Skilled’s Score
Professionals
- Very good antivirus and malware safety
- Sturdy on-line menace safety
- Customizable dashboard
Cons
- VPN restricted to 200MB per day, per machine
- Can have notable efficiency impression on some PCs
- Anti-theft instruments aren’t efficient
Our Verdict
Bitdefender Whole Safety packs very good antivirus defenses into an easy-to-use app, giving it a robust edge regardless of a few options falling flat. Specifically, its protected fee setting is a singular safety for delicate on-line accounts — one thing that makes up for this suite’s lack of an included password supervisor.
Finest Costs At the moment: Whole Safety
If you pay for software program, the very last thing you need are limits. And but, Bitdefender Whole Safety imposes a quite stunning one on customers: VPN use, generally part of mid-range antivirus suites, is restricted to a 200MB per-day restrict per machine.
It’s an odd ploy, on condition that rival providers supply full, unrestricted VPN entry, and generally a password supervisor subscription, too. However Bitdefender’s ace within the gap is its stellar safety, together with its easy-to-understand, but nonetheless customizable interface. If you happen to can forgive Whole Safety its occasional half-baked components, it offers among the many finest protection towards malware and on-line threats.
Additional studying: See our roundup of the finest antivirus software program for Home windows PCs to find out about competing merchandise.
What does Bitdefender Whole Safety embrace?
Bitdefender Whole Safety provides broad safety towards on-line threats, beginning with antivirus, firewall, and ransomware. It additionally safeguards towards community, net, and electronic mail points like brute power assaults, malicious hyperlinks, and harmful attachments, in addition to screens your native inbox for spam if you happen to use Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. It controls entry to your webcam and microphone to stop distant spying, too.
Bitdefender Whole Safety is the corporate’s mid-tier antivirus plan.
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For added safety and privateness, Whole Safety features a safe browser, entry to its VPN service (albeit restricted), tracker blocking, parental controls, and a scanner that checks for system vulnerabilities. It additionally has anti-theft software program instruments to get well, lock down, or wipe an related machine. Rounding out the suite are set of utilities: a system optimizer, file shredder for safe deletion, and utilization profiles.
You possibly can set up Bitdefender on Home windows, macOS, Android, and iOS gadgets, although not all options are supported on all platforms.
How a lot does Bitdefender Whole Safety value?
The worth of Bitdefender Whole Safety varies relying on the variety of gadgets coated — although not by a lot. You possibly can select between a five-device plan and 10-device plan, which all allow you to set up the software program on Home windows, macOS, Android, and iOS gadgets.
5-device plan
- $70 for the primary 12 months
- $100 per 12 months thereafter
10-device plan
- $73 for the primary 12 months
- $110 per 12 months thereafter
Bitdefender enrolls customers into auto-renewal by default, although refunds are allowed as much as 30 days after the automated renewal date. The corporate additionally provides refunds inside 30 days of the preliminary buy of a subscription.
To avoid wasting extra money on Bitdefender, you should purchase a license by means of retailers like Newegg, B&H, and Amazon, usually at a large low cost. For instance, a 10-device, one-year plan was simply $50 on Newegg on the time of this text’s publishing.
Key options of Bitdefender Whole Safety
Set up and person interface
Getting began with Bitdefender Whole Safety is easy and simple — the set up window even exhibits quick explanations of various options as you wait. Nevertheless, watch out when organising your Bitdefender account, as you’re solely requested to kind in your password as soon as. If you happen to don’t use a password supervisor, that leaves you open to misremembering (or mistyping) it.
The Bitdefender app has a clear, easy interface, with huge tiles for every function. A protect icon within the upper-left nook serves as a standing indicator; it’ll flip crimson when one thing requires consideration. Alongside the left facet of the window is entry to the dashboard, options sorted by class (Safety, Privateness, and Utilities), notifications, and settings. The app works at the side of the Bitdefender Central web site portal, the place you’ll deal with machine administration (which incorporates distant instructions you may ship to related gadgets, like malware scans) and parental controls.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 1 Bitdefender dashboard (light theme)](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender3.png)
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Within the dashboard, you’ll discover six customizable shortcuts to totally different options, together with recommended motion objects on the high. The defaults are Fast Scan, System Scan, Vulnerability Scan, VPN, and Safepay, together with a clean tile.
Underneath Safety, you get entry to the antivirus scanner, vulnerability scanner (which checks for weaknesses in your apps and community), and settings for on-line and superior menace protections, firewall, spam screening, and ransomware safeguards.
