Expert’s Rating

Pros

Cons

Our Verdict

ESET Home Security Premium completes its primary chore of antiviral and malware bar and there ’s an excellent level of customization , but several bug need to be fixed and central features such as the parole manager and encryption puppet that are supposed to be in ESET Home Security Premium were missing .

Sometimes an app can take fear of the heavy picture token , but shoot itself in both metrical foot by forgoing the small things . This is the case with ESET Home Security ( available in Essential , Premium and Ultimate configurations ) , develop by Slovakian software company ESET , a long - standing entity in the software security earthly concern .

We looked at ESET Home Security Premium , which offers extensive antiviral and malware protection , existent - time File System Protection , a password manager , an encryption tool , and other features . The software downloads and put in flawlessly fromESET ’s website , and it ’s easy enough to set up a30 - solar day trialwith only an email address and no deferred payment or debit card need .

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The extensive layers of preferences and settings.

Once the software system is install , permissions have been assigned to allow its background functions to take place within macOS , and full access has been given for the entire knockout drive , you ’re off to the raceway .

Head over to the preferences menu on a Mac and there ’s a considerable amount that can be done . The program allows for changes such as blacklists and whitelists to be make , unlike degree of detection and sensibility , access to the log and proxy server , reactions as to new volume being mounted , and an telling level of customization .

Foundry

The extensive layers of preferences and settings in ESET

The extensive layers of preferences and settings.

Scheduled scan can be set up easy , and it ’s fairly simple to point which area of a local or cloud - found driveway will be scanned and when . update software versions can also be manually roll back as needed and a   “ Submit a Sample ” feature provide you to send along suspect file for ESET to study on their goal , which is interesting .

Where actual computer virus and malware - base protection is concern , this becomes a mixed base , though the computer software holds its own . Between macOS ’ GateKeeper lineament and ESET ’s protection layer , there was n’t much malware that could be install , and ESET ’s initial scan was able to locate and quarantine 18 suspect file without incident . This proved to be the high point , though , as affair went downhill from there .

This proved to be the tip of the iceberg , and issues within the software included : extremely long scan times ranging from seven to more than 24 hour to look over an internal solid - state of matter drive , the scheduler sport failing to activate a scan , a lack of a progression bar or slip away meter readout during a scan , the software system ’s uninstall characteristic failing to set up multiple times , and the ESET Home Security Premium computer software come without the advertised password manager or encoding feature film . ( Those features are not included with ESET Home Security Essentials , but they were missing from the Premium version we reviewed . )

The Scan menu within ESET Home Security Premium

The Scan menu within ESET Home Security Premium.

Yes , it ’s easy enough to run down a quarry volume , perform background job during a scan , and customize setting to where you ’d like them to be , but when vital constituent of the software seem to be missing , then it ’s fourth dimension for the developer to look things over , cancel their weekends , and go on a bug Richard Morris Hunt .

ESET ’s phishing auspices seems to be minimal , as the software package allowed me to visit refutable websites linked to the suspect / phishing electronic mail that pile up in my Gmail ’s Junk folder without any monition .

Finally , and this caught me completely by surprise , but ESET has finagle to make selling on the macOS platform that much harder via a unknown hemipteron between its computer software and the Mac App Store . As of this writing , when heading to the U.S. version of the Mac App Store and searching for “ ESET , ” we were able to find a Mac version of the ESET Home app ( the U.K. interpretation of the Mac App Store does n’t include this variation , only the iPad version ) . We select the “ Get ” clitoris to download ESET Home , but , after clicking through a few dialog boxes to download the software , instead of initiating a download the software system regorge back pages of garbage text .

Looking over installed components in ESET Home Security Premium

Looking over installed components in ESET Home Security Premium.

See how ESET Home Security Premium compare to other antivirus apps in our roundup of thebest Antivirus software for Mac .

Buying Avice

While ESET Home Security Premium completes its primary undertaking of antiviral and malware prevention , several bugs involve to be gear up . Yes , there ’s an excellent level of customization , but when features like the Scheduler or phishing shelter do n’t seem to cultivate and key feature such as the promised parole manager and encryption tool are missing , alarm Melville Bell should be ring and the company should be ask how the bugs got there in the first stead .

Is this worth a free 30 - day trial ? Of course , and you ’re more than welcome to take it for a spin . Still , other applications do it better , without the bugs and the headaches , and they ’re more worthy of your fourth dimension , tending , and annual subscription fee .