Malwarebytes vs. McAfee Total Protection (discontinued) vs. Symantec Endpoint Security

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Malwarebytes
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Malwarebytes is a antimalware application for home and small businesses, which blocks viruses, malware, hackers, viruses, and malicious websites.
$119.99
per year 3 devices
McAfee Total Protection (discontinued)
Score 5.0 out of 10
N/A
McAfee's Total Protection included antivirus and antimalware offerings for home and small businesses or home offices. This product line is not a focus for Trellix, the brand formed from the merger of McAfee and FireEye that offers business grade products. Trellix Endpoint Security is the company's product line for business endpoint security.
$24.99
per year (2 year subscription, 5 devices)
Symantec Endpoint Security
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Symantec Endpoint Protection is the company's flagship antivirus / endpoint security product.
$29.99
per year 100-249 devices
Pricing
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Editions & Modules
Teams - Sole proprietor
$119.99
per year 3 devices
Teams - Boutique business
$399.99
per year 10 devices
Teams - Small office
$799.99
per year 20 devices
Multi-Device
$24.99
per year (2 year subscription, 5 devices)
Individual
$29.99 ($79.99)
1st year price (subsequent years)
Family
$29.99
per year (2 year subscription, 10 devices)
Endpoint Security, Initial Hybrid Subscription License With Support
$29.99
1 year 100-249 devices
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise, Initial Hybrid Subscription License with Support
$34.99
1 year 1-99 devices
Endpoint Security, Initial Hybrid Subscription License With Support
$90.99
3 years 100-249 devices
Symantec Endpoint Security Enterprise, Initial Hybrid Subscription License with Support
$99.99
3 years 1-99 devices
Symantec Endpoint Security Complete, Initial Hybrid Subscription License with Support
$200
3 years 1-99 devices
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Free Trial
NoNoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll plans include a 60-day money back guarantee. 1st year discount available for the Small office plan.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Considered Multiple Products
Malwarebytes
Chose Malwarebytes
For me, there are no other alternatives compared to the free version of Malwarebytes. I used McAfee Total Protection as an alternative, it's a full product with anti-malware, anti-virus, anti-spam.
Chose Malwarebytes
McAfee usually takes a long time to scan each system as we usually have scheduled systems scan every weekend. But if we want to scan a particular system in minimal time we usually go with Malwarebytes to get the job done.
Chose Malwarebytes
We chose Malwarebytes for Teams which offered a significant savings compared to other scanners
Chose Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is much better at detecting and mitigating non-traditional or virus-like attack vectors than any of the frontline anti-virus programs that we evaluated. As such, we chose to use Malwarebytes in tandem with a frontline anti-virus solution, providing us with two …
Chose Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes seems to lead the industry in customer focus. Their support team is superior. The breadth of services they offer is a major factor along with their roadmap for the future. I believe the update process is one of the easiest I've experienced with major software …
Chose Malwarebytes
To be blunt, MB leaves them in the dust from an operative and functional perspective. We use them because we get great support for all functions and find they do an excellent job at what they are designed to do. Competitive costs and no extraneous fees. Software that tries to …
Chose Malwarebytes
We use Symantec Endpoint Protection for all of our machines because of the IT management capabilities and cost point. It is extremely effective when used in conjunction with common sense practices like not allowing users to have local admin rights, etc. Once a threat is found …
Chose Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes stacks up against all of the big guys and in my experience, does it better with no heavy resources, no slow down and no interference with other programs. My very first experience over 9 years ago, Malwarebytes caught a virus that none of the other big guys could …
Chose Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes just works and protects our endpoints. The configuration is simple and intuitive with almost zero overhead.
Chose Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes is so much less intrusive than other antivirus softwares. in addition, I've found that almost all other anti virus softwares have so many popups and slow down your computers so much because of all the computing power they suck up. Malwarebytes doesn't do this which …
McAfee Total Protection (discontinued)
Chose McAfee Total Protection (discontinued)
I haven't used Norton for a while, but when I did use it I felt that it slowed down my computer and had constant pop-ups, which were both equally frustrating and annoying. It was also very difficult to remove from my computer.