From Privateness, you can begin up the Safepay digital setting or VPN, bounce into parental controls (that are dealt with by means of the Bitdefender Central web site), set up the anti-tracker extension for supported browsers, and handle your webcam and microphone safety settings. You can too entry Bitdefender’s password supervisor, however it’s a separate paid service and never included with the Whole Safety suite.
Inside Utilities, you’ll discover a hyperlink to Bitdefender’s anti-theft instruments (managed by means of the Bitdefender Central web site), the optimizer scanner that hunts for short-term and different disposable recordsdata, exercise profiles (which allow you to simply change Bitdefender’s conduct to align with the way you’re utilizing the pc — e.g., gaming vs. work), and a file shredder for securely deleting recordsdata from hard-disk drives (HDD).
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 2 The Notification section within the Bitdefender app](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender4.png)
The Notification part throughout the Bitdefender app.
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Notifications present a working log of Bitdefender’s findings because it screens your system, organized by urgency stage. These differ from the pop-up notifications Bitdefender exhibits inside Home windows, which seem on the backside proper of your display and sometimes promote different Bitdefender providers. One such alert even went so far as to warn me a few LinkedIn knowledge leak from two years in the past, so as to counsel signing up for Bitdefender’s Digital Identification Safety service. Happily, you may flip off “particular provides” within the app settings.)
General, Bitdefender errs on the facet of ease-of-use, giving customers a reasonable variety of settings for the app and per function. The descriptions of options are additionally generalized and never very technical.
Virus, malware, and menace safety
Actual-time safety
Bitdefender stays on fixed alert for potential threats to your PC. On the pc itself, it scans opened or added recordsdata, screens apps for suspicious exercise, and screens downloaded electronic mail for spam, sketchy hyperlinks, and harmful attachments. It particularly appears out for apps that attempt to encrypt your recordsdata, too — when not initiated by you, such conduct is probably going ransomware attempting to carry your knowledge hostage.
In the meantime, everytime you’re searching on-line, Bitdefender screens for malicious downloads, phishing and fraud makes an attempt, encrypted web sites with invalid or bogus certificates, and dangerous search outcomes. It additionally blocks unauthorized incoming entry to your PC, unauthorized use of your webcam and microphone, and on-line net trackers (while you set up the corporate’s anti-tracking browser extension). You possibly can moreover pair this system with the corporate’s free TrafficLight browser extension, which provides icons to go looking outcomes marking them protected or dangerous.
Scheduled and handbook scans
In an uncommon transfer, Bitdefender doesn’t robotically carry out common scans. To run a Fast Scan and/or System Scan at a scheduled time, you have to edit these default scans — or as an alternative create a customized scan. The method isn’t intuitive, both. You have to open the edit display and click on the Subsequent button earlier than the choice to Select when to schedule this process seems.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 3 Bitdefender scheduling screen for scans](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender5.png)
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You possibly can then select between 4 intervals — every day, weekly, month-to-month, or at system startup. Every day permits you to set a time; Month-to-month permits you to set which day of the month and a time; and Weekly permits you to select a day of the week and a time.
For handbook scans, you may run Fast Scan, which focuses on essential recordsdata and processes; System Scan, which combs by means of your complete system; or a customized scan you’ve created. Fast Scan and System Scan can be initiated by means of the Bitdefender Central web site — although you gained’t see indicators of exercise on the machine. Because of this, I most popular beginning my scans immediately on the PC I used to be utilizing.
Working System Scan will be gradual throughout its first run, as Bitdefender takes inventory of all the things in your PC, however it hurries up afterward. (By default, the app scans solely new and altered recordsdata.) You can too right-click on particular person folders and recordsdata, after which select Bitdefender > Scan with Bitdefender to examine them out.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 4 Bitdefender scan settings](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender6.png)
Most customers can be finest off with Bitdefender’s default antivirus settings, however you may tweak the thoroughness of scans.
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Bitdefender means that you can modify settings for scans — for instance, you may select to have the software program all the time display all recordsdata, even when they haven’t been modified since your final scan. You don’t get a ton of tweaks, however it’s greater than opponents like McAfee and Norton (which go for an ultra-simplified vibe) supply.
