Bitdefender Review 2026: One of the Best Antivirus Options on the Market

8.8 / 10

Score

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Bitdefender Antivirus

$90 at Bitdefender

Score Breakdown

Performance 9/10Security 10/10Customer Support 9/10Usability 10/10Value 9/10Features 10/10

Pros

• Uses minimal computer resources, including during active scans
• Comprehensive collection of digital security and, for US users, identity theft protection tools
• Intuitive user interface
• Excellent phone support

Cons

• AI-first live chat that makes it difficult to connect with a human
• VPN caused major reduction in internet speed during testing
• Maximum of five devices on individual plans

Founded in 1990 as an antivirus company, Bitdefender now offers comprehensive cybersecurity suites with safe browsing tools, dark web monitoring and tools for removing your information from data broker sites. I spent a week testing these tools and found them generally effective and easy to use, making Bitdefender a great choice for those who want robust digital protection without having to learn complicated new systems.

Bitdefender’s antivirus truly shines, with fast, efficient scans that outpace competitors like McAfee and Malwarebytes, making it one of the best antivirus software options on the market. The anti-tracking browser extension is also impressive, blocking ad trackers and other invasive elements of sites you visit. I also appreciated the effectiveness of the Digital Identity Protection Toolkit, which provides continuous dark web monitoring and the ability to remove your information from data broker sites.

All of this makes Bitdefender an effective choice for most users but there are a couple of downsides. Individual plans are limited to just five devices, so Bitdefender isn’t a great choice if you have six or more devices to protect and don’t want to upgrade to a pricier family plan. Additionally, Bitdefender’s VPN is sluggish and lacks key privacy features. This is unfortunately common among VPNs created by antivirus-first companies, so we recommend buying a separate VPN for more advanced privacy features. Nevertheless, if you need antivirus software, Bitdefender is among the best of the bunch.

Bitdefender antivirus features, plans and pricing: Excellent options for users at all budget levels

Bitdefender’s antivirus software offers real-time protection from viruses and other malware, scheduled and on-demand scanning tools, plus security suites with additional features like scam detection and identity theft protection. The various plans let you choose the level of protection that best suits your cybersecurity needs, with family versions available to protect every member of your household by providing more accounts and coverage for more devices than the company’s individual plans.

Bitdefender’s plans are largely comparable to other top cybersecurity suites. The one notable distinction is that you can’t protect more than five devices on any individual plan. Device restrictions are common among antivirus companies — of those I’ve tested, only McAfee allows for unlimited devices — but Malwarebytes lets you extend protection to 10 devices for an additional fee and Norton offers a 10-device plan. You’ll want to upgrade to a family plan with Bitdefender, or choose one of those companies if you have more than five devices to protect.

Bitdefender free edition

Bitdefender’s free antivirus includes real-time protection, scan scheduling and a manual scanning tool. This free antivirus uses the same core software as the premium version, ensuring robust protection with minimal resource use. You can get free coverage for one Windows or MacOS device, plus free protection for one Android device. Bitdefender doesn’t require signing up, either, so you could theoretically extend this coverage to more devices.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus

You can purchase Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for $25 in the first year and $50 per year after if you’re only protecting one device. You can also buy a Bitdefender Antivirus Plus plan for $30 in the first year ($70 per year after) if you want to extend antivirus protection to two additional devices. The core antivirus software is functionally the same as the free edition, so I don’t recommend this option for most users.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus does include a VPN but it’s limited to an allowance of 200MB per day per device, which you’ll likely burn through quickly. Moreover, we recommend purchasing a separate VPN for better privacy and performance.

Bitdefender Total Security

Built for users who want fundamental protections for their devices and online accounts, Bitdefender Total Security provides antivirus protection for up to five devices, plus a password manager, a basic VPN and data breach detection. The VPN is limited to 200MB per day per device, but we recommend a separate VPN regardless. The individual version of Bitdefender Total Security starts at $60 for the first year and rises to $110 per year on renewal.

