Bitdefender Total Safety review: Immense, easy to make employ of security

Ideal Prices This day: Total Safety

Whilst you pay for application, the last part you wish are limits. And but, Bitdefender Total Safety imposes a rather pleasing one on customers: VPN employ, most regularly a section of mid-fluctuate antivirus suites, is proscribed to a 200MB per-day restrict per system.

It’s an unfamiliar ploy, supplied that rival companies offer fat, unrestricted VPN earn admission to, and once in a while a password manager subscription, too. But Bitdefender’s ace in the hole is its stellar security, alongside with its easy-to-realize, but quiet customizable interface. While you happen to can forgive Total Safety its occasional half-baked aspects, it gives amongst the entirely protection against malware and online threats.

Additional studying: See our roundup of the entirely antivirus application for Windows PCs to be taught about competing products.

What does Bitdefender Total Safety embody?

Bitdefender Total Safety gives gigantic security against online threats, initiating with antivirus, firewall, and ransomware. It additionally safeguards against network, web, and email points admire brute power assaults, malicious hyperlinks, and harmful attachments, as properly as shows your native inbox for spam even as you use Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. It controls earn admission to to your webcam and microphone to discontinue faraway spying, too.

For extra security and privacy, Total Safety incorporates a get browser, earn admission to to its VPN provider (albeit runt), tracker blocking, parental controls, and a scanner that tests for system vulnerabilities. It additionally has anti-theft application instruments to get better, lock down, or wipe an linked system. Rounding out the suite are web site of utilities: a system optimizer, file shredder for get deletion, and utilization profiles.

You can install Bitdefender on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices, though no longer all aspects are supported on all platforms.

How critical does Bitdefender Total Safety value?

The associated rate of Bitdefender Total Safety varies depending on the preference of devices lined — though no longer by critical. You can gain shut between a 5-system concept and 10-system concept, which all enable you to put in the appliance on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices.

5-system concept

• $70 for the major twelve months
• $100 per twelve months thereafter

10-system concept

• $73 for the major twelve months
• $110 per twelve months thereafter

Bitdefender enrolls customers into auto-renewal by default, though refunds are allowed as a lot as 30 days after the automated renewal date. The firm additionally gives refunds inner 30 days of the preliminary safe of a subscription.

To keep extra cash on Bitdefender, you might safe a license thru shops admire Newegg, B&H, and Amazon, most regularly at a mountainous slice price. As an illustration, a 10-system, one-twelve months concept changed into once accurate $50 on Newegg at the time of this article’s publishing.

Key aspects of Bitdefender Total Safety

Set up and particular person interface

Getting started with Bitdefender Total Safety is discreet and simple — the set up window even presentations quick explanations of quite diverse aspects as you wait. On the opposite hand, watch out when establishing your Bitdefender memoir, as you’re entirely requested to form on your password once. While you happen to don’t employ a password manager, that leaves you open to misremembering (or mistyping) it.

The Bitdefender app has a tidy, clear-slice interface, with mountainous tiles for every and each characteristic. A protect icon in the upper-left nook serves as a characteristic indicator; it’ll flip crimson when something requires consideration. Along the left aspect of the window is earn admission to to the dashboard, aspects sorted by category (Safety, Privateness, and Utilities), notifications, and settings. The app works in conjunction with the Bitdefender Central web page portal, the keep you’ll model out system management (which comprises faraway commands you might send to linked devices, admire malware scans) and parental controls.

Within the dashboard, you’ll gain six customizable shortcuts to varied aspects, alongside with advised action items at the cease. The defaults are Rapid Scan, Machine Scan, Vulnerability Scan, VPN, and Safepay, alongside with a clean tile.

Below Safety, you earn earn admission to to the antivirus scanner, vulnerability scanner (which tests for weaknesses on your apps and network), and settings for online and progressed possibility protections, firewall, spam screening, and ransomware safeguards.

