Pros & Cons
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- Perfect and near-perfect scores from testing labs
- Protects files and backups from ransomware
- Includes VPN
- No-hassle Autopilot mode
- Chat protection flags dangerous links
- Blocks trackers in browsers
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- Full access to VPN features requires a separate subscription
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac Specs
| Behavior-Based Detection | |
| Malicious URL Blocking | |
| On-Access Malware Scan | |
| On-Demand Malware Scan | |
| Phishing Protection | |
| Protection Type | Mac Antivirus |
| Ransomware Protection | |
| VPN | Limited |
| Website Rating |
Just about every new PC comes equipped with an antivirus trial to keep you protected until you can install your antivirus of choice. The same isn’t true for new Macs. If you want antivirus protection for your Mac, you need to install it. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac doesn’t have as many bonus features as its Windows equivalent, but unlike many macOS-focused competitors, it goes well beyond the minimum in its protective capabilities. Among other things, it includes VPN protection, online tracker blocking, and ransomware protection. Independent labs give it excellent marks in testing, and so do our own tests. Like Norton AntiVirus Plus for Mac, it earns our Editors’ Choice award for Mac antivirus.
How Much Does Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac Cost?
For $49.99 per year, you can install Bitdefender on a single Mac, the same price as F-Secure Internet Security, Intego Mac Internet Security, and Webroot Antivirus.
Another common one-Mac price is just under $40; CleanMyMac, ESET Cyber Security, G Data Antivirus, and Trend Micro Antivirus all match that price. You pay $69.99 per year for a three-license Bitdefender subscription, the same as Webroot and a little more than F-Secure and Intego.
At $59.99 per year for a single license, Norton is more expensive than most. Things look better at the five-license level, which costs $84.99, or about $17 for each Mac.
Avast One Basic, Avira Free Antivirus, and AVG AntiVirus all have free versions, which is handy if you didn't budget for antivirus software on your macOS devices. Sorry, Mac users, but Bitdefender’s free antivirus is strictly for Windows.
Like Norton, Bitdefender is a cross-platform solution. You can use your three licenses on Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS devices. I discuss the mobile platforms in my review of Bitdefender Total Security.
If your Mac is brand new, it has the latest and greatest operating system. Even if it’s just new-ish, you’ve probably kept up with upgrades. But if you're stuck running an older version of macOS, your need for antivirus protection is even greater. Like ClamXav and Panda Dome Essential, Bitdefender works on anything from Yosemite (version 10.10 of macOS) to the current edition. Given that Yosemite came out in 2014, that’s quite a span. Many competitors require a more recent version. For example, Norton supports the current version and the two previous versions, while Webroot supports the current and the three previous versions.
Excellent Lab Test Scores
I have an elaborate set of hand-coded tools, developed over many years, that help in hands-on Windows antivirus testing. On a Mac, those tools do exactly nothing. I can run a few tests manually, but I rely heavily on reports from the major independent testing labs. I follow five labs that report on Windows antivirus apps, and two of those also evaluate Mac apps.
Both testing labs I follow for macOS antivirus include Bitdefender in their reports. In the latest AV-Comparatives test, a few programs achieved 100% protection against Mac-specific malware. Bitdefender came in slightly below the top, with 99.4% protection.
Because a Mac can act as a carrier for malware that attacks Windows, the researchers also check how well each antivirus detects Windows threats. Bitdefender achieved 100% in this test, as did most of the tested antivirus tools.
As with Windows antivirus tools, the experts at AV-Test Institute rate apps on protection, performance, and usability, assigning up to six points in each category. Bitdefender aced all three tests, earning a perfect 18 points, as did almost all competing antiviruses. Avast, AVG, and Norton earned perfect scores from both labs.
Getting Started With Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac
As with the Windows edition, your path to Bitdefender protection starts with the Bitdefender Central dashboard online. Create or log into your account, activate your license key, and you’re ready. You can download the app or send a link in an email to protect another device. If you’re new to Bitdefender, a simple tour takes you through essential features.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)Do follow the recommendations displayed in the AutoPilot banner across the top. Among other tasks, you’ll enable ransomware remediation and protection for your Time Machine backups. You'll also want to protect your browsers by enabling the Traffic Light browser extension, which identifies dangerous links in search results, and the Anti-tracker feature, which prevents advertisers from profiling you on the web.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)The main window of the macOS antivirus closely matches that of Bitdefender Antivirus Plus on Windows. You see a simple menu on the left and the AutoPilot recommendations banner at the top. Below are six button panels: Chat Protection, Quick Scan, System Scan, Total Protection, Safe Files, and Web Protection. The Windows edition has six buttons: Quick Scan, System Scan, Vulnerability Scan, VPN, Safepay, and Add a quick action. That last one lets you configure the buttons to launch the security features you use most.
