Bitdefender VPN review
Our Verdict
If in that location's one thing Bitdefender VPN isn't, it'southward complex – and for ability users this will be severely limiting. However, if you only want bones online protection with proficient speeds and moderate content unblocking performance on the inexpensive, it may well prove to be a tempting service.
For
- Piece of cake to apply
- Unblocks BBC iPlayer
- Effective impale switch
Against
- Minimal features
- Can't unblock US Netflix, Amazon, Disney+
- Pocket-sized Windows app problems
Tom'south Guide Verdict
If there's one thing Bitdefender VPN isn't, it's complex – and for power users this will exist severely limiting. However, if you merely desire basic online protection with good speeds and moderate content unblocking performance on the inexpensive, it may well prove to be a tempting service.
Pros
- +
Easy to apply
- +
Unblocks BBC iPlayer
- +
Constructive kill switch
Cons
- -
Minimal features
- -
Can't unblock US Netflix, Amazon, Disney+
- -
Pocket-size Windows app issues
Bitdefender Premium VPN is a super simple to use, no-nonsense option for anyone that wants a no-frills way to keep their privacy secure online. That volition mean it'southward lacking in some features power-users might expect, but for most this will practice the task while offer decent speeds too.
To be clear, this is the Bitdefender Premium VPN review, which is the unlimited version as opposed to the gratuitous version that comes with the Bitdefender security suite and only offers a meagre 200MB information limit. This Premium total version covers 48 countries with more than ane,300 servers and offers unlimited data.
Bitdefender Premium VPN uses VPN provider Hotspot Shield's tech for its protocol, which is the purpose built and impressive Catapult Hydra protocol. It's simply the apps you piece of work through which are Bitdefender designed. From a privacy perspective, information technology'southward just the tech being used, and no data is shared with Hotspot Shield.
Does all that brand Bitdefender Premium VPN worthy of being on the best VPN services list right now? Read on to find out and decide if this is the right VPN provider for your needs.
- Click to head directly through to the Bitdefender VPN website
Bitdefender Premium VPN 1-minute review
In terms of pricing, Bitdefender is pretty reasonable all-round. If you lot only want to sign up for a month at a fourth dimension, you lot won't have to pay through the nose – it's just $6.99 a month. Signing upwards for longer will save you even more cash, though, with the best selection currently coming in at just $2.49 a calendar month for an annual plan.
Bitdefender uses Hotspot Shield's superfast Catapult Hydra protocol which is widely thought of as secure, and we've received clarification from Bitdefender that no user data is shared with Hotspot Shield or its parent companies.
However, thanks to that link with Hotspot Shield, Bitdefender VPN is pretty fast. The Catapult Hydra protocol delivers great speeds the globe over, and in our testing it topped out at around 410Mbps – although the historic reward information technology had over OpenVPN has now been eclipsed by the wide adoption of WireGuard.
Streaming was something of a permit-down, though. Bitdefender VPN is able to access BBC iPlayer, merely U.s. Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime number are all off the table.
In use, the desktop apps are simple and constructive, and while they don't offer anything footing-breaking, information technology's stable and useful. The kill switch worked well, and while information technology's missing some features like a Favorites system, information technology's past no means underpowered. The same goes for the mobile apps, which likewise have a kill switch, and evangelize adept usability.
Finally, Bitdefender VPN offers alive conversation, email, and telephone back up – merely this is a general support service that covers Bitdefender's principal business concern of antivirus, too. You should go decent service, simply be aware it'southward not as robust as the back up you lot'll get from the leading dedicated VPN providers.
- Sign up now on the Bitdefender website
Bitdefender VPN on paper
Number of servers: one,300+
Number of countries: 48+
Platforms supported: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS,
Simultaneous connections: 10
Separate tunneling: No
Kill switch: Yes
Supported protocols: Catapult Hydra
Country of registration: Usa
Back up: Articles, e-mail, alive conversation
Latest updates
There have been a couple of minor developments from Bitdefender since our last review. Start off, we've got a host of new server locations, jumping upwardly to 48 countries covered in total, equally opposed to 30 previously.
