Bitdefender review 2024
Bitdefender is one of the top-rated antivirus providers on the market in 2024. It continuously shows excellent results in independent lab tests, isn’t as expensive as its competitors, and includes useful security features.
Price: | From $9.99/year |
Free version: | Yes |
OS compatibility: | Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux |
Coupons: | Bitdefender coupon 78% OFF |
- Exceptional malware detection and protection
- Adaptability to various hardware specifications
- Secure password storage and management
- Fewer features for iOS and macOS users
- A separate subscription is required for unlimited VPN access
Bitdefender offers all essential antivirus functions, as well as additional security and anti-malware features, to ensure well-rounded protection. It uses a cloud-based engine, and during my testing, the scans were more efficient and not as resource-intensive as other antivirus providers. Although Bitdefender has stellar performance and excellent features, there's room for improvement. For instance, if you want an unlimited VPN, you need to upgrade to the Premium Security Plan, as other plans are limited to 200MB of data per device.
For more strengths and weaknesses of Bitdefender Antivirus, read this review to find out if this top antivirus is the right choice for your computer protection.
Our team of researchers thoroughly tests antivirus software following a well-established testing process. In unison, our experts combine in-house and independent testing lab findings with first-hand experience to help you make informed decisions about each product. Learn how we test antivirus software.
How much does Bitdefender cost?
You can get Bitdefender for $9.99 per year for one Windows computer. Overall, Bitdefender's pricing is considered cheaper than other top antivirus providers, such as Norton or TotalAV. You can also choose Total Security for $19.99 per year or Internet Security for $49.99 per year for three licenses.
Bitdefender Free | Antivirus Plus | Internet Security | Total Security | |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Android | Windows | Windows | Windows, macOS, Android, iOS |
Device coverage | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
Starting price | $0.00 | $9.99/year | $49.99/year | $19.99/year |
Virus Scans | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Real-time protection | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Web attack prevention | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Ransomware protection | ❌No | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Anti-phishing | ❌No | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Password manager | ❌No | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
VPN | ❌No | ✅Yes | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Privacy Firewall | ❌No | ❌No | ✅Yes | ✅Yes |
Performance optimization tool | ❌No | ❌No | ❌No | ✅Yes |
One thing to keep in mind is Bitdefender’s auto-renewal policy. Bitdefender will automatically renew your subscription before the end of the term. It will notify you 30 days before so that you can cancel your plan if you’re not happy with it.
Bitdefender also offers a 30-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans, so you can get a refund if you change your mind after subscribing.
To save money on Bitdefender, you can use our code to get up to 78% OFF your chosen antivirus package. I recommend Total Security, which you can use to protect up to 3 Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android devices for 1 year.
All Bitdefender plans include everything you need to secure your devices. The Plus plan is the cheapest option and provides all essential anti-malware features for $9.99/year. However, if you need more security, the Internet Security plan also includes webcam and microphone protection, parental controls, and a firewall for $49.99/year. The Total Security plan offers all of this as well as performance optimization and anti-theft features for $19.99/year.
And don't forget – November is the month for the best offers and discounts. Visit our Bitdefender Black Friday deals page to snag that sweet deal.
Does Bitdefender have a free version?
Yes, Bitdefender currently offers a 30-day free trial for Bitdefender Total Security for both Windows and macOS users. You can start your 30-day trial by creating a Bitdefender account. It's fast and easy, and no credit card is required.
In terms of capabilities, it’s comparable to the paid premium versions of some other antivirus service providers. 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.
However, note that the Mac version provides you with only the most basic protection. With the Virus scan feature, you’ll get the on-demand scanner for malware and nothing else. So if you want more security, you’ll need to subscribe to a premium plan.
Getting started with Bitdefender
To help you manage your devices and subscriptions more easily, you can set up a Bitdefender Central account. With this control panel, you can install Bitdefender products, scan your devices remotely, modify your account settings, and access 24/7 support.
After picking the right plan for you, Bitdefender's setup might take some time as it uses 400MB of installation files, which can be irritating. However, it did surprise me in the end – the installation and setup took no longer than 10 minutes. Obviously, it all depends on the device you use.