Vulnerability scanner
Along with scanning for viruses, malware, ransomware, and on-line threats, Bitdefender can examine your PC’s app, system recordsdata, and community settings for exploitable weaknesses. (Attackers use these openings to compromise your machine and/or knowledge.) Discovered below Safety > Vulnerability, the software hunts for weak Home windows person passwords, essential Home windows updates not but put in, adjustments to Home windows and community settings that might let malicious conduct slip previous, outdated apps, Wi-Fi community and router settings that might be strengthened, and extra.
Just like the antivirus scans, you may remotely provoke a vulnerability scan by means of the Bitdefender Central web site.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 5 Bitdefender vulnerability scan results](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender7.png)
Bitdefender’s Vulnerability Scan hunts for weaknesses in your PC that malware and different threats may exploit.
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Firewall
Bitdefender takes over firewall duties fully for Home windows — and although most individuals are finest off leaving it alone with default settings, you may customise how stringent the foundations are and whether or not these guidelines change based mostly on the kind of connection you’re on. Bitdefender sends customers a notification at any time when a probably malicious app tries to entry the web. I didn’t discover any overzealousness on Bitdefender’s half whereas utilizing my take a look at PC, and the settings are properly streamlined with out being too simplified.
Rip-off safety
Bitdefender just lately launched a free service known as Scamio, an AI-driven chatbot designed to assist confirm the legitimacy of electronic mail, textual content messages, on the spot messages, hyperlinks, and QR codes. To get began, you have to head to scamio.bitdefender.com (login required) or Meta’s Messenger app. Then you definitely’ll add a screenshot, copy/paste into the chat, or just describe the scenario to the bot.
As a really fundamental second opinion, Scamio isn’t dangerous, although its evaluation can take longer than anticipated. I preferred that it might simply extract hyperlinks from screenshot — a a lot safer technique, since attempting to repeat/paste can result in an unintended click on. It additionally appears to err on the facet of warning, dismissing my try at candy nothings as a possible rip-off.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 6 Bitdefender Scamio chatbot](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender8.png?w=1200)
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That stated, in order for you hands-off assist for textual content messages, you must also set up Bitdefender in your cell phone. As long as you’re comfy with the permissions it requests (which go fairly deep), it’s going to robotically display your chat messages and notifications for potential scams.
VPN
Bitdefender Whole Safety consists of entry to its VPN for a number of gadgets, however there’s one big catch — each bit of drugs is allotted a paltry 200MB of bandwidth per day. (You possibly can burn by means of that by searching only a few web sites.) You’re solely allowed to hook up with the closest server, too.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 7 Bitdefender VPN](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender9.png)
Bitdefender Whole Safety consists of VPN entry, however you get a particularly low quantity of allowed visitors.
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In Bitdefender’s favor is a smooth, simply navigated interface — I notably like how vital data and stats are laid out clearly. However with free, respected VPN providers providing rather more bandwidth and letting you select a location when connecting, paying for Bitdefender Premium VPN to get limitless bandwidth and entry to servers in all 55 supported nations simply doesn’t really feel value it. Not when the price is $40 for the primary 12 months and $70 per 12 months thereafter.
Parental controls
Bitdefender Whole Safety consists of parental controls, that are managed by means of the Bitdefender Central web site. On PC, you may restrict display time, apps used, and web sites visited. Android and iOS gadgets additionally enable guardians to see location and cellphone contacts.
To start on a PC, you’ll first set up Bitdefender on it. For cellular gadgets, you’ll want to put in the devoted Bitdefender Parental Management app. Then on Bitdefender Central, you’ll create a profile on your youngster and assign the pc, cellphone, or pill to the profile.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 8 Parental controls in Bitdefender Central](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender10.png?w=1200)
Bitdefender’s parental controls are easy however laid out clearly.
PCWorld
From there, you may add cut-off dates and create schedules for blocked use, in addition to handle which functions and web sites will be accessed. For apps, you may solely restrict apps your youngster has already used. Nevertheless, for web sites, you may block or enable by classes, that are predetermined by Bitdefender. By default, youngsters can go to websites inside simply 13 of the 43 presets, reminiscent of “search engines like google and yahoo,” “webmail,” “computer systems and software program,” and “journey.” Information is forbidden, which put PCWorld.com on the ban listing. (Guess we’re not sufficient about computer systems and software program.)
As your child spends time on their machine, you’ll see their utilization statistics seem within the dashboard’s charts. The dashboard additionally exhibits location monitoring, which works fairly properly — the cellphone used for testing appeared with shut accuracy to the bodily location. (The recommended addresses weren’t right, nonetheless.) Telephone contacts show right here as properly, and robotically replace at any time when a brand new contact is added.
