Choosing the right antivirus for your needs and budget takes time, as many of the biggest players in the market offer multiple versions of their software at different price points. Bitdefender is no different, splitting its antivirus tools into multiple plans with different features.
In this article, we look closely at Bitdefender Total Security, the company’s top-of-the-range offering, to help you decide if it’s the right antivirus solution for you.
What is Bitdefender Total Security?
Total Security is the most expensive and fully featured antivirus plan from Romania-based Bitdefender.
The biggest addition that Total Security brings to the table over the firm's other plans is support for mobile devices and macOS, but it also includes a OneClick Optimizer for your PC and an anti-theft tool that you can use to access your PC remotely if it is stolen.
What devices can I use Bitdefender Total Security on?
On top of the excellent Windows 10 antivirus tools that you get with lower tiers of the Bitdefender antivirus product, Bitdefender Total Security has apps for iOS and Android and supports macOS. It is also available for Windows 7 or later, macOS X Yosemite (10.10) or later, iOS 11.2 or later, and Android 5 or later.
However, Bitdefender Total Security is only available with a license for five or 10 devices. A 10-device license costs about 10% more than a five-device license.
Bitdefender Total Security: what features does it have?
Bitdefender Total Security comes with the standard features of its entry-level packages, as well as quite a few extras:
Real-time antivirus protection
The meat of Bitdefender Total Security is its antivirus protection that recognizes malware, viruses, ransomware, and other undesirable software as soon as it appears on your computer. Bitdefender maintains a threat defense database that’s constantly updated, so your devices are protected from the latest attacks. If your computer does become infected, Bitdefender Total Security has a Rescue Environment that you can use to remove the unwanted software and restore your computer to its previous status.
Web attack prevention
As an additional level of defense, Bitdefender Total Security monitors your internet activities and warns you about potential threats. It actively blocks malicious websites that attempt to run unwanted code or pretend to be other websites to try to steal your data.
VPN
Want to crank up the online privacy even further? Splash out on Total Security and Bitdefender will throw in a VPN or Virtual Private Network. By allowing you to change the IP address of your computer or phone, It's a handy extra tool for making sure that no prying eye can keep a track of your online activities. Just be warned, if you've heard that a VPN is a handy tool for streaming sports or foreign Netflix catalogs, the 200MB daily limit here means that it can't really do that kind of job for you.
macOS, iOS, and Android protection
As discussed, Bitdefender Total Security can protect PCs, Macs, and mobile devices. The macOS app prevents unauthorized changes to your most important files and protects you from ransomware with a Time Machine feature that lets you roll back the files on your Mac to a previous version.
The Android antivirus app can scan all installed apps for potential problems, locate a stolen device, and protect you from webpages that contain malware or fraudulent content. The iOS app is more basic but can block dangerous web pages and notify you if any of your online accounts or sensitive data have been put at risk.
How good is Bitdefender?
We rated Bitdefender highly in our testing. It recognized and intercepted a great variety of malware, viruses, and unwanted programs as we downloaded them. Bitdefender also doesn’t put much stress on your computer. In our testing, we only saw an increase in CPU usage of around 1%, which you’d never notice in daily use.
Bitdefender Total Security in particular is a good buy if you want to protect more than just your PC - indeed, it comes top of the pops in our internet security suite round-up. The apps for iOS and Android work well, and it also includes anti-theft tools and a OneClick Optimizer for speeding up your devices.
As Bitdefender Total Security is only marginally more expensive than Bitdefender’s mid-range Internet Security product, you may find upgrading to be good value for the money.
- Read more: How to choose the best antivirus for you
- Our definitive list of today's best antivirus software
- More protection for not much more money - grab the best cheap VPN
