Bitdefender Total Security is a security package that protects your Mac (and other devices) against a wide range of issues, from browser hijacking attempts to antivirus activity. malware rarer but disturbing, and also protect your online activities with a VPN.
It’s a step beyond the most basic antivirus product, but it’s inferior to Premium Security. You can run Total Security on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, and a standard subscription can be used on five devices at the same time (compared to three with Antivirus and 10 with Premium).
However, whether “Total” is an accurate description is becoming questionable these days, especially when it comes to privacy, as Bitdefender doesn’t offer as many features as its competitors in 2021, and the feature set for macOS is considerably. higher. in Windows 10.
Don’t miss our guide to the best antivirus for Mac if you want to learn more about the options available.
Tools
Once installed and granted the necessary permissions, Total Security will run its real-time protection in the background, monitoring your files for unwanted behavior.
Although the version of macOS, which we are focusing on in this review, does not have a scheduled scan option, its real-time protection makes this unnecessary as long as a full system scan was initially run to detect anything that might already be on the. Hard disk.
Quick Scan does the same thing, but only in certain places. You can also scan a specific file, folder or mounted volume on demand, but no button is provided for this – you have to drop it on the main window to verify.
Bitdefender’s VPN service helps protect your online activity, but in Total Security it has only limited use. Very limited, in fact.
If you do not purchase Premium Security or the additional Premium VPN option, your VPN usage is limited to 200MB of traffic per day and you are not allowed to select a specific virtual location. It is chosen automatically.
It compares poorly with some of the competition, such as Avira Prime VPN’s unlimited traffic, so it’s not as appealing, but other browsing protections are more substantial.
For the most comprehensive VPN features, check out our roundup of the best VPNs for Mac.
the connect The TrafficLight browser, for example, blocks any known malicious site (using a live database). There is also an anti-tracker browser extension and adware blocker that protects the browser itself.
Total Security’s Autopilot feature provides recommendations based on your Equipment and modes of use. It’s not a real AI, of course; the things it suggests are reminders to install the various browser extensions and add-ons. However, it remains a useful way to make sure things aren’t forgotten.
Other features include Safe Files, which protects files in specific locations from modification by Software unreliable, and it’s great to see Time Machine Protection, which does the same for your Time Machine backups.
Performance and user-friendliness
Real-time protection, called Bitdefender Shield in Preferences, has proven to be effective and unobtrusive; We didn’t notice any particular impact on overall performance when he was active.
Running a full system scan in the background also didn’t affect performance, although it did use more CPU and GPU power. It also took a long time – just over four hours on our system – so it probably wouldn’t run often (but it also shouldn’t be necessary).
Quick scan only looks for unwanted software in the most likely areas rather than all possible areas, which means it runs faster than the full system scan; less than 15 minutes in our tests.
As part of our testing, we scoured a few nasty sites to see how the TrafficLight browser plug-in performed. Sites that appear in Bitdefender databases have been identified both directly and in DuckDuckGo search results.
We have seen cases of undetected issues such as ‘your Flash is out of date’ attempts to deliver malicious installers (which Real-Time Protection detected when downloading them), but most sites were okay. treated.
Our results mirror those of AV-Test.org, which gave Bitdefender the highest score for performance and ease of use, and a high but not perfect score for protection.
The latter is a score that tends to vary slightly as new threats appear and logs are updated, so we don’t consider it significant, especially since it got an “Advanced +” rating in the tests conducted by AV-Comparatives.
Pricing and availability
Like all Software For paid security, Bitdefender Total Security is offered as an ongoing subscription. The standard plan covers a total of five macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android devices for one year. The first year has a discount, so be sure to factor in subsequent annual costs.
The cost is comparable to other packages, but since Total Security is relatively basic on the Mac, it’s not as good as some of its rivals, including the aforementioned Avira Prime.
Verdict
If your goal is to protect your Mac from malwareSo Bitdefender does a great job. But if you compare what the Mac version offers with the Windows version, you will feel quite handicapped.
There’s no password manager, no social media protection, no webcam or microphone protection, no wifi security advisor, and plenty of other features that Windows users get for the same price. .
Bitdefender also lags behind its competition in not having identity protection, so you might prefer to spend your money elsewhere.
To note: We may receive a small commission for each purchase made through the links on our page, but this has no additional cost to you. It also does not affect our editorial independence. More information.
.
Table of Contents
