Emsisoft Antivirus Review (2025): Is it the right choice?

Full Review

Emsisoft offers a strong malware scanner with standout real-time protection, featuring a customizable, multi-layered defense that detects threats without requiring manual scans.

However, it lacks many additional features commonly found in top-tier antivirus solutions, such as a VPN, firewall, or dark web monitoring.

While its pricing is reasonable for a scanner, the absence of these extras makes it less competitive. That said, Emsisoft provides reliable protection against all types of malware and most dangerous websites.

Anti-malware

Emsisoft’s malware scanner achieved a 100% detection rate in our tests, using a combination of its in-house engine and Bitdefender’s scanner. This dual approach effectively tackles various threats, including trojans, ransomware, worms, and rootkits.

Scans can be customized, with options for full, quick, and targeted scans, as well as scheduled scans for convenience. The full scan took about an hour, which is standard for antivirus programs.

Real-time protection is robust, driven by behavioral analysis that monitors system activity and blocks suspicious changes. This feature is customizable, allowing users to adjust the response to threats and the scan’s thoroughness.

Emsisoft also provides web protection against malicious sites, although it detected fewer phishing sites than leading competitors like Norton or Bitdefender.

Other security features

Other features include a data log for tracking antivirus activity, basic firewall controls, and mobile anti-theft tools like remote locking and wiping. A web-based console offers remote access to logs and settings, adding flexibility.

However, Emsisoft lacks several features common in premium security suites, such as a VPN, dark web monitoring, parental controls, password manager, and dedicated firewall.

Overall, Emsisoft delivers strong malware protection with its dual engines and real-time defense, though its web protection and lack of additional features may leave some users wanting more.

Test score comparison

We conduct in-house anti-malware tests and review the results from AV-Test, a German lab renowned for its objective evaluations. Below is the average of the last 10 AV-Test results for Windows. Their scoring criteria are:

• Protection (1-6): Effectiveness in blocking malware.
• Performance (1-6): Impact on system speed.
• Usability (1-6): Frequency of errors like false alarms.

We calculate a final score using this formula:

Final Score = 60% Protection + 20% Performance + 20% Usability.

While these results influence our choice of the best antivirus for Windows 11, other factors like privacy and identity protection also play a key role. For a similar analysis for Android or macOS, visit our other comparisons:

• The best antivirus for Android.
• The best antivirus for Mac.

Note: Brands not listed in the table either do not participate in AV-Test trials or are tested too infrequently, such as Surfshark Antivirus.

Source: AV-Test (Last updated: December 2024).

Price comparison

We’ve compared the prices of the top antivirus products for Windows. To make it a fair comparison, we looked at what it would cost us, to protect a  single Windows PC with the most essential features:

• Anti-malware
• Anti-phishing (web protection)
• Firewall
• Password manager
• Unlimited VPN (no data limit)

A few notes:

• Some brands are missing features, lowering their value for money.
• Prices are second-year prices in the USA, without first-year discounts.
• Prices are rounded up for readability (e.g., $99.99 becomes $100).

Brands have different prices outside the USA. See those on their website.

User reviews

We’ve compared the user reviews of all antivirus brands. We’ve used the scores and review count of TrustPilot, a leading user review platform. 

We consider scores above 4.0 very good. Lower scores indicate that the brand might have a poor product or customer service. McAfee’s scores, for instance, are worrying.

Source: TrustPilot. Last Update: December 2024.