Bitdefender has a powerful family of top-of-the-line packages and security suites, including one of the best Mac antiviruses. It’s one of the better providers available, and its basic three plans should include something for everyone.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is the first product in the consumer line. It goes far beyond regular malware hunting, as the name suggests, with a slew of useful security and privacy features, including an additional layer of ransomware safeguard, Wi-Fi security searching to detect network problems, banking protection through a secure browser, secure file deletion, a vulnerability scanner, and a password manager.
Antivirus Plus also includes a free trial of Bitdefender VPN. That’s limited to a daily limit of 200MB, but it might be worse: the unregistered edition of Avira’s Phantom VPN limits you to 500MB per month.
Bitdefender VPN gets the newest features in the 2022 edition as well. It’s intelligent enough to connect automatically when you need it (most of the time); split tunneling allows you to choose which applications use the VPN and which use your regular connection; there’s the latest Android app, and an ad and tracker blocking is built in.
What will you see here?
Plans & Pricing
Plus Antivirus The price for a one-year, one-device license starts at $14.99 and there are considerable reductions if you prolong your membership. A three-device, one-year license, for example, costs $24.99 in year one and $59.99 on renewal; a five-device, two-year license costs $109.99, and a ten-device, three-year license costs $179.99, or just $6 per device per year.
Bitdefender Internet Security adds a firewall, spam filter, and parental controls to the bundle. Webcam protection prevents illegal access to your webcam, and a microphone monitor displays any programs using your microphone.
A one-year Internet Security license for one device costs $24.99 in the first year and $59.99 on renewal, making it 50% more costly than Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. However, the price premium diminishes if additional devices and years are added. A three-device, one-year license costs $29.99 in the first year and $79.99 on renewal; a five-device, two-year license costs $129.99; and a ten-device, three-year license costs just $199.99, or $6.67 per device per year.
Some of these headline prices may appear to be exorbitant, especially when there is no introductory discount, but they are often good long-term value. For example, Kaspersky Anti-Virus costs $79.99 for the first two years to cover five devices. However, it costs $159.98 to renew. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus covers the same hardware from the start for $109.99.
If you’re still not persuaded, no worries: each product includes a 30-day trial build. There is no credit card information necessary; simply register with your email address to test Bitdefender’s capabilities.
Interface
When you use Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for the first time, it launches a basic tour that highlights essential elements of the UI and explains what they perform. Experienced users will most likely figure it out on their own. However, it’s nice to have this help available for those that need it.
Bitdefender’s well-designed dashboard provides quick access to the tools you’ll use most frequently, such as Quick Scans and the VPN.
A left-hand sidebar arranges Bitdefender’s additional tools into Protection, Privacy, and utility sections, and pressing any of them displays a list of the functions available. Most are logically titled, and if you’ve ever used another antivirus, you’ll soon figure out how to use them, although tooltips are available if you need help.
If the basic dashboard layout does not meet your requirements, you may modify it to delete or add default elements. Maybe you’re not interested in the VPN. You could replace it with links to the complete system scan, the password manager, the disc clean-up module, or a variety of other programs with a single click. If only everyone could be as adaptable.
Overall, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus has a sleek and professional interface that performs admirably in almost every aspect. It’s simple and pleasant for novices, but it also provides the configurability and control that specialists want.
Antivirus
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus has a variety of scan modes. Quick Scan looks for the most usually infected places, whereas System Scan looks at everything. In addition, File Explorer integration allows scanning things via Explorer’s right-click menu. And there’s a bootable recovery environment to help with the most persistent threats.
A Manage Scans tool allows you to create new scan types to examine specific files and folders, as well as configure how the scan works and set it to run on a schedule or solely on demand. There is also a Custom Scan option, which searches any system area where possible dangers may exist. A Vulnerability Scan is also included to check for privacy issues in program settings as well as any necessary software upgrades.
This doesn’t quite give the expert-level choices that we’ve seen from vendors like Avast and Avira, but it’s more than adequate for most users. You can’t pin your unique scan type to the main screen, so it’s always at least 3 clicks away.
