BitDefender Review — Antivirus Comparison (2012)

Bitdefender is considered the number one antivirus suite of products on the market.  This company offers computer security for the home users, mobile users, and business entities.  For the home user there are several products with varying levels of protection.  They offer protection for PC and MAC users.

Products for the Home User:

• Bitdefender Sphere - is the top of the line multi-platform protection product.  This product will give the user protection on all of their devices.  No matter what combination of device (MAC, PC, Android) this product will protect you.
• Antivirus for MAC & PC - if you have both MACs and PCs, this is the product for you.  It works for both operating systems.  A pretty remarkable product considering that there are different requirements for each operating systems when it comes to antivirus protection.

Windows Products:

• Antivirus Plus - this offers the least amount of options, but it is a full antivirus product.  You'll get protection from spyware and viruses, protection for social networking, and antiphishing
• Internet Security - this product will give you everything in the antivirus plus package and includes antispam, firewall, and parental controls.
• Total Security - here is the top of the line product.  You will get everything that is in the antivirus plus and internet security along with a file shredder and file encryption, tune-up features, and online file backup and file synchronization.

Business Solutions

Bitdefender has products for MACs, Unices, mail server security, file servers, and so much more.  If you are a business entity you can request to have a trial download for evaluation.  You can't go wrong with this award winning software.

Bitdefender has a lot of features.  There is a product that is certainly right for your needs.  Following are a few of the features that you will find available if you decide to purchase one of their antivirus packages.

1.  A unique autopilot feature.  By default this feature is automatically turned on when you install your antivirus product.  At first you might feel a little uncomfortable letting the software make security decisions for you without your input, but you can check to make sure it's working.  The software will show you how many events it has intervened in when you access the dashboard.  Bitdefender calls this "silent security". 
2. Bitdefender offers a free online quick scan that you can use to determine if you have any malware on your computer.  It is suggested that you use this before you sign into sites such as online banking.  It is really fast.  It's just another free feature out there that can be in your arsenal of security for your computer protection.  You don't have to own one of Bitdefender's products in order to use this scan feature.
3. New for 2012 is the "Safebox" for doing online backups and file synchronization. 
4. A rescue mode 
5. A virtualized browser mode (puts your browser in an isolated mode to protect your operating system from threats)
6. Has a new streamlined install process.

There are so many competitors in the antivirus class of software that we won't be able to discuss them all.  I decided to pick ones that I found in the top ten in searches across the internet.  It's funny because even the top ten lists don't agree which of the antivirus programs belong, but almost consistently Bitdefender is either number one on the list or definitely one of the top ten.

 Kaspersky - Let's compare Kaspersky One Universal Security to Bitdefender's Sphere.  Both have comparable features. 

Bitdefender Cons:

1. Price - it is a bit more expensive at the time of this writing at $99 vs $84.95 for the Kaspersky product.  Both are top of the line products that include parental control, backup tools and protection from malware and spam. They both protect multi platform devices such as Android devices and MACs.  
2. Scan Speeds - could be faster.
3. Affect on Computer System - seems to slow down boot and shutdown functions.
4. Support - no phone support.

Bitdefender Pros: 

1. Features - The most expensive package for Kaspersky doesn't offer the data backup, encryption, and files shredder.  They do however offer those functions in their Kaspersky Pure Total Security.  It seems they have made a mistake by not having a product that affords all of their features in one product.  
2. Tests - What is different, also, is that in various tests that compare the products Bitdefender comes out ahead. 
3. Reviews - gets better reviews of their products across the internet.

Kaspersky also offers solutions for small to midsize businesses , but their business solutions do not appear to be as robust as Bitdefender's business products.

AVG - Offers a good product that is reliable.

Bitdefender Cons:

1. Price - AVG products are cheaper than Bitdefender's products.  AVGs Internet Security 2012 is $54.99 while Bitdefender's Internet Security 2012 is $69.95. 
2. Free Products - AVG offers quite a few valuable free products including free Android phone protection, and free antivirus.
3. Sometimes people forget that they need protection for mobile devices.  AVG makes it easy and free to protect those devices.
4. AVG is light on resources.

