ESET Home Security Premium review: Excellent protection, but there are bugs

There’s intention, there’s execution, and sometimes the two don’t always match up perfectly, but they lead to an amazing result. This is the case with ESET Home Security Premiumthe latest offers from the Slovakian security company ESET.

ESETwhich continues its conquest of the Mac market, has subtly updated its offering for 2025. The new edition, which retails for $39.99/£27.99 and up to one device for one year at an introductory price, requires macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later to install and run, and 30-day free trial There is a period that does not require entering a credit or debit card, although you will have to set up an ESET account.

Centered around its anti-virus/anti-malware core, the software also features a VPN client designed to get you up and running quickly without conflicting with settings that VPN users sometimes find themselves limited to.

If there was a big hurdle to ESET Home Security Premium, it came early, and although it was easy enough to download the software from the ESET website, installation turned into a struggle. (It was confusing that the program’s name changed to ESET Cyber ​​Security.)

The software installs a number of extensions, agents, and modules into macOS, which must be granted permission, making setup a little more manual than might be expected, unlike a typical software installation. Once permission was granted for everything involved, the program encountered a strange error installing its SSL certificate, which required troubleshooting, a workaround to the terminal command, and a reinstallation to allow the certificate to pass through and normal web traffic to resume.

This took some trickery, and may have been a unique case or something more widespread; It’s something developers should take a look at if it shows up again.

When it comes to its core elements, ESET Home Security Premium knocks it out of the park. The anti-virus/malware function offers a standard scan mode, a custom scan mode, and allows you to send virus samples to ESET to help identify viruses and provide updates to protect against them. [Find out how ESET compares to the best Mac Antivirus apps in our group test].

The scanning module is capable of performing multiple simultaneous scans (such as a typical scan and a custom scan on a specific folder or external storage), and the feature provides scanning support in .zip and .dmg file formats, but must be configured within a deeper scan.

As for the scan results themselves, they’re impressive, and almost nothing from the extensive sample library was in a position to survive some instances where you have to go through multiple warning screens and bypass macOS-level system protection to execute virus and malware samples.

The program itself meshes well with the Gatekeeper and Xprotect functions in macOS, installing almost everything before it has a chance to install itself and improve your system’s functionality.

Additionally, the scan essentially destroys the vast majority of the malware sample after unzipping it, leaving little to work with in the way of viral infections and potential malware, which has proven to be impressive.

foundry

ESET seems to have heard a clarion call regarding its security module, and amidst the many add-ons it installs, the software provides protection for your computer, network access, web and email, which, for the first time I’ve ever seen, was able to hit 1,000 on spam and phishing emails from your Gmail spam folder.

Here, the program provided adequate warnings regarding links from questionable spam and phishing sites, but still allowed you to travel to the site if you wanted to. Sites That Offer Free Power Tools Did You Win? There was a warning about this. Sites telling me I had a $17,000 cash payment through the app that I didn’t know about? There was a warning. Websites offering questionable medical and casino access? The warning was there, and that was really impressive.

ESET’s VPN client may be somewhat simple compared to a dedicated client, but it excels in terms of reliability and ease of use. Proxy settings are useful; There’s a universal kill switch for internet if needed, as well as easy geolocation options to choose the country and region you’re logging in from. This may not satisfy the hardcore VPN user who needs more comprehensive options, but it’s impressive for everyday use.

foundry

ESET’s settings seem a bit hidden, but what’s actually there is remarkably impressive and gives you a great deal of control over the modules, their performance, how stringent their blocking, filters and firewall settings are, what type of exception/whitelist can be created and how external storage is recognized and handled on your Mac.

The settings are well labeled, and there’s a lot of control to be had here if you decide to take a few minutes and play with things. This is coupled with the easily accessible Help and Support module, which adds quick access to the ESET Help, Technical Support and Knowledge Base page, and serves as a useful starting point to get to the section of the ESET website you need.

Installation weaknesses and the SSL certificate sorting issue aside, ESET Home Security Premium installed easily and performed well, although there are a few things that could draw some attention. The .dmg and .zip scans and removals look a bit strange, as the scan located them, but they seem to differ in how they are handled, which can be modified in the settings.

The settings themselves are a powerful part of the software, but they seem buried, and a quick introduction/tutorial can easily point them out and encourage the user to tweak them as needed. The scheduler function buried within the settings is supposed to allow scans and other functions to be programmed and executed, but it failed to activate after a couple of tests, which is surprising and could bear some debugging.

If there’s an idea in ESET Home Security Premium, it’s that it’s a powerful set of tools, but without the polish it requires to be a must-buy utility.

The settings seemed buried under layers with little drawing attention to them and what they were capable of, the installer offered an almost battle royale game of running an SSL certificate, the app scheduling feature felt hidden and wasn’t implemented during testing, and despite an incredibly strong protection element in terms of viruses, malware, spam and phishing efforts, the app needs some debugging while ESET itself needs to decide what tools will be presented to the user rather than opt for minimal simplicity in its home screen interface.

In the end, ESET Home Security Premium is impressive and worth a try, and some of its features are as impressive as you’ve seen before, but it needs some patching and improvement to get past the final hurdle. However, with a 30-day free trial and no need to enter a credit or debit card, it might be worth giving it a try to see how it fits into your daily Mac lifestyle.

Should you buy ESET Home Security Premium?

Aside from some bugs and rough edges, ESET Home Security Premium offers great value with its basic security features. Elements like antivirus and malware detection, email filtering, and commendable integration with macOS security frameworks provide excellent performance, and the simple yet powerful VPN client delivers what is needed for everyday users. This, combined with a 30-day trial, allows for a good evaluation period without having to hand over payment information.