The family version of Bitdefender Total Security covers up to 25 devices spread across five accounts. Priced at $80 for the first year and $140 per year after, this is an affordable way to secure all of your family’s devices and online accounts.

Bitdefender Premium Security

Created for users who want to improve their privacy and online safety, Bitdefender Premium Security includes an unlimited VPN (although we don’t recommend most VPNs from antivirus-first companies) and ad-blocker as well as anti-tracker software.

You’ll also get Bitdefender’s scam protection, which scans messages sent to your email and phone for common signs of phishing and other scams, flagging communications it deems suspicious. Email protection tries to identify spam and can be used with up to two email accounts per account.

The individual version of Bitdefender Premium Security costs $80 for the first year and rises to $130 per year on renewal, with protection for up to five devices. The family version covers up to 25 devices spread across five accounts and costs $100 for the first year ($170 per year after).

Bitdefender Ultimate Security

Designed for users who are worried about where their data is online, Bitdefender Ultimate Security builds on the features of lower-tier plans with dark web monitoring and real-time breach monitoring. An identity protection score helps you understand how safe your information is online, with automated suggestions for improving your online safety and the option to access cybersecurity advice from Bitdefender’s trained experts.

The individual version of Bitdefender Ultimate Security costs $90 for the first year and $160 per year after, with protection for up to five devices. The family version extends this coverage to up to 25 devices split among five accounts for $120 in the first year ($190 per year after).

Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus

Built for users with significant assets to protect, Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus adds identity theft restoration and insurance of up to $1 million. US-based users also get one bureau credit monitoring, a credit score tracker and alerts warning you of potential fraud or identity threats. This includes medical ID fraud protection and social security number tracking.

The individual version of Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus costs $120 for the first year and $190 per year after, with coverage for up to five devices. The family version protects up to 25 devices across five accounts and costs $180 for the first year ($270 per year after).

Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus — Extended

Users who are deeply concerned about their investments can purchase Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus — Extended for investment account alerts, ransomware resolution and refunds, court records monitoring and change of address monitoring. You’ll also get social engineering refund and resolution tools, which protect you from scammers who use psychological pressure to get you to divulge confidential information or make fraudulent payments. Additionally, identity theft insurance increases to $2 million on this plan.

The individual version of Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus — Extended costs $140 in the first year and $250 per year afterward, with protection for up to five devices. You can extend that coverage to five accounts and 25 devices with the family version for $200 in the first year ($350 per year on renewal).

Bitdefender antivirus usability: Quick to install, easy to navigate

I signed up for Bitdefender Ultimate Security to test the account navigation on the Bitdefender website, plus the installation and navigation of the antivirus software. Bitdefender’s processes were fast and straightforward, allowing me to set up my account and the antivirus within a few minutes. Navigating these tools after setup was also pleasant, with only a couple of minor issues. Notably, my main problem with Bitdefender — the lack of a clear way to cancel my subscription — is a problem shared by Malwarebytes, our other top-ranking antivirus.

Account navigation

Creating and managing my Bitdefender account was a simple process, with most features proving easily accessible for even the least technically inclined among us.

It only took a couple of minutes to set up my Bitdefender account by entering my payment info and connecting Bitdefender to my Google account. I received a prompt to install the antivirus software and was then sent to Bitdefender Central, the core account dashboard.

Bitdefender Central has a streamlined, modern interface with prominent displays of your devices, blocked threats and available tools. You’ll even see security news articles about new threats and trends in cybersecurity. Tools accessible through your browser, such as SecurePass (the password manager) and Digital Identity Protection (a suite of online data monitoring tools), are linked in the sidebar for easy access.

My only disappointment was the My Subscriptions area, where you can view and install software connected to your plan. While this is nice, I would love to see billing information — including the option to cancel my plan — here. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find billing information in either the web portal or the app; I had to contact customer service to cancel my subscription. I experienced the same issue with Malwarebytes and McAfee, so it’s not uncommon, but some antivirus companies — like Norton — do let you cancel without contacting customer service.

