Avast Ultimate Business Security

What is included in Avast Ultimate Business Security?

Avast Business Hub – Cloud console for policies, alerts, deployment and reports.
Next-gen endpoint protection – File, Web, Mail, Behavior Shield, CyberCapture and firewall.
Patch Management – Automatic patching of Windows and hundreds of third-party applications.
Server and mail protection – Windows Server plus Exchange and SharePoint Server components.
VPN and USB Protection – SecureLine VPN without data limits, removable media blocking.
Important – No EDR component, no Linux, mobile or backup coverage.

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What are the main benefits of Avast Ultimate Business Security?

Avast Ultimate Business Security is the top tier of Avast Small Business Solutions and combines next-gen endpoint protection, privacy tools and automated patch management for Windows PCs, Mac computers and Windows servers. It is managed exclusively from the cloud-based Avast Business Hub and replaced Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus, whose subscriptions were moved to this tier.

One patch workflow – Operating system and application patches from one console.
Same protection engine – All three editions share identical antivirus and firewall components.
CVSS patch prioritisation – Severity scores decide which vulnerabilities you close first.
Remote patching – Reaches laptops outside the office network, even asleep.
Evidence-ready reporting – Scheduled reports show device and patch status.
No management server – The cloud console removes the on-premises console entirely.

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Which company size is Avast Ultimate Business Security suitable for?

Regulatory scope follows sector and role, not headcount, while the technical fit follows the depth of detection a buyer needs. A small water utility can be in scope for the Swiss reporting obligation while a larger trading company is not. The table shows where this product carries the requirement and where it stops.

Does Avast Ultimate Business Security meet the requirements of Swiss cybersecurity legislation?

The Swiss reporting obligation applies to operators of critical infrastructure named in the revised Information Security Act, not to every company, so most commercial buyers are not in scope. Since 1 April 2025 those operators must report a cyberattack to the Federal Office for Cybersecurity (BACS) within 24 hours of discovery, with 14 days to complete the report. Avast Ultimate Business Security supports the first 24 hours in one specific way: the Business Hub raises alerts and shows which devices are affected and when a detection occurred, which is what a first report needs. It does not support the completion phase, because there is no EDR component, no attack path reconstruction and no log retention or SIEM export, so the question of how the attacker entered and what was accessed has to be answered with other tools or an incident response provider. The patch reports do serve a second purpose, since they document whether a known exploited vulnerability was still open at the time of the incident. This text is not legal advice, and whether your organisation falls under the reporting obligation should be clarified with your own legal advisers.

Does Avast Ultimate Business Security meet the requirements of European cybersecurity legislation?

No product makes a company compliant with the NIS 2 Directive, because the directive addresses the organisation and its processes rather than a piece of software. NIS 2 requires categories of measures including risk analysis and security policies, incident handling, business continuity and backup management, supply chain security, vulnerability handling, cyber hygiene and training, access control, cryptography and multi-factor authentication. Avast Ultimate Business Security contributes to vulnerability handling through automated patching with CVSS-based prioritisation, to cyber hygiene through enforced endpoint policies, and to access control in a narrow sense through USB device blocking and web content filtering. It does not cover backup and restore, which remains a separate add-on, and it provides no encryption management, no multi-factor authentication, no identity management, no security awareness training and no detection and response capability beyond prevention. Buyers in scope of NIS 2 should therefore treat this product as the endpoint and patching layer of a wider programme, not as its substitute.

What should you know about official assessments of Avast?

Two authority decisions concerning Avast are verified and in force, and both relate to data protection rather than to product security. The Czech Office for Personal Data Protection issued a final and binding decision, confirmed by its president on 10 April 2024, imposing a fine of 351 million Czech crowns for the unlawful transfer during 2019 of pseudonymised browsing data belonging to around 100 million users to the subsidiary Jumpshot; the case was handled together with other European supervisory authorities under the One-Stop-Shop mechanism. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission finalised an order on 27 June 2024 requiring a payment of 16.5 million dollars and prohibiting Avast from selling or licensing browsing data for advertising purposes, alongside a privacy programme subject to independent assessment for twenty years. Avast states that it voluntarily closed Jumpshot in January 2020 and ceased the data collection at that time, that it disagrees with the allegations and the characterisation of the facts, and that the operational provisions match its current privacy and security programmes; the products Avast itself names in its settlement information are consumer applications such as Avast Free Antivirus, Avast Premium Security, Avast Secure Browser and the online security extensions, not the business tiers. Independent testing is unaffected and postdates the decisions: AV-Comparatives granted the Approved Business Security Product Award to Avast Ultimate Business Security in July 2024, and AV-Test certified it as Approved Corporate Endpoint Protection for Windows in 2025. Neither decision is a sales ban or a usage warning, and neither authority restricted the sale or use of Avast business products; the buyers practically affected are those answering public sector tenders or supply chain questionnaires that ask whether a supplier has been subject to a regulatory finding, where the finding and the vendor response have to be documented.

