to several factors of protection and determines the best antivirus software solution for both home and business.

The Summary:



The test for finding the best antivirus software involves three categories – Protection, Performance, and Usability. Each category gets a score from 0 to 6, and the results are shown on the chart above. The AV-Test Institute has developed their own software, and their usage is documented on their website.

Their software analyzes a test computer’s file system, registry, processes, memory and network traffic. Additionally, they are able to actively monitors response times when the PC comes in contact with Malware, and then compare the response times between all of the tested antivirus software solutions.

The Full Test:

Test Methods Explained

Protection effectiveness is determined by visiting up to 200 malicious websites and evaluating each of the antivirus software solutions on their ability to detect and block inherent attacks. The malicious websites that are chosen are confirmed as current live threats, that would easily infect an unprotected PC.

Is the malicious URL blocked? If the URL was not blocked, is the download of malware allowed? If the download was allowed, then can the malware be executed? Was the malware reported, and if it was seen, how long did it take for the antivirus software to find it? After this process, the system state is checked – were any system files modified?

Performance of the software is also tested. This portion reports on the speed of discovery and mitigation of threats during file downloads, visiting malicious websites, using applications, installing applications, and copying files. The results are then compared against an unprotected computer. The test is repeated multiple times to account for any incidental processes that may be running in the background, and an average of performance time is calculated.

Usability is calculated by reporting on how many “false positives” the antivirus software finds. The software which finds the least false positives is considered the most usable, since less user-interaction is needed (prompting the user by antivirus software can be confusing, and should be minimized for finding the best antivirus software.

BitDefender is the Best Antivirus Software

BitDefender scored a solid 6.0 on all three methods. Next in line was Symantec & Trend Micro, followed by Kaspersky.

Microsoft Security Essentials Scores the Lowest

Microsoft Security Essentials scored a 0 out of 6 for Protection. This means that most threats were not detected, reported on, or even noticed by that software. Many people choose this software due to its business licensing and free status – this test, however, makes the case that this free antivirus software is not a good solution for your sensitive data. In this case, Microsoft Security Essentials is the worst, and not the best antivirus software.

dmi Networking Deploys BitDefender

In addition to deploying the best antivirus software as deemed by the AV-Test Institute, our Endpoint Security package involves basic CPU monitoring and encrypted remote support portals as well. Call our data security for details on how BitDefender can be deployed in your business.