Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac review

Sometimes you can have just about everything in place but still trip over your own two feet. This is the case with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac which includes Bitdefender VPN for real-time antiviral and anti-malware protection.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is easy to download, install, and assign full drive permissions to as needed. As is the case with most antiviral suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers a speedy Quick Scan mode with which to perform a quick overview and locate, quarantine, and remove viral candidates within a few minutes as well as a Full Scan mode, which looks over every possible file on your hard drive and in my case took almost 19 hours for a full scan. To its credit, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s full scan feature ran well in the background and could be minimized to allow other work to be done while the process runs.

External volumes such as USB flash drives can be dragged and dropped into the application window or the Dock icon to begin a scan, which comes in handy. Other features include easily protected files/whitelist creation and a helpful web portal that acts as an overview of your Bitdefender accounts, features, and allows for remote scanning on installed devices.

Performance

The Bitdefender Shield real-time protection feature dovetails nicely with macOS’ Gatekeeper feature, and there isn’t much in the way of malware that gets by it. Still, when we disabled Bitdefender Shield, rebooted the Mac, and installed malware, we were in for a mixed bag in terms of the application’s ability to locate and neutralize malware that was already on the system. While the program caught and disabled eight pieces of malware, it missed four significant pieces of malware within the OSX.Backdoor.Adwind, OXS.DazzleSpy, and OSX.EvilEgg packages, and left questionable installed applications such as the controversial Wave web browser and an infected copy of Adobe Flash Player in place.

macOS’ Gatekeeper and the Bitdefender Shield kept the lion’s share of questionable software out, but once these defenses were bypassed and the malware was installed, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac missed several items on its sweep, which had to be removed with a separate program, which raises eyebrows.

While most of this works well, there are caveats to consider. Beyond the malware samples it missed, Bitdefender Antivirus froze twice after a scan found a piece of malware. This issue resolved itself after turning the Bitdefender Shield feature on and rebooting the Mac, but it seemed a strange requirement in the first place.

As with several other security suites, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers anti-phishing protection in the form of web browser extensions for the Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. These offered varying degrees of success, and once again, I tapped into my Gmail’s Spam folder to see what kind of protection these browser extensions afforded me. Under Safari, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offered no prominent phishing protection, allowing me to visit questionable websites with no warning whatsoever. This proved better under the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox extensions, which stopped me from visiting questionable websites with a warning but still permitted me to click through and visit the website anyway.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers an anti-tracker for web browsers and access to a VPN depending on your subscription. Where basic functionality is concerned, Bitdefender VPN represents a viable VPN client that handles creating a secure connection that can be routed through assorted global locations with ease. This was readily tested by logging into a Canadian server to binge bad reality shows not available in the United States, and a friendly interface takes some of the fear out of using a VPN client for the first time. The application offers ad and tracker blocking, which comes in handy, along with an overall Kill-Switch feature, which closes down all internet traffic if a connection is lost. Take a look at our recommendations of the best VPNs on Mac if you’d like to find a VPN to suit you.

If there was one thing that truly might raise your hackles, it’s the fact that the Bitdefender VPN program that is bundled with Bitdefender Antivirus only allows for 200 megabytes of data per day to be used. After that, it encourages you to upgrade to the full version, which costs $34.99/£29.99 a year for the first year (then $69.99/£59.99 per year). This feels like a veritable gut punch, and while Bitdefender VPN is a good, no-frills VPN client, trial sessions exist for a reason and Bitdefender’s competitors have long since figured out how to offer a genuine free session with which to make up your mind as to whether this is the VPN client for you.

Price

The software currently retails at “50% off” which is $19.99 / £14.99 a year for one Mac (it’s then $39.99/£29.99 a year), but the deal prices change often. Take a look at our round-up of the best Antivirus deals for Mac. There is also a 30-day trial available.

There is also Bitdefender Total Security which includes Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac as well as coverage for iOS, Android and Windows. That software retails for $69.99 / £44.99 a year for five devices (then $109.99/£74.99 a year). It covers five devices, including Macs, Windows, Android and iOS. As with the standard Antivirus for Mac solution, there is a 30-day trial available.

The Verdict

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers a handy, customizable user interface, good features and combines well with macOS’ Gatekeeper feature, but still allows a fair amount of malware to slip through under the right circumstances. In addition, the occasional freezing, minimal anti-phishing protection for its Safari web browser extension, and a VPN client that all-too-readily pushes for the user to upgrade, mean there’s work for Bitdefender to do here. 

Antivirus, MacOS, Security Software and Services