Professional's Score
Professionals
- Glorious malware safety
- Plenty of options
- First rate, limitless VPN service
Cons
- Fragmented expertise with a number of apps
- Can’t set particular person app closing dates utilizing parental controls
- Identification safety included solely in most costly bundle
Our Verdict
Bitdefender Premium Safety provides spectacular safety from malware, phishing and scams. A few of the extra options, such because the VPN and password supervisor are good, however others reminiscent of parental controls are removed from best-in-class. It is advisable to pay extra for ID safety, however it’s a superb service total.
Value When Reviewed
$39.98 (1 12 months, 5 gadgets), $89.999 subsequent years
Greatest Costs At the moment: Bitdefender Whole Safety
In recent times, Bitdefender Whole Safety has felt like a misnomer as a result of – in contrast to some rivals – it doesn’t embrace any safety on your identification.
It’s a naming downside greater than something, as a result of Bitdefender did supply ID safety, albeit as a separate, standalone service.
Should you’d quite pay a single subscription charge then Norton, McAfee and others will provide you with every little thing in a single bundle.
However now, Bitdefender has rolled this safety into its prime safety suite and calls it Premium Safety Plus – within the UK a minimum of. Within the US it’s referred to as Bitdefender Final Safety. There are causes for this, which we’ll get into later the place we’ll clarify how that safety works.
To maintain issues easy, although, that is primarily a evaluation of Bitdefender Premium Safety which doesn’t embrace ID safety. It’s the identical whether or not you’re within the UK, US or elsewhere and provides safety for 10 gadgets whether or not they’re operating Home windows, macOS, iOS or Android.
Since Premium Safety is actually Bitdefender Whole Safety however with the 200MB per day VPN restrict eliminated, you can too deal with this as a Whole Safety evaluation – simply bear this quite annoying restrict in thoughts.
What’s included?
Mega-suites reminiscent of Premium Safety embrace so many options it’s laborious to get your head round all of them.
So, right here’s a helpful listing of the primary options. However, simply to complicate issues, options range throughout working programs, with Home windows and Android getting the lion’s share, and iOS and macOS having fewer of them.
- Malware safety – together with ransomware
- Net assault prevention
- Anti-phishing, anti-fraud, anti-spam
- Vulnerability evaluation
- Recreation, film and work modes
- Efficiency optimiser
- Anti-theft instruments
- Battery mode
- VPN
- Anti-tracking instruments
- Microphone + webcam monitor
- Parental controls
- Firewall
- File shredder
- On-line banking safety (Safepay browser)
- Wi-Fi Safety Advisor
- Social community safety
That’s simply Whole Safety. With Premium Safety (which covers 10 gadgets as an alternative of 5) you additionally get:
- No-limits VPN
- Password supervisor
Should you go for Premium Safety Plus, then you definitely get digital ID Safety. (Once more, within the US, you’d want Final Safety however there are three tiers for that, the bottom of which comes with the identical ID safety. Go for the costlier tiers and also you get ID Theft Safety which incorporates an ID restoration service and insurance coverage to cowl any losses. These usually are not accessible for those who’re within the UK.)
It may be laborious to identify what’s lacking from a listing like this, however the obvious one – particularly for those who’re additionally contemplating Norton 360 – is cloud backup. Norton’s the one firm that provides this, although. Norton additionally contains an updater which checks and robotically updates any outdated software program however this and the cloud storage are Home windows-only options.
An inventory of options is useful solely to a restricted extent: it’s whether or not the options are any good that’s vital. And that’s what the remainder of this evaluation will clarify.
Apps and interface
Once you join your chosen bundle, you’ll get an activation code. You may enter this within the Bitdefender Central web site (or cell app) the place you create an account after which use the code to redeem your subscription.
The Central web site is a crucial portal the place you'll be able to handle your subscription, see an outline of what number of licences you’ve used and ship hyperlinks to gadgets (or members of the family) to allow them to set up Bitdefender on their gadgets.
