ESET PROTECT Review: Prices, Features & Benefits

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ESET PROTECT is a detection and response platform designed to protect customers’ endpoints, networks, and cloud environments. It offers threat hunting, cloud application protection, forensics, and incident response. Administrators can use a single cloud-based console to quickly deploy ESET and configure policies. ESET has multiple plans available with specific security modules, which you can choose based on your business’s coverage needs.

What You Need to Know About ESET

	ESET PROTECT is an endpoint security platform offering different tiers of detection and response functionality. Through its extended detection and response (XDR) solution, ESET PROTECT Elite, customers receive email, network, and server protection.
Overall Rating: 4.4/5 • Pricing: 4.5/5 • Core features: 4.1/5 • Advanced features: 3.9/5 • Ease of use: 4.5/5 • Administration: 4.3/5 • Customer support: 5/5	Pros	Cons
	✔️ Multiple tiers for growing teams	❌ Lacks some features that its competitors have
	✔️ Multiple support channels	❌ Poor MITRE independent testing results
	✔️ On-prem and cloud deployment options	❌ Limited customer training videos

Continue reading my ESET review for more information about the PROTECT platform, or skip down to see how I evaluated ESET and its features, pricing, and administrative capabilities.

Who Should Use ESET?

ESET is a strong choice for businesses looking for a comprehensive cybersecurity platform and multiple support channels. It’s also a good option if you want to scale your organization’s endpoint protection capabilities over time.

Consider ESET if you’re one of the following:

• Organizations needing the full package: Through ESET LiveSense, the PROTECT platform offers features like threat hunting, rogue device management, machine learning, and sandboxing.
• Teams that want plenty of support channels: ESET offers phone, email, and live chat support, which is rare for vendors in the endpoint detection and response market.
• Businesses that need to scale: If you’re a smaller organization and don’t need full XDR capabilities yet, consider ESET — once you’re able to scale, you can upgrade your plan as needed.

Who Shouldn’t Use ESET?

While ESET is a strong EDR and XDR solution, it may not be an ideal choice if you’re looking for one of the major players in the endpoint security field. It’s also not the best for advanced security policies or quarantine features.

Consider other options if you fall into one of these categories:

• Customers looking for a top-five EDR: If you’re a large enterprise hoping to purchase the likes of Palo Alto or a higher scorer in independent testing like MITRE, you may want to look elsewhere.
• Security teams that want training videos: ESET doesn’t offer as many training videos for new users as some of its competitors.
• Admins that need advanced quarantine capabilities: ESET can quarantine files, but it may lack further endpoint isolation options.

If you’d like to see a broad selection of security vendors, read our list of the best cybersecurity companies in the industry, which includes Rapid7 and Proofpoint.

ESET Pricing

If you need the most basic protection for endpoint devices and servers, ESET PROTECT Entry should be sufficient. But if your business wants features like mobile defense or cloud app protection, look at the Advanced or Complete plans. Elite adds XDR, and finally, ESET PROTECT MDR provides the most intensive support with managed detection and response. ESET is a great solution for SMBs that want to scale their endpoint security over time.

5 Key Features of ESET

In this ESET review, I looked at five XDR features, including vulnerability management, protection for cloud apps, security policies, dashboards, and LiveGuard Advanced for examining malicious samples.

Vulnerability & Patch Management

Offered in ESET PROTECT Complete and higher, the vulnerability and patch management module helps security teams track vulnerabilities within their business. The module categorizes vulnerabilities by the severity of risk presented, and it shows how recently computers have been scanned for issues. The module also shows security admins, which of the applications they use are the most vulnerable. ESET also allows you to configure automatic software patching.

Cloud Application Security

ESET’s Cloud Office Security module offers features like anti-spam, sandboxing, and email and file quarantine for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace environments. Security teams can view which users receive the most spam emails and malware. ESET also shows teams whether users are unprotected, so they can immediately work with those users. Cloud Office Security can be purchased separately or used as a module within the PROTECT platform.

Security Policy Management

ESET PROTECT allows security admins to create policies that determine how their business handles firewall rules, problematic endpoint devices, and logging. Policies are one of the most useful tools for cybersecurity management because they help teams customize exactly how stringent their security will be. ESET PROTECT supports a variety of policies and lets teams create their own in its web console.

Dashboard & Charts

Visualizing threat patterns and endpoint weaknesses is critical for security teams, especially ones overwhelmed by manual work, and ESET PROTECT’s dashboard will help you track the concrete steps you need to take. Its charts provide an overview of the devices within your organization and whether they’re updated to the most recent software version. The dashboard shows tabs for different modules and features so you can easily navigate amongst them.

ESET LiveGuard Advanced

ESET LiveGuard Advanced is an automated cloud-based sandbox that performs behavioral analysis and inspection of malware. This tool directly counters zero-day threats and ransomware strains by investigating suspicious traffic before it enters the network. The sandbox simulates actual machine behavior for all physical and virtual hosts, giving malicious files the chance to launch in an isolated environment while critical segments stay protected.