Malwarebytes is a great, straightforward program …
Symantec Endpoint Security
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Don't like McAfee at all. Trend Micro Deep Security is very good for server operating systems. If I had to go with another product it would definitely be the Trend products. McAfee has never really had what I would call a good solution for security purposes. It always seems to …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
I actually didn't make the decision to go with Symantec at all. It was already in place when I started working at my current employer, and we have not yet had the opportunity to replace it. I replaced it at my two previous employers with Sophos Endpoint Protection, which was …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We found McAfee to be very difficult to administer. There were many issues with the suite blocking legitimate applications. We also had several clients become infected, even though McAfee was running and up-to-date. Much happier with Symantec Endpoint Protection. Very few …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
It works very well but has had to use Malwarebytes in conjunction with Symantec to ensure that we were being covered and protected sufficiently. There are times that Symantec does not pick up on items that are infected that Malwarebytes has found on a scheduled scan.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
I have past experience with McAfee AV in the past, The Device Control in McAfee is much better, but requires the additional DLP license. Management is a bit more complexed but also looks better. The EPO is also used to manage other McAfee products, whereas with SEP you can only …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We did use a mix of Symantec and ClamWin AV and after that a mix of Symantec and AVG for our store locations. We also tested Comodo and McAfee at one point. McAfee was too expensive for our budget and Comodo I believe just didn't deploy to our store locations easily. We did …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Symantec Endpoint Protection outperformed all other competitor front-line antivirus products with more accurate signature detections and less false positives. We ultimately chose to pair SEP with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to provide a more comprehensive security solution that …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We have evaluated McAfee, it degrades the performance of computers and also the feature set were not properly working, it also lacked the key features that we require, the cost is also higher, on other hand we also evaluated Microsoft System Center Endpoint Protection it has …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
The versions of McAfee that we've tried don't really cover our small business needs like Symantec Endpoint Security does.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
In comparison with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Symantec Endpoint Security has, in my opinion, more scalable file inspection/spyware/antivirus settings. Plus it is more stable in a multi-OS user environment. But it also has numerous issues with itself and related Symantec …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Simply superior in every way in my opinion. These others were not in the market when we started with SEP.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Symantec Endpoint Production is hands down my least favorite endpoint projection software on the market today. It's a difficult endpoint to deploy, manage and remove. It's a heavy client so once you get it installed it consumes a large amount of resources on the endpoint. …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
More robust options and protections than Malware Bytes. Better overall detection and alerting to security issues. The overall ROI was better for us and we felt would also give us a stronger line of defense in our overall security strategy. We chose Symantec Endpoint because it …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We choose Symantec over these other two (continue to choose in some cases) because of the better, and easier, centralized client management. I believe all the products probably have similar hit rates when it comes to stopping infections however Symantec's product is more …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We decided on Symantec based on the cloud control at the time. We have been happy with this decision.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
I've used other AV products in the past but I have found SEP to be much easier to manage. I can remotely push client upgrades, easily configure exclusion policies, etc. This has helped us protect our environment, without impacting the business.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
  • Does everything they do and more.
  • Technical support is at an expert level.
  • Customer service is like no other.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
We were a McAfee shop and changed to SEP. We tried out Trend as well. SEP just worked better based on the criteria we had.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Symantec Endpoint Protection is one of the better solutions out there for anti-virus.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Symantec Endpoint Protection did more than the above products.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
I use Malware-bytes on my network alongside Symantec Endpoint. Both pieces of software play well with each other. Although Symantec has a good anti malware engine, I prefer to use Malware-bytes for that purpose because they are the leaders in anti malware detection and …
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Symantec Endpoint Protection provided the best overall layered protection and provided the less amount of resource impact on the endpoint.
Chose Symantec Endpoint Security
Faster signatures and over all better performance and support.