Jim Martin / Foundry
The hyperlinks embrace login particulars, which makes it very easy for everybody to put in the app and get protected.
Set up Bitdefender on Home windows and also you’ll be introduced with an clean-looking interface that tells you ‘You're secure’. For non-technical customers, the default shortcuts to Fast Scan, System Scan, Vulnerability Scan aren’t notably straightforward to grasp.
Jim Martin / Foundry
The eagle-eyed will discover that it says Bitdefender Whole Safety on the prime even for those who subscribe to Premium or Final. This once more goes again to the naming conference: you’re successfully getting Whole Safety with a number of extras bolted on.
Getting again to the app itself, Fast Scan does what it says, as does the second – a full system scan. The the third – vulnerability – checks your machine for issues like outdated apps, system settings which were modified from defaults and weak passwords. There’s additionally a devoted Wi-Fi scan that checks you’re not utilizing weak encryption or authentication protocols.
You may edit these six shortcuts and substitute them with the options you need to see. And above them is the oddly named ‘Autopilot’ which provides suggestions for actions it's essential, or would possibly need to take – the alternative of autopilot. The primary is to activate ransomware safety, which is solely a case of clicking Allow.
On the left-hand facet are tabs for Safety, Privateness and Utilities. Notifications is a log of what Bitdefender has been doing or noticing in your system, and Settings enables you to decide darkish or mild mode, the language and a bunch of different issues, together with turning off particular supply notifications that are on by default.
The Safety tab is loads much less intimidating than it as soon as was and is way simpler to grasp. Ransomware Remediation, for instance, backs up vital recordsdata as an additional safeguard to allow them to be restored if the worst occurs and Bitdefender is unable to cease a ransomware assault within the first place. Although, as you’ll see, all the most important antivirus testing labs discovered Bitdefender exceptionally good at blocking all sorts of malware.
The anti-spam module permits you to explicitly whitelist pals and blacklist actual spammers. Nevertheless, with so many individuals utilizing web-based e mail companies (together with their cell apps), this gained’t be any use because it solely works with Outlook and Thunderbird desktop e mail apps.
Net shopping is protected by the On-line Menace Prevention module. This makes use of machine studying and a world web site repute database to evaluate whether or not any website you go to ought to be thought-about malicious. Just like the Protected Searching service utilized in Chrome and different browsers, that is always up to date, which means that you just’re technically getting international real-time safety. (That is additionally accessible on iOS and Android.)
There are additionally a choice of instruments beneath the Utilities menu. OneClick Optimizer appears to be like for disk house that may be freed up, Registry entries that may be deleted (enhancing Home windows’ efficiency) and does a Privateness Cleanup, which desires to delete your shopping historical past, short-term web recordsdata and cookies.
Fortuitously, after analysing what will be deleted, there’s a warning to verify the objects earlier than doing the optimisation. And you'll uncheck cookies and different objects that you just don’t need to be deleted.
One other utility is Profiles. These kick in robotically while you’re watching a film, or taking part in a sport, for instance. The completely different modes forestall popups, or postpone housekeeping occasions till the software program detects that they’re applicable. Now, these profiles will be enabled robotically – when you’ve enabled that exact setting, and every will be configured to your liking.
Jim Martin / Foundry
In the newest assessments from AV-Check, Bitdefender’s efficiency is excellent. It achieved good scores for cover, efficiency and value. Equally it was given the highest ranking for efficiency and malware safety by AV-Comparatives, and got here prime in SE Labs’ newest assessments protecting January to March 2023.
As talked about at the beginning, Bitdefender has an enviable monitor document, too: these outcomes have been repeated month after month, 12 months after 12 months.
Privateness options
In addition to the webcam and microphone monitoring already talked about, Anti-Tracker blocks information assortment from web sites. It’s ‘enabled’ by default however this deceptive as a result of that default is to solely apply this safety to Web Explorer. Who nonetheless makes use of Web Explorer?
