Consumer Summary Report 2021
Austrian antivirus testing lab AV-Comparatives has released its annual Summary Report for consumer security products (PDF available here). This includes results of all the individual tests carried out during 2021, a user-interface review for all 17 tested products, and awards given to individual programs in various categories.
AV-Comparatives tested 17 Internet Security Products for Consumer
All tested products 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 or raising too many false alarms. The award is a certification of an effective and reliable product. The tested products were: Avast, AVG, Avira, Bitdefender, ESET, G Data, K7, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Microsoft, NortonLifeLock, Panda, TotalAV, Total Defense, Trend Micro, and VIPRE.
AV-Comparatives awards McAfee with Product of the Year Award, Outstanding Product Awards go to Avast, AVG and Bitdefender, Top-Rated Product is Kaspersky.
Product of the Year
AV-Comparatives’ prestigious 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 2021 Product of the Year Award goes to McAfee.
Outstanding Products
The Outstanding Product Award goes to any other product that reaches the same high award levels as the Product of the Year in the Main Test Series. This is proof of excellence across the board. Outstanding Product Awards for 2021 go to (alphabetically ordered) Avast, AVG and Bitdefender.
Top-Rated Product
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. The 2021 Top-Rated Product Award goes to Kaspersky.
Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards for Individual Categories
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
- Gold: Bitdefender
- Silver: Kaspersky, McAfee
- Bronze: VIPRE
Malware Protection Test – this verifies a program’s ability to detect malicious files
- Gold: McAfee
- Silver: Bitdefender, VIPRE
- Bronze: Total Defense
Performance Test – a check on how much a security product slows down the PC
- Gold: Panda
- Silver: Kaspersky
- Bronze: ESET
Advanced Threat Protection Test – this optional test looks at protection against targeted attacks
- Gold: Avast, AVG
- Silver: ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee
- Bronze: G Data
False-Positives Test – this assesses whether each program is prone to false alarms
- Gold: ESET
- Silver: Kaspersky
- Bronze: TotalAV
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.
“We congratulate all the vendors whose products we tested, as there was a very high overall standard”, says Andreas Clementi, CEO and founder of AV-Comparatives. “Our Summary Report shows how effectively the tested products performed in our individual 2021 long-term tests, and gives users valuable assistance in choosing the right product for their own needs”.
