The Top 11 Endpoint Security Solutions For Business

ESET is a market-leading vendor in endpoint security and antivirus software, known for their powerful yet lightweight cybersecurity solutions. ESET Endpoint Security is their cloud-based endpoint protection solution, designed to protect organization of all sizes against known and zero-day threats such as malware, ransomware and fileless attacks. The solution offers multi-layered protection, which admins can control with a single centralized management console. ESET Endpoint Security protects computers, mobile devices, file servers and virtual environments. It’s available as a standalone product and as a part of a wider enterprise cybersecurity bundle, ESET PROTECT Enterprise, which also includes file server security, disk encryption, a cloud sandbox and EDR.

ESET Endpoint Security combines machine learning technologies and crowdsourced threat intelligence to detect and prevent targeted malware and ransomware attacks. The solution monitors all executed apps for malicious content, based on their known behaviors and reputations. It also scans the behaviors of malicious file processes in each endpoint’s memory to discover and eliminate fileless threats. The combination of technical and human threat intelligence means that ESET’s solution has excellent detection rates before, during and after execution. ESET Endpoint Security also offers web browser protection, preventing users from downloading malicious files and enabling admins to blacklist known malicious URLs, and list URLs that need specific protection.

Security teams can manage their security across all ESET endpoints, including mobiles, via one unified cloud-based management console. This enables them to have a clear overview of their organization’s security posture.

ESET Endpoint Security is praised for being lightweight; it performs as well as any solid anti-malware engine, without the need for extra hardware and without slowing down corporate systems. Cloud-based, the solution is scalable, as well as flexible: ESET Endpoint Security is compatible with Windows, Mac, Linux and Android operating systems, with built-in mobile device management for iOS and AndroidOS. On top of this, the admin console is available in 21 languages, and ESET offers localized support in 38 languages. This makes ESET Endpoint Security a strong solution for organizations with a global workforce, as well as those with a large number of BYOD devices in their fleet.

Headquartered in Copenhagen, Heimdal™ is a leading European provider of cloud-based cybersecurity solutions. Their contribution to our list of endpoint security products is their Threat Prevention Endpoint tool. At a glance, the product is a DNS security solution that blends threat intelligence, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to deliver robust threat prevention on all endpoints within your network. It can be integrated with any other solutions that are already in place and does not interrupt existing workflows. It aims to provide teams with total visibility and extended control into the network and subsequent attached endpoints. All of this is achieved via a single clean and consolidated dashboard.

Heimdal™ Threat Prevention Endpoint provides endpoint security by going beyond antivirus capabilities. It ensures safe browsing for all users, whether they’re working from home, in the office, or both by scanning traffic in real-time and blocking any suspicious or harmful domains and stopping any malicious communication. This is particularly helpful for employees on the move who may need to connect to unprotected or already infected networks, as well as protecting end users from sudden redirects to other web pages when browsing.

The product leverages endpoint DNS threat hunting capabilities, which help it detect and process any malicious URLs before tracing the threat back to the source. It also utilizes DarkLayer Guard™, a traffic filtering engine that works on inbound and outbound traffic. This feature can be customized, with admins able to set listings for the engine to refer to.

Heimdal™’s Threat Prevention Endpoint offers a complex but navigable and easy solution for endpoint security, offering a new approach in the form of AI-driven DNS. We would recommend the product for small to medium sized businesses looking for something different.

Avast are a global leader for providing cyber security solutions to businesses and consumers. Avast’s Small Business Solutions protect customers against malware and ransomware threats, alongside VPN and patch management capabilities. Avast has one of the world’s largest threat detection network and threat database, protecting over 440 million endpoints and 10,000 servers globally. This enables them to use to collect and analyze huge quantities of threat data and create machine learning technologies to stop threats against the endpoint in real-time.

