14 DAY TRIAL // Those who wish to move past Windows Defender do not necessarily have to pay to replace it with a competent solution. While Microsoft's offering is a decent one, it's more than likely that you've heard of some of the free antivirus offerings, and Bitdefender Antivirus Free is one of them.
More often than not, when the free antivirus discourse comes up, Bitdefender is among the first names to be mentioned. While the Romanian company is known for providing solutions that enhance your machine's resilience to ill-intentioned attacks — malware, spyware, you name it — those offerings are usually paid ones.
Enter Antivirus Free. It's to be expected for a Free antivirus to be a more pared down version of the paid one. This is less about compromising security, and more about giving the user additional protections that would ideally help your computer fend attacks from more angles. Users can thus confidently use the Free edition and still enjoy strengthened protection.
A more basic version of the Paid offering, but still very much capable
Bitdefender Antivirus Free is all about real-time protection, suspicious behavior detection, as well as some online threat safeties. By default, the antivirus comes with all of these protections enabled, which works to confer it a set-and-forget quality, where the default configuration should cover most uses.
To start off, the Dashboard interface provides users with quick links to two functions of interest, where they can opt for a quick or complete system scan. Though you can very well add new quick actions yourself, they amount to very little in the Free version, as anything else other than the aforementioned scans requires a license.
Unless you're encountering specific problems with your solution, it's generally advised to leave your antivirus as it is, with all the relevant protections enabled. Managing exceptions and quarantined items is an option you may want to consider, depending on what you're working with, however.
Also provides some additional online protections
Including the Online Threat Prevention component is a welcome addition to existing protections. To put it simply, Bitdefender Antivirus Free will attempt to spot and deal with threats that may come your way during web surfing. Besides including tools that can fend off fraud, phishing, and web attacks, a bolstered email protection mechanism is also present, which can be used for both incoming and outgoing correspondence.
Aside from what's been discussed, the antivirus is rather minimal in features. The interface more so acts as a way to promote the Premium offering, especially considering the number of functions locked behind a paywall. It's also worth mentioning that the antivirus is quite willing to show pop-ups to entice you to spring for the Paid version: in that sense, you can turn off Special offers in the Settings for a less bothersome experience.
In any case, if the antivirus is diligent enough where it matters, those minor inconveniences can be overlooked by some. There's usually a reason behind mainstream popularity, and Bitdefender is oftentimes a popular suggestion, as stated in the beginning.
Some analyses with regard to performance
The thorough testing conducted during January and February 2023 by AV-TEST, a well-regarded resource in the cybersecurity community, paints a clear picture of Bitdefender's capabilities. It's to be noted that AV-TEST uses all manner of real-world samples to ensure an accurate and fair testing methodology.
A quick glance at the test results reveals that Bitdefender may even well be called an over-achiever: Bitdefender is good for 100 percent protection against 0-day malware attacks in any industry where the average is 99.4. The same industry is hard at work to repel weeks-old malware with striking precision, so it's no surprise seeing Bitdefender being able to detect and act accordingly 100 percent of the time — from 11.876 samples, no less.
Some files may throw some antivirus solutions off, and as adepts of the "prevention is better than cure" saying, it's not uncommon to see some going overboard and flag legitimate files as ill-intentioned ones. AV-TEST used numerous samples to ascertain this across the industry: from 1.478.511 samples, there was only one instance where Bitdefender wrongly detected legitimate software as malware.
Still very much a lightweight solution
Performance is often a concern for many when choosing their antivirus. Lighter solutions certainly have a place in this market, and Bitdefender manages to be minimal with its slowdowns, even lower than the industry averages.
As a comparison, using the assessments of AV-TEST, a 17% slowdown was noticed when launching popular websites in an industry where the average is 7 points higher. Competing products like Kaspersky are a bit heavier on the system with a 26% slowdown, so Bitdefender is generally more advisable for lower-spec machines.
Looking at the competition, Bitdefender's solution seems to be on par, if not better in some cases, when speaking strictly about the security assessments conducted by AV-TEST. Nevertheless, current mainstream offerings should confer your machine all the security it needs, so it largely comes down to how much you can cooperate with your antivirus.
As an example, Bitdefender works well enough as a set-and-forget solution, but so do Kaspersky, ESET, Avast, and others. It may be that the deciding factor for some users to be configurability, which Kaspersky, for instance, provides much more of in comparison. The bottom line is that you can essentially pick any solution on the market from an established brand, and you'll be taken care of, security-wise.
The Good
The software is very much suitable for a general audience. Its set-and-forget nature should make it a good choice for anyone looking for added protection with minimal work required on their part.
Based on the testing conducted by AV-TEST, a reputable name in the cybersecurity industry, Bitdefender should be more than up to the challenge when it comes to tackling virus attacks, 0-day or otherwise. What's more, users can enjoy operating their system just as smoothly as before, thanks to the program's efficient and lightweight mode of operation.
The Bad
To continue in that vein, the Premium feature pop-ups can be a bit frustrating to deal with. As they're enabled by default, some users may not even know they can be toggled off. In case you do not toggle them off, it's not excluded for you to encounter such a pop-up during a gaming session, for example.
Having more ways to configure your antivirus may not be something that a casual user would be interested in, but even so, the antivirus is a bit lacking in that department. As discussed earlier, Kaspersky Free is much more robust in terms of configurability. In any case, this is more of a nitpick than anything else.
The Truth
What matters most in an antivirus is in the name: the ability to block viruses. As such, Bitdefender Antivirus Free's interface, pop-ups, and lack of configurability are minor drawbacks in the context of its overall efficiency in curbing virus attacks.
