Bitdefender review 2023: is this antivirus good?

Bitdefender is one of the most top-rated antivirus providers on the market in 2023. It continuously returns excellent results at independent lab tests, is not as expensive as its competitors, and includes useful security features.

Bitdefender uses a cloud-based engine, and during our testing, the scans were more efficient and not as resource-intensive as compared to other antivirus providers. In terms of pricing, you can choose from three plans according to your needs: the Antivirus Plus encompasses essential features suitable for regular users, while the Internet Security and Total Security plans provide comprehensive security packages that cover all the necessary features. As a bonus, Bitdefender offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to try out its plans risk-free.

Although Bitdefender offers many excellent and efficient features, there’s still room to grow. Most of the features available are great and efficient, but the VPN tool currently has limited functionality, and features like web protection could be more effective.

Therefore, to help you make an informed decision, this Bitdefender antivirus review explores its features and protection capabilities and provides a testing results overview.

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Bitdefender pros and cons

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Is Bitdefender safe?

Bitdefender is a safe anti-malware application. Actually, it's at the top of the list of antivirus software. It even got the AV-Comparatives' Product of the Year ranking four times in total – more than any other antivirus program.

Awards aside, let's take a look at the most recent Bitdefender virus detection rates. According to AV-Test, Bitdefender blocked 100% of threats during the testing period of May-June 2023. This included both 0-day and 4-week-old malware and other threats. It also scored the highest rating of 6 points in performance and 5.5 in usability.

During our in-house tests, Bitdefender blocked all 10 of the threats we challenged it with. The quick scan took only 2 minutes, while the full one – 14 minutes.

With results like these, you can be sure that Bitdefender will take care of anything that may cause a threat to your device. That is exactly why Bitdefender is considered one of the best and safest antivirus providers to protect your device and data from malware threats.

Top-rated antivirus software

Bitdefender ensures your device and data protection with excellent malware detection and removal rates. In addition, this antivirus has an excellent tool to protect your device from different online threats, optimize your device performance, and secure your sensitive data.

cybernews® score

4.9 /5

• Best-in-class malware detection
• Has a VPN and password manager
• 30-day money-back guarantee

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Bitdefender offers top-class protection for an approachable price point. It has a variety of security features and tools to optimize your device performance.

Bitdefender security features

Whether you're using the free or paid version, Bitdefender uses the same malware database to identify potential threats. So, whichever edition you pick, you'll get the same excellent level of malware removal. However, there are additional subscription benefits to consider.

Here is a list of features that are some of the most impressive in the Bitdefender antivirus security package:

• Firewall – allows you to monitor all the connections from your device
• Anti-theft – allows you to locate your device on Google Maps, lock your device remotely
• Malware scanner – offer different scanning options from quick to a thorough search for threats in your device system.
• Real-time protection – a really effective security measure that catches threats before they enter your system.
• Anti-tracker – a browser extension that protects you from online trackers that harvest your data.
• VPN – a tool for digital protection and data collection prevention.
• Password manager –a security tool to keep all your passwords safe and in one place.

Firewall

Bitdefender Firewall is a security feature that protects your device from unauthorized access. It does this by blocking inbound and outbound connections, both on local networks and on the internet. The firewall uses a set of rules to determine which connections to allow and which to block. These rules are automatically created for known, legitimate applications. You can also manually create rules for applications that you trust.

This feature can be used to protect your computer from a variety of threats, including hackers, malware, and data snoops.

After testing the Firewall feature hands-on on Windows, we received popup boxes to allow or block applications. We could configure and monitor all the permissions of known and unknown programs.

Anti-theft

Anti-theft is a security feature that helps you to protect your lost or stolen device. It includes a variety of functionalities, such as:

• Remote location. Locate your device on a map, even if it is turned off.
• Remote lock. You can remotely lock your device, preventing anyone from accessing your data.
• Remote wipe. Remotely wipe your device, deleting all of your data.
• Remote alarm. Remotely activate an alarm on your device, making it easy to find if it is lost or stolen.
• SIM card change alerts. Receive alerts if your SIM card is changed, which can help you to track your device if it is stolen.
• Photo capture. If someone enters your device's PIN or password incorrectly three times, Bitdefender Anti-theft will take a photo of them using the front camera.

