I have been using Bitdefender Antivirus 2016 for a couple of months. The product itself is good but the license management via Bitdefender Central is horrible. I had many problems even with simple transfer of the license from one computer to another in our family. As you can read in Bitdefender forums many other users are confused in the same way and also disappointed with the quality of support. Without removing all faults in Bitdefender Central, license management and support many users would choose another product despite of positive reviews.
You've got a point there, Jozef. Support is very important and Bitdefender should keep its users happy. I hope that these problems will only be temporary, as Bitdefender Central is somewhat a new way of managing licenses. Maybe they didn't sort everything out yet.
They kind of f…ed up things with all that cloud hype that’s not working as supposed to be. Me, by myself I’m in the process for requesting refund for time and money lost as of trying to install and make functional a few Bitdefender installations. I started to be disappointed by bitdefender solutions few years ago, but hell no, why not give another try… unfortunately was (I hope) just bad timing. But I’m not interested with all that them solutions that become so intrusive (like W10 did).
Thomas Friedrich
7 years ago
I use Bitdefender on three computers, and when I do not turn on a PC everyday on the next start Bitdefender tells me that I am “not protected” because of no update for ONE day. And that’s all, it doesn’t try to download an update. I have to click on “repair” to make the program update its definitions. I asked the support about that strange programming and got a standard useless answer.
Lukis
7 years ago
I’ve been using BD for 3 computers for several years, with license. This year my laptop was infected (3 “items”), blocking it almost completely. Went to it’s “doctor” and cleaned it with Avast. Since that day I’m using Avast (free). BD was updated.
glen broemer
7 years ago
terrible company. i stopped using it a few months after purchasing a year’s subscription. the next year they deducted 89 from my account without contacting me. i notified them immediately and they’ve done nothing to refund it. i had fewer problems with the free version of avast. i also had to ask them for a removal tool to get the program off my computer, as it isn’t removed in the control panel the way that most programs are.
if you need to sue them:
Bitdefender, LLC
6301 NW 5 Way, #4300
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
Peter O
7 years ago
That’s a serious concern because it indicates a lack of forethought by BD.
Geoff King
7 years ago
Despite what Bitdefender may say, I’ve found it heavy on both my computers which have SSD’s and plenty of ram.
Their Support is also totally useless. Avoid !
Walt Dabezzo
6 years ago
Why no mention that Bitdefender is a product developed by and in Romanian. With all the contention over Kaspersky and its manufacturing in Russia and its former/current? ties to Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin and the former KGB, its odd to me that you make no mention of Bitdefender’s connection to Romania and its status in the former USSR
You are way into conspiracy theories. Romania has never been a member of the USSR, Romania is not collaborating with Putin. Bitdefender has nothing to do with USSR or with Vladimir Putin.
I’ve been using Bitdefender for several years on desktop and android and currently using Bitdefender Total Security 2018.
Over the years I’ve encountered one or two problems and on each occasion, after contacting the Bitdefender team, assistance has been given very quickly as to what I needed to do, when applicable, at my end.
They must put in incredible amounts of time and effort to keep up with ever-increasing,constantly changing,malware.
Bitdefender have successfully defended my desktop, tablets and mobile phones for quite some time now. I’d feel totally vulnerable and lost without them.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. 🙂
Glenn Casey
6 years ago
I’ve been using Bit-defender Total Security Since 2014. The 2018 version now Does include VPN (brand new), although it do not know how well it works. Lately though, even though they are supposed to be THE BEST, they don’t tell you how long a System scan takes, Over 1 hour for the first time. And it is definitely heavy on resources, even when updating. On a smaller P.C. this could be irritating. And I don’t know how many times this product has flagged and stopped well known 3rd party applications, including even a few normal P.C. processes. I’ve cursed and swore more than once as Bit- defender blocked perfectly well known processes and software in order to protect me from ransom-ware with their “safe files” and “advanced threat module”. I love all the bells and whistles, and it is a great product, but it has some irritating faults as well, including what seems to be A big thing now in security suites, “A HUGE BEHEMOTH OF A PRODUCT TRYING TO DO AND COVER EVERYTHING” under the sun for you, and becoming SO BIG, that more than 750 MG is used EVEN UP TO 1 GB! and my 16GB Memory with plenty of ram still slows down enough during surfing and also decreasing the boot time significantly. I would like to see them streamline the product for performance, speed, and, of course Great detection without false positives. AV testing shows no false positives, that simply is not true, Ive had several of them.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We will soon re-test the new version with VPN included, and update this review.