Features
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
Malwarebytes
-
Ratings
McAfee Total Protection (discontinued)
-
Ratings
Symantec Endpoint Security
9.2
37 Ratings
8% above category average
Anti-Exploit Technology00 Ratings00 Ratings9.031 Ratings
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings00 Ratings9.933 Ratings
Centralized Management00 Ratings00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
Hybrid Deployment Support00 Ratings00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Infection Remediation00 Ratings00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
Vulnerability Management00 Ratings00 Ratings9.831 Ratings
Malware Detection00 Ratings00 Ratings9.035 Ratings
Best Alternatives
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Small Businesses
AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
AVG AntiVirus Business Edition
Score 8.0 out of 10
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes
Score 8.8 out of 10
ThreatLocker
ThreatLocker
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
BlackBerry Protect (CylancePROTECT)
Score 9.1 out of 10
BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management
BeyondTrust Endpoint Privilege Management
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(54 ratings)
9.0
(3 ratings)
9.0
(64 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(5 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.9
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(11 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
MalwarebytesMcAfee Total Protection (discontinued)Symantec Endpoint Security
Likelihood to Recommend
Malwarebytes
Now, I gave it that rating because it's a handy tool for diagnosing issues. Quarantining them, and most of the time, it does fix the problem. Though with rootkits, it's been hit or miss, and sometimes perfectly valid software gets flagged erroneously. However, once you've run it, it tends to run continuously, consuming far too many resources and being a real pain to uninstall, sometimes even causing issues.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
I think McAfee is great to have whether it's for work or for personal use. While it has some drawbacks, I like the peace of mind of feeling safe when I'm browsing the web/email, especially when my computer has sensitive/confidential information, knowing that McAfee will immediately detect any threats. The UI is extremely easy to navigate, which makes it easy for users regardless of how tech-savvy they are.
Read full review
Broadcom
Symantec Endpoint Security is a well-rounded product that provides a significant amount of functionality and covers many of our endpoint needs without needing to resort to multiple vendors that might clash in unpredictable ways when ultimately deployed to the endpoints in our estate. The default policies are adequate and tuning these requires some time as with all similar EDR products but the product is flexible enough to allow very granular whitelisting/blacklisting which is great. Low resource requirements are also fantastic and we've not had many complaints from developers who were getting slowed down when compiling complex code with other previous solutions.
Read full review
Pros
Malwarebytes
  • Low system resources, it does not slow down the whole computer when scanning or when real-time protection is enabled
  • Quick and frequent updates, usually people hate updating, but for malware/viruses, you want to be updated as possible. It takes less than 15 seconds and usually does it automatically. They usually send a few updates a day as they find more.
  • Protection features actually work when visiting known bad websites. The page will be blocked and nothing will be downloaded. It may not be what the user wants, but it's what the user needs (as the user can't know every bad website)
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Excellent protection of all internet connected assets on our VPN.
  • Constant updates of needed security patches that ensure our network and systems are protected from current and emerging/potential threats.
  • Prompt and reliable customer service that provides needed answers and expertise in a crisis.
  • Strategic whitepapers on emerging cyber threats and McAfee solutions to resolve them before they become a problem for my team or our clients.
Read full review
Broadcom
  • The virus and spyware protection has worked well for us, catching several things and quarantining the items or cleaning them.
  • The virus definitions very rarely fail to update for the users, so I feel confident that my client machines are kept up to date.
  • I like the report I get daily telling me about threats found and action taken without having to login to the console to look it up myself.
Read full review
Cons
Malwarebytes
  • One of the main things that malwarebytes is missing as a company, is phone support for its clients. All support questions has to go thru email only. This is not acceptable for issues that needs to be resolved quickly.
  • There is an issue when installing the client on a machine, it has a set amount of time where the software can register with the management server. The issue with this is, with machines that are over a wide area network, slow connection speeds can cause the software not to register. When that happens, it never re attempts to register in the future.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Price - Extremely high price tag for many of the solutions.
Read full review
Broadcom
  • The system should have a better ability to auto repair, if an item is malfunctioning it should auto reinstall.