Malware scanner

Bitdefender has an efficient and reliable virus scanner. It’s based on malware directory and machine learning, so it’s especially effective in detecting both known and unknown malware threats. The scans happen in the cloud, therefore there’s a minimal impact on the device system.

There are four scan types for you to choose from – Quick scan, System scan, Vulnerability scan, and Custom scan.

To test the scan options (Quick and System scans), we’ve downloaded 10 malware samples (those include trojans, red line stealers, worms, ransomware, etc.) and disabled the real-time protection feature. After that, we tested the Quick and System scans together with computer resources monitoring to see how successful Bitdefender’s scans are and how much they affect the device system, and these were the results:

• Quick scan – scans those device locations where malware usually appears. It took 3 min 37s to complete and scanned almost 4000 files.

• System scan – scans the entire system for malware threats. This scan took 24 min 05s and scanned more than 163.000 files. It managed to catch 9 out of 10 zero-day threats, so this scan type provides truly reliable protection for your device. Overall, the system scan took under 1 hour – these results are competing with other leading antivirus like Norton or Avira, which took on average 15 minutes to complete.

Additionally, Bitdefender offers other two scan options:

• Vulnerability scan – checks the device for any vulnerabilities and lasts for 5 minutes. This scan includes checking for weak passwords, outdated applications or drives, and Windows updates. This is especially useful if you don't update your device manually. It also detects any system changes and informs about them, in case there's been a security breach and additional measures need to be taken.

• Custom scan – this option allows you to only scan specific system locations where a threat may be. Additionally, this scan option allows to schedule scans. Bitdefender’s competitors, like Norton or TotalAV, also provide quick custom scans that you can easily schedule within a few clicks.

Overall, the Bitdefender malware scanner is one of the best security tools. It’s fast, thorough, and doesn’t slow down your device. So you can be certain of your system security.

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Real-time protection

Bitdefender’s real-time protection feature is also known as Bitdefender Shield. This security feature is constantly scanning all of the downloaded files for threats. If a threat is caught, then it’s deleted or placed in quarantine. So, real-time protection can catch malware before you get to open the malicious files.

This feature is really effective in offering you the best protection since it works closely with Bitdefender's Global Protective Network, which monitors more than 500 million machines to extract new malware models. That’s how this feature can ensure that you’re protected against very recent or poorly documented threats and phishing attacks.

We’ve put Bitdefender’s malware scanner to the test to see just how reliable it is. After downloading 10 malware files, we unzipped them and allowed the real-time protection to do its thing. Usually, it catches the threats really quickly and deletes most of the malicious files that have been unzipped.

Bitdefender's real-time protection feature cannot scan compressed files, so for it to be effective, you’ll have to unzip the downloaded files. But otherwise, this is a quick and highly secure feature that protects your device from new and already-known cyber threats.

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Ransomware remediation

Bitdefender’s ransomware remediation feature is designed to protect your files from ransomware threats automatically. This feature creates a backup of your files (like documents, images, music, and videos) so that they won't be affected in case there’s a ransomware attack. Bitdefender also detects when ransomware is trying to encrypt your files, blocking all malicious processes before it can cause serious issues.

Even though it's not always possible to remove the ransomware encryption, the encrypted files can always be replaced with prepared backups. That way, you don't have to worry about potentially losing important documents or other sensitive data.

AntiSpam

Although the AntiSpam feature sounds quite self-explanatory, it's a bit more complicated than it would seem. This feature is designed to work with any mailbox, providing active protection for the whole email channel. To achieve that, it uses a Whitelist, a heuristic filter, and learning modules.

For each received email, Bitdefender performs an analysis investigating the message contents, the header, and metadata. It's done to find particular telltale spam characteristics. You can even toggle blocks for emails encoded in Cyrillic or Asian characters.

