Emsisoft Anti-Malware Review

Emsisoft Antimalware: Is it enough in 2022?

Emsisoft Anti-Malware is an antivirus and proactive protection against all possible types of online threats. The app will timely detect and block any malicious activity on your PC, including unsafe websites and phishing attacks.

The software product effectively detects and neutralizes worms, spyware, viruses, adware, trojans, keyloggers, bots, dialers, and other types of online threats. It will stop the danger before it infects your computer and does any harm.

Antivirus constantly updates and is very easy to use. It includes two powerful anti-malware engines: Emsisoft and Bitdefender. It allows you to achieve the greatest results while taking minimal computer resources. So, it will work well, even in a quite weak system and provide reliable and effective protection. You will be able to surf the Internet safely — no threats will be able to affect you.

To test this program, you can download the full version of Emsisoft Anti-Malware. It will give you 30 days of complete protection. Besides, if you are not satisfied with the program, Emsisoft provides a 30-day money-back guarantee.

In the review, we are going to check all the strong and weak points of the product. You will be able to decide whether it’s a good suit for you.

The List of Pros and Cons

Highlights of Emsisoft Antimalware

• Double scanner. Due to these scanners, scanning time has been significantly reduced. After scanning, the file protection module compared all files with about four million known malicious apps.
• Powerful active protection. Emsisoft Anti-Malware constantly monitors the system and network activity and raises alarms as soon as anything suspicious happens.
• The free option is no worse than a paid one because after scanning the system, you can delete all the crap. Unlike many so-called “no-cost” programs that only scan the system, but when you try to press the “Delete” button, you get a message about the need to pay for the program).
• The program offers scanning options: deep, fast, selective, and smart. There is a detailed description to each scanning option.

Features of Emsisoft Antimalware

Emsisoft Anti-malware is a feature-rich product that provides a lot of options for convenient use. First, we must mention that it combines two scanning cores: anti-spyware by Emsisoft and anti-virus by Bitdefender. They both provide highly reliable world-class protection.

Emsisoft Cloud Console will help to manage the protection from any device. Program behavior analysis will block all suspicious activity immediately. Regular effective system scan helps to delete all types of malware and viruses to guarantee the best computer performance.

Also, it includes Windows Firewall Fortify, which will block all unauthorized Windows Firewall rules changes. Malware-IDS security feature will prevent any threat before it intrudes your computer and becomes active. The app uses a convenient automatic control feature which can work without user control.

Moreover, the product is fully integrated with Emsisoft Anti-Malware Network. It is an own cloud database which includes the data about millions of applications and simplifies the work of behavioral analyzer. The integration effectively reduces false positives to almost zero level.
Besides, Emsisoft includes advanced self-defense mechanism. It will block any attempts to stop or delete the antivirus solution.

When you run the game or watch a video in a full-screen mode, the app will activate the automatic gaming mode, which will automatically disable all pop-ups and notifications. You will be able to entertain yourself without the options.

Also, Emsisoft has great tools for advanced users and system administrators like improved command-line scanner. With it, among others, there is an option to update and upgrade the full version of the program.

Best for

• Home users to provide best antivirus protection in real-time and regularly scan the system for dangerous files and apps.
• System administrators to manage computers with advanced built-in tools.
• Business and Enterprise users to provide multiple computers in the office.

Reliability and Security

Lab tests

In the AV-Comparatives test, Emsisoft received the highest Advanced+ rating. The antivirus has the chance to remove all detected threats. Other samples are run by the testers, after which the product gets a second chance to recognize and block the malware. In the other three tests, Emsisoft was rated Advanced.

Anti-malware protection

The custom test starts with opening the malware collection folder. For many antiviruses, the signal to action is that Windows Explorer accesses the file’s attributes – its size, name, and date of creation. Emsisoft checks a folder only when trying to run it. Fortunately, the product was able to detect most samples before the system fully launched them.

Besides, we got pop-up notifications and Windows file detection error windows. Overall, Emsisoft detected 96 percent of the files – one of the highest results. However, some cleaning errors, such as the successful launch of the malware, allowed getting only 9.2 out of 10 points.

In the malicious link blocking test, a unique set of URLs one or two days old is selected each time. After opening the link, the antivirus reaction is checked: blocking the URL at the network level, neutralizing the load or ignoring the danger.

Emsisoft blocked 54 percent of malicious links and neutralized another 31 percent of online threats. The overall score of 86% is quite good.

Phishing protection

This test uses a collection of the latest phishing sites, most of which are so young that they have not yet been checked and blacklisted. Each URL opens in four browsers.

Emsisoft blocks access to fraudulent resources at a low level, causing the error page to appear in the browser. In the first round, Emsisoft detected 63% of phishing threats were detected, which is a rather weak result. In the second round, it blocked only 18% of the malicious websites.

Encryption protection

Emsisoft found and blocked all the test encryptor samples. One of them was able to display a ransom message for a short time, but it was a bluff – it did not encrypt any files.

As an additional check, one of the ransomware Trojans detected by Emsisoft was added to the autoload. After booting the system, the encryptor was able to start encrypting user files before the behavioral lock component came into effect. The malware managed to encrypt the Documents folder, and the behavioral blocker failed to recognize the threat because this was the end of the malicious activity on the sample.

Ease of Use

During the installation, Emsisoft downloads the latest code updates. When the main screen opens, the installer will offer to scan the system and fix the issues. Just wait a few minutes for the installation, update, and configuration of the components to complete – there’s no need to fix anything.

The main window contains four colored panels: Security, Scanning, Reports, and Settings. A separate icon returns to the home screen.

In the Scanning tab, you can run a quick, deep, smart, and selective scan. If you are not sure what type of scan to choose, there are detailed descriptions of each mode.

