Introduction
The Bitdefender Antivirus Plus program deals with all the basics related to virus protection and goes far beyond that with a set of additional security features that can compete with many security devices and win. These features include effective defense against malicious ransomware, a hardened browser for online banking, scanning for missing security vulnerabilities, an effective ad-tracking blocker, and more. The application excelled in independent laboratory tests and our own tests. Thus, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is a five-star award winner as the editor’s choice for securing your computer. Norton AntiVirus Plus, our other editor’s choice, also goes beyond just antivirus software. You can’t go wrong with either of these programs.
How much does Bitdefender Antivirus Plus cost?
Priced at $39.99 per year for a single license, Bitdefender is average in price. Half a dozen others come at a similar price, including Webroot SecureAnywhere AntiVirus, Trend Micro, and ESET NOD32 Antivirus. For the same price, you can get three licenses of G Data Antivirus; six licenses of Bitdefender will cost you $59.99 per year.
You can also choose five licenses of Bitdefender for $69.99, which is the average price at the five-license level. For just $10 more, $79.99, you can get 10 licenses. This is about $20 less than the average price for 10 licenses – you pay only $8 per device.
And for single device prices, it’s really hard to beat McAfee AntiVirus. At $64.99 a year, which is five dollars more than the price of three licenses for Bitdefender, you can protect every device running Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and even ChromeOS in your home. However, Bitdefender’s pricing is exactly what you would expect for premium antivirus protection.
Getting started with Bitdefender
Like many security companies, Bitdefender increasingly focuses on its web-based dashboard, called Bitdefender Central. The easiest way to get started is to apply your activation code to your Bitdefender Central account. From the dashboard, you can download protection for the computer you are using or send an email link to install it on another computer.
From Bitdefender Central, you can review your subscriptions and the devices protected. This is also where you manage the standalone identity theft protection, whether it’s standalone or tied to a premium Bitdefender package. It also provides access to Bitdefender’s separate digital identity protection service. Explore Bitdefender Central, install your antivirus software, and you’re ready to go. (Credit: Bitdefender)
Initial and Scheduled Scans
When you install new antivirus software, you should run the deep scan it offers to make sure there is nothing lurking before protection arrives. Bitdefender’s system scan warns that it may take a long time, which it did, finishing at 3:42 (hours: minutes). A repeated scan reduced this time to 7.5 minutes, cutting nearly 97% of the required time. In any case, you’ll only run this initial scan once.
In theory, real-time protection should handle any malware issues after the full scan. For an extra layer of security, you can schedule a daily, weekly, or monthly scan, adjusting the schedule for quick, full, and custom scans separately.
Results
The Ultimate Lab Test
Three out of four independent laboratories testing antivirus software that I follow include Bitdefender in their assessments. Researchers at AV-Comparatives conduct several tests; I follow three of them. Antivirus tools that pass the test receive a standard certification, while tools that do much more than the minimum receive an advanced or even advanced + certification. Bitdefender holds an advanced + certification in all three tests. This achievement matches only a few others: Avast, Avira, and AVG.
In the three-part test regularly announced by the AV-Test Institute, each antivirus program can earn up to six points for accurate protection against malware, minimal impact on performance, and good usability (which is defined by minimal false positives). Bitdefender and about a third of the tested antivirus programs achieved a perfect score of 18 points in this test. Another third reached 17.5 points, enough to earn the top product title. The tests conducted by MRG-Effitas experts are slightly different from the others. An antivirus program needs a perfect score to pass this lab’s banking malware test – anything less is a failure. Another test using a wide variety of malware offers two operational levels. If the antivirus program blocks every attempt to install malware, it passes at level 1.
Source: https://me.pcmag.com/en/antivirus/21026/bitdefender-antivirus-plus
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