From Privateness, you might open up the Safepay virtual atmosphere or VPN, jump into parental controls (that are dealt with thru the Bitdefender Central web page), install the anti-tracker extension for supported browsers, and manage your webcam and microphone security settings. You can additionally earn admission to Bitdefender’s password manager, alternatively it’s a separate paid provider and no longer incorporated with the Total Safety suite.

Within Utilities, you’ll gain a hyperlink to Bitdefender’s anti-theft instruments (managed thru the Bitdefender Central web page), the optimizer scanner that hunts for temporary and varied disposable recordsdata, sing profiles (which enable you to without complications exchange Bitdefender’s behavior to align with the capacity you’re the employ of the computer — e.g., gaming vs. work), and a file shredder for securely deleting recordsdata from hard-disk drives (HDD).

Notifications demonstrate a running log of Bitdefender’s findings because it monitors your system, organized by urgency diploma. These vary from the pop-up notifications Bitdefender presentations inner Windows, which appear at the bottom objective correct of your cloak cloak and in general promote varied Bitdefender companies. One such alert even went to this point as to warn me just a few LinkedIn knowledge leak from two years ago, in describe to imply signing up for Bitdefender’s Digital Identity Safety provider. Fortunately, you might flip off “particular gives” in the app settings.)

Total, Bitdefender errs on the aspect of ease-of-employ, giving customers a moderate preference of settings for the app and per characteristic. The descriptions of aspects are additionally generalized and no longer very technical.

Virus, malware, and possibility security

Staunch-time security

Bitdefender stays on fixed alert for seemingly threats to your PC. On the computer itself, it scans opened or added recordsdata, monitors apps for suspicious sing, and shows downloaded email for spam, sketchy hyperlinks, and harmful attachments. It particularly seems out for apps that try to encrypt your recordsdata, too — when no longer initiated by you, such behavior is seemingly ransomware seeking to raise your knowledge hostage.

Meanwhile, everytime you’re taking a encounter online, Bitdefender shows for malicious downloads, phishing and fraud attempts, encrypted net sites with invalid or bogus certificates, and defective search results. It additionally blocks unauthorized incoming earn admission to to your PC, unauthorized employ of your webcam and microphone, and online web trackers (even as you install the firm’s anti-monitoring browser extension). You can additionally pair this technique with the firm’s free TrafficLight browser extension, which adds icons to search results marking them safe or harmful.

Scheduled and manual scans

In an unprecedented transfer, Bitdefender doesn’t robotically assemble unprecedented scans. To streak a Rapid Scan and/or Machine Scan at a scheduled time, you’d like to edit these default scans — or as an different make a personalised scan. The technique is no longer intuitive, either. It’s essential open the edit cloak cloak and click on the Subsequent button earlier than the approach to Have when to time desk this project seems. 

You can then gain shut between four intervals — day-to-day, weekly, monthly, or at system startup. Day-to-day allows you to web site a time; Month-to-month allows you to web site which day of the month and a time; and Weekly allows you to think a day of the week and a time.

For manual scans, you might streak Rapid Scan, which specializes in extreme recordsdata and processes; Machine Scan, which combs thru your entire system; or a personalised scan you’ve created. Rapid Scan and Machine Scan can additionally be initiated thru the Bitdefender Central web page — though you obtained’t note indicators of sing on the system. For this objective, I most smartly-appreciated initiating my scans straight on the PC I changed into once the employ of.

Operating Machine Scan might presumably also additionally be tiresome at some level of its first streak, as Bitdefender takes inventory of all the issues to your PC, alternatively it accelerates later on. (By default, the app scans entirely new and modified recordsdata.) You can additionally objective correct-click on individual folders and recordsdata, after which gain shut Bitdefender > Scan with Bitdefender to take a look at them out.

Bitdefender allows you to modify settings for scans — for instance, you might gain shut to gain the appliance continuously cloak cloak all recordsdata, although they haven’t been modified since your last scan. You don’t earn a ton of tweaks, alternatively it’s extra than competitors admire McAfee and Norton (which walk for an extremely-simplified vibe) offer.