Antivirus installation and setup

I was directed to install the antivirus immediately upon connecting my plan code to my account, with options to install it on the device I was using or to send an installation code to a separate device. The download only took a few seconds, and Bitdefender even provided a pop-up showing where I would find the file, a handy feature for people less comfortable with tech.

Bitdefender took around two minutes to fully install. I had to close all browsers to complete the process, so it’s important to make sure your browser’s set to save open tabs between sessions before you download Bitdefender.

Once installed, Bitdefender directed me to perform an initial system assessment, which is effectively a quick scan for viruses and other security issues (similar to smart scans from other antivirus tools). You’re also given an option to run it in the background, which reduces the amount of processing power used by the app and allows you to return to other tasks.

After completing the assessment, Bitdefender provides suggestions for improving your device security, such as enabling or optimizing certain Bitdefender settings. You’ll also receive a pop-up tour explaining core areas of Bitdefender, like the Auto Pilot that provides tips for boosting your device safety.

I was surprised that Bitdefender hadn’t immediately activated malware protection, but quickly discovered this was due to a conflicting program, Avira Antivirus. You shouldn’t encounter this problem if you’ve been using the built-in antivirus offered by your operating system. If you’ve been using a different third-party antivirus, simply uninstall the other antivirus and reboot your computer; Bitdefender will automatically activate malware protection when your computer restarts.

Bitdefender’s main interface is highly intuitive, with an Auto Pilot bar near the top featuring actionable tips like activating Bitdefender’s ransomware protection. Large buttons let you quickly start a system scan (which hunts for active malware) or a vulnerability scan (which hunts for weaknesses like outdated software) or activate features like scam protection and the VPN. The sidebar features clearly labelled buttons for Bitdefender’s core areas, like the Protection area, where you can enable or disable specific layers of protection.

My one confusion was the lack of a clearly labelled deep scan option. Bitdefender’s knowledge base revealed that Bitdefender’s system scans are equivalent to other tools’ deep scans, thoroughly examining every file on your hard drive for signs of malware.

Quick scans (which only examine the most critical system files) are also available, but you’ll have to seek them out in Protection > Antivirus. By contrast, other antivirus tools typically feature quick scans on the antivirus homepage and make you search for the deep scan option. I prefer Bitdefender’s approach because I want a comprehensive scan if I’m running it manually, but this may be frustrating for some users.

You can initiate a custom scan in Protection > Antivirus, with the option to schedule it to run on startup or on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You can also choose to run these scans on specific drives, folders or even individual files. This gives you much more control than manual scans with Microsoft Defender, but it’s pretty similar to the functionality of other third-party antivirus tools like Malwarebytes and Norton.

Finally, I took a quick look at the Bitdefender Android app. The app downloaded on my device and connected to my Bitdefender account in a couple of minutes, then ran an automated scan. Once this was complete, the app opened a screen with quick links to activate tools like scam protection. The experience was very pleasant, especially since it automatically opened in dark mode, my preferred way to view apps.

Bitdefender antivirus performance: Fast and efficient

After setting up Bitdefender, I spent several days testing its antivirus, concentrating on the security suite’s active scanning and background performance capabilities. Bitdefender’s antivirus was consistently effective and efficient throughout my testing. The active scans were particularly impressive, with most scans — even deep scans — using minimal resources and wrapping up in three minutes or less.

Note: I performed all tests on a Lenovo ThinkPad with an Intel i5 Processor and roughly 50GB of data stored on my hard drive. Bitdefender may perform differently on your computer, especially if you have an older setup or a significant amount of data. Conversely, I tested the Android app on an older phone (Motorola G Stylus, about five years old), so you may have even better results if you’re using a newer phone.

