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ESET PROTECT Enterprise vs VirusTotal comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

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

ESET PROTECT Enterprise
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (20th)
VirusTotal
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Anti-Malware Tools category, the mindshare of ESET PROTECT Enterprise is 2.3%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VirusTotal is 3.4%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Anti-Malware Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
VirusTotal3.4%
ESET PROTECT Enterprise2.3%
Other94.3%
Anti-Malware Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Manikumar David - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at R K Khanna and Associates
Provides comprehensive monitoring and policy implementation with room for memory optimization
ESET PROTECT Enterprise makes the system a little slow sometimes and updates occur at startup. Sometimes unwanted pop-ups appear to users, and they are unable to disable them. The user-friendliness is lacking in some areas. When users are using any computer, ESET PROTECT Enterprise should work in the background without consuming much memory, and any updates should proceed in the background without disturbing the user.
Chinmay Banerjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Advisor Adtech/Martech/API product/project Engineering at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Helps businesses collect threat data while keeping privacy in mind and apable of detecting, blocking, and removing viruses and malware
There are two gray areas I still need to explore. I have worked with VirusTotal because it easily integrates with over seventy antivirus scanners and blacklisting services. In addition to those there is much scope to improve and add other services or integrations. The areas for improvement are that VirusTotal is not using much AI or generative AI models, while other competitors are starting to build them. For example, VirusTotal's work is based on the setup done by their engineers. If you want to do scanning or protection activities for a specific site, app, or device, that is the area VirusTotal is currently focused on. But other competitors are building AI models that can do things like left-side scanning and provide auto-generated reports. VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved. Secondly, the API is very limited if I want to integrate VirusTotal with other applications. They need to build more connectors and provide support for Webhook connectors for the API. If you can't build your own connector, it's always good to have provisions for Webhook setup connectors across platforms. Thirdly, Kaspersky, a competitor of VirusTotal, is using a methodology called "gatekeeper." A gatekeeper is a security system that protects the inside of a building from outside threats. This is the model Kaspersky is currently using. You have your website set up, but the entire army of VirusTotal or Kaspersky is standing guard, protecting you from the first gate itself. Right now, VirusTotal detects threats from your domain, but it is always better to verify inside the domain and protect it from the first level when people or malware are entering. This first level of protection is lacking in VirusTotal right now. The security bridge and protection gate are missing.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution doesn't have high memory usage."
"It's helped us with restrictions and knowing which users we can provide permissions to and which users we need to restrict."
"It is easy to patch, update, and set up scheduled scans."
"ESET's strong points are that it is an unintrusive, easy-to-maintain, and deploy antivirus solution."
"Regarding real-time analytics and threat detection capabilities in ESET PROTECT Enterprise, I find them excellent."
"The solution provides EDR. You can customize how you prepare the endpoint for clients and the dashboard alerts."
"From my personal perspective, it is easy to see on the console what's happening with each system."
"The most valuable feature of ESET Protect is the security while accessing any transaction, such as online banking systems. When I access a banking website a new browser opens which is more secure, which I find very useful."
"It gives detailed information about suspicious IPs, which is one of its most valuable features."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"It can scan the dark web and find if an email ID has been compromised. This is another area that we have not explored yet."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"It allows us to see if there have been previous reports on certain indicators of compromise, providing insights from other security professionals."
"With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean."
 

Cons

"Sometimes, the connection to the machine requires troubleshooting."
"I would like to see more features on the reporting side of things."
"The tool is complex and expensive."
"The solution can be quite technical and therefore is challenging for new users."
"In the current version of ESET File Security, you cannot download a file, it always wants the real-time upload which you have to wait until the file is ready. This is annoying. In previous versions, you were able to use the downloaded engine."
"ESET Protect could improve the performance. The performance of the home computers and laptops becomes slow due to their heavy software load. It would be a benefit to make a lighter version of the software which does not have any impact on the performance of the computer's hardware."
"They need to reduce the number of notifications on the endpoints."
"When it first starts up, it takes a lot of processing power when the machine is initially booted. Improving the startup side could be beneficial."
"I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy."
"There should be room for improvement, particularly in the API side of things."
"The platform could improve in the areas of endpoints and networks."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
"VirusTotal is hard to understand because you need to know Google Docs to create queries, and it doesn't have documentation for that."
"They can improve the telemetry. Whenever we handle a sample, they cannot provide any information about a victim."
"I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ESET PROTECT Enterprise is affordable."
"There is a license needed to use ESET Protect. The licensing cost is very low, it is approximately $10 per license."
"The product is cost-effective compared to one of its competitors."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is very economical."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ESET Protect?
One area for improvement in ESET PROTECT Enterprise is its capabilities on Mac devices, which are less functional compared to Windows. In terms of device management, ESET PROTECT Enterprise could i...
What is your primary use case for ESET Protect?
My customers use ESET PROTECT Enterprise to secure all their operating systems; we have a lot of customers who rely on this antivirus. It also acts as a platform where I can manage all the devices ...
What advice do you have for others considering ESET Protect?
I suggest that other users considering ESET PROTECT Enterprise utilize this platform to manage all their laptops and apply security policies effectively to protect their Windows environments. On a ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for VirusTotal?
I do not know about the pricing or licensing as our organization services VirusTotal for our clients.
What needs improvement with VirusTotal?
I would like to see improvements in the score consistency and accuracy. VirusTotal should add more details like those from competitors such as URL Void or Symantec URL Checker, which show the categ...
What is your primary use case for VirusTotal?
As I work in an incident response role, my daily task is to mitigate the security alert and perform the analysis part. When any alerts come, I check the IPs from where they originate and the locati...
 

Also Known As

ESET Protect, ESET File Security
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about ESET PROTECT Enterprise vs. VirusTotal and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.