Vulnerability scanner

Firewall

Bitdefender takes over firewall obligations completely for Windows — and though most other folk are entirely off leaving it by myself with default settings, you might customize how stringent the foundations are and whether or no longer these principles exchange based on the form of connection you’re on. Bitdefender sends customers a notification every time a potentially malicious app tries to earn admission to the safe. I didn’t stare any overzealousness on Bitdefender’s section while the employ of my take a look at PC, and the settings are properly streamlined without being too simplified.

Rip-off security

Bitdefender objective objective lately launched a free provider referred to as Scamio, an AI-driven chatbot designed to help take a look at the legitimacy of email, textual thunder messages, instant messages, hyperlinks, and QR codes. To open, you’d like to transfer to scamio.bitdefender.com (login required) or Meta’s Messenger app. Then you’ll add a screenshot, copy/paste into the chat, or merely describe the web site to the bot.

As an awfully general second thought, Scamio isn’t defective, though its diagnosis can gain longer than anticipated. I appreciated that it will without complications extract hyperlinks from screenshot — a critical safer methodology, since seeking to copy/paste can lead to an unintended click. It additionally seems to err on the aspect of warning, putting off my strive at candy nothings as a attainable scam.

That acknowledged, in describe for you palms-off help for textual thunder messages, you need to additionally install Bitdefender to your cell phone. As lengthy as you’re gay with the permissions it requests (which walk fairly deep), this can also robotically cloak cloak your chat messages and notifications for seemingly scams.

VPN

Bitdefender Total Safety contains earn admission to to its VPN for multiple devices, however there’s one gigantic safe — each and each piece of gear is disbursed a paltry 200MB of bandwidth per day. (You can burn thru that by taking a encounter accurate just a few net sites.) You’re entirely allowed to join to the nearest server, too.

In Bitdefender’s favor is a swish, without complications navigated interface — I in particular admire how crucial knowledge and stats are laid out clearly. But with free, legit VPN companies offering critical extra bandwidth and letting you suspect a web site when connecting, paying for Bitdefender Premium VPN to earn limitless bandwidth and earn admission to to servers in all 55 supported nations accurate doesn’t truly feel price it. No longer when the value is $40 for the major twelve months and $70 per twelve months thereafter.

Parental controls 

Bitdefender Total Safety contains parental controls, that are managed thru the Bitdefender Central web page. On PC, you might restrict cloak cloak time, apps historical, and websites visited. Android and iOS devices additionally enable guardians to note web site and talk to contacts.

To open on a PC, you’ll first install Bitdefender on it. For cell devices, you’ll want to put in the devoted Bitdefender Parental Adjust app. Then on Bitdefender Central, you’ll make a profile to your child and keep the computer, phone, or tablet to the profile.

From there, you might add closing dates and make schedules for blocked employ, as properly as manage which applications and websites might presumably also additionally be accessed. For apps, you might entirely restrict apps your child has already historical. On the opposite hand, for net sites, you might block or enable by courses, that are predetermined by Bitdefender. By default, early life can consult with sites inner accurate 13 of the 43 presets, comparable to “search engines like google and yahoo,” “webmail,” “computer systems and application,” and “shuttle.” Data is forbidden, which keep PCWorld.com on the ban listing. (Guess we’re no longer satisfactory about computer systems and application.)

As your child spends time on their system, you’ll note their utilization statistics appear in the dashboard’s charts. The dashboard additionally presentations web site monitoring, which works rather properly — the phone historical for testing seemed with shut accuracy to the physical web site. (The advised addresses weren’t factual, alternatively.) Cell phone contacts demonstrate right here as properly, and robotically replace every time a brand new contact is added.

Additional aspects

Anti-Theft

Bitdefender Total Safety’s anti-theft instruments are astonishing in theory, letting you remotely encounter, lock, or wipe your system. For a smartphone, you might remotely trigger an fear and/or send a push notification with a message to whomever has it.