Once I set it up, the app was pretty easy to navigate. I found the interface very well laid out, and I especially liked the fact you can customize the dashboard by adding “quick actions”. The default suite groups feature 3 categories: Protection, Privacy, and Utilities. There's also a Dashboard that provides quick actions and displays your status, Settings, and the Notifications tab:
- The Protection tab is almost exclusively dedicated to features 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 the file shredder.
Overall, I found the Bitdefender app very intuitive and easy to use. Clearly, its interface will be easy to navigate for both beginners and more advanced, business users.
Review of lab test results
Bitdefender shows excellent scores in independent lab tests. According to the latest AV-Test, Bitdefender blocked 100% of threats during the testing period of May-June 2024. This included both 0-day and 4-week-old malware and other threats.
The Real-World Testing (0-day) was done on 225 samples, while the AV-TEST reference set (4-week) test used over 14,400 malware samples. The excellent outcome resulted in getting a Top Product certificate with a maximum points of 6 in each category – protection, performance, and usability.
With these results, you can be confident Bitdefender will eliminate any threat to your device. That is exactly why Bitdefender is considered one of the best and safest antiviruses for protecting your device from malware.
Our in-house testing results
Even though independent labs praise Bitdefender, I still conducted my own hands-on tests to see how well this antivirus protects devices from malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks. I performed all tests on Macbook Air M2 8GB RAM, macOS Sonoma 14.6, and Windows 10 i7-7500U, 16GB RAM.
Malware protection
For the malware protection test, I used 4 types of malware – Keyloggers, RATs, Miners, and Stealers – with varying file types and release times. For each category, I used 10 samples of malware, and I scanned the device using the Quick Scan feature.
Out of 40 malware samples, 39 were successfully removed, making it a 97.5% success rate. Bitdefender only failed to remove one recent Miner malware sample, released one day before the test. However, overall, Bitdefender provides excellent protection against various types of malware.
Ransomware remediation
To test how well Bitdefender protects against ransomware, I downloaded 10 ransomware samples, varying in file type (.dll, .exe, .msi), behavior (spyware, screenlock, dropper), source, and age (from a few days old to over a year old). I planted them and then launched the Quick Scan.
Bitdefender was able to locate and delete all of the planted ransomware samples, making it a 100% success rate. Plus, it took Bitdefender only 4 minutes to scan and disinfect 46,000 files. This shows that Bitdefender antivirus is fully capable of protecting your devices from ransomware attacks.
Phishing protection
To test Bitdefender’s ability to block phishing attacks, I collected a list of newly reported malicious websites that varied in threat level (payment fraud, credential phishing, malware download) and URL type (domain name, IP address).
I then installed the Bitdefender browser extension on a Mozilla Firefox browser and accessed the links one by one. It was considered a failed test if a known malicious website was opened without any interference from Bitdefender.
Out of the 20 different malicious links I tested, 19 were successfully blocked by Bitdefender. This means that Bitdefender can block phishing attacks with an impressive 95% success rate.
Bitdefender security features
Regarding Bitdefender free vs paid, the software employs the same malware database to identify potential threats. So, regardless of your budget, you'll get the same excellent level of malware removal. However, there are additional subscription benefits to consider.
Here is a list of some of the most impressive features included in the Bitdefender antivirus package:
Feature | What it does |
---|---|
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 | Offers different scanning options from quick to a thorough search for threats in your device system |
Real-time protection | Catches threats in real time before they enter your system |
Anti-tracker | Protects you from online trackers that harvest your data |
VPN | A tool for digital protection and data collection prevention |
Password manager | Keeps 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, I received popup boxes to allow or block applications. I 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. I find it very useful in this day and age where you have to be extra careful with your belongings. The feature 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, and therefore there’s a minimal impact on the device system.
Bitdefender offers various virus scan options that ensure excellent protection from malware threats. You can scan certain folders, your entire device, or look for vulnerabilities to improve your device protection.
