G Data offers a wide variety of features that would expect from a complete software suite. G Data’s simple, straightforward interface doesn’t muddle the experience by hiding the security status. As many other programs, this program uses a green tick or a caption to show the security status.
The program is also good at blocking new malware and detecting it. The ‘virus monitoring’ service that channels your traffic through the G Data cloud service not just updates the virus definition files, it also detects malware based on the way it behaves. In our tests, G Data detected and blocked all malware that was new and unknown to us that we tested, with only one false positive.
In AV Comparatives’ offline detection test, G Data scored even better than Bitdefender’s close relative did. This is likely due to the program’s own DeepRay engine, which reveals malware that is camouflaged by analysing all actions that malware usually tries to carry out. It also searches for patterns that indicate malicious intent, for instance, changing settings of other software or observing keystrokes.
However the program does fall short in some areas that we consider crucial for an antivirus software suite. It doesn’t offer a firewall, VPN, or parental controls. If you need these extras, G Data’s Internet Security package is more expensive. This is a significant issue, especially when top-of-the-line rivals like Norton 360 and Bitdefender provide them at a comparable or less expensive cost.