Bitdefender Antivirus Plus adds powerful malware-defense to its impressive list of utilities with its Profile system, adjusting your computer according to how you use it – whether that means optimizing performance for gaming, cutting background activity for movies and videos or providing energy-saving tricks on battery laptops.
Optimizer improved boot time of a clean test computer by about 9%, with this top-tier suite also featuring Safepay hardened browser and bandwidth-limited VPN to protect privacy while browsing online.
Real-time protection
Bitdefender may have dropped slightly in some testing lab rankings, but it remains an outstanding security suite, offering strong protection from malware and phishing while providing useful extras. With its user-friendly layout making setting up full system scans, on-demand searches, or other tools easy without slowing down performance or system resource consumption significantly.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus effectively recognizes and blocks known threats while also detecting new ones that have yet to be classified. Furthermore, its real-time scanning checks file-changes as they occur; something Trend Micro took nearly 9 minutes for. Our tests found that with Bitdefender, however, scanning large sets of files for malware took only 50 seconds, significantly faster than Trend Micro’s equivalent task.
Protective features provided by this software also include a powerful sandboxed environment that runs your computer in an isolated sandbox when there is any suspicion of infection, intelligent background activity control and pop-up blocking while you work or play games, battery saving features via optimizing display, system cooling and system update settings on laptops and tablets, as well as flexible file deletion / retrieval management features for added peace of mind.
Other security tools include a firewall, spam filter and parental controls. A privacy layer prevents apps from hijacking your webcam while microphone monitor keeps an eye on what your device hears. Plus, you get 200MB-per-day version of Bitdefender VPN to keep online activities private and banking transactions safe!
Bitdefender offers an exceptional in-program help menu, complete with tutorials and instructional videos, while their customer support team is available by phone, email, live chat and even screenshot upload if desired. Upgrade to Premium Security to receive priority support services.
Bitdefender updates its malware definitions multiple times each day without disrupting your system and performs optimization tasks several times each month to keep it running efficiently – though unlike some suites it doesn’t allow users to preview these changes or opt-out of certain items.
Parental control
BitDefender Antivirus Plus provides parents with an advanced parental control feature, allowing them to monitor and restrict the usage of devices used by their children, set restrictions for certain apps and websites (including adult material, gambling and gaming), limit screen time usage and monitor where children are browsing the web – they even receive regular reports on their children’s online activity!
Parental control works on any Windows, macOS, iOS and Android device – and can be installed as many times as desired without incurring additional subscription costs. Once activated, a program creates a Parental Profile which is shared across all of your devices; you can assign this profile to specific user accounts on PCs or all accounts on macOS computers as well as connecting mobile devices together under one account, making monitoring multiple devices simpler than ever!
Your child can now be tracked, their phone contacts viewed, and suspicious numbers blocked using our software – providing parents with invaluable protection from unethical hacking or any illegal activities that might take place online. Plus, this feature also lets parents monitor app use history as well as who their instant messenger conversations with. That way you can educate your kids about negative effects associated with pornography ownership/distribution, cyberbullying and unethical hacking!
BitDefender Antivirus Plus’s antispam is another impressive feature, using whitelisting, heuristic filtering, and learning modules to protect users from spam email messages. Furthermore, its automatic Cyrillic or Asian character detection and blocking function automatically blocks such spam email messages; and there’s even an easy file recovery tool which makes the recovery of files from ransomware attacks quick and painless!
This antivirus package comes equipped with various useful tools, such as the OneClick Optimizer that speeds up system performance and the File Shredder which deletes files beyond forensic recovery. Furthermore, its Anti-Theft function enables parents to quickly locate and secure any lost or stolen phones used by children in your care.
Web filtering
BitDefender Antivirus Plus includes a web protection module that keeps tabs on all of the websites you visit, with particular effectiveness against phishing sites that try to gather your login credentials by tricking you into clicking dangerous links. In my hands-on phishing test, it earned an excellent 98% score; four other competitors (Guardio, McAfee Genie, Sophos Home Premium and ZoneAlarm) achieved 100%.
As well, Acronis Cyber Protect Pro Home Office proved an outstanding ransomware defender during an attack simulation test aimed at encrypting my hard drive, quickly eliminating 57 files within four minutes with no impact on system performance – more than double what Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office was capable of doing and out-scoring all other suites competing in this category.
As an additional benefit, this suite also boasts superior file-protection tools. It automatically scans new programs and downloads as they arrive and checks individual files and folders upon demand. Furthermore, its tool to remove spyware, adware, and other forms of privacy-invading junk from your computer – using disk cleanup tools to report redundant or incorrect files which take up gigabytes of space as well as scanning your registry to detect redundant help, temporary, and cache entries – is invaluable.
Bitdefender Central’s parental control features provide cross-platform coverage and remote management dashboard. Create profiles for each child at Bitdefender Central to set rules across Windows, Android and iOS devices – see their activity summaries via web dashboard; geofencing support lets you set boundaries on each device; geofencing also enables geofencing support.
BitDefender’s desktop interface has undergone minor alterations since my last review, yet the basic layout remains virtually the same. Its soothing dark blue, black, and white colors offer comfort to the eye, with an easily navigable Dashboard providing intuitive guidance. Furthermore, BitDefender consumes minimal system resources; running smoothly in most of our tests with its Quick Scan taking only 4:04 to assess 5,464 most pressing threats which is approximately three times faster than other suites like Acronis.
Backup
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus provides comprehensive backup features to safeguard documents, photos and videos against ransomware attacks. Additionally, it monitors program behavior that interacts with internet connections on your system – if something seems off it will notify you right away! The program is compatible with PCs running Windows OS as well as macOS computers running macOS as well as Android devices.
Bitdefender offers basic antivirus protection and password manager in its free version; paid versions include additional security features like VPN access and cloud file scanning. Bitdefender Premium Security, offering all its features – unlimited VPN traffic included! – is priced at $70 annually but typically discounted to $30 during its first year of purchase.
All paid plans of Bitdefender boast perfect malware detection scores. Their firewall protection blocks malicious software from accessing data on your computer and is effective at detecting network attacks; 52% of exploit attacks I generated were successfully blocked by it compared with its competition. Plus, Network Threat Protection prevents attackers from using your system to spy on other computers or networks.
Bitdefender offers similar mobile and desktop experiences through its apps for both smartphones and desktop computers, although the Android version may be geo-blocked in certain Google Play Store regions or have limited functionality. Bitdefender’s mobile apps are more user-friendly than Norton; no noticeable learning curve is involved when taking advantage of all its functionalities.
Both programs feature various scanning types and provide information about the threat level of detected files as well as tips on how to repair them. Both have extensive settings for advanced users including customizable scanning parameters and notification options.
Both programs boast outstanding customer support, with various contact options – Bitdefender offers online forums and live chat, while Norton provides phone numbers and emails addresses – for customer inquiries and reviews. Although both programs come highly regarded, finding one best suited to your business’s needs should always come first.
