Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 review

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 review

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 is Bitdefender's baseline Windows antivirus package which delivers all the usual malware hunting essentials, and throws in plenty of interesting extras, too - and, right now, it tops our list of the best antivirus software.

NOTE: Bitdefender is currently running a massive 60% discount on Antivirus Plus (or click here if you're in Australia). That means the price comes down to just $23.99 (around £18.20/AU$28) for the year for one device – so the equivalent of just shy of $2 (£1.50/AU$2.30) a month!

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus gives you antivirus (unsurprisingly), real-time behavior monitoring and multi-layered ransomware protection, for instance. But there's also malicious website blocking, online banking protection, a password manager and secure file deletion.

The package even includes a Hotspot Shield-powered VPN, although the basic edition doesn't allow you to choose your location and restricts you to a tiny 200MB data transfer allowance per day, barely enough for email and very light browsing (upgrading to its Premium VPN is worth considering - it represents much better value).

• Get Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 for 60% off by clicking here if you live in the US or UK or here if you live in Australia!

New features in this release include Ransomware Remediation, an extra layer of protection which looks for ransomware-like behavior and backs up targeted files until the malicious processes can be closed. Even if the regular antivirus engine takes a few seconds to kill the ransomware, it's unlikely to matter, because Bitdefender should be able to restore anything which has been encrypted.

Elsewhere, the new Network Threat Prevention technology tries to prevent malware exploiting vulnerabilities on your device to launch more widespread attacks.

Bitdefender's Autopilot system delivers intelligent recommendations on how to optimize protection to match the way you use your device, and a new-look dashboard for the Windows build makes it even easier to use.

Bitdefender Antivirus Plus 2019 is priced at a fairly average £29.99 ($39) for a one device, one-year license, but adding Windows devices and years can really improve value. A one-year, 10 device license costs only £54.99 ($71.50), for instance, and covering 10 devices for three years only lifts the price to £124.99 (£162.50), just £4.16 ($5.41) per device-year. But, as we've said before, TechRadar readers can get it even cheaper.

If you're looking for something more powerful, Bitdefender Total Security 2019adds a firewall, spam filter, webcam protection, parental controls and more, and has versions for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS. A one-year, five device license costs £34.99 ($45.50) in year one, £69.99 ($91) on renewal.

Better still, there are 30-day no-strings-attached free trial builds for all the major Bitdefender packages, so it's easy to try all their features for yourself.

• We've also highlighted the best antivirus

Setup

You must create a free Bitdefender account before you're able to download the trial of Antivirus Plus 2019, which essentially means handing over your email address. Many companies do something similar, though, and having an account does bring some genuine advantages, including the ability to view your device security status from Bitdefender's web console.

We registered with our email address, downloaded Antivirus Plus and started the installation. The setup process ran smoothly, scanning our computer to confirm it was clean, installing browser extensions and generally sorting itself out with minimal hassle.

On first launch, Antivirus Plus displays a simple tour, walking you through the key areas of the interface. Experienced users won't need this at all, but it's good to have the help available for novices.

Close the tour window and you're able to explore the polished Antivirus Plus console, a nicely designed interface which gives you speedy access to the features you need.

Quick scans are just a click away, while a left-hand sidebar organizes the suite's other tools into Protection, Privacy and Utilities areas. Expanding these displays the various options available within and most users will quickly be able to find their way around.

The main console can be customized to replace its default options with anything you're more likely to use. If you're not interested in the VPN, for instance, in a few clicks you could swap it with a button to launch the system scan, the password manager, file shredder or whatever else you like.

Overall, the Antivirus Plus interface works very well. Beginners get easy access to the most important features, but there are also plenty of configuration options and low-level tweaks for experts to enjoy.