The learning module works in conjunction with this filter, gathering statistical information about the frequency of genuine emails and spam messages. With proper adaptation, this module can detect spam messages faster than any trained cybersecurity expert.

The last of the triad is the whitelister. It allows you to put in trusted domains, so they won’t be marked and scanned as spam.

We’ve challenged this feature and tried its ability to identify spam emails. This tool successfully managed to identify and flag spam mail, meaning that it successfully protects your data.

Anti-tracker

Bitdefender Anti-Tracker is a solution available to premium users who want to stop excessive tracking carried out by web services. It's no secret that most websites are tracking every click you make via third-party scripts, cookies, and other ad tech marvels.

Anti-tracker is an add-on that you can set up on Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge. Once enabled, it will stop malicious scripts from harvesting your data when you're surfing the web. Also, you can manage which tracking categories you would like to allow or disable. For example, you might be OK with website analytics but against ads or social media tracking. You can customize this add-on in a way that works for you, and it quite significantly reduces the load time of all websites.

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Bitdefender VPN

One of the key differences compared to many other antivirus service providers is that Bitdefender offers a VPN as part of the app. This is really generous because some antiviruses charge an additional fee for their VPNs or add them as additional products when buying the most expensive packages.

However, you can also buy the VPN separately – this would cost you $2.50/month for a yearly plan.

While this is a good VPN option when it comes to antivirus software providers, it cannot compete with premium options like NordVPN, Surfshark, IPVanish, or others. Bitdefender offers only one tunneling protocol – Catapult Hydra, and while it is fast, there isn't much information on how secure it is. However, this VPN provides you with AES 256-bit encryption, so your data is successfully hidden.

Yet, if you’re really serious about your security and anonymity, this might not be the VPN for you, since it doesn’t have an independently verified no-logs policy.

On the other hand, there’s plenty to like about Bitdefender Premium VPN:

• Has 4,000+ servers in more than 53 countries.
• Unblocks Netflix US and a few other streaming services.
• Has a kill switch, which will disable your Internet traffic if your connection to the VPN servers is disrupted.
• Includes an Auto-connect feature when you switch to a public Wi-Fi network or when you visit specific websites.
• Offers Split tunneling, which allows you to exclude the websites of your choice from the VPN traffic.

However, if you purchase the cheaper plans of Bitdefender antivirus, you’ll get only 200 MB of data per day. But, if you buy the VPN separately, you’ll get unlimited data.

To find out more, read our in-depth Bitdefender VPN review.

Password manager

Rather than developing a standalone project, Bitdefender integrates its password manager into the main dashboard. And if you're using Bitdefender on multiple devices, you'll appreciate the ability to sync the password across all of them.

Some of the features included in the password manager are:

• Password wallet – here you can store your passwords and choose on which browser you can use this feature.
• Password generator – helps you generate strong passwords to up your security.
• Auto-save and auto-fill – pretty self-explanatory, these features allow you to automatically save new passwords into your password wallet. And you can also fill them in automatically.

This is a pretty easy-to-use password manager with a few features. It’s great for new users and is pretty secure. However, premium password managers offer higher security by including two-factor authentication and are more feature-rich, like NordPass or Keeper.

So, while this is a great basic password manager option and a superb addition to an antivirus suite, there are better password managers on the market.

Bitdefender additional features

Aside from all the necessary security features, Bitdefender also offers lots of extra features that you might find incredibly useful, such as microphone and webcam protection, web protection, SafePay, VPN, and more.

Yet, it would be beneficial for Bitdefender to include more optimization features, such as Avira’s startup optimizer, driver updater, or similar.

Either way, Bitdefender provides you with more than just the essential features. Let's take a look at all of them below.

Microphone and webcam protection

Webcam Filter, a premium feature for paid subscriptions, protects your camera and microphone from unauthorized access. Even though it's pretty easy to stick duct tape on top of your built-in webcam, it's much harder to silence the microphone, which could be just as dangerous.

We’ve tested this feature and found that it does notify you each time any app or website accesses your camera or microphone. Afterward, you can easily delete the website or app from the access list and it won’t be able to connect again.