Extra options
Anti-Theft
Bitdefender Whole Safety’s anti-theft instruments are improbable in principle, letting you remotely find, lock, or wipe your machine. For a smartphone, you too can remotely set off an alarm and/or ship a push notification with a message to whomever has it.
However in observe, I discovered this function to fall flat. For instance, my take a look at laptop computer’s location wasn’t exactly correct — not stunning, because it was based mostly off of the IP tackle. In the meantime, my smartphone’s whereabouts by no means confirmed up. Locking the gadgets additionally didn’t work notably properly, both. If the individual holding your cellphone is aware of your PIN, you’re out of luck. The PIN you set through Bitdefender Central doesn’t override that.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 9 Anti-Theft tools in Bitdefender Central](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender12.png?w=1200)
Bitdefender’s anti-theft instruments don’t absolutely ship on the promise.
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The one half that labored as marketed was the distant alert sound, together with the push notification. That solely helps with smartphones, although, and also you’ll need to belief which you can annoy somebody into doing the best factor.
Browser extensions
Bitdefender has two browser extensions value calling out, although neither are locked to the Whole Safety suite. The Anti-Tracker extension is robotically put in together with the Bitdefender app, the place you too can handle its set up if you happen to set up one other browser in your PC in a while. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Web Explorer are supported — although if you happen to’re on an working system that may nonetheless run Web Explorer, it’s time to improve). It retains trackers from amassing knowledge on you, and allows you to handle this sort of data for web sites you go to.
Bitdefender TrafficLight checks web sites for phishing makes an attempt and malware, blocks probably harmful components on web sites, and provides visible cues to go looking outcomes labeling them as protected or dangerous. Accessible as a Chrome and Firefox extension, this add-on isn’t mandatory, however its search-result visible warnings will be useful.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 10 image c36ab5](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image_c36ab5.png?w=1200)
File Shredder
Bitdefender’s safe delete function permits you to completely take away recordsdata out of your PC — supplied they’re saved on a hard-disk drive (HDD). Whole Safety’s File Shredder function makes use of the Division of Protection 5520.22-M three-pass technique to “shred” your knowledge, which works on HDDs however isn’t as efficient on solid-state drives (SSDs). The truth is, this fashion of deleting knowledge can shorten the lifetime of an SSD.
With most laptops now utilizing SSDs, this function will solely be helpful in case you have an exterior HDD you retailer delicate paperwork on. However Bitdefender is the same as rival antivirus software program on this regard.
OneClick Optimizer
This utility hunts for Home windows recordsdata, registry objects, and web recordsdata it might nuke — all within the identify of tuning up your PC. However whereas OneClick Optimizer can shortly wipe away seemingly pointless knowledge, it shares little element about what will get tossed. That’s an enormous drawback for something associated to your registry — a spot the place even seasoned PC customers tread cautiously. (And generally, it’s best to all the time know what you’re deleting.)
If OneClick Optimizer listed what it eliminates, maybe I’d have ended up much less cautious of it. However it solely names three classes (Software program Areas, Shared DLLs, and Assist recordsdata) and what number of “points” present in every.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 11 Bitdefender OneClick Optimizer](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender13.png)
You don’t get practically sufficient details about what Bitdefender needs to do in Home windows’ registry.
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Given how obscure the software is general, I nonetheless advocate Home windows’ built-in Disk Cleanup app and purging searching knowledge within the app itself. This technique leaves the registry alone and allows you to have rather more management, whereas solely being barely extra cumbersome.
Safepay
Safepay is a sandboxed browser — that’s, a safe setting for accessing delicate web sites, saved separate from all the things else working in Home windows. Bitdefender promotes this function as meant for financial institution web sites, and if you happen to navigate to a identified banking website, you’ll see a pop-up asking if you wish to load it in Safepay.
Inside this remoted desktop is a browser with an analogous really feel as Chrome, however much more bare-bones. You get no extensions and few settings. Nevertheless, it provides a digital keyboard, which is a bit cumbersome however helpful for these involved about keyloggers.
