Professional’s Score
Execs
- Good person interface
- Straightforward to scan exterior volumes comparable to flash drives on the fly
- Good trial interval
Cons
- Lets a good quantity of malware via if the Bitdefender Protect characteristic is disabled
- Occasional freezes throughout full drive scans
- VPN consumer restricted with 200MB knowledge restrict
Our Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac presents a helpful, customizable person interface and good options, however can nonetheless permit a good quantity of malware to slide via.
Worth When Reviewed
$19.99 for first 12 months, then $39.99 a 12 months
Greatest Costs At this time: Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
Bitdefender (first 12 months)
$19.99
Typically you’ll be able to have nearly all the pieces in place however nonetheless journey over your individual two toes. That is the case with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac which incorporates Bitdefender VPN for real-time antiviral and anti-malware safety.
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is straightforward to obtain, set up, and assign full drive permissions to as wanted. As is the case with most antiviral suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac presents a speedy Fast Scan mode with which to carry out a fast overview and find, quarantine, and take away viral candidates inside a couple of minutes in addition to a Full Scan mode, which appears to be like over each doable file in your onerous drive and in my case took nearly 19 hours for a full scan. To its credit score, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s full scan characteristic ran properly within the background and might be minimized to permit different work to be carried out whereas the method runs.
Exterior volumes comparable to USB flash drives will be dragged and dropped into the applying window or the Dock icon to start a scan, which turns out to be useful. Different options embody simply protected information/whitelist creation and a useful internet portal that acts as an summary of your Bitdefender accounts, options, and permits for distant scanning on put in units.
Efficiency
The Bitdefender Protect real-time safety characteristic dovetails properly with macOS’ Gatekeeper characteristic, and there isn’t a lot in the best way of malware that will get by it. Nonetheless, after we disabled Bitdefender Protect, rebooted the Mac, and put in malware, we had been in for a blended bag when it comes to the applying’s potential to find and neutralize malware that was already on the system. Whereas this system caught and disabled eight items of malware, it missed 4 vital items of malware throughout the OSX.Backdoor.Adwind, OXS.DazzleSpy, and OSX.EvilEgg packages, and left questionable put in functions such because the controversial Wave internet browser and an contaminated copy of Adobe Flash Participant in place.
Foundry
macOS’ Gatekeeper and the Bitdefender Protect stored the lion’s share of questionable software program out, however as soon as these defenses had been bypassed and the malware was put in, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac missed a number of objects on its sweep, which needed to be eliminated with a separate program, which raises eyebrows.
Whereas most of this works properly, there are caveats to contemplate. Past the malware samples it missed, Bitdefender Antivirus froze twice after a scan discovered a chunk of malware. This problem resolved itself after turning the Bitdefender Protect characteristic on and rebooting the Mac, nevertheless it appeared a wierd requirement within the first place.
As with a number of different safety suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac presents anti-phishing safety within the type of internet browser extensions for the Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox internet browsers. These supplied various levels of success, and as soon as once more, I tapped into my Gmail’s Spam folder to see what sort of safety these browser extensions afforded me. Beneath Safari, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac supplied no distinguished phishing safety, permitting me to go to questionable web sites with no warning in anyway. This proved higher underneath the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox extensions, which stopped me from visiting questionable web sites with a warning however nonetheless permitted me to click on via and go to the web site anyway.
Foundry
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac presents an anti-tracker for internet browsers and entry to a VPN relying in your subscription. The place fundamental performance is anxious, Bitdefender VPN represents a viable VPN consumer that handles making a safe connection that may be routed via assorted world places with ease. This was readily examined by logging right into a Canadian server to binge dangerous actuality reveals not accessible in the USA, and a pleasant interface takes a few of the worry out of utilizing a VPN consumer for the primary time. The appliance presents advert and tracker blocking, which turns out to be useful, together with an general Kill-Swap characteristic, which closes down all web site visitors if a connection is misplaced. Check out our suggestions of the most effective VPNs on Mac in the event you’d wish to discover a VPN to swimsuit you.
If there was one factor that actually may increase your hackles, it’s the truth that the Bitdefender VPN program that’s bundled with Bitdefender Antivirus solely permits for 200 megabytes of information per day for use. After that, it encourages you to improve to the total model, which prices $34.99/£29.99 a 12 months for the primary 12 months (then $69.99/£59.99 per 12 months). This looks like a veritable intestine punch, and whereas Bitdefender VPN is an effective, no-frills VPN consumer, trial classes exist for a purpose and Bitdefender’s rivals have lengthy since discovered the right way to provide a real free session with which to make up your thoughts as as to whether that is the VPN consumer for you.
Foundry
Worth
The software program at the moment retails at “50% off” which is $19.99 / £14.99 a 12 months for one Mac (it’s then $39.99/£29.99 a 12 months), however the deal costs change typically. Check out our round-up of the most effective Antivirus offers for Mac. There may be additionally a 30-day trial accessible.
There may be additionally Bitdefender Complete Safety which incorporates Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac in addition to protection for iOS, Android and Home windows. That software program retails for $69.99 / £44.99 a 12 months for 5 units (then $109.99/£74.99 a 12 months). It covers 5 units, together with Macs, Home windows, Android and iOS. As with the usual Antivirus for Mac resolution, there’s a 30-day trial accessible.
The Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac presents a helpful, customizable person interface, good options and combines properly with macOS’ Gatekeeper characteristic, however nonetheless permits a good quantity of malware to slide via underneath the suitable circumstances. As well as, the occasional freezing, minimal anti-phishing safety for its Safari internet browser extension, and a VPN consumer that all-too-readily pushes for the person to improve, imply there’s work for Bitdefender to do right here.