14 DAY TRIAL // The latest OPSWAT report comparing worldwide user preference for various antivirus solutions shows Microsoft Security Essentials in the lead with 16.3% of the market share, followed by avast! Free Antivirus with 13.2%, and another product of the Redmond-based company, Windows Defender, with 6.2%.
Almost all the usual suspects are included in the report, but, for the first time, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware is also listed, with a 4.2% (7th) chunk of the market, ahead of some solutions from Kaspersky, Symantec, ESET, and AVG.
The free alternatives from Avira and AVG occupy the fourth and fifth place, having a prevalence of 5% and 4.8%, respectively.
Since Malwarebytes’ product is designed as a supplemental security utility, most of its users have it installed along another, alternative program. According to OPSWAT’s report, only 6.7% of the machines are protected by Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free or Pro alone.
OPSWAT’s reports are to be taken with a pinch of salt, as the results rely on data collected from users of Security Score and GEARS, free tools that can gather details about the applications installed on the endpoint computer.
Furthermore, as the company also notes, OPSWAT is not a research institution and it has no claims on the accuracy of the data, which has been released only as a starting discussion point and may differ from the real-world marketplace.
Nevertheless, including Malwarebytes Anti-Malware complementary security alternative on the list of antivirus solutions acknowledges the popularity of the product among the users.
New heights could be reached, especially since the recently released public beta promises solid improvements in detecting and eliminating an increased pool of cyber-threats with the rollout of the upcoming version 2.0.