Best Endpoint Security Software

Devices, data and documents are the lifeblood of your business, but all these connections put your organization at considerable risk — over half of breaches start with a compromised endpoint.

Ensure your enterprise-connected devices are secure enough for an increasingly connected digital workspace. Explore Benzinga’s top options for the best endpoint security software.

Best for Threat Detection: McAfee Endpoint Security

McAfee Endpoint Security’s strength lies in its advanced threat detection capabilities achieved when machine learning behavioral analysis, exploit prevention firewall, web control and essential antivirus communicate with each other. 

Its automatic rollback remediation capabilities also help return your systems to a healthy state, saving time that could be spent recovering an infected device. Managing endpoints is a breeze courtesy of its centralized management console that gives you the choice of local, SaaS or virtual environment deployments. 

Global threats and local events are shared with McAfee’s MVISION EDR (endpoint detection and response), which collects threat event details, detects and prevents threats evading detection. Use MVISION Insights to receive notifications and alerts on prioritized potential threats, as well as conduct a local assessment of your security posture.

Pricing: Contact McAfee for pricing.

Operating system. Mac, Linux and Windows

Best Medium to Large Organizations: Bitdefender GravityZone Security

Bitdefender’s GravityZone security uses a layered architecture that combines machine learning technology, behavior monitoring and attack detection techniques to detect, prevent and block traditional and next-gen threats. The GravityZone console centralized endpoint device security management in physical, virtual and cloud environments.

You can customize the endpoint agent to maximize protection without impacting your performance. Its real-time process monitoring feature inspects all processes in your device operating systems to identify suspicious signs or abnormal behavior and takes the necessary remediation actions.

You can also leverage its web security filtering to scan all incoming web traffic and emails, including SSL traffic in real time. Its advanced anti-exploit technology ensures device memory and vulnerable applications like browsers, media files and document readers are protected.

Pricing: Bitdefender GravityZone annual plan starts at $77.69 per year for 3 devices.

Operating system: Windows, Linux and Mac OS

Best for All Operating Systems: ESET Endpoint Security

Unlike most endpoint security software, the ESET Endpoint Security suite supports all device operating systems. This includes Windows, Linux and Mac desktop versions, as well as Android and iOS for mobile devices. Manage all your endpoint products from a single pane of glass that you can install on your on-premise desktop or use the ESET Cloud Administrator.

The software’s multilayered defense architecture focuses on the entire malware lifecycle — you can detect malware pre-execution, during execution and post execution. And its host-based intrusion prevention system monitors all endpoint activity and leverages predefined rules to identify and stop cynical system behavior.

This software also comes with a 2-way firewall that provides data exposure prevention and anti-hacker protection.

Pricing: ESET’s endpoint protection for 1 year is available in the following plans:

• ESET Protect Entry starts at $239 for 5 devices
• ESET Protect Advanced starts at $248.40 for 5 devices
• ESET Protect Complete starts at $382.50 for 5 devices

Operating system: Windows, Linux, Max, Android and iOS

Best for Small Businesses: Avast Business Antivirus

Avast Business Antivirus is a proactive next-gen endpoint protection solution for small businesses looking to protect against exploits, ransomware and fileless attacks. The software’s intuitive, cloud-based platform “The Business Hub” helps organizations manage all the protection solutions employed. 

This all-in-one platform provides real-time visibility of threats, comprehensive reporting, and management capabilities. This antivirus solution uses 7 layers of deep protection — powered by machine learning techniques and cloud-based analytics — to keep your endpoint devices safe. 

Privacy and identity protection is also available to keep your business information and identity safe. You can count on 24/5 business-grade support from technical engineers who are always on standby to assist you via chat, phone or email.

Pricing: The Avast endpoint protection solution for 1 device comes in 3 plans:

• Avast Business Antivirus starts at $36.99 per year
• Avast Business Antivirus Pro starts at $46.99 per year
• Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus starts at $56.99 per year

Operating system: Windows and Mac OS

Best for Breach Protection: CrowdStrike Falcon

CrowdStrike Falcon endpoint protection software is built to stop breaches through a unified set of cloud-delivered technologies. The Falcon Insight provides endpoint detection and response technology to continuously monitor all endpoint activity while analyzing data in real-time to identify any potential threat activity.

