Skilled’s Ranking
Execs
- Good person interface
- Simple to scan exterior volumes equivalent to flash drives on the fly
- Good trial interval
Cons
- Lets a good quantity of malware by if the Bitdefender Defend characteristic is disabled
- Occasional freezes throughout full drive scans
- VPN consumer restricted with 200MB information restrict
Our Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac affords a useful, customizable person interface and good options, however can nonetheless enable a good quantity of malware to slide by.
Worth When Reviewed
$19.99 for first yr, then $39.99 a yr
Greatest Costs Right now: Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac
Bitdefender (first yr)
$19.99
Generally you’ll be able to have nearly all the pieces in place however nonetheless journey over your personal two ft. 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 affords 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 exhausting drive and in my case took virtually 19 hours for a full scan. To its credit score, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s full scan characteristic ran nicely within the background and might be minimized to permit different work to be accomplished whereas the method runs.
Exterior volumes equivalent to USB flash drives might be dragged and dropped into the applying window or the Dock icon to start a scan, which turns out to be useful. Different options embrace simply protected information/whitelist creation and a useful internet portal that acts as an outline of your Bitdefender accounts, options, and permits for distant scanning on put in units.
Efficiency
The Bitdefender Defend real-time safety characteristic dovetails properly with macOS’ Gatekeeper characteristic, and there isn’t a lot in the way in which of malware that will get by it. Nonetheless, once we disabled Bitdefender Defend, rebooted the Mac, and put in malware, we have been in for a blended bag by way of the applying’s skill 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 purposes such because the controversial Wave internet browser and an contaminated copy of Adobe Flash Participant in place.
Foundry
macOS’ Gatekeeper and the Bitdefender Defend saved the lion’s share of questionable software program out, however as soon as these defenses have 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 nicely, there are caveats to think about. Past the malware samples it missed, Bitdefender Antivirus froze twice after a scan discovered a bit of malware. This difficulty resolved itself after turning the Bitdefender Defend characteristic on and rebooting the Mac, however it appeared an odd requirement within the first place.
As with a number of different safety suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac affords 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. Underneath Safari, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac supplied no outstanding phishing safety, permitting me to go to questionable web sites with no warning by any means. This proved higher beneath 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 by and go to the web site anyway.
Foundry
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac affords an anti-tracker for internet browsers and entry to a VPN relying in your subscription. The place primary performance is worried, Bitdefender VPN represents a viable VPN consumer that handles making a safe connection that may be routed by assorted world areas with ease. This was readily examined by logging right into a Canadian server to binge unhealthy actuality exhibits not out there in the USA, and a pleasant interface takes among the worry out of utilizing a VPN consumer for the primary time. The appliance affords advert and tracker blocking, which turns out to be useful, together with an general Kill-Change characteristic, which closes down all web visitors if a connection is misplaced. Check out our suggestions of the perfect VPNs on Mac if you happen to’d wish to discover a VPN to swimsuit you.
If there was one factor that actually may elevate your hackles, it’s the truth that the Bitdefender VPN program that’s bundled with Bitdefender Antivirus solely permits for 200 megabytes of knowledge per day for use. After that, it encourages you to improve to the complete model, which prices $34.99/£29.99 a yr for the primary yr (then $69.99/£59.99 per yr). This appears like a veritable intestine punch, and whereas Bitdefender VPN is an efficient, no-frills VPN consumer, trial classes exist for a purpose and Bitdefender’s rivals have lengthy since discovered the best way to provide a real free session with which to make up your thoughts as as to if that is the VPN consumer for you.
Foundry
Worth
The software program presently retails at “50% off” which is $19.99 / £14.99 a yr for one Mac (it’s then $39.99/£29.99 a yr), however the deal costs change usually. Check out our round-up of the perfect Antivirus offers for Mac. There’s additionally a 30-day trial out there.
There’s 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 yr for 5 units (then $109.99/£74.99 a yr). 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 out there.
The Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac affords a useful, customizable person interface, good options and combines nicely with macOS’ Gatekeeper characteristic, however nonetheless permits a good quantity of malware to slide by beneath the appropriate 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.