Sharp-eyed readers may notice some differences since my last review. The Total Protection button previously had the label Antivirus for Mac. More importantly, Chat Protection is completely new, so new that the Windows edition doesn’t yet include the feature. I’ll discuss Chat Protection below.
Where the Windows edition’s menu links to pages for Protection, Privacy, and Utilities, the macOS version just has Protection and Privacy. The Privacy page is fully devoted to the VPN and Anti-tracker components (more about them later).
You can launch a quick, full, or custom scan from the Protection page. This is also where you check your quarantined files and manage browser extensions. Tabs across the top let you manage Antivirus (the default), Chat Protection, Web Protection, and Anti-Ransomware.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)As with the Windows edition, Bitdefender on the Mac defaults to running in Autopilot mode, making all necessary security decisions without annoying the user with unnecessary questions. Also, as on Windows, AutoPilot goes beyond mere decision-making. It uses a panel in the main window to display recommendations, helping you make the most of all available features.
Scanning With Bitdefender for Mac
Most Mac antivirus apps include an automatic scheduler for regular scans. Bitdefender omits this feature because its real-time protection should catch any new malware before a scheduled scan could. That means it's important to run a full System Scan as soon as you've installed the antivirus to ensure nothing infected your Mac while it was unprotected.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)A full scan with Bitdefender took 44 minutes, almost precisely the current average. That’s much better than the two hours it took when last tested. The initial full scan with CleanMyMac, K7 AntiVirus, Sophos Home Premium, and Webroot finished in less than five minutes. It’s possible these apps define “full scan” differently.
All the Mac antivirus utilities we've reviewed recently promise to detect and remove Windows malware, too, so your Mac doesn't become a Typhoid Mary, passing infections to your Windows boxes.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)To check this feature, I copied my current collection of nearly 90 malware samples to a USB drive, plugged it into the test Mac, and ran a scan. The scan detected and quarantined 88% of them, including all ransomware samples. Only a few competitors have done better. McAfee Total Protection, Avast, and Webroot eliminated 96%, 97%, and 99%, respectively.
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Excellent Phishing Protection
Viruses, Trojans, and other malware are necessarily locked to a specific operating system. As noted, Windows malware won’t run on a Mac, and the reverse is also true. Phishing websites, by contrast, are completely platform-agnostic. It doesn’t matter if you’re browsing on a Mac, a game console, or an internet-connected personal massager. If you log into a fake financial website, you’ve given away your credentials to the fraudsters. Yes, these fakes get blocklisted and terminated quickly, but the perpetrators just pop up with new ones.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)To test how well an antivirus utility protects against phishing scams, I start by collecting the newest phishing URLs I can find on the web, with an eye out for those that haven't made it onto blacklists. Whether I’m testing a Windows or macOS antivirus, I use a hand-coded test utility to simultaneously launch each URL in Windows instances of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, relying on each browser's built-in fraud protection. I use the same utility when testing Windows antivirus software. As for testing on the Mac, well, just as Windows malware runs only on Windows, so does my utility. On the Mac, testing involves a lot of fancy cut-and-paste button-mashing between the list of phishing URLs and the browser's Address bar.
I tested this edition alongside Bitdefender’s Windows version, and the two performed in lockstep, both achieving 100% detection. AVG, Avira, ESET, McAfee, Norton, and Webroot also reached 100% in their most recent Mac-based tests.
Traffic Light and Web Protection
If you try to navigate to a fake or dangerous site, Bitdefender's Web Protection steers you back to safety. As the test results above show, this protection is quite effective.
The Traffic Light browser extension (for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari) adds another layer of protection. It marks up search results, using green and red icons to identify safe and dangerous links. If you avoid red-light links, you should be safe. Even if you do slip up and click a bad link, Bitdefender will steer your browser away from it.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)Hovering the mouse over a red icon displays a pop-up explaining the rating, and clicking it opens a page with detailed information about why the link is dangerous. You get a laundry list of reasons, with relevant icons highlighted. In most cases, it's phishing or malware, but other reasons include Facebook scams, sending unsolicited emails, and piracy.
Chat Protection Flags Dangerous Links
Chat protection is a new feature since my last review. Its introductory page points out that it covers Messages, Messenger, Telegram, and WhatsApp, as well as in-browser chats from such sources as Discord and LinkedIn. For the latter, it relies in part on Traffic Light.
When you click to set up protection, you choose whether to scan old messages and messages from known contacts. With the feature fully enabled, you get the option to disable protection on any of the covered platforms—but why would you?
