If you have ever searched for a good antivirus for any of your digital devices either Windows, Android, MacOS, or Android, chances are that you have already heard a lot of positive and negative comments about Bitdefender Antivirus. But do you know how good Bitdefender Total Security is when compared to its competitors ?
We are going to find it out here in just a few minutes. But before we move forward, let’s look at what criterions we will be measuring and evaluating the performance of Bitdefender Total Security.
Also Read: Bitdefender Mobile Security Full Review
What makes the Best Antivirus in 2024?
Pricing
The most important and valid point in evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of an Antivirus is pricing. Good thing is Bitdefender Total Security offers various plans depending on the number of devices as well as for number of years.
Talking about its plans,
Bitdefender offers a 30 days free trial.
Yearly plan for 5 Devices costs $44.99.
Yearly plan for 10 Devices costs $99.99.
2-Year Plan for 5 Devices costs $149.99 (Makes no sense).
2-Year Plan for 10 Devices costs $169.99.
There are also 3-Year plans which you can check out here. If you are looking for a yearly plan, which will be the choice for most people, the best plan would be $44.99 for 5 Devices. It provides the most value for money. Let’s compare the plans of Bitdefender with some of its competitors for a better picture.
Norton Antivirus:
McAfee Total Protection:
In Norton Antivirus, Norton 360 Deluxe provides the best value for money i.e. $39.99 for 5 Devices instead of $44.99 in Bitdefender. However, McAfee Total Protection is even better. McAfee Total Protection’s Family Plan offers a subscription for 10 devices for $44.99 instead of 5 devices at the same price.
So, with the information given above, we can factually conclude that Bitdefender Antivirus isn’t the best and most cost-effective antivirus when it comes to pricing.
Malware Protection
Malware protection being the primary purpose for any antivirus software, it is important to have an outstanding malware protection. Though the antivirus system is not the only parameter to judge the performance, it certainly cannot be overlooked. To be the best Antivirus suite in the market, it should have second-to-none malware-protection.
Malware protection offered by Bitdefender doesn’t disappoint. In my 7-days usage of Bitdefender Total Protection, I tested it against most of the test malware websites, and it managed to detect and eliminate threats every single time.
To add to my judgement, I have brought some facts with me. There are many independent third-party labs that evaluate the performance of an antivirus software on different parameters. One such lab is AV-Test lab.
AV-Test lab conducted an evaluation in August 2020 where it tested Bitdefender Total Protection against a huge number of malwares. Let’s look at the results:
Though the test was conducted on Bitdefender Internet Security, we can use the results for Bitdefender Total Security reliably because both the software have similar malware protection.
In the test given above, AV-Test lab tested the Bitdefender with around 14,000 samples of malware and Bitdefender antivirus, outstandingly, was able to detect and eliminate each one of them. Bitdefender antivirus scored 100% in the test conducted by AV-Test. But these scores too don’t tell the full story. We have to compare the results with the results of other antiviruses too.
Norton Antivirus:
Kaspersky Antivirus:
As can be seen from the results given above, Kaspersky Antivirus and Norton Antivirus were also able to score a 100% in the test. Hence, though the 100% score hit by Bitdefender Antivirus is great, it isn’t the only one to do so.
Hence, in the race of being the best antivirus in 2024, Bitdefender is at par with a bunch of its competitors.
Effect on System Performance:
Antivirus suites these days can be heavy on your system’s CPU and RAM because of the sheer number of functionalities these suites offer. Antivirus Software isn’t just about malware-protection anymore. They often offer a whole load of other functions too. Not all devices are equipped enough to cope up with these Antivirus suites and hence, suffer a lag in performance.
In order to judge the overall functionality and effectiveness of an antivirus, it is crucial to comprehend their impact on the system performance. In my 7 days usage of Bitdefender Antivirus, I felt that the Bitdefender Antivirus impacted my device’s performance the least. When I say the least, I mean in comparison to other antiviruses like Norton, McAfee, and Kaspersky.
However, in the evaluations conducted by AV-Test lab, results don’t back my opinion. Results show that Bitdefender is no better than its competitors. Instead, it is even worse when we talk about surfing the internet. Let’s have a look at the results accumulated by AV-Test lab:
In the given results, Bitdefender performed lower than the industry average when it comes to opening websites online and in other cases it is at par with its competitors.