Get BitdefenderThere 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), I’ve downloaded 10 malware samples (those include trojans, red line stealers, worms, ransomware, etc.) and disabled the real-time protection feature. After that, I 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 compete with other leading antivirus programs like Norton or Avira, which took an average of 15 minutes to complete.
Additionally, Bitdefender offers two other scan options:
- Vulnerability scan – checks the device for any vulnerabilities. This scan takes 5 minutes and 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 that need to be taken.
- Custom scan – this option allows you to only scan specific system locations where a threat may be. Additionally, it allows you to schedule your 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.
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.
I’ve put Bitdefender’s malware scanner to the test to see just how reliable it is. After downloading 10 malware files, I unzipped them and allowed the real-time protection to do its thing. It caught the threats really quickly and deleted most of the malicious files that had 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. Otherwise, this is a quick and highly secure feature that protects your device from new and already-known cyber threats.
Antispam
Although the Antispam feature sounds self-explanatory, it's a bit more complicated than it seems. 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.
I’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.
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.
You can also buy the VPN separately – this would cost you $2.92/month for a yearly plan.
There’s plenty to like about Bitdefender Premium VPN: it has 4000+ servers in more than 53 countries, unblocks Netflix US, and offers a kill switch, split tunneling, and an auto-connect feature.
However, while this is a good VPN option when it comes to antivirus software providers, it cannot compete with premium options like NordVPN, Surfshark, 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. Although I like that 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. Plus, if you purchase the cheaper plans of Bitdefender antivirus, you’ll get only 200 MB of data per day.
You can learn more about this VPN in our Bitdefender Premium VPN review.
SafePay
Bitdifender offers a secure browser for online transactions. SafePay protects you when making online purchases. It creates a sandbox that acts separately from your other 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 and uses a virtual keyboard, so your keystrokes can’t be registered by malware.
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 manager across all of them.
It’s a secure and easy-to-use password manager with a few features, including a password wallet, a password generator, auto-save, and auto-fill. However, premium password managers, such as NordPass and Keeper, offer higher security by including two-factor authentication and are more feature-rich.
You can learn more about this password manager in our Bitdefender password manager review.
Digital Identity Protection
Bitdefender can monitor the web 24/7 and notify you if your critical information has leaked online. Specifically, the service will check breached databases on the dark web to ensure your social security number, various login credentials, and payment details aren’t exposed to threat actors.
It’s important to note that you must purchase this feature separately for at least $7.99/month to gain its benefits. Moreover, it comes in three tiers, with each subsequent plan offering more perks than the previous.
- Digital Identity Protection ($7.99/month or $39.99/year). The first subscription option grants 24/7 dark web monitoring services.
- Identity Theft Protection ($8.99/month or $79.99/year). Upgrading adds 1 bureau credit status monitoring, ID theft restoration services, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance.
- Identity Theft Protection Premium ($11.99/month or $109.99). The ultimate plan includes bank and credit card activity alerts, bureau credit status monitoring for 3, and increased insurance budgets.
Other security 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, and more. Here’s a brief overview of each:
- Microphone and webcam protection. This feature protects your camera and microphone from unauthorized access. I tested this feature and found that it does notify you each time any app or website accesses your camera or microphone. However, you won’t be notified when an attempt to access is made, only when something has successfully accessed your webcam or microphone.
- Web protection. This feature includes an 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, prevents visiting sites with downloadable malware, checks for fraudulent websites that try to unlawfully exploit users' finances, warns you about dangerous pages on your search results, and checks the validity of SSL/TSL certificates of encrypted websites.
-
System optimization. It’s a system tune-up tool to free up space on your device and get rid of older and no longer necessary files, including old installation files, registries, junk files, outdated drives, empty files, etc.
- Profiles. These are settings presets that adapt to the conditions you're in and allow you to optimize your computer performance. According to what you're doing, there are several modes: work profile, movie profile, game profile, public Wi-Fi profile, and battery mode profile. You can choose manual or automatic switching between profiles.
- Parental controls. This feature protects your device from unwanted content. It includes website blocking, app use restrictions, device usage schedules, screen time limit, access to phone contacts, and device location.