If you miss the initial full scan, you will still have to do it sooner or later, because Emsisoft creates a scheduled full scan job. You are able to edit this scan or add other types of scans to run daily, weekly, or monthly.

In general, we can say for sure that Emsisoft Anti-malware is convenient and easy to use the tool. The interface is user-friendly; all the menus are located logically.

Emsisoft Antimalware for Home

Emsisoft Anti-Malware provides security for any PC. This antivirus is perfect for home computers. It can either scan the device for malware or clear it. Three modules will constantly protect all your files and help to make the Internet more secure by analyzing all running applications and processes.

There are three separate products for home users.

Emsisoft Anti-Malware Free

It is a full-featured malware scanner, free for personal use. The main advantage of the program is the unification of the two main principles of the antivirus — the detection of spyware through signature analysis and analysis of program behavior.

Emsisoft Anti-Malware Free provides PC security by detecting and neutralizing the following malware: spyware (unauthorized access to confidential information), adware (redirects your browser to sites with paid advertising), Internet worms (use your Internet channel to create spam mailing), keyboard spies (identify pressed keys to steal passwords), rootkits (a set of programs to hide an intruder or malware in the system), callers (change the dialing number in the modem to more expensive one) and other threats.

After a 30-day trial period, Emsisoft Anti-Malware Free allows the user to choose between demo, premium and a free version of the product (with manual scanning only).

Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home

The company provides comprehensive protection for home devices against viruses, trojans, spyware, adware, worms, bots, keyloggers, and rootkits. The app includes two scanning and cleaning modules. Also, three protection modules support file security and Internet surfing, continuously analyzing the behavior of active applications.

The combination of powerful world-class products — Anti-Malware and Anti-Virus — has proved its efficiency in the malware detection on the latest tests. When an infection is detected, the scanner automatically quarantines or removes malware objects. By the way, all the features and test were made with Emsisoft Anti-Malware Home.

Anti-Malware Home & Mobile

It is a powerful and functional solution that can reliably protect your Android device from all kinds of threats as well as your Windows PC. There is no version for iOS.

The mobile solution includes four main components:

• Anti-malware and anti-virus scanner that helps you scan all the files on your smartphone or tablet and detect any viruses, trojans, or other malware.
• Real-time protection that will help to avoid any threats — your device will always be protected and secure.
• Surf protection, which blocks the launch of any suspicious applications and stops attempts to access unsafe sites.
• Anti-Theft which allows you to block a lost device and track its movement quickly, or remotely delete all data from it.

Please note that you can install a trial version of Emsisoft Mobile Security. You can use it free of charge for 30 days. Then, you need to buy the full version or stop using the program.

Emsisoft Antimalware for Business

A highly effective solution to protect your business from a variety of malicious programs: ransomware, bots, bank trojans, rootkits, advertising applications, etc. The company’s dual-core scanner achieves the checking speed. Anti-encryptor detects destructive behavior patterns immediately after the first attacks and prevents file changes.

It also includes three main products.

Emergency Kit Pro

A portable antivirus suite that can be used without installation and without the Internet to scan using Bitdefender and Emsisoft engines, as well as to cure the infected computer from malware using a USB flash drive. Just unpack the files to a USB stick and make your versatile tool to scan and clean your infected computer.

The solution also includes Emsisoft Command Line Scanner which contains the same features as the Emsisoft Emergency Kit Scanner, but without a graphical interface. The command-line scanner is designed for advanced users and can be used by system administrators for batch tasks.

Emsisoft Business Security

The solution protects the computers of your company running Windows 7/8.1/10 from malicious and unwanted software and reliably prevents phishing and encryption virus attacks. It uses all the features of Emsisoft Antimalware for Home such as:

• high-performance dual-core scanner with Emsisoft and Bitdefender technologies;
• reliable adware protection;
• full online protection;
• real-time antivirus;
• behavioral analysis;
• Emergency Kit Pro;
• command-line scanner for system administrators and advanced users.

Besides, it provides endpoint protection management console and cloud security management console — irreplaceable options for any business product.

Emsisoft Enterprise Security

It is the same product as Emsisoft Business Security but additionally supports servers. So, it will be a great tool for huge enterprises.

Money-Back Guarantee

If you are not satisfied with how the product works after the purchase, you can receive a full refund within 30 days. All you have to do is to contact the technical support and request a refund. You must not explain why you don’t like the product, as well as are free of filling out the forms. Everything is easy as 1-2-3.

Support and Customer Services

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the technical support. It is available via online chat, email, online form, as well as knowledge base and community. So, you will be able to find an answer to any question. The knowledge base is rich and is full of detailed guides.

As for customer support, we tried to contact them via online chat and email. In the first case, we got a reply in about 5 minutes. What about email? We had to wait almost 15 hours — it is too long.

Were the answers informative? Yes, we could solve our issues without any problems.

The forum section is quite active — you can get help in a few hours. That will be helpful if you have some specific questions.

Emsisoft Anti-Malware Alternatives & Competitors

Are you looking for alternatives? There are some good ones:

• Malwarebytes
• Scanguard
• Webroot
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Zemana Antimalware

Our Verdict

Emsisoft Anti-Malware is very easy to use and works effectively. It has a unique double-core scanner that uses all the strongest points of Emsisoft and Bitdefender products. Emsisoft Anti-Malware effectively copes with the main tasks of anti-virus protection, including neutralizing ransomware.

The product worked well in a few independent laboratory tests and showed high results in the malware blocking test. However, there are some weak points. For example, the anti-phishing test almost failed. We expected much better results.

So, it is quite a good product but not the best. If you do not suffer paranoia and are advanced users who do not visit suspicious resources, Emsisoft Anti-Malware will be a great choice.