ESET NOD32 antivirus for macOS 2024 review

In this post, we take an in-depth look at ESET NOD32 antivirus for macOS. Contrary to many of its competitors, ESET provides a very lean antivirus tool, which includes its antivirus engine and nothing more. It does offer higher-cost subscriptions that include more goodies (more on that later), but for this review, we’re primarily focused on the flagship feature, which is the antivirus.

I recommend reading the entire review. If not, you can read the summary of my thoughts below.

ESET NOD32 antivirus for macOS summary 

I have to admit I came away from this review somewhat impressed with NOD32’s performance on my Mac. ESET’s offering here is free of fluff – no junk file cleaner, thanks. You get a good antivirus engine from a reputable vendor and a host of configuration options to set things up to your liking.

The app looks good and is easy to navigate, but because it exposes so many settings, things can get a bit confusing, and remembering how you got to where you are can be a bit of a challenge (there are a lot of sub-menus within sub-menus).

While the macOS version hasn’t been recently tested on either AVTests or AVComparatives, it landed a perfect score in our in-house testing, blocking everything we threw at it. On the pricing front, its Essential and Premium plans are competitively priced, but its Ultimate plan is quite the investment. You also get a 30-day free trial (no credit card required), so you can test the product for an entire month before handing ESET some cash.

ESET is definitely recommended. Given the limited usefulness of most of the add-ons, I’d stick with the excellent Essential plan.

ESET NOD32 antivirus for macOS pros & cons

What are the system requirements?

My testing was done using macOS Sonoma on an M1 Mac.

Signing up for Eset NOD32 antivirus for macOS

This is the way to go because ESET offers a free one-month trial. You’ll get a free month if you pay for a subscription after your trial. Clicking TRY FOR FREE launches the app download. Once downloaded, launch it to start the installation process (detailed below).

You can skip the free trial and purchase a subscription from the get-go. I don’t know why you would do that, but you can.

How to install Eset Nod32 antivirus for macOS

The installation process is pretty similar to Eset for Windows and what you’d expect from a Mac installer. It’s your standard click-through installation.

1. Download the ESET NOD32 Free Trial installer for Mac.
2. Locate the downloaded .dmg file in your Downloads folder and double-click it.
3. In the open window, double-click the ESET NOD32 Installer to begin the installation.
4. If prompted with a security warning, click “Allow” to allow the installation.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup.
6. When prompted, enter your Mac’s administrator password to allow ESET NOD32 to install its components.
7. Once installation is complete, ESET prompts you to set up the app. Follow the prompts, and you’ll be up and running with your antivirus in minutes.

Now, let’s turn to the app’s functionality.

The ESET NOD32 app

The main feature of any macOS antivirus app is the antivirus engine. However, many antivirus vendors like to bloat their apps with fluff—things like password managers and junk file cleaners, which can be helpful sometimes but aren’t critical to an antivirus. ESET’s offering here is different. The base subscription version (Essential) has nothing but the antivirus and its settings, and I like it that way.

You can get more features by going for a higher-tier plan, but I don’t think you would be getting much added value for your money. We’ll look at what you get with the other plans later. For now, let’s look at what we get in the base app.

Overview

When you launch the app, you’re in the Overview menu by default. It simply displays whether or not all of the app’s features are enabled and working. In my case, I enabled everything during the “onboarding,” so I got some green.

ESET’s UI is clean and lean, without any fluff. This makes the app easier for the eyes and more intuitive to navigate and use. However, when you get deeper into the app’s configuration, there are a lot of sub-menus (and sub-menus within sub-menus) that can make things a bit confusing. You’ll still manage to set things up as you like, but things could be a bit clearer.

All of the features are accessed from the left side pane.

Scan

ESET can perform two scan types. To access them, click Scan on the left.

Clicking Scan now next to Scan Your Computer will start a full scan (there are no quick scans in ESET).

Clicking Scan… next to Custom Scan displays a menu where you can drag and drop custom items to scan.

You can also click the Browse… button to display a file picker.

You can click the Send… button next to Submit a Sample to, well, submit a sample to ESET for analysis.

Protections

The Protections menu lets you turn on or off the different security features included with ESET.

Selecting Computer displays toggles for Real-time file system protection, ESET LiveGrid reputation system, and auto-updates for the app.

The Web and Email menu allows you to toggle:

• Web protection
• Anti-Phishing protection
• Email protection

Update

The Update menu lets you update the app to the latest version and update your virus definitions.

Tools

The Tools menu provides access to the app’s log files and quarantine list.

Log Files

Quarantine

Help & Support

The Help & Support menu displays ESET’s support resources.

Settings

You may have noticed that the app does not have a general settings menu or gear icon to click on. To access the app’s settings, select ESET Cyber Security from the menu bar and select Settings.

