The Forbes Advisor editorial team is independent and objective. To help support our reporting work, and to continue our ability to provide this content for free to our readers, we receive payment from the companies that advertise on the Forbes Advisor site. This comes from two main sources.
First, we provide paid placements to advertisers to present their offers. The payments we receive for those placements affects how and where advertisers’ offers appear on the site. This site does not include all companies or products available within the market.
Second, we also include links to advertisers’ offers in some of our articles. These “affiliate links” may generate income for our site when you click on them. The compensation we receive from advertisers does not influence the recommendations or advice our editorial team provides in our articles or otherwise impact any of the editorial content on Forbes Advisor.
While we work hard to provide accurate and up to date information at the time of publication that we think you will find relevant, Forbes Advisor does not and cannot guarantee that any information provided is complete and makes no representations or warranties in connection thereto, nor to the accuracy or applicability thereof. You should always check with the product provider to ensure that information provided is the most up to date.
Published: Jun 5, 2023, 10:30am
In this Bitdefender review, we’ll take a close look at this antivirus solution’s features and pricing so you can decide if it’s the right choice for you. Summary: Bitdefender is one of the largest names in the antivirus software industry. The company offers everything from a free antivirus for personal use to enterprise security packages for hundreds of users. Although Bitdefender ranks as one of the best antivirus services on the market, it’s not without a few small issues regarding its unclear pricing and its performance on user machines. Forbes Advisor combed through the details to uncover if the security and features of Bitdefender prevail over some of its drawbacks.
1
Avast
Starting price
Free; £23.99 first year for up to 10 devices
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 Days
1
Avast
On Avast’s Website
2
Norton
Starting price
£ 19.99 first year
Inclusions
Password Manager, malware, ransomware, hacking protection
Moneyback guarantee
60 days for annual, 14 days for monthly
2
Norton
On Norton’s Website
3
McAfee
Starting price
£29.99 per year
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 Days
3
McAfee
On McAfee’s Website
One of Bitdefender’s strengths is the number of features each plan offers. Forbes Advisor breaks down the key attributes to summarise what Bitdefender offers.
Bitdefender’s consumer-centric plans start at £18.98 per year for one device and go all the way up to £54.99 for 10 devices for the first year. With the personal plan, you get standard features including anti-phishing capabilities, vulnerability assessment reports and a file shredder that permanently removes sensitive information off of your machine.
This review mainly focuses on the business on the business package option, but Bitdefender’s personal plans are also impressive. If you run a small or one-person business, those packages may be worth considering.
Bitdefender’s protection is built on the company’s GravityZone platform. GravityZone is a powerful security solution that can protect email servers, deal with security patches and encrypt your most sensitive data.
Pricing for Bitdefender’s entry-level business security plan starts at £101.49 per year with protection for up five devices and two file servers. Depending on what package and add-ons you go with, the software can easily cost over £5,000 per year for larger teams. This is in line with other business antivirus platforms we’ve seen on the market.
GravityZone also offers security for virtual machines, full disk encryption and protection for mobile devices, all of which you can manage through a centralised control console. Some versions of GravityZone security also provide a risk management console that shows your company’s overall risk to attacks and breaks down the specific machines that are causing problems.
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is one of the newest features in Bitdefender. This add-on module provides a visual overview of your computer systems that highlights potential attack paths by identifying any weak links in your systems and suggests the steps to patch any holes. If an attack happens, EDR lets you isolate and analyse where it came from and why it happened in the first place.
Although Bitdefender offers a lot of tools for a large enterprise, it also offers protection for small businesses. Bitdefender offers GravityZone Business Security, designed for anything from three devices to 100, which features a list of tools that are tailored toward small businesses without a dedicated IT team.
GravityZone is still at the heart of the service, so you have access to features like application behavior monitoring, ransomware protection and web-based security. Over similar small business services, however, Bitdefender also offers server protection.
You can protect a virtual or physical server as part of your plan, no add-on required. Server protection compromises 30% of your total devices, so you can protect one server with three devices and five servers with 15 devices. If you don’t have a server, you can still use your available devices as normal.
This is a huge benefit for small businesses with a local file server or two. A lot of competing services only offer server protection through an add-on or reserve it for more expensive plans. With Bitdefender, you can increase safety for your servers no matter how many devices your business needs to protect.
Although we’ve focused mainly on Bitdefender’s business protection, it offers personal protection, too. The personal service is one of the most robust on the market, offering a VPN, banking protection and webcam security in addition to ransomware detection and real-time security.
Bitdefender offers multiple antivirus packages depending on the features you need and the number of devices you need to protect. In addition to protection for a single user, Bitdefender offers plans for families and small offices that only need to protect a few devices.
This is what makes Bitdefender so easy to recommend. Almost across the board, you can choose one from a number of antivirus packages offered by the company and it will deliver the security you need. That includes massive enterprises, growing businesses, small offices and even individual users.
Related: Best Antivirus Software
Bitdefender is packed with features and continually ranks at the top at independent antivirus testing outfits. When it comes to protecting your devices and offering the latest in protection technology, it’s hard to beat Bitdefender.
It’s not perfect, though. Independent testing shows that it is slightly more demanding on your computer than other services. It’s also been reported to occasionally flag a false positive, though they’re few and far between.
One of the biggest drawbacks to Bitdefender is price. It’s one of the more expensive services on the market, and some critical features, such as email security, will cost you extra. You could end up spending hundreds more on a subscription compared to other options depending on the features you need.