However, you won’t be notified when an attempt to access is made, only when something has successfully accessed your webcam or microphone. But there are some security modifications you can make:

• Customize a list of websites or apps that you deem secure enough to access your webcam or microphone.
• Allow websites to access the camera, but not the microphone.
• Block access only to websites, but allow apps to access the camera or microphone.

With Webcam Filter enabled, you can be sure that your device won't be spying on you via video or audio. Sadly, the feature is only available only for paying users.

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Web protection

Bitdefender offers a comprehensive web protection suite, which includes numerous online protection features.

The anti-phishing tool that catches all of the online threats against your data and device. It protects you from visiting malicious sites that may target your data. The possibly malicious sites are compared to a regularly updated database of blacklisted sites. In addition, Bitdefender has a separate tab on the antivirus app for anti-phishing, where you can see all the blocked sites and for what reason they were blocked.

Further, this feature prevents visiting sites with downloadable malware, so you don’t accidentally send a malicious threat to your device. During our in-house testing, however, the feature wasn't always efficient when we attempted to access malicious websites on iOS and Android devices.

Another web protection feature is Fraud Protection, which checks for fraudulent websites that try to unlawfully exploit user’s finances. There’s also a Search Advisor that warns you about dangerous pages on your search results. Finally, the Encrypted Web Scan checks the validity of SSL/TSL certificates of encrypted websites.

Overall, Bitdefender’s web protection feature is very efficient in protecting you from online threats and catching possible phishing attacks from infecting your data and your device.

System optimization

Bitdefender OneClick Optimizer, a system tune-up tool, is a great feature to free up space on your device and get rid of older and no longer necessary files. However, it isn’t looking for old personal files, like photos or videos. System optimization scan checks your device for:

• Old installation files
• Registries
• Junk files
• Outdated drives
• Empty files

Depending on how often you clean up your device, this tune-up tool can be very beneficial to your system optimization or just work as an additional feature to easily get rid of useless junk files. So, if you’re storing lots of old and unnecessary files, this is the perfect solution for you.

Additionally, the scan is really quick and groups the findings into a disk, registry, and privacy cleanup. After the scan, Bitdefender allows you to look through the noted files before deleting them, just in case it has marked something as a junk file that isn’t actually one.

Overall, this is a pretty basic device optimizer tool, but it is useful for system cleanup. It’s pretty minimal compared to competitors like Avira (it has more than 40 optimization tools). It could be updated and have more features added, but for what it’s worth, it’s easy to use and achieves the results that it promises – easily removes old files and optimizes your device’s work.

SafePay (Secure Web Browser)

Online shopping is not only a convenient way to get parcels shipped to your door, but it's also a window of opportunity for cybercriminals. For this reason, Bitdefender implemented SafePay – a secure web browser on its paid premium plans, aiming to protect you when making online purchases.

It's designed to work with banking and online shopping sites in mind, but any website can be opened via this browser. It creates a sandbox that acts separately from your other installed web browsers, making it unaffected by the malware that could be present on your regular browser. Also, this feature checks if your connection with the Wi-Fi network is secure.

Additionally, there’s also a virtual keyboard, so your keystrokes can’t be registered by malware.

SafePay also offers some quality-of-life features, like integration with Bitdefender's password manager, bookmarks, and tab view. With it, you can be calm that you're visiting genuine websites that won't steal your credit card information.

Profiles

Sometimes, you simply can't allow any disturbances or wish to control the intensity of your device’s performance. Unfortunately, most antiviruses disregard this need entirely. Bitdefender developers understand that sometimes you don't want to completely disable the antivirus, you may just need some privacy or a less intense system workload. For that, there are profiles – settings presets that adapt to the conditions you're in and allow you to optimize your computer performance.

Sometimes, you simply can't allow any disturbances. Unfortunately, most antiviruses disregard this need entirely. Bitdefender developers understand that sometimes you don't want to completely disable the antivirus, you may just need some privacy. For that, there are profiles – settings presets that adapt to the conditions you're in.

