Expert’s Rating
Pros
Cons
Our Verdict
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offer a handy , customizable exploiter interface and good feature , but can still allow a fair amount of malware to slip through .
Sometimes you may have just about everything in place but still trip over your own two foot . This is the case with Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac which include Bitdefender VPN for literal - time antiviral and anti - malware protection .
Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac is easy to download , install , and impute full drive permissions to as needed . As is the case with most antiviral suites , Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offer a speedy Quick Scan mode with which to perform a spry overview and locate , quarantine , and get rid of viral nominee within a few minute as well as a Full Scan mode , which looks over every possible file cabinet on your hard drive and in my case took almost 19 hours for a full CAT scan . To its credit , Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac ’s full scan feature ran well in the backdrop and could be minimized to give up other work to be done while the process endure .
A quick overview of detected malware in the Quarantine window.
international volumes such as USB flash drives can be dredge and drop into the lotion windowpane or the Dock icon to begin a CAT scan , which comes in ready to hand . Other features let in easily protected files / whitelist creation and a helpful web portal vein that work as an overview of your Bitdefender accounts , features , and allows for remote scanning on install devices .
To find out how Bitdefender ’s Antivirus for Mac compares with the competition take : Best Mac antivirus : surety suite compared .
Performance
The Bitdefender Shield real - time aegis feature dovetails nicely withmacOS ’ Gatekeeper feature of speech , and there is n’t much in the means of malware that gets by it . Still , when we invalid Bitdefender Shield , rebooted the Mac , and put in malware , we were in for a miscellaneous bag in terms of the practical program ’s ability to locate and neutralize malware that was already on the system . While the programme caught and disenable eight piece of malware , it missed four significant pieces of malware within the OSX.Backdoor . Adwind , OXS.DazzleSpy , and OSX.EvilEgg packages , and go out confutable installed covering such as the controversial Wave web web internet browser and an septic copy of Adobe Flash Player in home .
Foundry
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 lose several items on its sweep , which had to be removed with a disjoined program , which raises eyebrows .
A quick overview of detected malware in the Quarantine window.
While most of this works well , there are caveat to consider . Beyond the malware samples it missed , Bitdefender Antivirus froze doubly after a CAT scan find a piece of malware . This issue resolved itself after turn the Bitdefender Shield sport on and rebooting the Mac , but it seemed a strange requirement in the first topographic point .
As with several other security suites , Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac declare oneself anti - phishing protection in the shape of World Wide Web web browser extensions for the Safari , Google Chrome , and Mozilla Firefox web browsers . These offered varying degrees of success , and once again , I solicit into my Gmail ’s Spam folder to see what kind of protection these web internet browser extensions afford me . Under Safari , Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offered no prominent phishing protection , allow me to visit refutable websites with no admonition whatsoever . This proved better under the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox extensions , which finish me from visiting questionable websites with a warning but still permit me to tick through and chew the fat the web site anyway .
If there was one matter that truly might get up your hackles , it ’s the fact that the Bitdefender VPN programme that is bundled with Bitdefender Antivirus only allows for 200 MB of data per day to be used . After that , it encourage you to elevate to the full version , which be $ 34.99/£29.99 a class for the first year ( then $ 69.99/£59.99 per year ) . This feels like a veritable gut poke , and while Bitdefender VPN is a good , no - frills VPN guest , trial sessions exist for a cause and Bitdefender ’s competitors have long since figured out how to extend a genuine free school term with which to make up your mind as to whether this is the VPN node for you .
A blocked website via Bitdefender’s Total Defense web browser extension feature.
Price
The software system currently retail at “ 50 % off ” which is$19.99/£14.99a twelvemonth for one Mac ( it ’s then $ 39.99/£29.99 a year ) , but the great deal Price change often . Take a tone at our circle - up of thebest Antivirus pot for Mac . There is also a30 - day trial available .
There is also Bitdefender Total Security which let in Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac as well as coverage for Io , Android and Windows . That software retails for$69.99/£44.99a twelvemonth for five gimmick ( then $ 109.99/£74.99 a yr ) . It covers five devices , include Macs , Windows , Android and iOS . As with the standard Antivirus for Mac solution , there is a 30 - day run 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 drop away through under the right circumstance . In addition , the periodic freezing , minimum anti - phishing auspices for its Safari WWW web browser extension , and a VPN customer that all - too - readily pushes for the user to elevate , mean there ’s study for Bitdefender to do here .
Bitdefender’s VPN program advising you to upgrade now once your trial allotment of 200 megabytes of data per day has run out.
