Donna Buenaventura, a highly respected security software expert and MVP, wrote a comparative review on BrightHub.com:

Which is Better? Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware vs. a-squared Free

Her test results:

a-squared Free won in the major categories!

• Malware Detection – Winner: a-squared Free
  Of 100 malware samples, a-squared Free found 92, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware only 58.
   
• Removal of Detected Malware Samples – Winner: a-squared Free
  a-squared Free was able to remove all detected samples without the need for a system restart.
   
• Performance – Scanning – Winner: a-squared Free
  a-squared Free finished a full scan of the system drive in 29 minutes, Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware took 1 hour and 24 minutes.
   
• Options and Feature – Winner: a-squared Free
  a-squared Free lets you run a quick, smart, custom, right-click, silent, commandline and deep system scans.

The famous Malware Research Group has again tested 21 antivirus products to protect your PC in October 2009. Tested virus scanners had to find the enormous amount of 554,891 malware samples, split into the following categories:

Trojans/Backdoors: 398,951
Windows Viruses: 8,864
Worms: 61,928
Adware/Spyware: 48,552
Rootkits/Exploits: 10,736
Other Malware: 25,860 

That ensures a representative mix of current malware types that is similar to a ”in-the-wild” malware mix. Test enviroment was a Windows XP machine with service pack 3. Here are the original test results:

We are proud to be able to defend our number one place!

Issue 10/2009 of the German com! magazine published a big comparative of 10 freeware antivirus tools. The testing was executed by www.av-test.org. The In-the-wild test included 3200 of the most spread malwares. For the testing of the specific malware categories, they have used about 480,000 unique malware samples.

The following programs were tested:

- Avira Antivir Personal Free Antivirus 9.0
- Bitdefender Free Edition 10
- Panda Cloud Antivirus Beta
- Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0
- Alwil Avast Antivirus Home 4.8
- AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5
- Emsi Software a-squared Free 4.5
- Comodo Internet Security 3.10
- PC Tools Antivirus Free Edition 6.0
- Clamwin Free Antivirus 0.95

The detection test results for a-squared Free:

- Wildlist-Malware on Demand: 100% detected – best in test!
- Worms: 99.99% detected – best in test!
- Backdoors: 99.98% detected – best in test!
- Bots: 99.81% detected – best in test!
- Trojans: 99.95% detected – best in test!
- 5 active nasties: 100% detected – best in test!
- Heuristic (1 week without updates): 63.56% detected – best in test!
- Heuristic (2 weeks without updates): 52.72% detected – number 2 in test
- Ad- and Spyware: 99.57% detected – best in test!

The independent testing organization Malware Research Group spent much efforts in creating a close to real world needs test environment.

Methodology:

The MRG testers have installed and tested 25 different security solutions to see if they can prevent virus infections. From pure antivirus over firewalls with antivirus features to full internet security suites. To make the test as representative as possible, they have executed 60 different nasties. All samples of malware used in this test came from infected machines, samples were collected in August 2009.

The test results:

Only less than 50% of the tested security products were able to protect the test system.

a-squared Anti-Malware has detected all malware samples!

On request, MRG told us that a-squared Anti-Malware was the only product which was able to detect all samples purely based on signature detection. The behavior blocker part was not even needed to prevent the infections.

The tables shows: Program tested, Amount of samples blocked, Amount of Samples missed, Passed or Failed the test.

PC Security Labs, a new but well established antivirus testing agency, published the July 2009 test.

Key facts:

• 23 well known antivirus products in test.
• 3132 Malware samples to be scanned.

Test results:

• Emsi Software’s a-squared Anti-Malware and Tall Emu’s Online Armor Personal Firewall ++ both missed only 3 samples, resulting in the first place in test!
• Of the missed 3 samples, a-squared Anti-Malware was able to catch 2 while dynamic testing (samples were started to see if the software can prevent infection).
   
• With only 1 missed sample, a-squared Anti-Malware’s total detection rate is 99.97%!

Malware Research Group did the first realtime protection test, executing 22 wide spread malware samples to see which security solutions are able to block them effectively (which is the most imporant fact on any antivirus program actually).

These were the candidates:

- Avira AntiVir Premium Version: 9.0.0.441
- a-squared Anti-Malware Version: 4.5.0.19
- avast! Professiona Edition Version: 4.8.1335
- Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 Version: 9.0.0.463
- G Data AntiVirus 2010 Version: 20.0.1.1
- COMODO Internet Security Version: 3.10.102363.531
- ESET NOD32 Antivirus System Version: 4.0.437
- Norton AntiVirus 2009 Version: 16.5.0.134
- AVG Anti-Virus Professional Edition: 8.5.406/1617
- Dr.Web anti-virus Version: 5.00.1.08030

Only 2 of 10 candidates passed the test:

a-squared Anti-Malware and Avira AntiVir!

Please check out the MRG website for more details: http://malwareresearchgroup.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=47

Additional note:

On request of Emsi Software, they have tested Mamutu 2.0 using the same samples. The result is stunning:

Even without any Malware signatures, Mamutu 2.0 blocked all samples too!

Trojans/Backdoors – 468,850
Windows Viruses - 12,134
Worms – 64,358
Adware/Spyware – 58,224
Rootkits/Exploits – 11,058
Other Malware – 24,800

Samples were gatherered between 2008 and 2009 and represent a typical spread ratio of each individual malware group.

Testresults

The table shows the program tested, the amount of malware samples (all of the categories above) that were detected and removed.

PC Security Labs has finished a new bi-monthly test of 19 major antivirus products. The testset contained 3,601 different malicious samples of March and April 2009, representing a typical scenario today:

- 61.7% Trojans
- 22.9% Backdoors
- 14.2% Worms
- 0.7% Rootkits
- 0.5% Viruses

In static testing (found by the disk scanner), a-squared Anti-Malware 4.5 missed 6 samples, which means a detection rate of 99.83%.

PCSL tested the missed 6 samples by starting them to see how much of them can be blocked by the a-squared Anti-Malware Guard. The result:

a-squared Anti-Malware missed only 1 malware sample!!!

That means the best total detection rate of 19 antivirus products!

Total detection rate results in detail: 

Anti-Malware test performed by Malware Research Group in April 2009:

Project details: On Demand scan test

Operating System used in this test: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3

Total number of programs used in this test: 18

Malware samples used in this test: 395.844

Malware categories used in this test and the amount of samples in each category :

Windows/Macro Viruses- 18.696

Trojans/Backdoors- 243.811

Worms/Rootkits- 86.634

Adware/Spyware- 46.703

 All details can be reviewed here: Test #18

Here is another anti malware challenge performed by SSUpdater Team (quoted):

Read all details on SSUpdater.com