You can set them up automatically or allow an app to detect what processes are running. According to what you're doing, there are several modes:

• Work profile – adjusts your email settings and limits background scans to minimize the impact on the system.
• Movie profile – postpones notifications and alerts so you can watch a movie without antivirus update jumpscares.
• Game profile – limits background monitoring so the impact on the system is minimal.
• Public Wi-Fi profile – turns on full network protection to make you safe from insecure public networks.
• Battery mode profile – disables background monitoring to conserve system resources, saving battery life.

If you're using automatic switching, these modes are triggered automatically when you launch a particular app. For example, we’ve tested this feature by launching an executable game file. Bitdefender identified our actions and changed to the profile that limits the consumption of system resources.

Additionally, automatic switching also successfully worked with battery mode. Once we got a Windows warning about low battery life, the device automatically engaged the battery mode profile.

While, in our experience, some services still require manual input for each of these modes, it's nice to see that Bitdefender is set to find a balance between your tasks and antivirus protection.

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Parental controls

Bitdefender antivirus also protects your device not only from malware but from unwanted content as well in the form of Parental controls feature. It works across all supported platforms: Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS. For this feature to work, you need to download a separate app on the devices you wish to monitor.

This feature includes:

• Website blocking
• App use restrictions
• Device usage schedules
• Limit screen time
• Access to phone contacts
• Device's location

We’ve tested this feature’s abilities and found some successes and some issues. Blocking websites was a success, so you can be certain that your child won’t be able to visit the pages you’ve blocked. In order to access those pages, you’d have to give permission manually.

Keeping tabs on the device’s locations also works well, this feature uses the GPS location and not the IP address, so it cannot be spoofed with a VPN. Additionally, there’s a way for parents to be notified when their child reaches a certain location.

However, uninstalling the app on macOS proved to be quite a head-scratcher, as it's only possible to do it via BitDefender's Uninstaller app. But, overall, the parental control feature provides excellent protection and control over the content your child might be exposed to.

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Other features worth mentioning

Bitdefender antivirus suite is filled with so many features, and here are some others that are also worth your attention:

• Identity theft protection – monitors for data breaches, dark web forums, scans social media for impersonator accounts, and for the US users monitors credit systems for financial activity using your information.
• Wifi security advisor – analyzes the wifi networks and routers for potential threats.
• File shredder – overwrites the data using special algorithms so you can’t recover the files.

Plans and pricing

Bitdefender offers 6 different plans: Free, Antivirus Plus, Internet Security, Total Security, Family Pack, and Small Office. Although the premium package cost is on a higher scale, each plan offers a wide variety of useful safety features to ensure the best security for your devices.

The best pick for those who need apps available on all available operating systems is Total Security or Family Pack plans. The latter is best for users who need a maximum of device connections that Bitdefender offers. For those who are looking to secure their business or enterprise and get full-stack endpoint protection, the GravityZone plan would fit the best.

To ensure your investment security with this antivirus software, Bitdefender offers 30-day free trials for all of the paid plans and a 30-day money-back guarantee on top of that.

And here’s a quick summary of Bitdefender plans:

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While the Bitdefender antivirus free plan covers the bases of your device security, with the premium subscription plans you’ll receive the needed additional features. Some of those are a VPN, password manager, and webcam and microphone protection.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

This is a Windows-only entree plan to protect 3 of your devices from malware. With Antivirus Plus you’ll get features like:

• Malware scanner
• Secure browser
• VPN (capped at 200 MB of data daily)
• Password manager
• Anti-tracker
• File-shredder
• 24/7 customer support

On the other hand, there will be security limitations. You won’t get Bitdefender firewall protection or system optimization tools, for example.

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Bitdefender Internet Security

Bitdefender Internet Security is an upgrade from Antivirus Plus since this plan adds these features:

• Firewall protection
• Anti-spam feature
• Parental controls
• Webcam and microphone protection

The price for the features included is more than fair, and you’ll receive the best security for your device and protection while searching online. The drawback might be that it covers only 3 devices and it only covers Windows users.

