Opinion on Webroot?

  • 13 March 2019
  • 6 replies
  • 63 views

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Switching off of Kaspersky here relatively soon. We've looked at different endpoint protection solutions and have it narrowed down between Webroot and BitDefender.
We like Webroot because of the fact it comes with security awareness training, which the auditors would love. It's also super light weight (sales guy told me 1 MB).
I want to hear everyone's experience with Webroot. Pro's, con's, tips, etc.

6 replies

Userlevel 7
Hello Jacobcullen, Welcome to the Webroot Community Forum. ☺️

I'm not an Endpoint user with WSA. I have the customer version of WSA since the launch of the program. I can say that I have never been infected using WSA. I'll ping @NicCrockett one of our Endpoint users here on the forum that can give you more information.

HTH,
Dave
Userlevel 7
Badge +28
Welcome to the community @Jacobcullen! Good luck in your search for a new endpoint protection service. Something I don't envy anyone who has to do. Picking the right one to fit a business can be a major pain. I can give you the reasons that brought me to pick Webroot and what I've seen in the 3-4 years we've been using it.

Our environment was and still is built mainly on legacy technology like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. I knew we would need time to get it upgraded, so I looked for the software that would support these operating systems the longest. At the time, Webroot was the longest one, with plans to support Windows XP until April 2019. We've upgraded some things, but not everything and Webroot has told me they still have plans to continue support past the April 2019 date. This is much longer than anyone else in the industry supported Windows XP.

Obviously, you don't want to base your decision on OS support alone, and your environment is probably different than mine. I also used the AV Comparatives website to compare the different AV solutions that were out there. How they performed catching viruses, used resources on PCs, and other aspects that AV Comparatives test. Webroot didn't test as the best, but it was high on the list and it might have been the best on system resource usage.

My final step was testing it in my environment. I don't know if they still do this, but at the time you could get 100 licenses for 30 days. I used this to test the console, on a PC, on a Server, on a Mac, system resource usage, and how everything worked together. This along with the Windows XP support, a high AV Comparative score, a price tag that wasn't through the roof, and I didn't need a server to run the console is what got me on board with Webroot in the beginning.

There's only so much you can learn from a report and a 30 day test on a few endpoints. Since then I've found a number of problems or things that could be improved.

  1. Most of my experiences with support have not been good. Most have ended with support basically telling me to deal with. Some support cases, have gone much better. I recently had one escalated to level 2 support where I got great support.
  2. I stopped using the Mac version about 1-1.5 years ago, so I'm behind on any improvements. However, I stopped using it because it was a constant problem and you couldn't control it at all from the console. I do know they've improved the console control, but it still doesn't match what can be done with the Windows version.
  3. They have some alerts to inform the admin about issues, but they are limited. I opened a feature request about this and they were supposed to be implemented last year. I had to open a new feature request because they still hadn't implemented them and they now say sometime in 2019.
  4. The reporting is extremely basic and they're have been numerous feature requests about this from me and other users. Supposedly they are working on a new reporting system, but it hasn't changed much since I started using the product. Example from @pkuras. Another example from @acomstock and myself.
  5. Initially I had to create 100s of overrides because Webroot found 100s of false positives. I recently was adding a new override and found out that my endpoints weren't updating their override database files. One endpoint I checked hadn't been updated in over 2 years, but the software was supposedly up-to-date. I never would have known had I not needed to add a new override and it wasn't working.
  6. I've noticed that Webroot doesn't do some basic house cleaning and you'll have issues if you want to uninstall it.
  7. This isn't a software issue, but the community has some practices I don't agree with when it come to marking feature requests complete when they haven't completed. This is a personal issue of mine on how I think things should be run, so don't let it sway your decision.
There are good things about the software.

  1. I don't have to have a server to run the admin console, it's hosted in the cloud. This also means I don't have to keep it up-to-date.
  2. Webroot does have a low system resource usage. This is great for me, since I still have PCs that have MB of RAM. I do see the occasional spike, but it's rare.
  3. The community is a great resource for getting help. The admins, moderators, leaders, and others all bring a large amount of knowledge to the table. I have issues with support, I have better luck on the community.
  4. Pricing is definitely a great bonus. I'm hoping that doesn't change now that they've been purchased by Carbonite.
  5. Of course, they still support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003! OMG!!!
I hope that helps and I hope I met @ProTruckDriver's expectations for a post. I think this might be my longest yet. 😁
Userlevel 7
Thanks for the post @NicCrockett I know I sure learned a lot in your post about Endpoint. 😉
Userlevel 7
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You're welcome @ProTruckDriver. These are my experiences, I know that others have had different and better experiences than myself.
Userlevel 7
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@NicCrockett ,

Very impressive/informative response.

Thank you!😊
Userlevel 7
Badge +28
You're always welcome @Ssherjj! 😁

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