  • The cloud platform and the server do not talk well to each other and it would be great to get the same data on both platforms, this may be due to version though.
  • It seems the whitelisting on the cloud platform could use some work.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Malwarebytes
The last time we renewed Malwarebytes, we renewed for a 3 year renewal. That should describe the confidence we have in the product. Plus the cost savings impact year after year.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
McAfee has consistently delivered on its stated goals of providing comprehensive protection for our networks and systems. Due to their excellent work and follow through I have been, and will continue to be a loyal customer.
Read full review
Broadcom
Best of Breed. Symantec Endpoint Protection beats all other end point products I have used, tested and seen in presentation at this point in time.
Read full review
Usability
Malwarebytes
Usability-wise, it's pretty good, and it gets the job done. But once that's finished, the nags, the pop-ups, and the fact that it slows older systems down recklessly really cost it rating points. It becomes a clutter, and one of the first things we check when we receive reports that a PC is slow is whether it's running malware. Once we uninstall it, the PC is usually easily 40-50% faster. That's too much in the way of resources for something that wants to always run in the background.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
The rating reflects Symantec Endpoint Security's ability to balance enterprise grade security with user-friendly workflows or advanced configurations require extra effort. For most organizations, the streamlined management and robust automation justify the high score. Management GUI is old fashined and need to be improve. Older devices may experience slowdowns during full scans without careful configuration.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Malwarebytes
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
We've used it for years and the software is easy to use. The dashboard is easy to read, and you can easily figure out where to go to troubleshoot or deploy software. Symantec is there for emergencies like backup restoration or file retrieval. It's pretty low maintenance. Symantec is there when your IT infrastructure needs it
Read full review
Support Rating
Malwarebytes
The Malwarebytes customer support team is awesome! They really go above and beyond to help you with whatever issue you may experience. It is not that we need to contact their support team often, but the few times we did, we would speak to someone who knew what they were talking about and able to solve our problem. It is a comfort knowing that aside from a great product, you are getting a reliable support structure.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
Support is completely awful! You can never get anyone to help if you can even find a number to call. The support web portal is a joke and their response time if you're even able to submit a ticket is ridiculously slow.
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Implementation Rating
Malwarebytes
No answers on this topic
Discontinued Products
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
Use a third party deployment tool and not the deployment option within the SEP Manager itself.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Malwarebytes
Avast and Norton's products were part of the testing for us but the cost was very high for them and the products were not light on the machine. They took up a lot of memory and slowed the computers down. Malwarebytes although may lack some feature, is a very light software.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
I haven't used Norton for a while, but when I did use it I felt that it slowed down my computer and had constant pop-ups, which were both equally frustrating and annoying. It was also very difficult to remove from my computer. Malwarebytes is a great, straightforward program I've used for virus scanning. It's pretty bare bones but I think if you just want something to scan for viruses it gets the job done quickly and reliably. In my opinion McAfee offers similar benefits as Norton but its more intuitive and doesn't impact system performance.
Read full review
Broadcom
Symantec Endpoint Security offers very similar features to the above products, they all do the same thing in terms of protecting your endpoints against cybersecurity threats. Installation wise the products all install from a central management system and report back to this for central reporting. Ultimately we choose Symantec as the reseller was able to offer additional incentives which made their pricing very competitive.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Malwarebytes
  • Positive Impact: Have not had to remediate malware/virus infections since installed.
  • Positive impact: As far as browsing goes, we can boldly go where no man has gone before. No, really, I am confident when I am clicking on search engine results that if something get past my trained eye, Malwarebytes will pick of the slack.
Read full review
Discontinued Products
  • Blocks unsafe websites
  • Virus detection and removal
  • Protects sensitive data
Read full review
Broadcom
  • The ROI from deploying this has led to fewer security issues which reduces costs.
  • Keeping track of security issues and how the were remedied is easier.
  • Deskside support can work with end users easily if something is triggered and this allows us to not have to overstaff.
Read full review
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