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Bitdefender Total Security

Bitdefender Total Security doesn’t expand too much on the features side – the only addition to all the Internet Security features are:

• System tune-up tools
• Anti-theft protection

However, this plan covers mobile devices, so you get to protect your Android and iOS phones with one of the best antivirus software on the market.

Total Security plan also ups the number of devices that you can cover with one subscription up to 5.

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Bitdefender Premium Security

This Bitdefender plan adds up to the previous one by removing the data cap from the VPN, offering the full password manager package, and adding protection to up to 10 devices.

In addition, you once again can use this Premium security package on all of your devices, no matter the OS. So, with this Bitdefender plan, you get the best safety software package for your money.

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Bitdefender free version

Bitdefender has a free plan option for both Windows and macOS users. The Mac version provides you with the most basic protection. With the Virus scan feature, you’ll get the on-demand scanner for malware and nothing else.

Meanwhile, the free version of Bitdefender is a more comprehensive anti-malware protection suite with nice bonus features.

As a matter of fact, the Bitdefender Free Edition is comparable to the paid premium versions of some others. It offers solid security for your device with a virus scan and real-time protection features. Additionally, you’ll be secured from phishing and ransomware attacks.

With that said, Bitdefender does leave a lot out as well, including network threat protection, usage profiles, a VPN, a password manager, and much more. So if they are a dealbreaker for you, then consider investing in the Bitdefender premium subscription. They not only offer the highest level of security but also cover multiple devices with one account.

How to download and install Bitdefender

1. Go to the Bitdefender website and choose your antivirus plan.
2. Activate your license, download the app, and install it.
3. Click the “Start Using Bitdefender” button, so the main menu pops up.
4. Enable the wanted security features, like the ransomware remediation feature for stronger device security.
5. Run your first device scan.

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Bitdefender compared to other antivirus software

The antivirus market is oversaturated by different quality providers, and it can be difficult to know if Bitdefender truly is the best one for you. We’ve selected the top 5 antiviruses to compare, so you can see how Bitdefender looks against them to see if it’s worth your money.

	Bitdefender	Norton	TotalAV	Surfshark Antivirus	NordVPN Threat Protection
Brand
Review	Bitdefender review	Norton review	TotalAV review	Surfshark Antivirus review	NordVPN Threat Protection review
Rating	4.9 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	4.7 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	4.6 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	4.4 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆	4.3 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
Price	From $19.99/month	From $19.99/month	From $19.00/month	From $53.88/month	From $3.99/month
Device support	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android	Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux	Windows, Android, macOS	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
Virus scan	Quick, system, vulnerability, and custom scans	Smart, quick, system, custom scans, and Norton Insights	Quick, system, smart, and custom scans	Quick, full, and file/folder scans	No
Real-time protection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pirewall	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
VPN	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Password manager	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Device optimization	System optimization	System optimization	System tune-up	No	No
Parental controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

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Ease of use

After picking the plan for you, Bitdefender's setup will take some time, which can be irritating, since the installation files are 400 MB. That's a considerable amount when other solutions like Norton Antivirus install in a couple of seconds.

Once you’ve set it up, the app is pretty easy to navigate. The default suite groups feature in 3 categories: Protection, Privacy, and Utilities. There's also a Dashboard that provides quick actions and displays your status, Settings, and Notifications tab.

• The Protection tab is almost exclusively dedicated to the things associated with most antivirus tools. There are real-time protection settings, firewall monitoring, ransomware countermeasures, and more.

• Privacy deals with methods to stay anonymous and secure when surfing online, like the SafePay browser, VPN, password manager, and parental controls.

• Utilities are for optimization tools, profile management, and file shredder.

Overall, the Bitdefender interface is easy to navigate for both beginners and more advanced, business users.

Impact on PC performance

When it comes to Bitdefender’s impact on the device, the term "lightweight" doesn't simply imply minimal consumption of system resources. During our tests, we monitored the extent to which the software used our system resources. It's important to note that higher CPU loads can hinder the performance of other tasks.