Does Avast Ultimate Business Security help with security questionnaires from large customers?

Yes, for the prevention and patching sections, and not at all for the detection and identity sections. It answers questions on malware protection for workstations and servers, centrally enforced security policies, protection of Exchange and SharePoint servers, removable media control, web content filtering, phishing and DNS hijacking protection, endpoint firewall and RDP brute-force blocking, and it produces scheduled reports that document patch status per device, which is usually the single hardest item to evidence without a tool. It does not answer questions on endpoint detection and response, threat hunting, 24/7 monitoring, log retention and SIEM or syslog export, disk encryption and key recovery, multi-factor authentication, identity and access management, mobile device management, Linux server coverage, or tested backup and restore. To close the gaps at the lowest cost, first add the services that already run inside the same Business Hub, namely Cloud Backup for the backup and restore items and Premium Remote Control for supported remote administration, since a second console means a second agent and a second audit trail. The detection, encryption and authentication items cannot be closed inside the Avast Business family at any tier, so plan those as a separate product from the start rather than as an upgrade path.

What is the difference between Avast Premium Business Security and Avast Ultimate Business Security?

The single decisive difference is Patch Management, which is included in Ultimate and only available as a paid add-on in Premium and Essential. The second difference follows from it: because Patch Management exists only as a managed service, the Avast Business Hub is optional for Essential and Premium but mandatory for Ultimate, so an unmanaged per-device installation is not possible at this tier. The protection itself is identical across all three editions, as they share the same antivirus and firewall engine and receive the same unified build with each engine update, which means upgrading changes management scope and privacy tooling rather than detection quality. Cloud Backup and Premium Remote Control remain add-ons at every tier, and no tier includes an EDR component.

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Which limitations should you know before buying?

The restrictions here are platform-based rather than regional, as no verified country or region limitation applies to the advertised features. On Mac computers the endpoint protection works but the VPN and Patch Management do not, so a mixed fleet leaves macOS devices outside the patching evidence you bought the product for. Linux servers are not covered at all, because Avast Business Antivirus for Linux is a separate product that is not managed from the Business Hub, and mobile devices are not covered either, since Mobile Security was removed from the Small Business Solutions subscriptions and cannot be managed in the console. There is no on-premises console option, so the management data path is cloud-only and organisations with an on-premises management requirement should stop here. The two most common follow-up purchases are Cloud Backup, because ransomware recovery needs a restore path that the protection shields do not provide, and a separate detection and response product, because the missing EDR component becomes the blocking item as soon as a large customer or an insurer asks about incident detection.

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Frequently asked questions about Avast Ultimate Business Security

Which systems can Patch Management actually patch?

Patch Management covers Windows workstations and Windows servers, including Windows Server 2025, 2022, 2019, 2016 and 2012, plus hundreds of third-party applications such as Google Chrome, Adobe products, Java and Zoom. It does not patch macOS or Linux. Patch severity is ranked using the industry-standard CVSS score, so critical items can be identified and deployed first.

Does it protect Exchange and SharePoint servers?

Yes. Dedicated Exchange Server Protection and SharePoint Server Protection components are part of the shared engine and are present in all three editions, covering Microsoft Exchange Server 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010 SP2 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and higher. This is server-side scanning on the mail and collaboration platform itself, not a replacement for a mail gateway or for anti-phishing training.

Can smartphones and tablets be managed in the console?

No. Mobile Security was removed from the Small Business Solutions subscriptions and the related management options are no longer available in the Business Hub. Companies that need mobile coverage require a separate mobile device management product, which is worth planning before rollout if your security questionnaire includes mobile endpoints.