Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs Trend Micro Smart Protection 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.3
ESET Endpoint Protection offers cost-effective, lightweight security, reducing recovery costs and enhancing protection despite unclear ROI measurement.
Sentiment score
3.5
Trend Micro Smart Protection delivers positive ROI, preventing breaches, updating systems, and supporting financial and reputational benefits over time.
I saw the return on investment with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform within months.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
ESET's customer service is mostly praised for professionalism and support, with some regional areas needing improvement.
Sentiment score
6.1
Trend Micro Smart Protection's customer service varies; premium is effective, but standard support often faces delays and availability issues.
It is very good support, but it is not from ESET; it is from an ESET partner.
Owner at Online IT
Normally, I cannot give a ten for support of all brands, as it is not always possible to get full support from companies.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
I would rate their technical support a nine out of ten as it helps with every query.
Information Technology Service Desk Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
The agent is very light, and it doesn't cause any issues on the machine.
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
ESET Endpoint Protection is praised for scalability, though performance may vary in large setups and depends on hardware.
Sentiment score
7.6
Trend Micro Smart Protection scales effectively for businesses of all sizes with positive feedback on performance and flexibility.
Their support is phenomenal, offering quick assistance.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
Minimal system performance impact is very important when choosing endpoint protection solutions, and I believe ESET uses minimum hardware of the PC.
Owner at Online IT
In terms of scalability, I can rate it eight or nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is stable and reliable, with high ratings, despite minor upgrade issues and occasional portal non-responsiveness.
Sentiment score
7.7
Trend Micro Smart Protection is stable, reliable, and well-rated, though improved compatibility with major vendors could enhance user experience.
In terms of stability, I can rate it at nine out of ten.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
Our experience with ESET Endpoint Protection Platform's centralized management console is mostly fine for managing security policies across endpoints.
Owner at Online IT
 

Room For Improvement

ESET Endpoint Protection needs improvements in deployment, performance, support, automation, integration, pricing, and advanced threat and ransomware protection.
Trend Micro Smart Protection needs enhancements in management tools, AI, compatibility, support, pricing, integration, and threat detection features.
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform sometimes makes the computer run slower and takes backup, which affects system performance.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Extensive APIs to easily integrate our own systems with the platform for user configuration via their company portal.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
A lightweight version of ESET might be beneficial as many of our clients have older CPUs and RAM.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
We've experienced compatibility issues with Windows endpoint protection.
Security Architect at Kyndryl
Trend Micro Smart Protection has been discontinued because it uses Linux CentOS OS.
Information Technology Service Desk Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

ESET Endpoint Protection is cost-effective for SMBs, though setup costs can be high; enterprise users pay $20-$30 annually per user.
Trend Micro Smart Protection pricing varies widely, seen as competitive yet sometimes more expensive, with extensive licensing terms.
The pricing of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is a bit high compared to other competitors.
Retired at BEMSIS INFORMATICS LTD.
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is expensive.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
However, their pricing is comparable to CrowdStrike.
Security Architect at Kyndryl
 

Valuable Features

ESET Endpoint Protection ensures efficient, lightweight security with advanced tech, seamless integration, low performance impact, and reasonable pricing.
Trend Micro Smart Protection delivers comprehensive security with robust features, low resource usage, scalability, and seamless IT system integration.
The most valuable feature is the cloud administration.
Owner at Online IT
The best feature of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is that I get all the details about which user is using it, how much time they spend on websites, and all related information.
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Machine learning, especially through live detection, detects threats that are blocked based on reputation or sandbox detection.
Managing Director at Port-IT BV
The most effective features of Trend Micro Smart Protection are its antivirus and malware capabilities.
Security Architect at Kyndryl
In incident response, Deep Discovery captures zero-day threats easily and provides the best visibility on the console.
Information Technology Service Desk Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

ESET Endpoint Protection Pl...
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
103
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (19th), Anti-Malware Tools (8th)
Trend Micro Smart Protection
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
32nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of ESET Endpoint Protection Platform is 2.7%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Trend Micro Smart Protection is 0.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ESET Endpoint Protection Platform2.7%
Trend Micro Smart Protection0.9%
Other96.4%
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Owner at Online IT
Cloud-based protection has simplified daily client support and keeps threats under control
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in reducing network-level intrusions, but sometimes it prevents local devices on the network, which are well-known and good devices, from being recognized, treating them as a threat. So it requires more administration than usual. ESET could implement a good solution for remote support in ESET Endpoint Protection Platform for improvement in the future. Since you have the cloud console, ESET could have something similar to AnyDesk or TeamViewer, but from ESET.
reviewer2759025 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Technology Service Desk Manager at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees
Deep traffic inspection has strengthened threat detection and provides smooth zero day protection
I have been dealing with Deep Discovery that inspects incoming and outgoing traffic, and it is used for packet filtering. The most valuable features and functionalities in Deep Discovery are that it is used for monitoring malicious traffic, and it operates down to the firewall and inspects any malicious traffic. I have used Deep Discovery's sandbox analysis feature. The sandboxing feature helps our threat detection efforts as it internally inspects the malicious data and holds it in the sandbox, and after the analysis, the file is quarantined. I evaluate Deep Discovery's real-time visibility on network traffic as a better solution for inspecting traffic. In incident response, Deep Discovery captures zero-day threats easily and provides the best visibility on the console. I assess the effectiveness of Trend Micro's real-time analysis in my defense strategy as good, as it does not disturb any work and operates very smoothly in the background without any utilization.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) solutions are best for your needs.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Performing Arts
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business68
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise21
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business16
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
I would rate ESET Endpoint Protection Platform a five for pricing on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 is cheap and 10 is expensive.
What needs improvement with ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
The problems that we are facing with policy adoption include slow adoption, as it takes more than five minutes to adopt policy on client computers. ESET Network Attack Protection sometimes helps in...
What is your primary use case for ESET LiveGuard Advanced?
We are a company that provides IT support to clients, so we use ESET Endpoint Protection Platform every day. Currently, we are not partners because we have great local support from the company that...
What do you like most about Trend Micro Smart Protection?
The tool offers centralized security management. The tool's deployment is flexible.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Trend Micro Smart Protection?
I find that Trend Micro Smart Protection is affordable; I don't think it can be quite expensive.
What needs improvement with Trend Micro Smart Protection?
Technical support needs to be improved. We had a customer move from Trend Micro because they didn't the support. Both response time and ownership are the problems with support. Trend Micro Smart Pr...
 

Also Known As

Smart Security, ESET PROTECT Advanced, ESET LiveGuard Advanced, ESET PROTECT Platform
Trend Micro Smart Protection Complete
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ERSTE Group Bank, Miller Solutions, Wesleyan University, The Hospital Center of Luxembourg, Deer Valley USD, SPAR, Industrial Federal Credit Union, Honda, City Hall of Palmela, Hays CISD, Lester B Pearson School Board
Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia, Blekinge County Council, Bulgarian American Credit Bank, Cancer Research UK, Delacour, Evalueserve, Gulftainer, Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital & Atomic-bomb Survivors Hospital, Mazda Motor Logistics Europe, MEDHOST, Nikigolf, Ochsner Health System, SIAX Computing Solutions, Tegen
Find out what your peers are saying about ESET Endpoint Protection Platform vs. Trend Micro Smart Protection and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,665 professionals have used our research since 2012.