During a full scan, Bitdefender used 50% of the device's CPU, which is very light on the resources when compared to other antivirus providers. Additionally, Bitdefender’s full scan caught all malware samples on our test device.

Bitdefender mobile apps

Bitdefender has dedicated apps for both Android and iOS (they’re included in Total Security, GravityZone Enterprise, and Premium packages). We tested both of them to see if the apps are equally good and offer good protection for your device no matter the OS it works with.

The discrepancies between the Android and iOS mobile security apps are pretty big. While both apps were easy to download and set up, the experience of using them was different. The Android version is clearly the superior one, while the iOS apps only cover the bases and feel like an afterthought.

Android

The Bitdefender Android app is really secure, easy to use, and even considered to be one of the best antivirus for Androids. It mirrors the desktop version, is easy to use, attractive to the eye, and includes all the needed security features for your mobile device.

The features included in the Android version are:

• A malware scanner constantly scans and protects your device from cyber threats.
• Web protection toggle can be enabled on your browser. It protects you from visiting malicious websites.
• Scam alert protects you from fraudulent links in your messages.
• VPN feature, which caps at 200 MB of data per day, comes with the ad and tracker blocker.
• The Autopilot feature advises you on how to be safer when using your phone. It also scans all your new apps for potential threats.
• App lock is useful for limiting access to certain apps, in case you lend your device to other people.
• The anti-theft feature helps you find a lost or stolen device, by showing the last known location. Additionally, you can send a message to the missing device or make it ring loudly. Also, there’s an option to remotely wipe the system.
• Identity protection informs you if your email was included in the recent data breaches. And it checks for leaks on the Dark Web too and helps with strengthening your passwords.

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iOS

The iOS version of Bitdefender Mobile Security is fairly lackluster compared to the Android version. However, the app is very safe, easy to use, and is a great addition to your iOS security. It’s also one of the best antivirus apps for iPhone after Norton Antivirus and TotalAV.

The iOS app comes with:

• Web protection feature secures your browsing online, so you don’t visit malicious sites.
• Privacy monitoring is useful for keeping track of any of your accounts that may have been involved in data breaches.
• VPN that caps at 200 MB for a day, which, differently than the Android version, doesn’t come with an ad and tracker blocker.

So overall, you're getting haveibeenpwned.com, a VPN that should be enough for a couple of pages, and browser protection in a single app. This is disappointing since most of the antivirus software for iOS doesn't provide many additional features, due to Apple’s devices being less prone to malware threats. And Bitdefender antivirus still has room to improve when it comes to iOS security.

Customer support

The best thing about Bitdefender’s customer support is that it’s not a premium subscription feature. You can get help whether you're a free or a paying user. And there are many different ways to access any support you might need.

Their live chat support works really quickly – you can get in contact with a reliable support agent in a couple of moments. And they’ll answer all your questions quickly and solve your problems efficiently. This is a massive improvement over contenders like Norton when we had to wait as long as 20 minutes for a response.

To make their work easier, Bitdefender also has a vast collection of FAQs, guides, and other information on the support website. So, while you're waiting in line, it might not hurt to check there. You might resolve your issue before your turn comes.

If you prefer other methods, you can call them via phone and contact them via email. Whichever way is the most convenient for you, you have options there. Customer support alone makes this service an easy recommendation.

Video review

In case reading the whole Bitdefender review seems like too much work (and I don't blame you for that!), you can watch our video review instead. In less than 10 minutes, you'll hear all the information you need to know before getting this security tool.

Is Bitdefender good, and should I get it?

Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus software on the market. It has excellent malware detection and removal rates. Additionally, the combination of real-time protection, web protection, and multiple personal security tools make Bitdefender the perfect all-rounder. Bitdefender is also more affordable than most other premium antiviruses (including Norton and Total AV).

The antivirus program is exceptionally easy to install and navigate. It’s also compatible with multiple device types and operating systems. Depending on your plan, the features include a VPN, password manager, webcam and microphone protection, and file shredder. Besides, all of its plans are available with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it risk-free and decide whether it’s the right choice for you.

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