rc223
6 years ago
I like everything about this software except for the update process. It takes up to 10 minutes in some instances to perform a simple database update.
Luther
5 years ago
I’m on my third week of a paid one year Bitdefender Total Security and the 200 MB VPN. Since about 1985 when I started using computers I’ve used almost all security products, some free, but ESET paid for many years, AVG free, Avast recently and most others. This Bitdefender is running on auto setting and I don’t notice anything heavy about it on a ordinary, not powerful desktop. The chat on customer service has been very good, solving my early setup questions. The VPN and Safepay is only being used for two sites, one where I do all my all my online shopping from and the other my bank. The Safepay is slow to load and kind of slow response but I’ve living on a pension and decided it was best to secure those two things with my financial better than ever before so I don’t risk either. Actually the Slowpay blank out grey screen that loads can hang sometimes, but ctrl-alt-del fixes that. I’ve tweaked all the settings the best I know how. All in all, Total Security comes across as a most powerful suite. I don’t really understand the difference between it and the ESET suite I used for about a decade but for now I have no complaints.
Syafiq
5 years ago
Based on my experience, Bitdefender is really that good. It’s not heavy, even on an old Celeron Processor with 2 GB of RAM. I’ve used Bitdefender(2017 version) on that machine running Win 8.1 and the RAM usage are around 34-40% in idle without disks and CPU usage. But, with Win10. Bitdefender is really heavy on my system. So, Win10 makes me feel Bitdefender is heavy.
Angel
4 years ago
Greetings, I really enjoy your content and would like to ask if you’re going to analyze free VPNs as well? Using Atlas VPN right now and it has great speeds, but can’t find many reviews of it.
I have been using Bitdefender Antivirus 2016 for a couple of months. The product itself is good but the license management via Bitdefender Central is horrible. I had many problems even with simple transfer of the license from one computer to another in our family. As you can read in Bitdefender forums many other users are confused in the same way and also disappointed with the quality of support. Without removing all faults in Bitdefender Central, license management and support many users would choose another product despite of positive reviews.
You've got a point there, Jozef. Support is very important and Bitdefender should keep its users happy. I hope that these problems will only be temporary, as Bitdefender Central is somewhat a new way of managing licenses. Maybe they didn't sort everything out yet.
They kind of f…ed up things with all that cloud hype that’s not working as supposed to be. Me, by myself I’m in the process for requesting refund for time and money lost as of trying to install and make functional a few Bitdefender installations. I started to be disappointed by bitdefender solutions few years ago, but hell no, why not give another try… unfortunately was (I hope) just bad timing. But I’m not interested with all that them solutions that become so intrusive (like W10 did).
I use Bitdefender on three computers, and when I do not turn on a PC everyday on the next start Bitdefender tells me that I am “not protected” because of no update for ONE day. And that’s all, it doesn’t try to download an update. I have to click on “repair” to make the program update its definitions. I asked the support about that strange programming and got a standard useless answer.
I’ve been using BD for 3 computers for several years, with license. This year my laptop was infected (3 “items”), blocking it almost completely. Went to it’s “doctor” and cleaned it with Avast. Since that day I’m using Avast (free). BD was updated.
terrible company. i stopped using it a few months after purchasing a year’s subscription. the next year they deducted 89 from my account without contacting me. i notified them immediately and they’ve done nothing to refund it. i had fewer problems with the free version of avast. i also had to ask them for a removal tool to get the program off my computer, as it isn’t removed in the control panel the way that most programs are.
if you need to sue them:
Bitdefender, LLC
6301 NW 5 Way, #4300
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309
That’s a serious concern because it indicates a lack of forethought by BD.
