Bitdefender is one of the most prestigious providers of internet security products in recent years. They have improved their brand image and quality of products in the past couple of years. Proof of that is heir latest “5 Time Winner Editor’s Choice” award, which they have received from prestigious online authority in the security industry PCmag.com.
During the testing of the product we compiled enough statistical data that only proved this public image. All of the things promised by the company are achieved through great functionality and rich palette of features. It is true that some users that are not so needy and live a simple online life could be better off with a simpler solution, but this detailed Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review will surely help you out with this choice.
This Bitdefender review will show you the truth behind the product’s public image and show you how you can use all of its features to its fullest potential. In this way you can decide will you have any use of purchasing and installing the Bitdefender Antivirus Plus. We will point out couple of interesting features like safe browsing during online shopping and how you can use the PC tune-up feature in order to make the security process for your computer as simple as it can get. The price of the whole Bitdefender Antivirus Plus package is $60 for one computer and $90 for three computers.
Table of Contents
How our experts tested Bitdefender
The installation of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus has been conducted on a HP 15t Select laptop that had a Windows 8.1 64-bit operating system on its hard disk. Other features of the laptop included 4th generation Intel i5 processor accompanied with 8GB DDR3L System Memory. This is a pretty powerful machine that we got here for the testing process and the reason why we did this is to detect any possible impacts on the performance of the computer that could happen.
You can install the Bitdefender Antivirus on the following operating systems: Windows XP (although this OS is no longer supported by Windows), Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. The team at Bitdefender was kind enough to think about the needs of their customers that still use Windows XP. It is also true that huge percentage of people still use this OS, which makes this still a huge part of the market.
The whole installation process took us about 10 minutes out of our time and that’s with the initial scan of the laptop. It is slightly longer when compared to other peers in the industry like the Symantec Norton 360. After the installation ended, we entered the product key provided with the download and started checking out Bitdefender.
Key Features
Bitdefender probably has a strong copywriting team as they always want to give some cool and flashy name to all of the features that are included in the package. Never get fooled by these marketing tricks, instead look for the real value that the feature actually offers. Like we did. Nevertheless we need to state that this basic version of the Bitdefender trilogy had almost all the same elements compared to its pricier brothers Bitdefender Internet Security and Bitdefender Total Security. The only options that you don’t receive with the Bitdefender Antivirus Plus include: Two Way Firewall, Parental Control, Cloud Antispam, Secure Online Storage, and Device Anti-Theft protection. Here are some of the key features included in the Bitdefender Antivirus Plus pack.
USB Immunizer
Very useful feature that will help you keep your computer clean from viruses that you can catch from USB devices. It doesn’t only keep your computer safe by blocking antiviruses, but it also cleans all malware from the USB device.
Bitdefender Autopilot
The Autopilot tool is one of the most useful features in Bitdefender Antivirus Plus as it allows users to have a piece of mind about the safety of their device. Bitdefender will run all the safety errands and security tasks in the background and eliminate all of those annoying pop-up window alerts.
Privacy Protection
This tool is used to keep the personal information that you share over the Internet safe and secure, away from the eyes of data collecting hackers. It is connected with the way encryption systems over the Internet work.
Bitdefender Safepay
You probably do lots of shopping around the Internet and you even check your bank account statement online. To be fully protected from hacker attacks when doing this, just start the Bitdefender Safepay feature. The software will open up a separate window where you can access all of your online financial accounts.
Antiphising
This section could also be titled “Website Blacklist” or even “Browsing Security” because that’s its only purpose. Bitdefender will always warn you if you’re trying to enter a site that has the possibility to be used for information phishing goals.
Interface
You will probably not even notice that Bitdefender is on because the only thing you see is a small circle in the right bottom of your screen. The circle turns red if there is some major security breach, yellow if you need to check for some not so serious problems and green when everything is ok. By clicking on the small circle with the Bitdefender logo on it you will trigger the software widget. Here you will easily navigate through all available features.
Price
You can purchase the Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for $60 if you want to use it only on a single computer. By adding $30 more you will get an activation code for two more devices. This will decrease the price up to $30 per device, which is pretty good. You get one year of usage for this amount of money.
Firewall and Antispam
The firewall option is available with all of Bitdefender packages and it includes services like: Internet connection sharing security breach alert, unwanted USB and other port scans, and other unwanted Wi-Fi connections. The Antispam feature is a cloud based option that has the sole purpose to block any unwanted spam messages before they even come to your inbox. It is a self feeding part of the software that learns from the activities you conduct in your mailbox.
Safebox Online Storage
The Safebox Online Storage and Device Anti-Theft features are available only if you purchase the Bitdefender Total Security pack, but the first one is so cool that we had to mention it in this review. The Safebox Online Storage is a web based application that can be reached with the email and password information that you’ve provided during installation. Safebox offers one of the most secure cloud based storages on the Internet, but the only problem is that you get only 2GB for free. The price of 30GB is $60 annually and of 60GB is $90 for the same period.
File Encryption
This option allows its customers to create separate fragments on their hard disk for which they can use password protection. You will first need to decide how big do you want the secured folder to be. After that you can add and extract files with the usage of the password that you’ve provided.
Pros in a nutshell:
- New profiles available
- Top of the line antivirus protection
- New features that include high tech encryption of files and theft protection
- Increase of user friendly design with a new desktop widget
Cons in a nutshell:
- It may seem complicated for some users.
Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is probably the economically most reasonable product in the Bitdefender line for purchase. You get almost all of the features compared to the Internet Security and Total Security versions for a significantly smaller amount of money. The Antivirus Plus version proves everything that industry critiques have writing about it and it even provides greater degree of customizability than previously mentioned. We would like to know has anyone of you ever used this particular product before reading this Bitdefender Antivirus review. If so, please don’t be shy to share your experience in the comments bellow.
[rwp-review id=”0″]