You must click on on the settings to put in and allow it in Chrome, Firefox and Edge – the one different supported browsers.
Bitdefender VPN
As talked about, the VPN service – powered by Hotspot Protect – can also be a part of Whole Safety and Premium Safety. That is such an vital function that we’ve lined it in a full, separate evaluation of Bitdefender Premium VPN.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Should you go for Whole Safety, it’s very restricted since you get solely 200MB of information per day. However with Bitdefender Premium Safety it’s a ‘correct’ service with limitless information and the power to select from 30 or so international locations and stream video from Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and others.
Nevertheless, it wouldn’t unblock UK-based streaming companies together with BBC iPlayer and ITVX. Nonetheless, provided that the perfect standalone VPN companies price nearly as a lot as Premium Safety (a minimum of for the primary discounted 12 months) it's a actual boon having a half-decent VPN service that you should use on 10 gadgets on the similar time.
Password supervisor
There was loads of criticism of Bitdefender’s password supervisor prior to now – particularly in its ‘Pockets’ incarnation – however the firm is retiring that and changing it with a very new one referred to as Bitdefender Password Supervisor. In fact, the Pockets extension for net browsers nonetheless exists, so it's essential keep away from that (for those who don’t use it already) and as an alternative set up the right add-on in your net browsers. Firefox, Chrome and Edge.
It’s very complicated for brand spanking new customers that the password supervisor throughout the Whole Safety Home windows app remains to be the Pockets model. Plus, though the brand new Password Supervisor has a Bitdefender Pockets import possibility (together with 1Password and different standard apps) it should solely settle for them as a .csv file. However Pockets exports as .db – an issue Bitdefender clearly hasn’t seen this.
A consultant informed us there was a software for seamlessly switching from Pockets to Password Supervisor, however there’s no reference to this in Whole Safety or certainly the brand new browser extension.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Password Supervisor doesn’t permit you to create a number of wallets (which all the time felt pointless) however does allow you to retailer identification data (identify, deal with, e mail, telephone numbers) to shortly enter this on net varieties, credit score / debit card particulars, web site logins and there’s additionally a bit for notes that you just need to hold personal. It’ll generate robust passwords, too, with choices to incorporate or exclude sure sorts of characters.
Plus, there’s a helpful Safety Report that exhibits at a look what number of duplicate, weak and previous passwords you may have.
The sign-in course of on the internet is extra painful than it may very well be as a result of the extension redirects you to the Bitdefender Central web site which makes you click on on Captcha photos earlier than you'll be able to log in. Nevertheless, you solely have to do that the primary time.
Jim Martin / Foundry
After organising your password vault – which handily has a restoration key – it’ll ask solely on your grasp password each time you shut your net browser, which is customary observe. And as soon as logged in, it really works properly, and the cell apps are good, too.
Jim Martin / Foundry
A much bigger subject is that utilizing a password supervisor bundled with a safety suite means you’ll lose entry to it for those who cease your subscription. So, as an alternative, we advocate utilizing a devoted service – a number of the greatest password managers are free, too.
Parental management
Bitdefender’s parental controls permit you to management your children’ display screen time throughout all supported gadgets, in addition to determine after they can and may’t use their gadgets.
The primary limitation is which you can’t set closing dates for particular apps. So for those who enable them, for instance, six hours of display screen time, they may select to spend all of that on TikTok, which you most likely don’t need.
The one possibility is to dam particular apps, however this method gained’t be acceptable to your children.
There’s additionally content material filtering which helps to stop them seeing inappropriate issues on-line.
Filtering works pretty properly, however there’s no approach for a kid to request entry to a selected web site that they suppose they need to be allowed to make use of. In case your baby has an iPhone, Bitdefender can’t let you know what they’re utilizing the machine for, so that you’re higher off (for those who even have an iPhone or iPad) utilizing Apple’s built-in Display screen Time controls.