The mobile apps accept also been improved, and will now motorcar-connect of Wi-Fi if you choose so, and your VPN IP is now displayed in-app.
There is now more support on the company's website with a peachy number of VPN manufactures which are now easier to find too.
Bitdefender VPN price: how much is it and is in that location a Bitdefender gratuitous trial?
At $half dozen.99 per month on a rolling plan, Bitdefender Premium VPN is a surprisingly cheap VPN, particularly considering that the market leaders often accuse over $12 a month on similar plans.
All the same, there are more savings to exist had for anyone willing to pay for a year'southward subscription in accelerate. This is billed as a ane-off payment of $29.99 (equal to $ii.49 per month) for the showtime year and $49.99 (equal to $four.15 per month) in subsequent years.
That's much less expensive than VPN providers such as ExpressVPN and NordVPN, and comparable to the all-time deal provider Surfshark. Payment options include credit card, PayPal, bank transfer, bank check, and even cash (if y'all're a U.s.a. resident with a seven/11 nearby).
If you're looking to endeavor before you lot buy then you'll be glad to know that a seven-day free trial is available to anyone that signs up for a Bitdefender Central account. You'll also benefit from a 30-day coin-back guarantee if you practise sign upwards for the service only later decide it's not for you.
- More: Need something for your employees ? See today's best business concern VPN
How private is Bitdefender VPN and does information technology proceed logs?
Although Bitdefender Premium VPN may be packaged equally a Bitdefender production, information technology actually works past connecting through Hotspot Shield's Catapult Hydra protocol. servers. When we start reviewed the VPN, we initially wrote that we were concerned that Bitdefender was simply a white-label Hotspot Shield, which would hateful users were discipline to similar logging.
Still, we've had clarification that the service does not share user data with Hotspot Shield or its parents, significant whatever logging – or lack of information technology – is wholly downward to Bitdefender. The only shared technology is the Catapult Hydra protocol.
Despite this, Bitdefender'south privacy policy is adequately basic, to say the to the lowest degree, simply it does outline what information it uses and how:
'We collect for this service only randomly generated or hashed user and device IDs, IP addresses, and randomly generated tokens to found a VPN connection for the sole purpose of providing the VPN service. For this service, we utilise AnchorFree every bit data processor who processes data on behalf of Bitdefender in accordance with Bitdefender's instructions and for the sole purpose of providing VPN services to users.'
Although neither Bitdefender nor Hotspot Shield can see what y'all're doing online, and merits that what they log cannot be linked back to yous, this level of logging is higher than nearly of its competitors.
There is a stiff encryption to go on your data secure with AES-128/256 GCM, which is pretty standard for VPNs these days. We carried out some privacy checks and found no DNS, WebRTC or other leaks in our testing.
How fast is Bitdefender VPN?
The latest version of Bitdefender Premium VPN has swapped the OpenVPN protocol for Hotspot Shield's fast Catapult Hydra protocol. To say this has made a big difference would be an understatement, so if you're looking for a fast VPN, you won't be disappointed.
Download speeds on a 1Gbps US information middle to Bitdefender'south VPN's nearest location peaked at 350-410Mbps, which is adept and, unsurprisingly, very similar to Hotspot Shield'southward performance.
However, since WireGuard has been introduced and widely taken up by just about every VPN, Catapult Hydra has lost its edge. So, Bitdefender VPN isn't equally speedy as providers like NordVPN (880Mbps), but on the whole Bitdefender is swift and should go on up with whatsoever job.
How good is Bitdefender VPN for streaming?
Bitdefender Premium VPN is sold mostly for the sake of encrypting your data and allowing you lot to scan the internet anonymously, merely the website does say that users can 'unlock media, videos and messaging from all over the earth.'
First up, nosotros tried to access Usa Netflix and Great britain Netflix, and Bitdefender was unable to get us in to either, even later trying several servers. This is a shame as information technology did work in our concluding review.
BBC iPlayer can often be problematic, and last time Bitdefender struggled. However, this time circular it passed the iPlayer test flying colours, which is an improvement we're very pleased to run across. This worked on several different United kingdom servers in our testing.
