Symantec Endpoint Security vs. Webroot Antivirus + Internet Security Complete (SecureAnywhere)

We have found that Symantec Endpoint Security is better suited to newer systems running faster processors and more than 8GB RAM otherwise the client agent takes up too many resources and slows the system down. However, if you have a reasonably modern fleet of systems it does everything you would expect from an Endpoint Protection solution and works well as part of a multi-layered cybersecurity policy.

Incentivized

Webroot can be great if you have many employees using computers. Sensitive business information can be accessed by malicious threats online if your employees are not trained to avoid these problems. In this case, I think it's important to have software to protect you. If working with a smaller team (and not doing any sort of video production or other intensive software/applications) I can't see a need for anything like Webroot. Learning how to use the internet safely and protecting your file storage are things to be done on the cheap and with smarts.

Incentivized

• The virus and spyware protection has worked well for us, catching several things and quarantining the items or cleaning them.
• The virus definitions very rarely fail to update for the users, so I feel confident that my client machines are kept up to date.
• I like the report I get daily telling me about threats found and action taken without having to login to the console to look it up myself.

Incentivized

• It is very lightweight. You dont even know it is running, yet it is always protecting the endpoint.
• It has protected us from various threats, including ransomware - even when wannacry was hitting companies everywhere.
• They have a good console with multiple provisioning options, so we were able to push it to everyone when we first started using it, and then include it as part of our deployment process going forward.

Incentivized

• Removing dead clients from the console. This is nearly impossible to do, and makes keeping the console clean a very difficult task.
• Poorly tested versions are sometimes released that cause serious issues for users. This ranges from browsers malfunctioning to BSOD errors.
• Malware detection is good but not great. We are not confident in SEP by itself to neutralize malware threats. It's detection rate just isn't high enough for next generation and zero day threats.

• If there is no network connection to the cloud infrastructure, there will be no protection (drawback if there is no "layer 1" connection).
• Heuristics can only combat some viruses, so it probably needs more methods to combat different viruses.
• There are some instances where the server fails to push out (the server's fault), leaving a small fraction of users unprotected when they are set up for the first time.

Incentivized

Continued satisfied support. The saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it..." comes to mind. It works, and we'll continue to use it and support Symantec.

Incentivized

It's easy to renew with Webroot, their support is very attentive and highly available. However if you do choose to change products, they even provide means of removing the software from your endpoints via the admin portal which is very convenient.

Incentivized

The rating reflects Symantec Endpoint Security's ability to balance enterprise grade security with user-friendly workflows or advanced configurations require extra effort. For most organizations, the streamlined management and robust automation justify the high score. Management GUI is old fashined and need to be improve. Older devices may experience slowdowns during full scans without careful configuration.

Incentivized

We've used it for years and the software is easy to use. The dashboard is easy to read, and you can easily figure out where to go to troubleshoot or deploy software. Symantec is there for emergencies like backup restoration or file retrieval. It's pretty low maintenance. Symantec is there when your IT infrastructure needs it

Incentivized

Support is completely awful! You can never get anyone to help if you can even find a number to call. The support web portal is a joke and their response time if you're even able to submit a ticket is ridiculously slow.

Incentivized

We have not had to use Webroot support much over the years. The one or two times we did we were referred to online documentation and in a somewhat condescending manner in one case and in another case, the support person did not demonstrate much knowledge of their product and referred us to the user community for support.

Incentivized

Use a third party deployment tool and not the deployment option within the SEP Manager itself.

Incentivized

Symantec Endpoint Security seems to be a more mature solution compared with CrowdStrike, particularly when CS was just recently getting their USB blocking functionality rolled out for macOS endpoints this year. Another differentiator with CrowdStrike is that Symantec ES still provides both on-demand scanning & real-time signature-based detection in addition to solely real-time machine learning detection whereas on-demand scanning and signatures are not available on CrowdStrike. This means there is a doubt as to whether we can use CS to comply with some of our PCI DSS obligations which specifically require the use of signature-based antivirus solutions.

Incentivized

I honestly have not put in enough research and time for alternative products to compare against Webroot. I don't think my opinion would be worth stating since I don't have a good comparison of apples to apples against other products.What continues to keep me interested in Webroot is just not the product - but the technology behind the product that makes Webroot a leading industry standard.

Incentivized

Ease of implementation across various devices is easy and efficient regardless of scale. Whether it is 5 devices or 500 the product continually proves its the best in its class.

Incentivized

• Symantec [Endpoint Security] cost 50k less than other options while providing similar benefits over the last year
• Cylance conflicted with Symantec [Endpoint Security] and Cisco Umbrella Client (All 3 at the same time) causing us to rebuild many desktops
• Symantec [Endpoint Security] made it easy to detect where issues were and repair them

Incentivized

• It has had a mostly positive impact as we have not had any breaches.
• The only negative impact has been when Webroot Antivirus + Internet Security Complete (SecureAnywhere) changed something on their end that caused one of our business applications to not be usable by end-users. That cost our business a fair amount as it took 4 days before it could be used again.

Incentivized