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 my tests, I monitored the extent to which the software used my 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 my test device. Avira, for example, used up to 92% of CPU and only caught 70% of malware samples.
Bitdefender mobile apps
Bitdefender has dedicated apps for both Android and iOS (they’re included in the Total Security package). I 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 differences 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 basics and feel like an afterthought.
Bitdefender on Android
The Bitdefender Android app is really secure, easy to use, and even considered to be one of the best antivirus apps for Androids. It mirrors the desktop version, is easy to use, is attractive to the eye, and includes all the needed security features for your mobile device.
The features included in the Android version are as follows:
- 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 an ad and tracker blocker.
- 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.
- 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 recent data breaches. It checks for leaks on the dark web too and helps with strengthening your passwords.
Bitdefender on iOS
The iOS version of Bitdefender Mobile Security is fairly lackluster compared to the Android version, lacking features like a malware scanner, scam alert, or the Autopilot feature. 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 the following features:
- Web protection 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 is capped at 200 MB per day, which, differently than the Android version, doesn’t come with an ad and tracker blocker.
So overall, you're getting privacy monitoring, 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.
Live chat support | ✅Yes |
24-hour phone support | ✅Yes (UK English and worldwide English service available) |
Email support | ✅Yes |
Knowledge database | ✅Yes |
Community support | ✅Yes |
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 its 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 on the phone or 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.
Bitdefender video review
In case reading the whole Bitdefender review seems like too much work (and we 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 worth it?
Bitdefender is one of the best antivirus software programs on the market. It continuously shows excellent malware detection and performance results in independent lab tests. In my own tests, Bitdefender also showed success rates of 95-100% in catching all types of malware, ransomware, and phishing attacks.
The combination of real-time protection, web protection, and multiple personal security tools make Bitdefender the perfect all-rounder. Its apps are easy to navigate, it offers great features, including a VPN and password manager, and the prices are budget-friendly.
However, I have also encountered some downsides. The iOS app lacks some features, the VPN usage is capped, and the web protection feature could be improved.
All in all, the Bitdefender antivirus app has excellent protection and great features to offer, but there’s still room for improvement. Its free version is great for malware detection and removal, but if you want more features, go with a paid plan.
How we tested Bitdefender
With the help of our research team, I conducted in-house tests and consulted third-party antivirus lab results to find out how good Bitdefender is.
The first evaluation involved putting the service’s real-time protection against 10 zero-day malware samples. To do that, I downloaded the files to a device with Bitdefender installed to see if the software reacted appropriately.
After that, I repeated the test with real-time protection disabled to check whether quick and full scans could detect the malware samples. During this time, I monitored metrics like CPU, memory, and disk load to see how Bitdefender impacted overall device performance.
I conducted these tests on all possible device and operating system combinations to see whether protection results were consistent. This approach also allowed me to check relevant Bitdefender aspects, such as feature availability and ease of use.
More antivirus program reviews
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Bitdefender vs Avast: how do they compare?
Bitdefender vs Norton 360: which one is better?
Bitdefender vs McAfee: choosing the best out of the two
TotalAV vs Bitdefender: battle for the #1 spot
FAQ
Is Bitdefender safe and legit?
Yes, Bitdefender is one of the safest antivirus software programs on the market. It was independently tested to catch 100% of malware, both zero-day and 4-week-old threats. To date, there's no reason to doubt Bitdefender's trustworthiness.
Does Bitdefender have a VPN?
Yes. All the editions of Bitdefender Antivirus include a VPN with 200 MB per day. However, you can also buy the full version of Bitdefender VPN separately.
What Bitdefender plans are available?
Bitdefender offers a few different software packages for Antivirus Plus, Internet Security, and Total Security. You can check the latest deals on the provider's official website. There’s also a free version with real-time protection.
Is Bitdefender a Russian company?
No, Bitdefender is not a Russian company. The cybersecurity company was founded in Romania in 2001, with its headquarters in Bucharest. It provides a range of security products and services globally, including antivirus software and enterprise solutions.