That brings up the Settings app.

There’s a lot to play with here, so we’ll break it down by section.

Detection Engine

This page lets you exclude various elements from scans. It also lets you fine-tune the behavior of cloud-based scans and enable virus scans.

Cloud-based Scans

Protections

The Protections section allows you to fine-tune the behavior of the app’s security features. For example, here’s the Email Client Protection page:

Update

From the Update page, you can fine-tune the app’s updates. You can also configure different update servers.

Tools

The Tools menu enables you to schedule scans, manage your log files, and connect the app to a proxy server.

User Interface

Finally, the User Interface menu lets you customize the app’s appearance and notification behavior and displays the status of the app’s various protections and features.

Let’s move on to the antivirus tests.

Eset Nod32 antivirus testing

When testing ESET NOD32, I started with the EICAR malware samples. ESET detected EICAR samples in all its scanning modes.

I then moved on to the malware samples, which again detected all of them.

How does the software impact performance?

Let’s move on to ESET’s impact on system resources. ESET does not support Quick scans:

Full scan

Antivirus apps tend to be very resource-hungry. But even while ESET’s scans were running, my computer remained responsive. This is becoming increasingly common. Still, it’s good stuff.

Eset Nod32 for macOS pricing

ESET NOD32’s pricing is fair – for the most part. There are three subscriptions on offer:

• Essential: $59.99/year – works out to $4.99/month
• Premium: $69.99/year – works out to $5.83/month
• Ultimate: $179.99/year – works out to $14.99/month

So, for ten dollars more than the Essential plan, you can get the Premium plan, which includes a password manager and file encryption. These are not very compelling features. You can find many excellent and free password managers online, and macOS natively supports file encryption, so there is no need to pay extra.

Still, so far, ESET’s asking prices make sense. But the Ultimate plan has quite the price jump. From $69.99, you go to $179.99. What do you get for that extra $110?

A photo metadata remover (many free options exist), a notifications blocker (you can manage notifications natively in macOS), identity theft protection, and a VPN. So, you’re paying an extra $110 for identity theft protection and a VPN.

If you’re going to pay for a VPN (and you should pay for your VPN rather than go with a free service), you should purchase a subscription from a reputable dedicated VPN provider. Your money will be better spent; you’ll get better protection and more features than signing up for an antivirus vendor’s flanker service.

Identity protection services are not free, so paying for this makes sense if you will benefit from it. I am just wondering if ESET’s service can hold its own in the face of competition. Identity protection isn’t what it’s known for.

The asking price is more than fair if you choose the Essential plan, which I recommend.

Getting help with Eset Nod32

ESET’s support resources are grouped in the app’s Help & Support menu.

From here, you can access its Help page (essentially an online user guide), its knowledge base (which is quite thorough), and its technical support department, which is email-based.

I wrote to ESET’s support department to inquire about the company’s data collection practices. Before sending my inquiry, I had already reviewed its privacy policy, and it’s quite good. It clearly outlines the reasons for collection and lists the collected data points. ESET’s data collection practices are leaner than most, and I was happy to see that.

I received a polite and knowledgeable reply within 24 hours directing me to its excellent privacy policy. So, I’d say ESET’s support is very good. I also didn’t encounter any issues with my ESET installation, so were I not reviewing the product, I wouldn’t have needed to contact ESET support.

Do I recommend ESET NOD32 for macOS?

I do. But I’d download the free monthly trial and get the Essential plan.

ESET NOD32 for macOS is an excellent antivirus for your Mac. While the app could be a bit more intuitive (there’s a lot of “menu-digging”), it also exposes more settings than most, so you can really customize the app to your needs. On the Essential plan, you nonetheless get a pretty lean app experience, as ESET doesn’t bloat its app up with marketing to compel you to upgrade. The features you don’t have access to are simply not there.

While we’re on the topic, I don’t recommend going for ESET’s Ultimate plan. It’s significantly more expensive than the Essential or the Premium plan. And I don’t feel its feature set is worth the asking price.

Another area in which ESET has an opportunity for improvement is with its agent support. Its Help page and knowledge base are very good. But, as mentioned above, I’ve yet to hear back from them after 48 hours. Hopefully, this is just a temporary situation.

All in all, ESET NOD32 for macOS is recommended – just stick to the Essential plan.

Antivirus testing methodology

We’ve structured our antivirus testing methodology to provide reliable data on the software’s effectiveness at malware protection and performance.

Our testing process includes:

• Using malware test samples from EICAR
• Testing live malware samples, including Adware and Trojans
• Comparing our own tests with independent antivirus lab test results
• Measuring the impact on PC performance

In addition, we analyze pricing, ease of use, compatibility, and additional features.

We have a dedicated post on our antivirus research and testing methodology if you want to know more about how we analyze antivirus software.