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MetaDefender vs VirusTotal comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 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

MetaDefender
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
3rd
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (12th), Cloud Detection and Response (CDR) (4th)
VirusTotal
Ranking in Anti-Malware Tools
5th
Ranking in Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP)
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Anti-Malware Tools category, the mindshare of MetaDefender is 2.0%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of VirusTotal is 3.0%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Anti-Malware Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MetaDefender2.0%
VirusTotal3.0%
Other95.0%
Anti-Malware Tools
 

Featured Reviews

RS
Senior Associate at a educational organization with 11-50 employees
File protection has improved and now keeps millions of daily transfers secure and compliant
In my organization, while using this tool, we found that there were a few files flagged as suspicious; however, those were not suspicious and it was a false positive, so that can be improved. False positive results were an issue, and it took time to scan files if the file size was greater than 1 GB. For larger files greater than 1 GB, it needs to be improved. In some cases, the reconstruction of the file led to a failure of code deployment and it flagged a valid file as malicious, which was not effective; however, in other types of files, it was very effective and could scan files properly. We have already covered all the main suggestions; however, it can be improved to reduce false positive results, and scanning could be faster to process more files in a day.
reviewer2588199 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Specialist at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Improves security alerts and analysis with comprehensive insights
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 category of websites. The addition of a file selection option to analyze files would also enhance the service.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"MetaDefender is 100% stable, making it one of the best cybersecurity solutions we offer, which provides confidence in promoting and recommending it to others."
"OPSWAT is the best alternative."
"The effectiveness of the solution in blocking or sanitizing any content based on our policies is excellent."
"MetaDefender is flexible because, for a free product, you can enroll up to 50 devices, and I have only used about eight devices so far."
"MetaDefender prevents malicious or weaponized files from reaching users while reducing the risk associated with unknown, zero-day file-based threats."
"MetaDefender is a useful tool for scanning all incoming and outgoing files and keeping our applications and servers in compliance, and I found it useful because we can integrate it with multiple file transfer tools such as Globalscape EFT, GoAnywhere, or Sterling, which is the best feature as it integrates with multiple tools."
"MetaDefender OPSWAT provides that solution, and also the ICAP scans."
"For one of my clients, a major bank in Turkey, they reported saving approximately 30 percent of their SOC time on analyzing emails since implementing MetaDefender."
"VirusTotal provides 95% to 98% accurate information."
"The feature I like the most is the ability to see the MD5 or SHA-256 signature of the file, and also the composition of the file according to its segments."
"The product is easy to use with coding, such as Python or Java, via its API."
"I have never had any problems with stability or bugs while using VirusTotal."
"The most valuable feature is the worldwide malware information database."
"With VirusTotal, I can check for any hash, malware, file, domain, IP URL, or malicious URL, and Kaspersky stays clean."
"It gives detailed information about suspicious IPs, which is one of its most valuable features."
"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."
 

Cons

"While MetaDefender's mail gateway already gives fewer false positives, there is still room for improvement in reducing those even further."
"I would rate it an eight because its interface can be improved and it can improve their integrations as well, so there is room for improvement."
"I did not manage to enroll my IoT devices, including my child's device running on iOS and some Amazon products."
"The UI can be more user-friendly, and initial steps and policy tuning take some time."
"Reporting still requires improvement, but otherwise the solution is excellent."
"I would like to see improvements in the tool's automation capabilities."
"In some cases, the reconstruction of the file led to a failure of code deployment and it flagged a valid file as malicious, which was not effective."
"Some capabilities are lacking in reporting because we do not have full statistics that are easy for users to understand."
"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."
"VirusTotal needs better advertisement and promotion, especially in the Middle East, since it is not yet widely recognized or popular in that region."
"VirusTotal is hard to understand because you need to know Google Docs to create queries, and it doesn't have documentation for that."
"I would like to see improved correlation with other threat intelligence sources, not just reliant on its own database, to enhance the database of threat intelligence that VirusTotal offers."
"The platform could improve in the areas of endpoints and networks."
"I would like to see an improved user interface and some automation."
"VirusTotal has predefined reports, but there is a lot of manual effort involved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We bought a three-year license, and that was pretty expensive. We agreed that it was really worth buying. It could be cheaper, but we understand that quality comes at a price."
"We are using VirusTotal with free licenses, managing the license limits across three or four accounts, thus incurring no costs."
"The pricing is very economical."
"VirusTotal is an expensive solution."
"The pricing is reasonable."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise12
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise5
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for MetaDefender?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that the cost and license fee is increasing every year.
What needs improvement with MetaDefender?
MetaDefender can be improved by upgrading the Linux version, which is using many free tools such as MongoDB, Postgres, and OpenSSL. It can be easily targeted by hackers. If MetaDefender can upgrade...
What is your primary use case for MetaDefender?
My main use case for MetaDefender involves the Central Management Console, core service, and ICAP service. In my day-to-day work, I use MetaDefender to scan endpoint security, but we did not have 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

OPSWAT MetaDefender, MetaDefender Core
No data available
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about MetaDefender vs. VirusTotal and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.