Consumer Summary Report 2020
Austrian antivirus testing lab AV-Comparatives has released its annual Summary Report consumer security products (PDF available here). This includes results of all the individual tests carried out during 2020, a user-interface review for all 17 tested products, and awards given to individual programs in various different categories.
The following 17 vendors were included in AV-Comparatives’ Consumer Main Test Series: Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft, NortonLifeLock, Panda, Total AV, Total Defense, Trend Micro, and Vipre. All of them received the test lab’s Approved Security Product Award. This is given to all products that demonstrated they can provide competent protection against a wide variety of threats, without unduly affecting the computer’s performance. The award is a certification of an effective and reliable product.
AV-Comparatives’ prestigious Product of the Year Award goes to the program with the highest scores across all the test types. It is a demonstration of top quality in all categories. The 2020 Product of the Year Award goes to Kaspersky.
The Outstanding Product Award goes to two vendors whose products also reached the highest award level (Advanced+) in every single test in the Main Test Series. This is proof of excellence across the board. These are, alphabetical order, Bitdefender and ESET.
Products that achieve high scores across all the test types are rewarded with Top-Rated Product Awards. These demonstrate that a program has achieved a high standard across all the test types. Avast and AVG both won a Top-Rated Product Award this year.
For each individual test type, Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards go to the products that achieved the highest scores. The test types are:
- Real-World Protection Test – this checks protection against Internet-borne threats
- Malware Protection Test – this verifies a program’s ability to detect malicious files
- Performance Test – a check on how much a security product slows down the PC
- Advanced Threat Protection Test – this optional test looks at protection against targeted attacks
- False-Positives Test – this assesses whether each program is prone to false alarms
Nine different vendors won awards in this category. They are, in alphabetical order: Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, McAfee, Microsoft.
As usual, the Summary Report includes a user-interface review of all the tested products. This provides a description of what each program is like to use in everyday scenarios. Topics covered include installation, security alerts, scan options, quarantine, logs, access control, and (where applicable) firewall.
AV-Comparatives is based in Innsbruck, Austria, and has been performing rigorous independent tests of security software since 2004. These systematic tests help antivirus vendors to find any weaknesses in their programs, and so improve their protection and performance.