Background performance

I let Bitdefender run in the background for two days while I browsed the internet and performed other everyday activities, like light image editing. Everything ran smoothly, with no noticeable difference in speed compared with conducting those same activities without Bitdefender enabled. Task Manager further proved Bitdefender’s efficiency, showing that it only used 0.2% of CPU power and roughly 500MB of memory. In my experience, Bitdefender shouldn’t slow you down even if you’re doing high-resource tasks like video editing or gaming.

This brings everyday Bitdefender use in line with the background performance of other antivirus tools like Malwarebytes. Even McAfee and Avira, which used enormous amounts of CPU power during scans, kept their CPU use to 0.6% or less during my tests. So, while Bitdefender’s background performance did come in slightly ahead of other antivirus tools, it’s not a big enough difference to be your main reason for choosing Bitdefender over another antivirus.

Active scans

I ran various scans with Bitdefender and was consistently impressed by its efficiency, with even system scans (Bitdefender’s deep scan equivalent) using just 7% to 10% of CPU power. Only Malwarebytes had a similar level of efficiency, with CPU use of 5% to 8% during deep scans — and Malwarebytes scans took much longer, coming in at 30 minutes each rather than the three minutes of most of my Bitdefender system scans.

My first Bitdefender scan was the system assessment recommended during onboarding, which searches for common malware and vulnerabilities. The system assessment used between 3% and 6% of CPU power and 53.9MB of memory, low enough to let you browse the web or complete other tasks while the scan ran. Furthermore, the scan only took about two minutes, allowing me to quickly move on to setting up the rest of my Bitdefender scans.

Next, I ran a system scan, Bitdefender’s equivalent to the deep scan in other antivirus tools. My test laptop isn’t storing many files, so this only took 21 minutes; Bitdefender warns that it can take up to an hour depending on your machine and how much data you’re storing. However, even if it does take this long, it’s not a big deal; the scan only used between 7% and 10% of CPU power and 66.6MB of memory, allowing me to keep working while it ran.

Bitdefender promised scan time would decrease as it grew more familiar with the files on my computer, and this held true: The second scan only took three minutes. Furthermore, the resource use stayed in similar ranges — about 7% to 10% CPU power and 55MB of memory — showing that this second scan was equally efficient to the first. Malwarebytes, Bitdefender’s top competitor during our testing, also used minimal resources (5% to 8% of CPU power and 215MB of memory) but took almost 30 minutes to complete every scan, so while both companies used similar system resources, Bitdefender was notably faster.

Satisfied with my system scan results, I moved on to testing the quick scan feature, running three of these scans over two days of testing. All of my quick scans took about three minutes and used between 4% and 7% of CPU power, plus 60MB of memory. Again, this CPU use was nearly identical to the Malwarebytes quick scans. The speed was almost identical too, with Malwarebytes quick scans taking two to three minutes; the only difference was memory use, with Malwarebytes using around 200MB.

Next, I ran a vulnerability scan to find weaknesses in my system settings and other issues like out-of-date software. The scan was near-instant — so fast I didn’t have time to check resource use — and turned up five issues. I was able to click on these issues for suggested solutions, with guides available to help me implement them.

I also installed Bitdefender’s Android app on my phone and ran three scans with it. Each scan took about two minutes and used minimal resources, allowing me to continue working (or scrolling social media) while Bitdefender did its thing.

Usability and performance of additional tools: High-quality protection, with the exception of the VPN

Bitdefender’s additional tools are pretty simple to get started with, but they vary in effectiveness. The anti-tracking browser extension and dark web monitoring worked great, while email protection and the Bitdefender VPN had less encouraging results during my tests. This aligns with my experience testing other antivirus companies’ cybersecurity suites: They all do some things better than others and most of the VPNs are mediocre (or worse).

Browser safety

You can head to the Privacy area of Bitdefender’s main interface to access the anti-tracking tools. These are browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge, and can be installed in a few clicks. Once installed, the extension works automatically, blocking trackers of all types as you browse.

The anti-tracker started working right away, scanning websites I visited and blocking various trackers. The anti-tracking tools run in the background by default, so you don’t need to do anything other than enable it.

