Business Choice Awards 2019: Security Software

Go ahead, just try and use a work computer without some security software on it to prevent viruses, malware, ransomware, or phishing attacks. No IT department would let that happen—and if you are acting as your own IT department, don't make that mistake.

The question is, which brand of security software—and we're talking about a mix of plain-jane antivirus software as well as full-blown security suites—offers your office the best protection? We put this question to the readers of PCMag in our most recent survey, and got several highly recommended options.

In fact, two vendors of security software—Malwarebytes and Bitdefender—scored so high across so many of our measurements, we are giving them a shared Business Choice Award.

The above quick look at the important scores for overall satisfaction (a tie at 9.0 out of 10.) and the likelihood to be recommended (Malwarebytes is ahead, also at a 9.0) tell the tale. The two award winners are crushing it, and not only on those measurements. They tied for reliability (9.1), and when asked if people actually trust their security software, Bitdefender outscored Malwarebytes at 9.2 to 9.0, respectively. They both topped the scales in ease of use, as well as PC performance (that is, they don't slow down computers like some other security solutions seem to).

That's not to say that only Bitdefender and Malwarebytes deserve recognition. Webroot and ESET—which took our Readers' Choice awards this year for antivirus and security suites in the home—also had respectable overall satisfaction, reliability, ease of use, and trust scores.

Under the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures just how many people are saying nice things about a brand, Webroot even scored 62 out of 100, just a little higher than Bitdefender at 57. Malwarebytes is still the most ballyhooed of the vendors, with a 68 NPS.

The numbers fall a bit more when we get to the big names, such as Avast and Symantec/Norton, both of which got 8.4 overall. Trend Micro was at 8.1 overall, but it should be noted that 0 percent of Trend Micro users felt the need to call tech support. The only other company with a tech support score close to that good was Microsoft at 4 percent, well below the 12 percent average across all the vendors.

If there are vendors to stay away from on the work PC, based on the reader feedback, it appears to be Kaspersky Lab (7.5 overall) and McAfee (7.2). The latter also sports a negative NPS (-18), as does Sophos (-8 NPS), which indicates that a lot more people are talking smack about those brands than spreading joy.

See all of our survey results for Security Software for Business.

WINNERS: SECURITY SOFTWARE FOR BUSINESS

Business Choice seal

Malwarebytes
Whether it's the free version for cleanup or the premium version with its behavior-based analysis, the brand Malwarebytes carries cache with PCMag readers. They rated the company as making the most recommended security software of the year.

Business Choice seal

Bitdefender
Its software appears twice on our list of the Best Malware and Protection Software, so it's little wonder that PCMag readers feel Bitdefender is a perfect guardian of their work PCs.

The PCMag Business Choice survey for Security Software was in the field from November 26, 2018 through December 17, 2018. For more information on how the survey is conducted, read the survey methodology.

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