You need to use Safepay with most web sites, although movies don’t play. Additionally, Bitdefender doesn’t react to all widespread monetary or delicate web sites — for instance, I didn’t see the pop up for irs.gov nor much less widespread banks within the U.S. You’ll need to open Safepay and navigate there your self.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 12 Bitdefender Safepay in response to visiting the Bank of America website](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender14.png?w=1200)
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Buyer assist
Must you ever want help with Bitdefender, the app accommodates a assist web page, which you’ll be able to entry by clicking the life-preserver icon within the higher top-right of the window. It provides direct hyperlinks to Bitdefender’s assist web site (which incorporates video tutorials), group boards, and even a full person information. You can too contact the corporate by electronic mail, chat, or cellphone.
Updates and upkeep
You possibly can change replace frequency generally app settings.
By default, updates run robotically within the background as soon as per hour. You possibly can stretch this frequency to as soon as each 24 hours (with changes accessible in hourly increments). If for some motive you’re on a restricted web join, you may flip off computerized updates, however your PC can be higher protected if you happen to depart it on.
Bitdefender additionally means that you can run updates within the foreground, so that you simply see after they occur. Nevertheless, it doesn’t let customers carry out handbook checks for updates.
Efficiency
Bitdefender takes high marks in unbiased exams carried out by safety analysis institutes. In AV-Check’s safety exams for September and October 2023 (probably the most present as of this text’s publishing), Bitdefender caught one hundred pc of the zero-day assault and malware threats.
In the meantime in AV-Comparatives’ real-world safety take a look at for July by means of October 2023, Bitdefender detected 99.6 p.c of the 512 take a look at instances, with three false positives. (A false optimistic is when the antivirus software program blocks a authentic obtain or web site.)
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 13 AV-Comparatives Real-World Test (Jul-Oct 2023)](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender15.png?w=1200)
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Equally, Bitdefender ranked properly in AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 malware safety take a look at. Of the 16 antivirus applications examined, Bitdefender scored a 98.2 p.c on-line detection charge, 99.98 p.c on-line safety charge, and 98.2 offline detection charge, with 4 false positives. Even while you don’t have an lively web connection, you’re well-protected. Solely two different antivirus applications had equally excessive marks throughout the board.
In AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Superior Risk Safety Check, Bitdefender detected 14 of the 15 threats, placing it within the lead forward of the six different corporations that participated within the analysis. This take a look at checks to see how properly an antivirus suite handles extra subtle, focused threats like malicious scripts and fileless assaults.
![Bitdefender Whole Safety evaluation: Nice, simple to make use of safety Specific Occasions 14 AV-Comparatives Malware Test (Sep 2023)](https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/bitdefender16.png?w=1200)
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When idle within the background, Bitdefender typically has a light-weight impression on system efficiency. Its impact was minimal when our take a look at laptop computer encoded a big video right into a smaller 1080p30 file (our Handbrake benchmark), and through PCMark 10’s simulation of video conferencing, net searching, and modifying in open-source picture and doc applications. Nevertheless, Bitdefender’s impression crept up when doc modifying in Microsoft Workplace apps like Phrase, Excel, and PowerPoint, with UL Procyon take a look at scores falling by about 9.5 p.c.
When working a heavy scan, Bitdefender can notably have an effect on efficiency on mid-range and price range PCs — even when set to “low” impression in its settings. Blasting a steady full scan whereas working every benchmark dropped PCMark 10 scores by nearly 20 p.c and UL Procyon outcomes by a large 35 p.c. Handbrake encodes have been much less affected, with a ten p.c improve in time wanted.
Nevertheless, whereas these efficiency decreases sound scary, they’re a mirrored image of the toughest pressure in your PC. I pressured Bitdefender to scan the recordsdata as in the event that they’d by no means been checked earlier than, so as to see how exhausting it will hit our take a look at laptop computer. However by default, the app solely scans new and altered recordsdata (as widespread amongst antivirus software program lately), which reduces the trouble wanted to examine over your PC. For many individuals, your expertise doubtless can be nearer to the idle efficiency (as outlined above), until you usually work with giant batches of contemporary or altered recordsdata.
Is Bitdefender Whole Safety value it?
Bitdefender Whole Safety provides top-notch safety in an easy-to-use app. Its foremost weaknesses are the constraints of a few options, like VPN entry and Anti-Theft instruments, and the questionable usefulness of its OneClick Optimizer utility. However though rivals like Norton give extra bang for the buck, this antivirus software program delivers on what issues most, which is holding your PC (and different gadgets) protected. Simply don’t pay for the 5-device license when you will get the 10-device one for just a few {dollars} extra.