If you want to take a more active approach (or just learn more about the trackers being blocked), you can attach the anti-tracker to your taskbar and it will display the number of trackers blocked on each site you visit. You can click on this icon to see a detailed breakdown of the types of trackers employed by any given website.

Browser Guard didn’t interfere with any of my online activity or significantly increase resource use on my computer. If you’re concerned that Browser Guard is interfering with your browser, you can disable it with a couple of clicks. Overall, Browser Guard works almost identically to the Malwarebytes browser security extension, with its main advantage being the ability to pause the anti-tracking functionality while browsing a specific website.

SecurePass, Bitdefender’s password manager, is also found in the privacy area (or accessed through Bitdefender Central). You can connect it to Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Safari, with the additional option to install an Android or iOS app. Once installed, SecurePass will ask you to create a master password. You can then bulk import your passwords from an existing password manager, such as the one built into your browser, or add them manually.

Email and scam protection

Setting up email protection only takes a couple of clicks, and Bitdefender starts scanning incoming emails right away. You can extend this into full scam protection by going to Protection > Scam Protection in the Bitdefender software interface.

Bitdefender’s email protection tool immediately started marking incoming emails with tags declaring them safe or dangerous. These tags proved that Bitdefender was scanning every single email, which may give some users peace of mind.

However, the single email Bitdefender flagged as dangerous was a press release from a competitor. This raises questions about the markers Bitdefender looks for. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the system isn’t auto-flagging all emails from competitors; it’s more likely the reference to the dark web that made this email suspicious to the AI. However, this still shows that Bitdefender’s scam detection system is imperfect, as some emails referencing the dark web may be important security updates.

I allowed Bitdefender’s scam protection to run on my browser and mobile devices for two days as well, and didn’t receive any notifications about scams during this time. It’s difficult to say how much of this is from my own safe browsing practices and how much is caused by issues with Bitdefender’s software — or overlap with existing protections from Google. As such, I’m not confident enough in this tool’s functionality to consider it a major selling point for Bitdefender.

Digital Identity Protection

I tested Bitdefender’s digital identity protection suite next, entering my email address and waiting roughly one minute for the dashboard to generate. Initially, this only showed my digital footprint, visualizing my digital security and basic information about services connected to my account. Moreover, this digital footprint initially only connected eight services to my email address — which I’ve used for almost 20 years — leaving me wondering how it found and assessed these services.

I let Bitdefender collect data over the weekend and returned to find a full assessment of my digital security, complete with notifications about data breaches and links to take action. These notifications showed breaches going as far back as 2016, and the Dark Web Monitoring tab listed more data breaches back to 2012, showing that Bitdefender’s monitoring is truly comprehensive.

Clicking on the Take Action button for a specific data breach notification led to basic security advice, like changing my password and enabling two-factor authentication for my Gmail account. This may be helpful for some users but I had already taken these steps after learning about mass data breaches.

What is more useful is the digital footprint tab, where you can view companies you’ve submitted data to or created accounts with. Unfortunately, there’s no separation between sites you’ve subscribed to and sites you’ve created accounts with. There’s also no indication of how risky these sites are, something I really appreciated in the McAfee Online Account Cleanup tool. There aren’t many other filtering options, either, making this overwhelming to navigate for users who have submitted data to many websites.

Bitdefender also provides some tools for finding your information on data broker sites. However, it currently only tracks the top eight data brokers so this is also of limited usefulness. You’ll also have to manually request data removal, with no upgrade available to make Bitdefender send the requests for you — something you can get fromMcAfee and Norton.

VPN

Bitdefender’s VPN offers privacy features not included in other VPNs from antivirus-first companies, like split tunneling (letting you skip using the VPN for certain apps) and double VPN servers (which make it harder to trace your information back to your device). Unfortunately, I experienced an average 39.78% download speed loss during testing, much higher than our recommended maximum of 25%. In my experience, slow speeds can be common among VPNs from antivirus companies, so we recommend buying a separate VPN instead.