Unfortunately, the fun stops at that place – Bitdefender can't access Amazon Prime number Video or Disney+. However, we're glad to see some improvement, and nosotros promise information technology carries on in the same direction.
So, if you're looking for the all-time Netflix VPN, Bitdefender probably won't exist on your shortlist, but while it's not the best all-effectually streaming VPN, depending on what you want to watch information technology may well do the job.
How good are the Bitdefender VPN apps?
Bitdefender Premium VPN provides a familiar interface for its Windows app, one which is very similar to ExpressVPN, and it covers the essentials of what is needed from the software. This includes a large bluish Connect push button and the name of the country where your current server is located, which when clicked on will present you with a listing of other server locations (just without details such every bit load figures or ping times).
On the whole, information technology worked equally expected, with connection times between 3 to 4 seconds. We particularly similar that you can change the server location you're connected to without having to disconnect from your current 1. There are too desktop notifications to tell you when you are and aren't protected, and there's a Dark Manner.
The client too sports an efficient kill switch, which does a skilful task of blocking internet traffic and alerting the user should your VPN connection drop. This feature continued to function despite the tricks we used to close the VPN connection.
A course of carve up tunnelling is as well included, although this just whitelists certain websites, non apps. This could potentially be useful in some cases, but considering that Bitdefender VPN is really quite capable as a torrenting VPN, with P2P immune on all servers, a per-app carve up tunnelling system would be most welcome.
However, you lot can set the app to autoconnect, and the manner it works is quite impressive. Enter the menu, and you lot'll exist able to tell the app to connect when it detects a P2P app being opened (or any other app, for that matter). You can also tell it to do this when y'all head to a particular website, and the app even has certain categories yous can gear up this to (Financial, Online Payments, Health, File Sharing, Online Dating, Mature Content). This feature is seriously impressive, genuinely useful, and outdoes pretty much all of the competition.
The only event with autoconnect is that it will do and so without notifying y'all which country you are connected to. Take a look at it will simply say "Automatic" – non ideal if you want to access a sure server location, say for local shopping. Or yous may desire a local land for potentially faster speeds than one far away.
So, it'south a adept client, but not without its imperfections. We're missing a Favorites or Recent list to swiftly connect to your most-used servers, and there's no real connection status information. Withal, the recent addition of an IP brandish and the powerful autoconnect feature certainly elevate the apps from basic to very usable – and if it has all the features yous want, it'due south a pleasure to use.
Regarding its usefulness as a mobile VPN, the apps for both Android and iOS are pretty similar in terms of both the interface and the functionality. Nosotros were pleasantly surprised that the kill switch is bachelor on both platforms (as this isn't typical for an iPhone VPN) and there'due south a setting to 'automatically connect on public Wi-Fi.'
Another overnice affect is the power to access devices on your local network when you're using the VPN, which can be very user-friendly for those that use this feature.
What client support does Bitdefender VPN offer?
Bitdefender's back up team can be reached via live chat, email, and telephone, simply it's worth noting that this is the general back up team and volition cover issues for all of Bitdefender's products and services, non just Premium VPN.
Whilst it might be like shooting fish in a barrel to get the back up yous need, in our experience, the antivirus companies selling VPNs equally extras don't provide the aforementioned level of support that yous'd observe with specialist providers such every bit ExpressVPN and NordVPN.
Too as the support teams, users can detect data in Bitdefender'southward knowledge base, which is stocked with articles, how-to-videos, and FAQs. The number of articles has grown since our last review and the manner they're organized is ameliorate, making them more useful than before.
Bitdefender Premium VPN: Concluding verdict
Bitdefender Premium VPN does a good job of delivering great speeds for a good price, only don't let that fool you into thinking yous're getting a total-on Hotspot Shield-beating experience for less.
Bitdefender VPN is basic compared to the competition, and for power users in that location simply won't be enough on offering to sate the ambition for customization – and for those we'd recommend ExpressVPN or NordVPN. Withal, with some decent connection speeds and genuinely useful features in-app, we're non writing off the antivirus behemothic's foray into VPN just withal. Well worth a try.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/bitdefender-vpn-review
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