Avast provides a fully-cloud based endpoint protection solution with an online management platform where you can easily configure device protection, monitor endpoints, and add new devices. Avast operate a leading anti-virus solution, offering advanced protection against ransomware and data theft. Avast also provide leading customer support, with 24/5 support delivered by experienced technical engineers. In addition, Avast also offers identity protection, with password and webcam security designed to prevent workforce accounts and devices from compromise.

The Avast Small Business Solutions platform is available in three different packages: Essential, Premium, and Ultimate Business Security. This allows businesses to choose the protection most suited to their needs. The Essential, Premium, and Ultimate Business Security tiers provide the same endpoint protection engine with antivirus and firewall components. The Premium Business Security adds a VPN and USB protection to the package. Ultimate Business Security encompasses everything from the previous packages, along with patch management.

Expert Insights recommends Avast to SMBs and enterprises looking for enhanced protection for endpoint devices with VPN, patch management and ransomware protection features.

ThreatLocker® Protect is a Zero Trust-based endpoint security solution that gives organizations greater control over the content and applications on their endpoints.  

When first installed into an environment, ThreatLocker® deploys in a “Learning Mode” to analyze and understand all applications, executables, and processes. Learning Mode builds a bespoke set of policies based on your unique environment and the day-to-day events occurring within it. Granular application controls allow for complete customization, giving you total control over what software is able to run on your environment. If a user requests an app that has been blocked, a request is sent to an administrator. Admins can run apps on an isolated VDI to check it is not a security risk, and then can either block access or make the application accessible to the users or groups of users who need to use it.

ThreatLocker® Ringfencing™ helps to control what access an application has once it is able to run in your environment. This includes, for example, limiting access to files, the internet, and to other applications on the endpoint. This can prevent applications from being exploited and used to spread ransomware. ThreatLocker® Elevation Control, enables users to access certain apps as a local administrator, even where they don’t have admin privileges on the endpoint itself. ThreatLocker® Storage Control feature allows admins to audit all file and media access and media on an endpoint. Admins can also set policies for physical media, such as USBs.

The Zero Trust element of the ThreatLocker® Endpoint Protection Platform comes from dynamic capabilities of ThreatLocker® Network Control – which provides full visibility and control of network traffic. For example, you can block users accessing their remote desktop from home, if required. You can also manage Internet of Things (IoT) devices and shadow IT devices or applications from accessing certain servers. Ports will automatically open for authorized devices and be unavailable to unauthorized devices.

Deployment of ThreatLocker® is straightforward, with various install options including Microsoft Software Installer, or via an RMM. The admin console has been updated making it intuitive, well designed, and easy to use. The service is popular with users, who recommend it for its simplicity, ease of deployment, and the ease of blocking/allowing user requested apps.

Bitdefender is a trusted endpoint protection provider, protecting millions of consumer and business endpoints worldwide. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security Enterprise is their all-in-one endpoint protection solution that provides endpoint monitoring, risk analytics, and hardening technologies all in one single-agent console. The solution uses advanced, cross-endpoint correlation technologies to deploy protection across your entire organization, enabling it to identify emerging threats faster and more efficiently if multiple endpoints are compromised.

Key strengths of this solution include its highly effective threat protection engines, extended detection and response capabilities, ease of management, and highly configurable deployment. The solution leverages 30 layers of threat scanning techniques to detect advanced endpoint threats earlier in the attack chain. The data collected extends across all of the endpoints in your organization, allowing your team to more effectively track and respond to multi-device compromise. Its risk analytics engine also continuously assesses endpoint security misconfigurations and user behaviors, then provides a prioritized list of security posture recommendations. In terms of reporting, the platform provides comprehensive risk visualizations and analytics to keep relevant users informed of developments, with alert triaging, attack timelines, and sandbox output to help accelerate incident response.

The platform is easy to manage and deploy, with support for endpoints running Windows, Linux, and Mac in physical, virtualized, or cloud environments. It can easily integrate with third-party security tools, allowing teams to manage endpoints and track threats more effectively, and is optimized for datacenter technologies including all hypervisors.