The VPN is accessed from the main area of the Bitdefender interface. You can either let the VPN automatically choose the fastest server (ideal for mitigating basic privacy concerns) or manually select a location (ideal for seeing content not available in your region or use during international travel).

I tested this VPN on servers in a variety of locations to determine how it impacted my internet speed. To figure this out, I first needed to establish a baseline for my internet speed without the VPN using Ookla Speed Test. Across three tests, my default internet had an average download speed of 493.29Mbps and an average upload speed of 793.87Mbps.

Next, I set the VPN to my optimal server, located in my region of Canada. I was surprised to see an average download speed of 516.56Mbps and upload speed of 742.07Mbps, slightly faster than my default internet. This looks great, but it’s an atypical result; these situations usually only occur under unique circumstances, such as if your VPN establishes a more efficient connection with the internet at large than your internet provider, or if your ISP is throttling certain traffic. Accordingly, you should expect slower speeds with a VPN, even if only marginally.

Of course, many VPN users don’t want to use a server near their location at all. VPNs are commonly used to access content locked to certain regions — like that UK Netflix show you love — which means using a server in another country or even on another continent. I determined how well Bitdefender’s VPN performs this task by running speed tests using VPN servers in several countries. I had the following averages across my various speed tests:

Switching to a US server had only slightly more impact on my internet speed than using the optimal server, with a 17% average download speed loss. However, the results worsened significantly when using the VPN in other countries, cutting response times in half throughout the UK and Europe. Internet speeds got even worse when setting the VPN to Singapore and Australia, making my browser almost unusable and pushing the average speed loss across locations up to 39.78%, higher than our recommended maximum of 25%.

Most VPNs get slower when using servers further from your location, but the best VPNs are capable of providing much more consistent performance across countries. We recommend ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN or Mullvad to get these results.

Bitdefender antivirus security: Excellent antivirus protection, above-average privacy protocols

My research found that Bitdefender consistently performs well in antivirus lab tests and employs extensive encryption protocols. The privacy policy allows Bitdefender to share your data with certain marketing vendors and law enforcement, but this is true for every antivirus company I’ve tested. Furthermore, Bitdefender’s stated commitment to automatically pseudonymizing at least some data means it shouldn’t have much information to share with those third parties beyond what you give for account creation. These policies are similar to most antivirus tools.

Antivirus

Bitdefender’s antivirus has earned a 6 out of 6 security ranking on every AV-Test test since June 2022. Bitdefender has also received numerous three-star protection awards from AV-Comparatives, a third-party lab whose tests are generally considered industry-standard.

Most recently, in September 2025, AV-Comparatives found that Bitdefender had a 98.8% detection rate for online threats (like downloads from websites) and offline threats (like USB keys). The online protection rate was even higher at 99.99%, showing that Bitdefender successfully blocked almost all known malware.

Security for additional tools

SecurePass uses the industry-standard AES-256 encryption and HTTPS security protocols that most password managers use to protect your data. It doesn’t stop there, though. It also uses the SHA-512 and BCRYPT encryption protocols for modern, reliable security. You can further protect your passwords by setting up two-factor authentication with your phone or other secondary device.

Bitdefender’s VPN uses AES-256 encryption to protect data sent to and from VPN servers, plus perfect forward secrecy. This means every VPN session generates a new encryption key, and each encryption key is deleted from the software’s memory the instant the session ends, thereby giving you added security.

Bitdefender says it doesn’t keep logs of online activity while connected to the VPN, so you theoretically won’t have to worry about it sharing data from your browsing sessions with third parties or law enforcement. Bitdefender told me via email that the VPN underwent a third-party audit in 2025 to back up its zero-log claims but it doesn’t state who conducted this audit, so we can’t confirm its quality or results.

By comparison, most reputable VPN-first companies publish the results of third-party audits, with some offering transparency reports that show how many requests from law enforcement and government agencies were received and complied with. Accordingly, if you have even moderate privacy needs, we recommend sticking with one of the best VPNs we tested.