Some context is important with pricing, though. Although it’s more expensive than services like Avast, Bitdefender offers a generous discount for the initial term. Plus, it offers features like server protection across most business plans, whereas many other services charge for the extra protection.
It’s important to note that the higher-than-average pricing only applies to the business service. As we’ll dig into in the next section, Bitdefender’s personal plans end up cheaper than much of the competition.
Comparing Bitdefender to other popular antivirus services, it becomes clear that it’s in the top class of services. Avira still outpaces it based on our rankings, but Bitdefender still manages to beat several other top companies, including Malwarebytes.
The biggest upfront difference between the three services is price. Keep in mind that Bitdefender offers a generous discount on annual pricing, which is why it’s so much cheaper than Avira and Malwarebytes.
As for features, Bitdefender and Avira are directly comparable. Both go beyond simply scanning with a suite of security and PC tune-up features. Both include a VPN, anti-tracking measures for your browser and anti-spam measures for local email clients.
Malwarebytes includes some of these features, including a VPN and browser protection. However, it’s missing some features, too. Notably, it doesn’t include a PC clean-up tool or a file shredder, both of which are available with Avira and Bitdefender.
There are some areas where Avira may be a better choice than Bitdefender. For example, Avira includes a few non-essential extras that Bitdefender lacks, like a price comparison tool for your browser. But the two systems are fairly similar in what they offer.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Bitdefender’s GravityZone business memberships go beyond simply protecting your devices from threats. In addition to real-time protection across desktop, mobile and web, Bitdefender offers a suite of threat forecasts that can help you seal up any leaking holes before they become a problem.
Before an attack, admins can monitor things like the number of unencrypted web pages employees visit. After an attack, Bitdefender gives you the tools to break down and understand why the attack happened and how to avoid it in the future.
On top of that, Bitdefender leverages machine learning to predict and block threats before they can impact your business.
Who Should Use It: Businesses that need to monitor and analyse threats before they can happen.
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Malwarebytes can protect as little as a single device and as many as 100 devices. Malwarebytes for Teams can protect up to nine devices, and it includes all of the antivirus’ key features. Those include real-time protection on desktop, ransomware and phishing protection and zero-day exploit detection.
If you have a larger team or need extra security, Malwarebytes has you covered. The premium package includes threat isolation and recovery, ransomware rollback and the ability to add server security. From protecting a few devices in a small office to defending dozens of devices from large attacks, Malwarebytes has something for everyone.
Who Should Use It: Malwarebytes offers a scalable platform that fits in the small office as well as it does in the sprawling enterprise.
As one of the most secure options on the market and packed to the brim with features, it’s hard arguing with Bitdefender. That said, it’s possible to save some money on a business plan while getting a similar list of features and protection.
Bitdefender’s business service is expensive, especially as you add on new features. The upside is protection for servers, which could make the difference depending on what your business needs. In some cases, however, businesses will be paying more for features that are available elsewhere.
That’s not the case with the personal tiers. If you want to protect yourself, your family or a small office, Bitdefender is one of the best options on the market. It’s cheaper than the competition while still packing the same features and protection.
Thankfully, you can try out Bitdefender before you commit to a plan. It offers a free plan for individual users that you can use to scan your PC for threats. Businesses can also request a free trial to see how it works.
1
Avast
Starting price
Free; £23.99 first year for up to 10 devices
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 Days
1
Avast
On Avast’s Website
2
Norton
Starting price
£ 19.99 first year
Inclusions
Password Manager, malware, ransomware, hacking protection
Moneyback guarantee
60 days for annual, 14 days for monthly
2
Norton
On Norton’s Website
3
McAfee
Starting price
£29.99 per year
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 Days
3
McAfee
On McAfee’s Website
Bitdefender consistently ranks at the top of antivirus services at independent testing institutions. In addition to signature-based threat detection, Bitdefender is able to identify new forms of malware with machine learning and behavior protection, protecting you from even the most recent threats.
Bitdefender’s privacy policy states that it does not sell your data. It does, however, collect a minimal amount of personal data when “absolutely necessary,” though it takes efforts to anonymise that data when possible.
Bitdefender ranks as one of the most secure antiviruses on the market, but it has had some problems in the past. A flaw was found in 2020 that would allow attackers to access a computer through a feature in the Total Security package. Bitdefender has fixed the issue and there hasn’t been another incident since.
Bitdefender does offer a free basic antivirus option for Windows, macOS and Android.
Yes, we recommend antivirus software, especially if you’re running a business. This is because there are many types of viruses that can damage your computer or steal your personal information. Not only that, but sophisticated viruses can even steal customer data, potentially opening you up to millions of dollars’ worth of damages.
Although no harm should come to your computer by having competing antivirus programs on it, there’s no benefit to having multiple ones, especially if you are paying for them. If you have acquired a new antivirus program to replace an existing one, the best option is to uninstall the existing antivirus program from your computer before installing the new antivirus program. Once installed, run the new program in its entirety to make sure your computer is virus-free. Check to make sure it is up to date as well.
Jacob Roach is a writer and technology enthusiast. He specializes in computing and small business software, lending his experience to sites like Digital Trends, Business Insider, and Cloudwards. You can follow him on Twitter @ManowarElves.
Rob is an SMB writer and editor based in New Jersey. Before joining Forbes Advisor, he was a content producer at Fit Small Business. In that role, he was responsible for writing, editing, and strategising content geared toward small business owners. Before that, he worked at PCMag as a business analyst.