Part of the CrowdStrike Falcon platform is Falcon Discover, a technology that allows for quick identification and elimination of noncompliant or malicious activity through unmatched real-time visibility into all your endpoints. The Falcon platform is also flexible and extensible to meet any organization’s endpoint security needs. And you don’t have to install and manage on-premise equipment.

Pricing: Falcon endpoint protection has 4 plans:

• Falcon Pro starts at $8.99 per device per month
• Falcon Enterprise starts at $15.99 per device per month
• Falcon Premium starts at $18.99 per device per month
• Contact CrowdStrike for Falcon Complete pricing

Operating system: Cloud-based solution 

Important Features of Endpoint Security Software

Be sure to weigh the essential features any endpoint security solution should offer before you commit to a provider. Here’s our checklist of non-negotiable attributes:

Full Security Protection

An antivirus and firewall won’t provide sufficient protection to your endpoints or BYOD (bring your own device) devices. An endpoint security software should have a multi-layered infrastructure that provides most (if not all) of the following:

• Antivirus solution
• Firewall
• Encryption
• Internet security
• Device firewalls
• Intrusion detection techniques
• Mobile device management
• Mobile security solutions
• Application controls

Data Security

Your endpoint security strategy remains incomplete without an effective data protection system. Compromised endpoints can expose data to unauthorized users, that’s why you must restrict access to endpoints only to specific users. Data security in an endpoint security software helps in:

• Data encryption
• Preventing data loss
• Controlling file integrity
• Monitoring the data access

Centralized Security Management Dashboard

It’s beyond your IT personnel’s potential to manage hundreds of computers, devices and other terminals with manual intervention. An endpoint security software should provide an integrated, robust schema to avoid human errors and redundancy. 

The centralized management dashboard should help you monitor all devices, incoming traffic, threats and attacks. You’ll also receive instant notifications and alerts if there’s suspicious interference from multiple endpoints.

Incident Remediation

Endpoint protection software should incorporate an integrated security management tool to facilitate remediation of incidents much instantly after detection. This will improve the visibility of potential threats and prevent any malware attacks even before they penetrate your corporate network.

System Performance

Explore security solutions with a small footprint so that you don’t strain your system resources like disk storage, CPU or RAM. A lightweight endpoint protection solution can preserve processing speed and bandwidth without affecting the performance of your devices.

Mobile Threat Protection

Just as you need desktop or laptop protection from your endpoint software, your organization needs protection for mobile devices. Mobile threat protection capabilities let you choose which apps a user can access and monitor their activity. Further security customizations can allow for password requirements, block camera usage and data erasing in case of a stolen device.

Benefits of Endpoint Security Software

With the right endpoint security software, your organization can yield the following benefits:

• Identify and close security gaps. With these protection solutions come better visibility of the endpoints on the edge of your business perimeter, hence bringing to light any security gaps that your organization may have overlooked.
• Unified security and management. An endpoint protection solution unifies the security of all your business-critical devices, including desktop computers, fixed endpoints, mobile devices and server environments. Better yet, you can easily and securely manage all these endpoints through a centralized dashboard or plane of glass.
• Maintain control with zero trust. Most endpoint security solutions incorporate the core principle of zero trust — you can enjoy peace of mind knowing that access to all organizational data is proper, controlled and authenticated.
• Simplify management. Beyond seamless deployment, endpoint protection software engages in continuous endpoint management — letting you focus on your business rather than using precious company resources to manage the devices.
• Protect your reputation. With the confidence that comes with having secure endpoints, your organization can stay away from the headlines and maintain its solid reputation.

Cost of Endpoint Security Software

The size of your business, the nature of its security strategy and the number of endpoints will probably determine how much you’ll spend on an endpoint security solution. Prices vary among providers, with some offering customized quotes. 

Here are the price ranges for different businesses:

For small businesses: $0 to $50

For mid-sized businesses: $100 to $382

For large businesses (enterprises): Custom pricing

Find Endpoint Security Today

Endpoint security is a crucial component of the modern security stack. Workspace transition to the cloud, digital transformation initiatives and an ever-expanding attack surface are pushing the need for a new class on endpoint security.

There has never been a better time to seek out the right endpoint security solution. Start now with software from our list of partners. 

Best Endpoint Security Software Methodology

Benzinga analyzed the top endpoint security software by industry and winnowed down the list to include those with the best attributes. We prioritized pricing, features and scalability. We also considered the availability of a mobile app and consumer reviews.