Users praise Bitfedender GravityZone Business Security Enterprise for its ease of use, strong threat protection, and lightweight endpoint client. We recommend the solution for small, mid-sized, and enterprise organizations looking for a dedicated all-in-one endpoint protection and EDR solution with powerful threat protection and seamless user management.

Check Point is a leading cybersecurity solution provider, used by more than 100,000 organizations globally. Check Point Harmony is their unified security platform, which provides comprehensive protection against advanced endpoint attacks. The platform comprises a secure web gateway, email security, phishing protection, secure access service edge (SASE), intrusion prevention, and endpoint security in a single, unified security bundle. Check Point Harmony Endpoint is the endpoint security solution delivered as part of the Harmony security suite.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint delivers powerful protection for Windows, MacOS, and Linux, as well as servers, VDI, browsers, and mobile devices. It offers anti-phishing and browser protection, risk assessments, vulnerability and patch management, ransomware detection, and zero-day detection powered by over 60 AI engines. The platform also helps prevent data loss with custom DLP policies, to help keep sensitive data safe and ensure compliance.

Check Point Harmony Endpoint platform is delivered and managed through a single unified admin console, which supports easy integration with other security tools via API integration. Check Point’s anti-malware solutions are consistently highly rated in independent AV test scores, and we have found the solution to be very effective in our internal testing of the system. Check Point HarmonyEndpoint is an ideal choice for organizations looking to implement endpoint security as part of a consolidated security stack.

Crowdstrike is one of the leading vendors for endpoint protection, operating in over 176 countries and continuing to grow rapidly. They offer a comprehensive suite of endpoint protection solutions under the “Falcon” name; this also includes integrations with Crowdstrike’s other enterprise security tools like cloud security, endpoint detection and response, managed detection and response, vulnerability management, and identity protection. In this article, we’ll focus on their Falcon Endpoint Protection Pro product.

Crowdstrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Pro provides powerful protection against both known and unknown endpoint threats. The platform offers AI-powered next-gen antivirus, which blocks exploits and offers high-performance memory scanning to block ransomware and fileless attacks. It also integrates threat intelligence to provide threat severity assessments that give admins a better understanding of the attacks they’re facing, and provides full visibility into each attack via an easy-to-grasp process tree. This provides contextual and threat intelligence data for full context and visibility, and this data is retained for 90 days.  The solution delivers detailed, customizable alerting, and automated workflows for improving admin efficiency and reducing management overheads. Crowdstrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Pro also gives admins the ability to implement device control policies, such as configuring controls on external USB drive usage.

Crowdstrike’s cloud-based agent is lightweight, quick to deploy, and works across all major operating systems. The solution is praised by customers for its powerful threat detection and real-time alerting. Crowdstrike offers multiple packages for their Falcon Endpoint Protection suite, with configurations optimized for SMBs, right up to large enterprise use cases. As a cloud-based endpoint security solution, we recommend Crowdstrike Falcon Endpoint Protection Pro as a strong option for organizations looking for endpoint security delivered as a service, with powerful antivirus protection, flexible pricing options, and fast deployment.

Read our interview with Crowdstrike’s CTO, Zeki Turedi.

Trellix (formerly McAfee Enterprise) is a global cybersecurity provider protecting more than 40,000 business and government customers worldwide. Trellix Endpoint Security is their integrated, centrally managed endpoint protection suite, which includes endpoint security with threat hunting and device security controls. It also provides EDR tools with threat insights and continuous threat monitoring.

Trellix Endpoint Security uses machine learning to power advanced detection capabilities such as credential theft monitoring and extended detection and response capabilities (XDR). This provides proactive threat hunting and dynamic protection against emerging threats. Trellix’s key strengths include advanced threat investigation and remediation, enhanced visibility into endpoint devices, and automated device controls. From the admin portal, policies can be configured and adapted to suit an organization’s specific needs. Trellix also provides actionable threat intelligence data and predictive assessments of your endpoint environment.

