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.
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 Canada combed through the details to uncover if the security and features of Bitdefender prevail over some of its drawbacks.
Pros
- Visual endpoint detection and response
- Plans for small businesses and enterprises
- Inexpensive personal plans
Cons
- Expensive business plans
- A little more demanding than other antivirus services
Table of Contents
Bitdefender Antivirus at a Glance
One of Bitdefender’s strengths is the number of features each plan offers. Forbes Advisor Canada breaks down the key attributes to summarize what Bitdefender offers.
Bitdefender’s consumer-centric plans start at $14.99 CAD per year for one device and go all the way up to $94.88 CAD 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 from 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.
Featured Partner Offer
1
Avast
Starting price
Free; $50.08 USD ($68.06 CAD) per year for up to 10 devices
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 days
2
McAfee
Starting price
$39.99 CAD per year
Inclusions
Firewall, email security and ransomware protection
Moneyback guarantee
30 days
3
Surfshark
Starting Price:
55.62 CAD per year
Inclusions:
Unlimited VPN; emails, credit cards, and personal IDs automatic monitoring
Moneyback guarantee:
30 days
The GravityZone Security Platform
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 $69.99 CAD per year with protection for up to five devices and two file servers. Depending on what package and add-ons you go with, the software can easily cost over $6,000 CAD 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 centralized control console. Some versions of GravityZone security also provide a risk management console that shows your company’s overall risk of attacks and breaks down the specific machines that are causing problems.
Endpoint Detection and Response
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 analyze where it came from and why it happened in the first place.
Protection for Small Businesses
Although Bitdefender offers a lot of tools for large enterprises, 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 behaviour 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 is 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 keep your servers safe no matter how many devices your business needs to protect.
Download one of the best antivirus solutions on the market with Bitdefender.
On Bitdefender’s Website
Other Benefits
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
Fine Print
Bitdefender is packed with features and continually ranks at the top of 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 of Bitdefender is its 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.
How Bitdefender Stacks Up
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.
Compare Bitdefender with Malwarebytes
Bitdefender
Firewall included
Yes
Email security
Yes
Ransomware protection
Yes
Firewall included
Yes
Email security
Yes
Ransomware protection
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 analyze threats before they can happen.
- Threat forecast and analysis tools
- Helpful insights into employee behaviour
- Subscription includes server protection
- Expensive add-ons
Malwarebytes
Firewall included
Yes
Email security
No
Ransomware protection
Yes
Firewall included
Yes
Email security
No
Ransomware protection
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.
- Plans for businesses of any size
- Ransomware rollback on Windows
- Automated endpoint discovery
- Server protection costs extra
- Teams plan doesn’t have access to premium support
Is Bitdefender Right for You or Your Business?
As one of the most secure options on the market and packed to the brim with features, it’s hard to argue 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.
Pricing research and Canadian specific editing conducted by Anna Rey.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How safe is Bitdefender?
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 behaviour protection, protecting you from even the most recent threats.
Does Bitdefender sell your data?
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 anonymize that data when possible.
Can Bitdefender be hacked?
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.
Is Bitdefender free?
Bitdefender does offer a free basic antivirus option for Windows, macOS and Android.
Do I need antivirus software?
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.
Can I have more than one antivirus program on my computer?
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.
Forbes Advisor adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved, or otherwise endorsed by our partners.
