Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac Review

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac Review

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac Review -Mac malware may be rare, but it’s out there. That’s why companies like Bitdefender, well known for its PC antivirus programs, also offer a Mac version to keep consumers protected from Mac malware as well as Windows malware that can spread through Mac machines.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac offers handy extra features, such as the TrafficLight browser plugin that susses out nasty Web pages, and a concise, if sometimes cluttered interface. It also boasts perfect malware-detection scores. But at $40 for one Mac per year, or $60 for three Macs per year, is Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac worth buying when there are pretty good free alternatives?

Setup and interface
I downloaded the Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac installer from the Bitdefender website, then opened the installer package (a .DMG file) to start the installation setup. The download took about 5 minutes over our office’s Wi-Fi network.

Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s interface is a small gray window with a series of buttons. Across the top quarter of the screen is a black bar that displays a green check mark if no problems with your computer are detected. If Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac detects a possible issue, or you need to update virus definitions, the bar displays a yellow mark; for a serious issue, it displays a red ‘X’.

In the center of the window is a row of three rectangular buttons for the antivirus components: Scan Critical Locations (Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac’s version of a quick scan), Full System Scan and Scan a Custom Location.

You can’t schedule malware scans ahead of time. Instead, you’ll have to open Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and press the Scan button yourself every time you want to conduct a scan. (Of the other Mac antivirus programs we reviewed, Avast Free Antivirus for Mac doesn’t allow scheduled scans; Sophos Antivirus for Mac Home Edition, Intego Mac Internet Security X8 and ClamXav 2 do.)

Below the scan buttons is a section called Web Protection; to turn it on, you’ll need to press the Activation button. To the left is a button for toggling Continuous Scan on or off. At the bottom of the window is a visualization of Continuous Scan in action. Clicking any of these buttons triggers pop-ups where additional controls become available.

The overall layout makes Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac look more cluttered than competing products, but there’s something to be said for putting everything users might need into a single interface.