There’s one different key function: the power to arrange geo-fenced places so you may get alerts when your baby arrives at or leaves a selected place.
Cellular apps
As regular with safety apps, the Android model has much more options than the iPhone one.
A number of helpful options are included on Android. There’s Anti-Theft which supplies you numerous choices within the occasion that your telephone is misplaced or stolen reminiscent of with the ability to monitor it, lock it and remotely wipe the information. App Lock enables you to put a PIN on any apps you don’t need anybody else opening in the event that they’re borrowing your telephone – or discover it mendacity round unlocked.
It additionally permits you to robotically take an image when somebody fails to unlock the machine thrice in a row. That is all managed from Bitdefender Central.
App Lock is one other helpful function that stops anybody from utilizing apps you select by requesting a PIN earlier than the app will launch.
Net Safety is on by default and protects you from harmful net pages. Rip-off alert warns you of any harmful hyperlinks present in messages – not simply SMS but in addition WhatsApp, Fb Messenger and others.
You continue to have that very same restrict of 200MB of free information per day through the VPN for those who subscribe to Whole Safety, however it’s limitless on a Premium one.
In fact, there’s additionally a correct antivirus element which is able to defend Android gadgets from an identical number of threats to the Home windows model. As with the Home windows model, the Android app scored prime marks in each AV-Check’s Android showdown and AV-Comparatives’ Android assessments.
On an iPhone you don’t get that, however you do get anti-theft options, the VPN and primary net safety which additionally works through the use of a VPN.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
There’s additionally an audit which warns you if security measures reminiscent of Face ID are disabled, and if there's an working system replace accessible.
Digital ID Safety
Bitdefender’s Digital ID Safety service has all the time been a standalone service that you could possibly subscribe to individually from antivirus. Now, you get it for those who go for Bitdefender’s most costly bundle: Premium Security Plus, which prices £149.99 per 12 months within the UK.
Within the US, issues are completely different as a result of Digital ID Safety is the bottom rung on the ladder with ID Theft Safety above it and ID Theft Safety Premium above that.
It’s additionally why Bitdefender’s prime safety suite is named Final Safety ($179.99 per 12 months), as a result of it contains IT Theft Safety.
With Digital ID Safety you get immediate alerts when Bitdefender thinks your information is in danger, reminiscent of your e mail deal with or telephone quantity being included in a knowledge breach. It may well additionally assist you to spot ‘impersonation’ makes an attempt by folks creating social media profiles utilizing your particulars.
What it doesn’t supply is any type of ID restoration service, credit score monitoring or insurance coverage to cowl ID theft. Simply to be clear, for those who’re within the US, you do get these options while you purchase Final Safety, or subscribe to Identification Theft Safety Customary individually.
The Digital ID Safety options are core to each packages, although and work the identical.
That’s to say that it's a standalone service which isn’t built-in into the desktop or cell apps in any respect.
Jim Martin / Foundry
As a substitute, it’s managed from the Bitdefender Central web site. Regardless of the existence of a Bitdefender Central app for cell gadgets, you'll be able to’t entry any of the ID Safety info or settings in it, which is a disgrace.
The web site, nevertheless, is nice. There’s a dashboard the place you'll be able to see an total rating (indicating how properly your information is protected), a threat map (so you'll be able to see the place information is most in danger and what its impression may very well be), information breaches involving your info, your digital footprint, and an impersonation verify.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Most of those are additionally accessible utilizing hyperlinks throughout the highest. To begin with, solely the e-mail deal with you signed up with is monitored. However you'll be able to add 9 extra, plus as much as 5 telephone numbers.
Information Brokers is one other space the place you'll be able to see eight of the highest brokers, and hyperlinks to go looking every one to see what – if any – information it holds on you.
This can be a guide course of the place it's a must to do the work. Different ID monitoring companies reminiscent of DeleteMe and Incogni – which price significantly extra – do it for you. Nevertheless, typically, information brokers will solely settle for information removing requests from the particular person whose information it's, which means you’d nonetheless have to try this half anyway.