But in practice, I came upon this characteristic to topple flat. As an illustration, my take a look at notebook computer’s web site wasn’t precisely factual — no longer pleasing, because it changed into once based off of the IP address. Meanwhile, my smartphone’s whereabouts never confirmed up. Locking the devices additionally didn’t work in particular properly, either. If the actual person conserving your phone is aware of your PIN, you’re out of luck. The PIN you web site by Bitdefender Central doesn’t override that.

The entirely section that worked as marketed changed into once the faraway alert sound, alongside with the frenzy notification. That entirely helps with smartphones, though, and you’ll gain to belief that you just might presumably be annoy somebody into doing the ideal part.

Browser extensions

Bitdefender has two browser extensions price calling out, though neither are locked to the Total Safety suite. The Anti-Tracker extension is robotically keep in alongside with the Bitdefender app, the keep you might manage its set up even as you install but any other browser to your PC in a while. (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Web Explorer are supported — though even as you’re on an running system that can quiet streak Web Explorer, it’s time to give a boost to). It keeps trackers from collecting knowledge on you, and allows you to deal with watch over this model of facts for net sites you consult with.

Bitdefender TrafficLight tests net sites for phishing attempts and malware, blocks potentially harmful parts on net sites, and adds visible cues to search results labeling them as safe or harmful. Accessible as a Chrome and Firefox extension, this add-on isn’t needed, however its search-end result visible warnings might presumably also additionally be helpful.

File Shredder

Bitdefender’s get delete characteristic allows you to permanently safe recordsdata out of your PC — supplied they’re kept on a troublesome-disk pressure (HDD). Total Safety’s File Shredder characteristic uses the Division of Defense 5520.22-M three-circulate methodology to “shred” your knowledge, which works on HDDs however isn’t as efficient on solid-stammer drives (SSDs). Of direction, this suggests of deleting knowledge can shorten the lifetime of an SSD.

With most laptops now the employ of SSDs, this characteristic will entirely be precious even as you too can gain an external HDD you retailer sensitive paperwork on. But Bitdefender is equal to rival antivirus application on this regard.

OneClick Optimizer

This utility hunts for Windows recordsdata, registry items, and web recordsdata it will nuke — all in the identify of tuning up your PC. But while OneClick Optimizer can rapid wipe away apparently pointless knowledge, it shares shrimp part about what will get tossed. That’s a mountainous web site for the relaxation linked to your registry — a web site the keep even seasoned PC customers tread cautiously. (And usually, you need to continuously know what you’re deleting.)

If OneClick Optimizer listed what it eliminates, presumably I’d gain ended up less cautious of it. But it with out a doubt entirely names three courses (Software Areas, Shared DLLs, and Relieve recordsdata) and what number of “points” came upon in each and each.

Given how imprecise the system is general, I quiet imply Windows’ built-in Disk Cleanup app and purging taking a encounter knowledge in the app itself. This methodology leaves the registry by myself and allows you to gain critical extra protect watch over, while entirely being fairly extra cumbersome.

Safepay

Safepay is a sandboxed browser — that’s, a get atmosphere for having access to sensitive net sites, kept shatter away all the issues else running in Windows. Bitdefender promotes this characteristic as supposed for monetary institution net sites, and even as you navigate to a identified banking web site, you’ll note a pop-up asking in describe for you to load it in Safepay.

Within this remoted desktop is a browser with a identical truly feel as Chrome, however some distance extra bare-bones. You earn no extensions and few settings. On the opposite hand, it gives a virtual keyboard, which in all equity cumbersome however precious for these fascinated about keyloggers.

You can employ Safepay with most net sites, though movies don’t play. Moreover, Bitdefender doesn’t react to all general monetary or sensitive net sites — for instance, I didn’t note the pop up for irs.gov nor less general banks in the U.S. You’ll gain to open Safepay and navigate there yourself.