Privacy policy

Bitdefender has an extensive privacy policy outlining the data it collects and what it does with that data, emphasizing that information is mostly used for training and improving the software. Bitdefender also says most of your data will be pseudonymized by default. I’d like to see more specifics about the exact types of data that are anonymized and the pseudonymization protocols Bitdefender uses, but most antivirus companies don’t share this information, so it’s difficult to say whether Bitdefender’s protocols are better or worse than competitors’.

Bitdefender’s privacy policy does include provisions for sharing your information with third parties to improve customer service and personalize email marketing campaigns. Our other top antivirus, Malwarebytes, has similar policies around third-party sharing, but companies like McAfee and Norton have more extensive provisions for sharing data with social platforms. You’ll want to pay close attention to those sections of their privacy policies if you’re concerned about how companies like Meta are using your data.

While Bitdefender states a commitment to minimizing data collection in its privacy policy, the company does collect some information including IP addresses, randomly generated device IDs and randomly generated tokens for operation of its VPN service. The company is transparent about what data it uses or processes directly or outsources, although I’d like to see less of this, and specifically the omission of IP address collection.

Like most companies, Bitdefender says it will cooperate with authorities like law enforcement or government agencies when served with legal requests or to guard its rights. This includes all of the diagnostic data collected by the antivirus and personal data collected by the privacy and identity monitoring tools, which may be concerning for some users because this data may include IP addresses. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any browsing data to share if you’re using the no-logs VPN. Still, I’d like to see Bitdefender publish the results of its no-logs audit to give peace of mind for users and publish transparency reports to show how many legal requests were issued, and how many it complied with.

Bitdefender antivirus customer support

Bitdefender has a knowledge base, community forum, 24/7 live chat, 24/7 phone support and email support. I tested most of these support channels (with the exception of the forum) and was impressed by the quality of Bitdefender’s tutorials and the helpfulness of its support team. However, I had some difficulties accessing that support team — I had to go through multiple steps to find Bitdefender’s contact information, and I had to effectively bully the live chatbot into sending me to a person.

Unfortunately, this difficulty in reaching a person is common with antivirus companies. I had to jump through hoops to access contact information through McAfee, and Avira was the only antivirus company I tested that didn’t force me to go through a chatbot before connecting with human live chat support. Malwarebytes did offer a better live chat experience than Bitdefender — I only had to ask to speak with a person once — but its email support is slow and phone support is nonexistent, so you’ll still want to choose Bitdefender if you don’t like live chat support.

Knowledge base

Bitdefender’s Support Center uses a pretty standard layout with a search bar at the top, followed by buttons for various categories of tutorials. Selecting a category opens a list of popular topics and tutorials. The tutorials themselves include a great mix of text and images. Many also include how-to videos, something I only occasionally encountered when exploring other antivirus companies’ knowledge bases. This makes Bitdefender ideal for users who prefer to learn through video.

Direct communication

You’ll have to go through several steps to find Bitdefender’s contact information: Open the knowledge base, locate the contact button at the bottom of the page, select the category of problem you’re having and the exact Bitdefender product you’re using. Depending on your selections, you may also have to navigate past suggested tutorials before Bitdefender gives you options for contacting support.

Selecting live chat connects you with an AI chatbot that can pull simple answers from the knowledge base. An AI that was very determined to hold my attention, consistently responding to my requests to speak with a person with more detailed answers from the knowledge base. I had to ask for human support four times before I actually got it.

Once I managed to get through to human support, however, I was pleased to find that support fast and helpful. The agent answered my questions almost instantly and resolved my issues in five minutes — the same timeframe as my live chat interaction with Norton and faster than my live chat conversation with Malwarebytes.

Bitdefender has dedicated phone lines for various countries, plus support numbers for specific types of problems such as tech support or sales. I called tech support and was almost instantly connected to a polite, helpful human who resolved my issues in less than three minutes. This was the best experience I’ve had with phone support from an antivirus company (and frankly one of the best phone support experiences I’ve had with any kind of company), although my five minute conversation with McAfee came close.

