Looking for suggestions

[Anastasia21 1]

I have been using  Bitdefender for a long time now and now I am planning to switch to Eset, as Bitdefender is making my pc so slow that it's annoying. I researched quite a lot lately about it and I found out that according to AV independent lab test scores, Bitdefender is a bit better in terms of malware protection and system impact than Eset. But it seems Bitdefender still puts some impact on system. Please, let me know what are your thoughts on it. And is it a good idea to run both at the same time?

[Connector 0]

Had multiple Av-Solutions over the last 15 years, ESET is by far the smoothest I've ever had. Pretty easygoing on the System, doesn't bother me with pop-ups very other second, etc...

 

You should not rely too much on the AV Test Labs, since they rarely test a real-life Scenario, sure, ESET has it's rough corners and problems sometimes, but not more than most Software that works on this large Scale

 

Haven't spent too much Time with Bitdefender, since It's not really well known in my Area, compared to other Av's.

 

Running two AV's at the same Time isn't a good Idea, since they often conflict with each other, eg. Av1 recognizes AV2 as a Virus and wants to block it, while Av2 deals with the block attempt as an attack and tries to block av1, etc...

 

I think I've read somewhere that you can use components of two different Av's together, but I'm really not sure how this works, so no promises here

[Marcos 5,072]

You can try ESET Internet Security which also contains Network protection compared to ESET NOD32 Antivirus. This feature protects your computer from vulnerabilities in network protocols even at times when no patch or hotfix exists yet. For instance, it saved our users from Wannacry when it started to spread, exploiting vulnerabilities in SMB.

After installation, you can activate a fully functional 30-day trial version which you can later purchase and easily turn the trial license into a paid one.

[peteyt 393]

3 hours ago, Anastasia21 said:

I have been using  Bitdefender for a long time now and now I am planning to switch to Eset, as Bitdefender is making my pc so slow that it's annoying. I researched quite a lot lately about it and I found out that according to AV independent lab test scores, Bitdefender is a bit better in terms of malware protection and system impact than Eset. But it seems Bitdefender still puts some impact on system. Please, let me know what are your thoughts on it. And is it a good idea to run both at the same time?

I used to use Bitdefender years ago and often was a beta tester. I was put off when I reported a bug that blocked the internet and it wasn't fixed in the stable release so lots of users experienced it. They kept asking for logs and then just wanted more logs and it didn't seem like it was going to be fixed. I'd seen it crash a lot on non beta versions to. I think when you have a bad experience it puts you off and I've never been back.

Probably a lot better but I haven't looked back as eset is lightweight and rarely has issues. I found at one point Bitdefender changed its look a few times each version although it looks like they have settled on one now. Some like this but sometimes it can cause issues if the changes hide/move settings. Eset has a simple easy to use interface and while it has little tweaks it doesn't change too much so it's always easy to use.

As Marco's has said why not download a trial and see what you think. Just make sure you uninstall Bitdefender to make sure there are no conflicts.

As for test results I find they never really account for real usage. For example the average user wouldn't and shouldn't download 100s of malware all at once. Tests can also be done to favour specific AVs. It all comes down to personal preference really.

[Marcos 5,072]

I'd also add that ESET has been very good at malware detection, however, with recent additions of Advanced Machine Learning, Deep Behavioral Inspection, streamed updates, etc. ESET has improved even more. For a list of technologies leveraged by ESET, I'd recommend reading https://www.eset.com/int/about/technology/.

[SeriousHoax 83]

Actually, Bitdefender is known to slow PC down, high amount of ram usage and many bugs. I've known an issue of the product that's almost 10 years old but they don't know how to fix that. I've tried many AVs and ESET is the lightest AV for me and also brilliant protection wise. Like others suggested, install the trial version and I'm sure you won't notice any performance impact.

[itman 1,659]

A versus B articles are banned on a number of security web sites. There are good reasons for this as this linked article illustrates.

To begin, this article is nothing more than a disguised marketing article for BitDefender. I went through all the BitDefender vs X comparisons and in every one, the final verdict was BitDefender. Obviously missing is a BitDefender vs Kaspersky comparison since Kaspersky would have won that one.

The most glaring error in all the analysis is that only one AV lab test results were used as a determination basis. It so happens that Eset has traditional been a low scorer in the protection category in the AV-C real-time test series. That is if you consider the 98 - 99% range low scoring. In the other AV Lab test comparatives Eset participates in; Malware Research Group and SE Labs, it is a consistent top scorer both in protection and performance.

Finally I agree also with the previous comments in regards to BitDefender performance. It has shown consistent performance issues for some time on a number of devices based on like negative comments by a number of users. Also in dedicated ransomware testing, BitDefender's protection has been shown to be lacking.