So, to sum it up, though the Bitdefender Antivirus affected the system’s performance, the major impact is on online surfing. Apart from websites, the performance hit is actually better than other antiviruses. In such cases where facts are contradictory, I will leave you with my opinion. According to my judgement, I felt Bitdefender Antivirus performed better than its competitors. Hence, in the quest of being the best antivirus, Bitdefender is one step ahead of its rivals.
Tools Offered with Bitdefender Total Security
Bitdefender claims to provide best in industry features. But if you have read our review of McAfee Total Protection, we have crowned McAfee to be the Antivirus with most tools. How is it going to work now? We will have to take it bit by bit.
Let’s start with Privacy, VPN is a very important tool in safeguarding the user’s personal identity and data.
Bitdefender VPN:
In short, Bitdefender VPN is far better than its competitors like McAfee. As we discussed while reviewing McAfee Total Protection, its VPN didn’t provide the enough protection and speed that was expected from a premium antivirus Solution. However, the case isn’t the same with Bitdefender VPN. Bitdefender VPN is one of the most effective VPN that comes bundled with any antivirus software in the market. Bitdefender VPN provides the required safety and protection from various cyber-threats.
However, it too suffers from a drawback. The Bitdefender VPN only provides 200MB/day data security with Bitdefender Total Security. It is a big blow on its online privacy front. Most of the competitors of Bitdefender VPN offer unlimited bandwidth.
Safe Online Banking:
In the safe online banking feature, Bitdefender Antivirus attempts to protect the vital financial information like bank account details and credit card numbers of the user. Now you can also program it to autofill credit card information wherever you find suitable.
Parental Control:
Bitdefender Total Security suite offers a parental control tool. Parental control consists of functionality to block the inadequate content on your child’s phone remotely and limit their device usage. It helps provide parents a genuine control over their child’s activity without hindering the personal life of their children.
Bitdefender Photon:
Bitdefender Photon helps the software to hinder the system performance the least by adapting to it. It adapts to your usage so as to change the features such as scanning time, etc. according to your usage so that you’d have a unhindered workflow.
Network Threat Protection:
Bitdefender Total Security helps stop the online attacks directed towards the user’s data and privacy. It helps block sophisticated malware and brute force attacks.
Anti-Phishing:
Phishing scams can be a serious blow to your online privacy and finances. Phishing scams involve creating a legitimate looking website that would interest a user to put his/her account information either in order to buy something or donate something. In both the cases, transactions are made fraudulently deducting more money than the user agreed to.
Anti-phishing features can be a blessing if you’re a new user or your teen kids like to make little purchases online.
Complete Real-time protection
Bitdefender Total Security provides real time protection to deal with the malware and ransomware attacks in real-time and not when the harm is done. It, in real time, scans the files and software to ignore any harm that can be caused by a malicious file.
So these are few of the tools offered by Bitdefender Total protection. When we compare these tools with that of other antiviruses such as McAfee and Norton, it totally shines. McAfee, the closest competitor, is at par with Bitdefender. However, if you are looking for an Antivirus with robust online privacy protection, you may want to go with Bitdefender. However, if you are more into accessing global content, you may want to stick with McAfee. In both the cases, Bitdefender doesn’t lag behind the McAfee antivirus in any way.
Verdict:
Bitdefender Antivirus is a marvelous tool to protect all your devices, Android, Windows, iOS, and MacOS. On the pricing front, Bitdefender loses to McAfee Antivirus with a good difference of 5 devices. However, it may not matter to a person with a small family.
On the Malware protection front, Bitdefender comes out to be at par with all the best antiviruses available in the market. Hence, it is the best antivirus for malware protection.
On the tools front, Bitdefender is absolutely the best antivirus available in the market. Though the Bitdefender VPN with limited data puts it in a bad place, it is really a matter of choice for someone to opt.
On the System impact front, with my personal opinion, Bitdefender Total Security has the least impact on systems performance.
Keeping all this in mind, I would say yes, the Bitdefender Total Security is the best antivirus software available in the market.
So, this was our Bitdefender Review. We hope we were able to help you decide whether you would want Bitdefender Total Security in your phone or not. Do let’s know what you think about Bitdefender Antivirus, we love hearing from you.
Next Read
How does an Antivirus Protect your PC?
Akshita
Interesting article! It has explained me entirely about how Bitdefender is a great tool for our PC. Thanks