Trellix Endpoint Security is an actionable security intelligence solution that enables organizations to respond immediately to potential threats. The platform can also be integrated with your wider security stack to unify threat intelligence data. Trellix Endpoint Security is a strong option for large enterprise environments with hundreds of remote or on-prem endpoints – the platform is highly scalable and provides automated workflows that enable you to manage all devices with minimal friction.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is a cloud-based enterprise endpoint security solution developed by Microsoft. It integrates closely with the Microsoft 365 eco-system, and supports Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and IoT devices. The solution combines XDR and SIEM in one unified platform to protect these devices against malware, device compromise, and emerging endpoint threats.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint includes multiple threat protection technologies to protect against known and emerging endpoint threats. These include vulnerability and misconfiguration management, network and web protection, endpoint detection and response, and automated investigation and remediation. The solution leverages native behavioral data, with 65 trillion daily signals gathered from multiple sources, to detect malicious activity. Admins can view contextual cloud security analytics, including actionable responses and intelligence on threat remediation. Management and incident response is directly integrated across Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Intune, and Active Directory.

Microsoft Defender is one the most popular enterprise endpoint protection platforms due to its strong feature set and native integrations with the Microsoft ecosystem. Users praise the solution for its efficiency and additional security controls. We recommend Microsoft Defender For Endpoint organizations of any size that already have a MS365 environment, and are looking to deploy an effective endpoint security solution that’s easy to manage and deploy.

SentinelOne is a leading provider of AI-powered security solutions and is best known for their “Autonomous AI” platform, which defends against advanced and emerging endpoint threats. Singularity for Endpoint is SentinelOne’s fully AI-powered, cloud-based EPP, supporting Windows, MacOS, Linux, certain container platforms, and virtual environments. The platform provides powerful protection, comprehensive visibility, and automated remediation, all of which can be managed from a single unified admin console.

Singularity for Endpoint brings together all SentinelOne’s highly automated, AI powered endpoint protection and EDR capabilities into a single platform, deployed via one agent installed on the endpoint. The platform delivers powerful, automated threat protection and automated remediation, fully triaged incident analysis, with comprehensive threat reporting and visibility. Admins can also configure device policies, such as network control, USB control, and Bluetooth control. This feature helps to identify rogue devices already on the network using the Ranger feature, helping to prevent insider risks.

SentinelOne offers three different packages for their SIngularity platform (Core, Control, and Complete), all of which offer endpoint protection features. However, the Complete package also includes security operations and EDR features. As such, this platform is well-suited to organizations of all sizes, but mid-market and larger enterprises would benefit in particular by the additional features offered in the Complete package.

Broadcom is a global technology company that acquired Symantec Enterprise Security in 2019 and has since  positioned the service to focus primarily on the Global 2000 market. Symantec Endpoint Security Complete includes endpoint security, server security, and endpoint management capabilities. The suite is powered by Symantec’s Global Intelligence Networks – one of the largest threat intelligence networks globally. This single-agent solution provides powerful protection for enterprise workforces, with flexible deployment options and comprehensive management capabilities.

Symantec Endpoint Security Complete offers advanced policy controls and technologies that continuously scan for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations across applications, Active Directory, and devices. Its app control and device control features assess the security risk of applications and peripheral devices respectively, such as USBs. It also offers ML-based detection to identify evolving threats across device types, operating systems, and applications, protecting against even fileless attacks in real time. In terms of response, the platform offers behavior forensics and incident analytics to help SOC teams better understand the threats, as well as automated remediation. All of these features can be managed via a single cloud-based management system, and the platform also provides context-aware recommendations for automatic policy tuning, adaptations, and tasks to improve security posture.

Symantec Endpoint Security Complete offers on-prem, cloud, a hybrid deployment options. It’s inistalled via a single agent, and supports laptops, desktops, mobile phones, tablets, and servers on Windows, macOS, Linux iOS, and Android. Overall, this service is a strong choice for mid-size to large enterprises that could also benefit from the platform’s server, data center infrastructure, and cloud workload protection capabilities. These features operate alongside the core endpoint protection and device management functionality.