Email was the last support channel I tested and Bitdefender’s system immediately sent an automated response with my support ticket number and reassurance that my ticket had been sent to the appropriate team. The first email from an actual support agent arrived after an hour, with further emails coming in one hour apart. The entire exchange took about five hours, which isn’t ideal for time-sensitive issues but is better than the 12 hours it took for me to receive a first response from Malwarebytes’ email support.

Bitdefender antivirus value

Bitdefender’s plans offer similar features at similar price points to top cybersecurity suites from Malwarebytes and McAfee, making it a good choice for most users. In general, you get a great value — it’s not the cheapest antivirus provider on the market — but what you get for each plan is reasonable — and it’s not the most expensive. However, coverage on individual plans only extends to a maximum of five devices, which is lower than some rivals offer, so users with numerous devices should consider upgrading to a family plan with Bitdefender or purchasing antivirus protection from another company.

Bitdefender charges anywhere from about $25 for the first year for a basic antivirus plan to roughly $200 for the first year for a comprehensive family plan. Prices are similar to those of its neck-and-neck rivals, Malwarebytes and McAfee. Its prices are in line with what McAfee offers, although a slightly better value.

Generally, Malwarebytes has better long-term value for low-budget users; Bitdefender Antivirus Plus lets you have three devices (for $30 in the first year and $70 after), but Malwarebytes also lets you have three devices on Standard and the price is $60 every year, so it’s cheaper in the long term. However, Bitdefender is more cost-effective than Malwarebytes at the higher end because it lets you use five devices and Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus (Extended) costs $250 per year in the long run vs. Malwarebytes Ultimate’s $280 per year after renewal (both renew at $140 per year), with both of these plans offering $2 million in identity theft protection.

Malwarebytes foregoes price hikes on most of its plans, whereas your auto-renewal spikes with Bitdefender. You can do things to avoid a costly renewal, like canceling your plan and resubscribing. But if you don’t want to babysit your subscription as much, Malwarebytes may be a better choice.

Bitdefender’s Antivirus Plus plan protects three devices for the cost of single-device coverage from Norton’s Antivirus Plus. Norton works out to be a slightly better value for some of its entry-level plans, like Norton 360 Standard, but less attractive for its higher-tiered plans like Norton 360 with LifeLock Advantage or Ultimate Plus. In short, Bitdefender’s prices are on the high end of average, but they are in line with most competitors.

Bitdefender: Is it right for you?

Overall, Bitdefender has high-quality cybersecurity tools that are accessible to most users, even those with minimal tech experience. Combined with Bitdefender’s high-value offerings on most plans, this earns it an overall CNET score of 8.8/10. I strongly recommend Bitdefender unless you need to protect more than five devices, in which case you might be better off with McAfee or Norton, both of which generally provide better value for multi-user and family plans than Bitdefender’s family plans. Users with fewer than five devices, however, can choose Bitdefender for:

• Features: Bitdefender’s core antivirus software has all of the features you’ll need to keep your device(s) safe, including manual scans and simple scan scheduling. The additional tools for internet and identity security provide further protection while you surf the web and in everyday life.
• Usability: Bitdefender Central — the account interface where you manage digital identity protection features — and the antivirus itself are easy to navigate, with only a couple of minor things that might confuse tech newbies. The antivirus, browser tools and VPN are similarly straightforward.
• Performance: Bitdefender’s antivirus and vulnerability scans are highly efficient. I was also pleased with the anti-tracker portion of Browser Guard and the extensive dark web monitoring, though other tools — most notably the VPN — didn’t meet my expectations.
• Customer support: Bitdefender offers an extensive knowledge base and fast, helpful customer service, though I did have to do some hunting to figure out how to contact a human support agent.
• Value: Bitdefender’s individual plans are a great value, while the company’s family plans generally have more average value when compared to other top cybersecurity companies.