Jim Martin / Foundry
With a purpose to monitor your information, Bitdefender asks solely on your e mail deal with and a telephone quantity, then makes use of these to trawl the online to see what it will probably discover. It doesn’t take lengthy to seek out much more, and exhibits you every little thing within the Digital Footprint part which you'll view as a kind of spider diagram.
You may then verify every bit of data and inform Bitdefender if it’s appropriate or not. That is price doing to take away all of the stuff that isn’t about you, so that you don’t get alerts when it’s found some place else or in a brand new information breach.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Within the listing view, you'll be able to see what every merchandise is, when or the place it was first seen, and a hyperlink to ‘Handle your information’.
Some are blurred out till you confirm that they belong to you. The one subject right here is which you can’t confirm some issues – telephone numbers and e mail addresses, for instance – for those who not have entry to them as the method for these includes receiving a code to show it’s yours. For previous numbers and e mail addresses, there’s principally nothing you are able to do.
Jim Martin / Foundry
Other than going to the web sites (reminiscent of Fb and Twitter) the place this info has been discovered and eradicating it out of your profile, or adjusting privateness settings so it isn’t public, there isn’t a lot you are able to do to shrink your digital footprint.
Requesting that information brokers take away your info might not assist both. That’s as a result of they have a tendency to get it from social media and different locations, so it's essential request the deletion with every dealer in addition to attempting to take away it from the unique supply.
Brokers will typically ask you to pay a charge to see what info they maintain on you, however you'll be able to nonetheless request removing of any information with out paying to see it. Elimination sometimes takes 15-45 working days in keeping with Bitdefender, however brokers are infamous for ignoring these requests.
We didn’t recognise any of the eight brokers that Bitdefender lists, and well-known ones reminiscent of Experian and Equifax weren’t in it. Bitdefender says it should add extra to the listing “quickly”.
Value & Availability
Bitdefender Premium Safety prices £49.99/US$49.99, however that’s a first-year low cost. After that, it’s £119.99/$159.99. Don’t neglect, that's for 10 gadgets. Should you haven’t bought 10 to guard, it isn’t nearly as good worth.
Should you’re within the US, get Bitdefender here.
To get ID safety as properly, Premium Security Plus prices £59.99 for the primary 12 months and £149.99 after that.
Ultimate Security for US prospects prices $179.99 per 12 months ($79.99 for the primary 12 months) – costlier as a result of it contains IT Theft Safety. It's also possible to go for Final Safety Plus on the identical web page. This doubles insurance coverage protection from $1m to $2m and likewise comes with 401(okay) plan & Funding Monitoring. That’s significantly extra at $109.99 the primary 12 months and $239.99 per 12 months thereafter.
You may see how alternate options, together with McAfee Whole Safety and Norton 360 Deluxe examine in our roundup of the perfect antivirus software program.
Verdict
Bitdefender’s monitor document for malware safety is completely wonderful, so is straightforward to advocate on that foundation. In actual fact, if the price is a priority and you are able to do with out all the additional options then you could possibly simply subscribe to Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, which protects as much as three gadgets. In actual fact – as loopy because it appears – Bitdefender gives away basic antivirus completely free and you may set up it on as many gadgets as you want.
Whole Safety is an efficient step up from Antivirus Plus (and a giant step up by way of safety) from the free providing. Nevertheless, with a every day restrict on the VPN, it’s troublesome to advocate. That is the primary purpose why we’ve reviewed Premium Safety as an alternative: it’s the candy spot. And in order for you ID safety on prime, subscribe to Premium Safety Plus (UK) or Final Safety (US).
Is is the very best on the market? It’s definitely shut. No safety mega suite is ideal, and for those who don’t actually need parental controls and don’t thoughts the dearth of cloud storage and the software program updater that you just get with Norton 360, Bitdefender is a positive alternative.