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)Chat Protection protects against dangerous links in chat messages, much as Traffic Light flags them in search results. If you get a warning, don’t click the link. And perhaps reconsider any continued connection with the contact who sent the malicious link.
Flexible, Effective Anti-Tracker
Every time you visit a web page, the site gets a boatload of information about you, but it’s not just the page you chose that gets this data dump. Any ads or third-party components on the page get your info, too. Advertisers and other trackers use this data to track your online habits, creating a profile they can use to target you or sell to others. Web standards bodies have defined a Do Not Track header that your browser can send to say, “No tracking, please.” And trackers routinely ignore this powerless header because it’s just a request.
Like Traffic Light, Bitdefender’s Anti-tracker browser extension supports Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In Chrome and Firefox, when you visit a site that contains ad trackers, site analytics trackers, or other trackers, Bitdefender puts the number of trackers on the extension's toolbar icon. By default, its active Do Not Track system blocks them all. You can click for a summary by category, which includes an estimate of the page load time saved. You can also disable blocking for specific categories.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)The Safari version of the extension works a bit differently. It doesn't display the number of trackers on the toolbar icon or list categories, and it doesn't let you fine-tune blocking by category. You'll find similar Do Not Track functionality in various security tools, including Avast and Trend Micro Antivirus.
Ransomware Protection Keeps Files Safe
Ransomware is a never-ending threat, and dedicated ransomware protection is becoming a must for top Mac antivirus programs. Some add a monitoring layer that looks for behavior indicative of ransomware encryption. Others, including Bitdefender, hinder ransomware activity by limiting access to files in folders typically affected by ransomware.
A ransomware attack doesn't aim to disable your computer. The perpetrators know you'll need a working computer if you decide to pay up. Ransomware attacks documents, images, and other personal files, working in the background until dirty deeds are done. By default, Bitdefender's Safe Files feature protects your Desktop, Documents, Downloads, and Pictures folders. You can add any other folders in which you routinely keep important documents. Of course, you’ll want to add that same set of folders for any other users of the Mac.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)Known and trusted applications can access your files as they always have, but when an unknown program attempts to create or modify files in a protected folder, Safe Files prevents the change and displays a warning. If you recognize the program, if it's something you're actively using, you can add it to the trusted list. If not, let Bitdefender keep blocking the attack.
Signed apps from the App Store are trusted automatically, so I had to dig up an untrusted app to test this feature. When I tried to modify a protected file, Bitdefender correctly blocked access and displayed a warning. The warning message gave me the option to keep blocking the app or add it to the trusted list. When I chose to keep blocking, the app couldn't save any changes.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)Savvy Mac users know Time Machine keeps regular backups, theoretically allowing recovery from ransomware. Did your files get encrypted by ransomware? Just restore from backup! However, since the Time Machine backup drive is often left connected to the Mac, there's a faint possibility your backups could also be compromised by ransomware. Just as it prevents unauthorized access to your documents, Bitdefender also protects your Time Machine files.
Feature-Limited VPN
Bitdefender's many layers of antivirus, web, and network protection keep you, your devices, and your data safe. However, your privacy could be at risk when you connect to the internet. A VPN (virtual private network) can help. When you connect using a VPN, nobody, not your ISP or even the owner of the shady Wi-Fi network you're using, can see your network traffic, and you'll be harder to track as you move across the web.
The VPN that comes with Bitdefender limits you to 200MB of bandwidth per day, and it doesn’t let you select a VPN server by location. If you want to remove those limits, you must pay for Bitdefender Premium VPN, which costs $6.99 per month or $69.99 per year.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)The Bitdefender VPN looks nearly identical to its Windows equivalent. A button at the lower left lets you choose a server location, and panels stacked down the right-hand side offer information such as connection time, ads and trackers blocked, and the amount of upstream and downstream data secured by the VPN. Just click the big button to connect or disconnect. But watch your usage; in testing, I blew through a full day’s bandwidth watching 10 minutes of high-def video.
Bitdefender licenses VPN technology from IPVanish, with servers in 150 cities across 112 countries. (Editors' Note: IPVanish is owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag.com's parent company. For more, read about our ethics policy in the Editorial Mission Statement.) The VPN offers modern VPN protocols, along with features such as a kill switch (to prevent accidental transmission of unprotected data if the VPN connection breaks) and split tunneling. (to exempt specific websites from connecting through the VPN).
All of Bitdefender’s security products, from the free antivirus to the top-tier suite, include VPN protection. But only Bitdefender Premium Security and the next tier up, Ultimate, include a VPN with no limits. For a full discussion of the VPN’s features, see my review of Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: Bitdefender)
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac gets high marks in our own hands-on testing and from independent labs. You can set it, forget it, and rest assured that your Mac is protected.