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Malwarebytes vs Symantec Endpoint Security 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Malwarebytes
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Symantec Endpoint Security
Ranking in Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
144
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) category, the mindshare of Malwarebytes is 2.0%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Endpoint Security is 3.9%, down from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
 

Featured Reviews

George Tsepelis - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly stable and easy-to-deploy product that keeps organizations safe
The product keeps our company safe Recently, a user tried to open an unsafe link, and Malwarebytes stopped them. They kept trying and trying, but they could not open it. Later, it turned out to be a fake Microsoft account. So far, we have faced no issues with the product. It is doing what it…
MohammadAlshatreet - PeerSpot reviewer
Resolve support issues promptly while optimizing system resource usage
I use the solution primarily for scanning and identifying threats, which is essential in determining the percentage of resources used, such as CPU and hard disk. It's important to balance resource consumption to maintain operational efficiency. Furthermore, the incident response capabilities allow me to resolve authentication and support issues promptly, ensuring the system operates without downtime.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The platform is straightforward to install."
"The protection is really good with Malwarebytes. It's also user friendly and quite easy to set up."
"Being able to cloud manage it from just a cloud login is valuable. We can get to it from anywhere, which is really helpful. The fact that we can remediate from the cloud console is one of our favorite features."
"It is a stable solution."
"Provides successful ransomware shut down operations."
"It comprehensively finds and removes malicious software."
"This solution helps us by providing central management of anti-malware and anti-exploit functionality."
"The most valuable features of Malwarebytes are the EDR and the complete feature set provided."
"The features I find the most valuable are the protection, the encryption, and the DLP."
"The most valuable feature is that I don't feel that it is there. It works in the background and doesn't interfere with my daily work. All the scans are done in the background. This is the biggest advantage of this product. It works because I have never been infected since I have been using this solution. Its interface is also very good."
"The dashboard view and reporting are valuable. It is stable and easy to integrate, and it provides custom options."
"Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets."
"The most valuable feature for our organization is the antivirus, as our staff is the target of zero-day malware and viruses."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The centralized console is great for us. It gives us one centralized console to manage all of the endpoints."
"One of the features is the ability to frequently get virus signature updates."
 

Cons

"The EPP solution lacks the sophisticated artificial intelligence required for automating reports and letting you know about things in real-time. It stops a suspicious activity in real-time, but it doesn't let you know in real-time. You have to look at a report, and then you find out that something is wrong. You have to manually kick off a scan. With the Advanced EDR solutions, Malwarebytes has the ability to alert you in real-time, but they still don't do automatic remediation or quarantining of devices. That is something that you still have to do manually. So, the endpoint protection piece, which is just like their basic endpoint protection, lacks AI. For the advanced detection and response piece, there is an add-on that comes with it, but it still doesn't go far enough in terms of automatic remediation of viruses. It won't separate that virus from your network if something happens. You have to manually go there and do it."
"I would like to see integration with other vendors going forward."
"Requires increased efficiency in terms of detecting false positives."
"There is room for improvement in the way it is deployed, in terms of being able to distribute it. Right now we have to get our hands on a machine to deploy it. It would be nice if there was an easier system."
"I would like to see a little more detail in the log. So, when an event occurs, I'd like to know not just when it happened and on what device, but what activity was taking place on the machine at the time so that we can drill down. If we get a false positive, we have to do a lot of research and go back and forth with our end-users to know why it was a false positive. So, having a little more detail around detections and events would probably be my most asked feature."
"The product update capability needs to be improved."
"The online reporting needs to be improved. Currently, we have to look at it online, and if we want to download a report, it just downloads as an Excel file. It's just raw information. There needs to be some way to better display it when it's downloaded."
"Malwarebytes is too simplistic. From a SOC IR perspective, it doesn't give you very much data around it. It doesn't tie things or provide SHA-1 and SHA-256 detection information, which makes it hard to do an additional investigation."
"It should support the next-generation IPS. Currently, it supports only IPS."
"The biggest thing I would like to see is malware remediation, if there is some kind of outbreak. We'd like to see better remediation and better detection and response. It's pretty good at capturing things, but it doesn't stop everything, so better machine learning would be helpful."
"There was an administrative feature, which was available in the previous version, which has been removed. We would like that feature to be added again."
"Sometimes tech support is a bit slow to find a solution."
"The platform itself can be improved as there's no way to track how infections get into the organization."
"When, Microsoft releases a new OS version twice a year, you never know if the current version of Symantec Endpoint Protection will support it. You can have a lag between when Microsoft releases a new client - and then the current version doesn't work correctly - and it could be some months between updates from Symantec."
"Symantec's application security module needs some improvement. You need to create a lot of fingerprints for application security. For instance, let's say I have different brands of ATMs in my environment, like Wincor and NCR. I use GRG to deploy an application control to whitelist some applications. I have to get the exact image of the different models of ATMs. When I tested in the past, some machines would not connect to the server without that."
"There are a few negative points. They should separate the feature for each separate solution for mobile devices. The second one is about the price, it's expensive. Finally, the third would be the complexity of implementation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Yearly, it is around $50 per client."
"Malwarebytes is a cost-effective product."
"Its licensing is annual. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten."
"Its cost is around $60 a machine. The cost of the total solution for 250 people is about $8,500 a year. If we add EDR to it, it will bring that cost up to about $15,000. The cost for Carbon Black is about $25,000, which is $10,000 more, but you get all AI functions with it."
"It is really expensive. We've got between 30 and 40 licenses every year, and for the number of licenses that we have, we're finding that Malwarebytes on average costs between $900 and $1,000 more per year than comparable options. We're paying about $3,300 per year for these licenses. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee."
"The price of Malwarebytes is in the middle range compared to other vendors."
"The cost may be something in the ballpark of $20-25 a year per computer."
"Regarding the licensing, it was important negotiate a long contract to get a more attractive price, including advanced support in case of crisis."
"The pricing is a little bit more expensive than other competitors, if you compare it to Kaspersky, for example, or McAfee."
"The price of Symantec End-User Endpoint Security is okay. When comparing the price of this solution is not expensive."
"Symantec Endpoint Security is a moderately priced solution."
"It is the better product, even if it is a little on the higher side."
"It could be cheaper."
"I am not sure of the initial cost, but the yearly renewals are quite affordable, which is a good thing. The price seems to have come down in recent years, and with the alternatives that are out there, such as Microsoft Defender, it needs to maintain that affordability to make it attractive."
"Symantec Endpoint Security's pricing is okay. It is cheaper compared to other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
University
11%
Government
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Malwarebytes?
Ten times a day, improved signatures will be downloaded, so it is very up-to-date in terms of malware experience.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Malwarebytes?
I really hate the automatic rebilling without officially confirming it with me. It's an annoyance and they should at least confirm with me, like a month before they bill me.
What needs improvement with Malwarebytes?
It takes up too much space when it's trying to run in the background.
Which is better - Cortex XDR or Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Aqua Security is easy to use and very manageable. Its main focus is on Kubernetes and Docker. Security is a very valuable feature and their speed of integration is very good. The initial setup was ...
Which offers better endpoint security - Symantec or Microsoft Defender?
We use Symantec because we do not use MS Enterprise products, but in my opinion, Microsoft Defender is a superior solution. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-delivered endpoint security s...
What do you like most about Symantec End-User Endpoint Security?
Symantec have everything – documentation, videos, data sheets.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Symantec EPP, Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Knutson Construction
Audio Visual Dynamics, Red Deer Advocate, Asia Pacific Telecom Co. Ltd., Kibbutz Ein Gedi, and AMETEK, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Malwarebytes vs. Symantec Endpoint Security and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.