Despite what Bitdefender may say, I’ve found it heavy on both my computers which have SSD’s and plenty of ram.
Their Support is also totally useless. Avoid !
Why no mention that Bitdefender is a product developed by and in Romanian. With all the contention over Kaspersky and its manufacturing in Russia and its former/current? ties to Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin and the former KGB, its odd to me that you make no mention of Bitdefender’s connection to Romania and its status in the former USSR
You are way into conspiracy theories. Romania has never been a member of the USSR, Romania is not collaborating with Putin. Bitdefender has nothing to do with USSR or with Vladimir Putin.
Well said 🙂
I’ve been using Bitdefender for several years on desktop and android and currently using Bitdefender Total Security 2018.
Over the years I’ve encountered one or two problems and on each occasion, after contacting the Bitdefender team, assistance has been given very quickly as to what I needed to do, when applicable, at my end.
They must put in incredible amounts of time and effort to keep up with ever-increasing,constantly changing,malware.
Bitdefender have successfully defended my desktop, tablets and mobile phones for quite some time now. I’d feel totally vulnerable and lost without them.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. 🙂
I’ve been using Bit-defender Total Security Since 2014. The 2018 version now Does include VPN (brand new), although it do not know how well it works. Lately though, even though they are supposed to be THE BEST, they don’t tell you how long a System scan takes, Over 1 hour for the first time. And it is definitely heavy on resources, even when updating. On a smaller P.C. this could be irritating. And I don’t know how many times this product has flagged and stopped well known 3rd party applications, including even a few normal P.C. processes. I’ve cursed and swore more than once as Bit- defender blocked perfectly well known processes and software in order to protect me from ransom-ware with their “safe files” and “advanced threat module”. I love all the bells and whistles, and it is a great product, but it has some irritating faults as well, including what seems to be A big thing now in security suites, “A HUGE BEHEMOTH OF A PRODUCT TRYING TO DO AND COVER EVERYTHING” under the sun for you, and becoming SO BIG, that more than 750 MG is used EVEN UP TO 1 GB! and my 16GB Memory with plenty of ram still slows down enough during surfing and also decreasing the boot time significantly. I would like to see them streamline the product for performance, speed, and, of course Great detection without false positives. AV testing shows no false positives, that simply is not true, Ive had several of them.
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We will soon re-test the new version with VPN included, and update this review.
I like everything about this software except for the update process. It takes up to 10 minutes in some instances to perform a simple database update.
I’m on my third week of a paid one year Bitdefender Total Security and the 200 MB VPN. Since about 1985 when I started using computers I’ve used almost all security products, some free, but ESET paid for many years, AVG free, Avast recently and most others. This Bitdefender is running on auto setting and I don’t notice anything heavy about it on a ordinary, not powerful desktop. The chat on customer service has been very good, solving my early setup questions. The VPN and Safepay is only being used for two sites, one where I do all my all my online shopping from and the other my bank. The Safepay is slow to load and kind of slow response but I’ve living on a pension and decided it was best to secure those two things with my financial better than ever before so I don’t risk either. Actually the Slowpay blank out grey screen that loads can hang sometimes, but ctrl-alt-del fixes that. I’ve tweaked all the settings the best I know how. All in all, Total Security comes across as a most powerful suite. I don’t really understand the difference between it and the ESET suite I used for about a decade but for now I have no complaints.
Based on my experience, Bitdefender is really that good. It’s not heavy, even on an old Celeron Processor with 2 GB of RAM. I’ve used Bitdefender(2017 version) on that machine running Win 8.1 and the RAM usage are around 34-40% in idle without disks and CPU usage. But, with Win10. Bitdefender is really heavy on my system. So, Win10 makes me feel Bitdefender is heavy.
Greetings, I really enjoy your content and would like to ask if you’re going to analyze free VPNs as well? Using Atlas VPN right now and it has great speeds, but can’t find many reviews of it.