Buyer help

Would possibly well quiet you ever need assistance with Bitdefender, the app contains a help page, which you might earn admission to by clicking the lifestyles-preserver icon in the upper top-objective correct of the window. It gives allege hyperlinks to Bitdefender’s help web page (which comprises video tutorials), neighborhood forums, and even a fat particular person facts. You can additionally contact the firm by email, chat, or phone.

Updates and maintenance 

You can exchange replace frequency usually app settings.

By default, updates streak robotically in the background once per hour. You can stretch this frequency to once each and each 24 hours (with adjustments accessible in hourly increments). If for some objective you’re on a runt web join, you might flip off automated updates, however your PC will be higher safe even as you walk away it on.

Bitdefender additionally allows you to streak updates in the foreground, so that you just note after they happen. On the opposite hand, it doesn’t let customers assemble manual tests for updates.

Efficiency

Bitdefender takes top marks in self sustaining exams performed by security study institutes. In AV-Check’s security exams for September and October 2023 (the most fresh as of this article’s publishing), Bitdefender caught 100 percent of the zero-day attack and malware threats.

Meanwhile in AV-Comparatives’ right-world security take a look at for July thru October 2023, Bitdefender detected 99.6 percent of the 512 take a look at instances, with three mistaken positives. (A mistaken definite is when the antivirus application blocks a sound earn or web page.) 

Equally, Bitdefender ranked properly in AV-Comparatives’ September 2023 malware security take a look at. Of the 16 antivirus programs examined, Bitdefender scored a 98.2 percent online detection rate, 99.98 percent online security rate, and 98.2 offline detection rate, with four mistaken positives. Even even as you don’t gain an stuffed with life web connection, you’re properly-safe. Only two varied antivirus programs had equally excessive marks across the board.

In AV-Comparatives’ November 2023 Evolved Threat Safety Check, Bitdefender detected 14 of the 15 threats, striking it in the lead sooner than the six varied companies that participated in the review. This take a look at tests to note how properly an antivirus suite handles extra subtle, targeted threats admire malicious scripts and fileless assaults.

When indolent in the background, Bitdefender on the entire has a gentle impact on system performance. Its fabricate changed into once minimal when our take a look at notebook computer encoded a gigantic video into a smaller 1080p30 file (our Handbrake benchmark), and at some level of PCMark 10’s simulation of video conferencing, web taking a encounter, and editing in open-provide image and doc programs. On the opposite hand, Bitdefender’s impact crept up when doc editing in Microsoft Administrative heart apps admire Observe, Excel, and PowerPoint, with UL Procyon take a look at ratings falling by about 9.5 percent.

When running a heavy scan, Bitdefender can particularly gain an impact on performance on mid-fluctuate and funds PCs — even when web site to “low” impact in its settings. Blasting a real fat scan while running each and each benchmark dropped PCMark 10 ratings by virtually 20 percent and UL Procyon results by a mountainous 35 percent. Handbrake encodes had been less affected, with a 10 percent amplify in time wished.

On the opposite hand, while these performance decreases sound provoking, they’re a reflection of the hardest stress to your PC. I compelled Bitdefender to scan the recordsdata as if they’d never been checked earlier than, in describe to note how hard it would hit our take a look at notebook computer. But by default, the app entirely scans new and modified recordsdata (as general amongst antivirus application today time), which reduces the bother wished to take a look at over your PC. For deal of different folk, your trip seemingly will be nearer to the indolent performance (as outlined above), unless you most regularly work with gigantic batches of original or altered recordsdata.

Is Bitdefender Total Safety price it?

Bitdefender Total Safety gives top-notch security in a clear-slice-to-employ app. Its important weaknesses are the limitations of just a few aspects, admire VPN earn admission to and Anti-Theft instruments, and the questionable usefulness of its OneClick Optimizer utility. But even supposing opponents admire Norton give extra bang for the buck, this antivirus application delivers on what issues most, which is keeping your PC (and varied devices) safe. Fair correct don’t pay for the 5-system license even as you might earn the 10-system one for entirely just a few dollars extra.