Bitdefender Pros:

1. AVG does not have an all in one product that is as comprehensive as Bitdefender's Sphere. 
2. Features - offering backup, file encryption and parental controls.
3. Offers protection for MAC users.

If you want to get a good comparison of these two products, check out FindTheBest.com.  They compare the two products side by side, and show reviews and ratings from places like CNET and PC Magazine.  AVG also offers some reasonably priced business solution products.

ZoneAlarm - This company has been around for a very long time.  They started out in internet security with their free firewall.  If you look at Bitdefender Total Security as compared to ZoneAlarm's Extreme Security you will see that these are two very similar products. 

Bitdefender Cons:

1. Price - The main difference is in pricing.  The ZoneAlarm product at the time of this writing is $44.95 whereas Bitdefender Total Security is $79.95.
2. Support - No phone support.
3. Features - ZoneAlarm's product has anti-rootkit , bots and keylogger protection.

Bitdefender Pros:

1. Autopilot with allows Bitdefender to protect your system without your input.
2. Gives you social networking protection
3. Has a rescue mode that will put your computer into  a safe mode so that you can perform a restore. 

Bitdefender offers a product that will suit anyone's needs.  All of their products are sold by yearly subscription and can be used on up to 3 PCs.

If you are interested in antivirus protection only, Bitdefender offers a package at $49.95.  AVG offers the same type of protection for free.  I might consider AVG in this instance if all I needed was straight antivirus protection.

Next step up in Bitdefenders arsenal is Internet Security.  Price for this product is $69.95.  It's a good product and you can probably find a pretty good comparable product that's a bit cheaper.  For instance AVG offers a very comparable product for $54.99.

Then there is Total Security, one of their top of the line products.  It's cost is $79.95.  You could purchase ZoneAlarm's Extreme Security for only $44.95.  

As you can see Bitdefender's pricing is higher than most of their competitors.  Pricing changes frequently.  So it's always best to do a little price comparison shopping before your purchase.  It's also a good idea to look around for coupons that offer discounts.  You can almost always find a discount out there somewhere.

Across the internet you can find a lot of good reviews about Bitdefender.  You will see that many of the experts consider that Bitdefender is an excellent antivirus product.  Customer reviews are many times not as complimentary.  I like to look at as many actual customer reviews as possible.  I feel these give a much truer look at how a product works for the regular person.  

For instance here's someone who had some problems and contacted support.  It's always good to know how well the support people respond if you do have a problem.  The only way you can find that out is if someone has experienced using that service.

3.0 out of 5 stars Bitdefender Total Security 2012, January 15, 2012 By west4087 - Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bitdefender Total Security 2012 Value M2 3Pc/2 Years (CD-ROM)

I bought this Internet Security program because of the rating on the internet. I have had it about 3 months. No problems with installation. I have been having problem with it lately. I contacted Bit Defenders support who have been very helpful but could not solve my problem. I finally solve the problem by installing the updates and running the repair under their program. I have no complaints on the tech service. They respond in a timely manner and very diligent in trying to correct the problem. The program is very easy to operate as stated but makes changes on its own. The "on-access scanning" becomes disabled and it will not let you enable it. I seem to have solved the problem by updating and re-installing the program. I am hoping with updates and re-installing the program that i will not have the problem again.

Each computer system is different and there can be issues one person might face and another person will not eperience.

I also checked CNET customer reviews on the Bitdefender products.  Look at the following review:

"Moderately good"  October 21, 2011  |   By almoria Version: Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2012

Pros - Blocks 82 out of 100 zero day threats. Has a great many flexible features. Removes thoroughly.

Cons - Only disables rootkits not removes them.

Summary - Good, but not the best

Deciding on which antivirus/security programs to use can be confusing because there are so many products to choose from.  The only way you can make a good decision is to read reviews, and look at tests results.  Is Bitdefender right for you?