ESET Ease of Use

ESET earned a high score from me because it offers multiple usability features, including product documentation for PROTECT and a single pane of glass management console. ESET also works on all three major computer operating systems, as well as Android and iOS devices. I took off points for no customer training videos, which could be a downside for inexperienced teams or security personnel who have never used an EDR solution before.

ESET Customer Support

Its selection of customer support channels is where ESET really stands out. It offers phone, live chat, and email to customers, which is unusual for a major EDR vendor. Both of ESET’s premium support tiers are available 24/7, but critical severity response time will be the fastest, with a two-hour response time. Recent customer reviews have overall positive comments about the support team’s general helpfulness and responsiveness.

Alternatives to ESET PROTECT

ESET is a good choice for many businesses, but it might not be the best for your organization’s needs. If you want a different platform, consider Sophos Intercept X, Bitdefender GravityZone, CrowdStrike Falcon, or Trend Micro Vision One. These are all strong endpoint detection and response platforms, and they’re more well known than ESET, if you’re looking for a chart-topping security platform.

Sophos Intercept X

Sophos Intercept X is an endpoint security and XDR solution that, like ESET, is ideal for smaller organizations, with features like device encryption. However, it still offers advanced capabilities for larger businesses, including behavioral analytics and threat hunting. Sophos is widely regarded as an easy-to-use security platform, which makes it a good choice for less experienced teams.

Sophos doesn’t provide direct pricing for Intercept X on its website; potential buyers can request a quote. Sophos also offers a 30-day free trial for Intercept X.

Bitdefender GravityZone

Bitdefender GravityZone is a threat prevention and remediation solution for businesses that includes incident analysis and forensics capabilities. While it’s not presented as an XDR solution, GravityZone offers some features comparable to ESET’s, including risk management and sandboxing.

GravityZone costs around $570 per year for 10 devices, which is most comparable to ESET PROTECT Advanced. For more than 100 devices, Bitdefender requires potential customers to submit a pricing request.

CrowdStrike Falcon

CrowdStrike Falcon is a popular endpoint security platform that offers features like automated remediation, behavioral analytics, and quarantine. Like ESET, you can start with a tier that offers more basic endpoint protection features, or you can go all the way to Falcon Insight, CrowdStrike’s XDR solution.

CrowdStrike’s most basic plan, Falcon Go, starts at $59.99 per year and includes next-gen antivirus and device control. The third plan, Falcon Enterprise, starts at $184.99 per device annually and adds EDR coverage and threat intelligence. CrowdStrike offers a 15-day free trial for the Falcon platform.

Trend Micro Vision One

Trend Micro’s Vision One platform combines XDR and attack surface management in a comprehensive platform. It helps protect email, networks, cloud, and container environments. It’s a good choice for both smaller businesses and large enterprises, with a managed service offering that will benefit teams that don’t have a lot of experience.

Trend Micro offers pricing for the Vision One platform through resellers, including the Amazon Web Services Marketplace, which prices it by credits. A single credit on a 12-month contract costs $1.05.

If none of these sound like the right fit, check out our guide to the best business antivirus solutions, which also includes Malwarebytes and Microsoft.

How I Evaluated ESET PROTECT

To evaluate ESET as an endpoint security solution, I developed a product scoring rubric to review the PROTECT platform. I chose six major categories that are important for an EDR platform, which were my main rubric criteria. Each category had multiple subcriteria, which included individual features and pricing plans. How well ESET PROTECT met all of my subcriteria earned it an overall score of 4.4 out of 5.

Evaluation Criteria

I first looked at ESET’s core EDR and threat features, like device control, vulnerability management, and incident quarantine. Then I considered ease of use, including documentation and operating system support. I also examined pricing, including ESET’s different plans, and administrative features like dashboards and APIs. I evaluated ESET’s customer support channels, and finally, I looked at advanced features like forensics and sandboxing.

• Core features (25%): This category evaluated ESET’s major XDR features, including threat intelligence, risk scoring, and cloud application protection.
  • Score: 4.1/5
• Ease of use (20%): I analyzed usability features like a knowledge base, training videos, and the availability of a managed service.
  • Score: 4.5/5
• Pricing (15%): This category covered ESET’s different pricing tiers, as well as the availability of a free trial.
  • Score: 4.5/5
• Administration (15%): I evaluated features like dashboards and charts, APIs, identity management integrations, and deployment options.
  • Score: 4.3/5
• Customer support (15%): I looked at ESET’s customer support channel options, including phone, email, and live chat, as well as product demos.
  • Score: 4.5/5
• Advanced features (10%): I considered ESET’s nice-to-have security features, like custom detection rules, automated remediation, and forensics.
  • Score: 3.9/5

Bottom Line: Consider ESET as an Endpoint Security Platform

ESET is a strong choice for businesses that want to start with an endpoint security solution that only has a few modules, with the option to scale to an XDR or MDR plan later. The PROTECT platform offers a variety of advanced security capabilities and helps businesses secure their digital infrastructure, including cloud applications and networks. Consider which security features are most critical for your business’s needs before selecting an ESET PROTECT tier.

If you’re interested in a product focused on analytics, check out our list of enterprise user and entity behavioral analytics tools.

Sam Ingalls contributed to this article.