Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac review

Sometimes you can have almost everything in place and still end up with problems. This is the case with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac, which includes Bitdefender VPN for real-time anti-virus and anti-malware protection.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is easy to download, install, and assign full permissions on the drive as needed. As is the case with most antivirus suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers a quick scan mode with which to perform a quick overview and locate, quarantine and delete viral candidates in minutes, as well as a mode full scan, which examines all possible files on your hard drive and in my case it took almost 19 hours for a full scan. To its credit, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s full scan feature worked well in the background and could be minimized to allow other tasks to be performed while the process was running.

External volumes such as USB sticks can be dragged and dropped into the application window or Dock icon to start a scan, which comes in handy. Other features include easy creation of protected files/whitelists and a useful web portal that serves as an overview of your Bitdefender accounts, features and allows remote scanning of installed devices.

Performance

Bitdefender Shield’s real-time protection feature integrates seamlessly with macOS’s Gatekeeper feature, and there isn’t much malware escaping from it. Yet when we disabled Bitdefender Shield, restarted the Mac, and installed malware, we found ourselves in a mixed bag in terms of the app’s ability to locate and neutralize malware already on the system. Although the program detected and disabled eight malware, it missed four important malware in the OSX.Backdoor.Adwind, OXS.DazzleSpy, and OSX.EvilEgg packages, and left questionable installed applications such as the controversial Wave web browser and an infected copy of Adobe Flash Player in place.

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macOS’s Gatekeeper and Bitdefender Shield kept out most of the questionable software, but once those defenses were bypassed and the malware installed, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac missed several items during its scan that had to be removed. with a separate program, which raises eyebrows.

While most of these solutions work well, there are caveats to consider. Beyond missing malware samples, Bitdefender Antivirus crashed twice after a scan detected malware. This issue resolved itself after enabling the Bitdefender Shield feature and restarting the Mac, but it seemed like an odd requirement at first.

Like several other security suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers anti-phishing protection in the form of web browser extensions for the Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. These offered varying degrees of success, and once again I checked my Gmail’s Spam folder to see what kind of protection these browser extensions offered me. Under Safari, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offered no significant protection against phishing, allowing me to visit questionable websites without any warning. This worked best with the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox extensions, which stopped me from visiting questionable websites with a warning, but still allowed me to click through and visit the website anyway.

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Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers anti-tracker for web browsers and access to a VPN depending on your subscription. When it comes to basic features, Bitdefender VPN represents a viable VPN client that handles creating a secure connection that can be routed easily through various global locations. This was easily tested by connecting to a Canadian server to watch low-quality reality shows not available in the United States, and a user-friendly interface takes some of the fear out of using a VPN client for the first time. The app offers ad and tracker blocking, which is handy, as well as a global Kill-Switch feature, which shuts down all internet traffic in the event of a connection loss. Take a look at our recommendations for the best VPNs on Mac if you want to find a VPN that’s right for you.

If there’s one thing that might really worry you, it’s the fact that the Bitdefender VPN program that comes with Bitdefender Antivirus only allows you to use 200 megabytes of data per day. After that, it encourages you to upgrade to the full version, which costs $34.99/£29.99 per year for the first year (then $69.99/£59.99 per year). That sounds like a real gut punch, and while Bitdefender VPN is a good no-frills VPN client, trial sessions exist for a reason and Bitdefender’s competitors have long figured out how to offer a truly free session to make up your mind. find out if this VPN client is right for you.

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Price

The software is currently on sale for 50% off, at $19.99/£14.99 per year for a Mac (after which it goes up to $39.99/£29.99 per year), but deal prices change frequently. Check out our roundup of the best Mac antivirus deals . There’s also a 30-day trial available.

There is also Bitdefender Total Security which includes Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac as well as coverage for iOS, Android and Windows. This software costs $69.99/£44.99 per year for five devices (then $109.99/£74.99 per year). It covers five devices, including Mac, Windows, Android and iOS. As with the standard antivirus solution for Mac, a 30-day trial is available.

The verdict

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers a convenient and customizable user interface, good features and combines well with the Gatekeeper feature of macOS, but still allows a number of malware to go unnoticed in certain circumstances. Additionally, occasional crashes, minimal anti-phishing protection from its Safari web browser extension, and a VPN client that too easily pushes the user to upgrade mean Bitdefender has its work cut out for it.