Bitdefender’s antivirus settings aren’t as customizable as some of the competition’s. However, they’re well-balancing and focus on the capabilities you’re most likely to require.
There aren’t any daunting or too complex choices, such as scanning RAR archives to a nested depth of 4. However, not TARs — there’s only a simple-scan archives, yes or no?’ setting.
Threat Timeline
Throughout the examination, Bitdefender exhibited its new ‘threat chronology,’ which appears to be a thorough description of how we nearly got infected. This appears to be a flow chart with times, app names, and large symbols.
One timeline began with Outlook starting, followed by Chrome, which performed software reporter tool.exe, and Bitdefender detecting a threat. Anyone who sees this may believe they received a malicious email, clicked a link, Chrome opened, and loaded an app, which then executed a harmful application.
Providing consumers with additional information about the genesis of infection is a fantastic concept. However, Bitdefender’s threat timelines generate more confusion than answers.
Performance
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus scans quickly, with Quick Scans lasting about 15-30 seconds on a PC. Regular scans began at 50 minutes to examine our target files. That’s a tad sluggish; Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security, for example, took 15 minutes to scan the identical data.
However, Bitdefender only evaluates new and altered files in successive scans, which makes a significant difference. In run #2, Antivirus Plus scanned our test files in 50 seconds, but Trend Micro took nine minutes.
The scanning engine is also intelligent enough to handle many scans at the same time with ease. Even if you’re performing a long full system scan, you may still execute an on-demand scan of a current download or anything else you choose. While the first scan remains to run in the background, a window appears to reveal the results of your second scan.
The end result is a refined suite of malware-hunting tools that go well beyond the fundamentals while being simple to use for non-technical users. Experts may wish for 1 or 2 more fine-tuning options, but Bitdefender strikes the appropriate mix between configurability and convenience.
Protection
Bitdefender’s malware-scanning engine discovered 100% of both brand-new “zero-day” malware & known “widespread” malware in November-December 2020 by the Germany-based AV-Test lab.
However, it detected 12 false positives, which is a very large number and by far the highest of the seven brands of premium antivirus software. The other brands, ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee, Norton, Sophos, and Trend Micro, all received perfect grades.
Since January 2017, Bitdefender has performed admirably in the majority of AV-30 Test’s monthly examinations, failing to identify 100% of zero-day malware just three times and failing to detect 100% of prevalent malware only once with a 99.9% score.
Security and privacy features
Each premium Bitdefender product prevents web tracking in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, but not in Edge.
There is also a strong file shredder that is quick and simple to operate. Bitdefender’s File Vault encryption function has been retired, although data encrypted with prior Bitdefender products can still be recovered provided the password is remembered.
The password manager included with Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, Internet Security, and Total Security is only available for Windows and supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Bitdefender’s own Safepay hardened browser, but just not Edge or Apple’s Safari.
You may subscribe to Bitdefender’s cross-platform, stand-alone password manager for $30 per year. It supports Edge, Firefox, and Chrome on Windows and macOS and includes iOS and Android applications. Safari compatibility is on the way.
By banning browser extensions and ensuring you’re utilizing a secure HTTPS session. The Safepay hardened browser safeguards online banking and shopping experiences. It contains an on-screen keyboard, so you can enter passwords and credit card details without fear of keyloggers.
Bitdefender Internet Security, Total Security, and Premium Security continue to include one of the industry’s simplest and finest camera-protection features, which not only restricts access but also allows you to choose which programs have webcam access.
Conclusion
Bitdefender’s Windows antivirus portfolio returns to the top level of security tools, with powerful protections that come close to being airtight. Bitdefender’s scanning engine allowed a few threats to pass through and consumed a small number of system resources. However, it remains one of the top antivirus software alternatives available and a close competitor to Kaspersky and Norton.
If you’re searching for a decent deal, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, which starts at $40 for a single PC, is a fantastic choice. Similarly, Bitdefender Total Security is a reasonable deal for what it contains, and you can purchase it for much less if you combine it with Bitdefender’s Box security appliance or Netgear Armor router protection.
