Bitdefender Premium VPN review

Bitdefender is finest identified for its antivirus, however branched out into VPNs by partnering with Hotspot Defend. Because it initially launched the service, as a part of its Complete Safety suite, it has made the VPN a totally standalone service, with separate apps and the choice to pay only for the VPN.

There are different modifications and enhancements, too, such because the addition of a kill change, extra choices to robotically hook up with the VPN, break up tunnelling and help for widespread streaming companies, permitting you to look at them in the event you’re in a special area.

Its community has additionally expanded significantly, with over 4000 servers now overlaying 53 international locations.

The low month-to-month price for the one-year subscription seems to be tempting, too, however is Bitdefender a worthy rival to NordVPN and others? Let’s discover out.

Options and apps

You will get Bitdefender Premium VPN for Home windows, Android, iOS and macOS. Sadly, there aren’t any apps for sensible TVs or streamers such because the Amazon Firestick. Neither are there any browser extensions or choice to run the VPN in your router to guard all of your gadgets.

Options fluctuate between working techniques. Home windows and Android, as traditional with VPNs, get essentially the most. Which means ‘correct’ break up tunnelling the place you possibly can select which apps do or don’t use the VPN, however on iOS and macOS, you possibly can solely decide which web sites bypass the encrypted connection.

Equally, though you get a fundamental ‘Auto-connect on public Wi-Fi’ choice on iPhone, on Home windows there’s rather more management. You may select to attach everytime you launch a peer-to-peer app, and even set your personal listing of apps and web sites.

In the primary, the apps will use Hotspot Defend’s proprietary encryption protocol, Hydra, however there may be the choice of WireGuard and OpenVPN on Android. On iOS you possibly can select the outdated IPsec protocol, however on Home windows there’s no selection in any respect. Bitdefender says it would roll out WireGuard to all apps “very quickly”.

The apps have a barely up to date interface and are easy to make use of. You may simply faucet the “energy” button to connect with the optimum server, or you possibly can select a rustic from the listing.

Solely Canada, UK and US have a number of places: three in Canada, two within the UK and 15 within the US.

There’s no solution to favorite places, however the last-used one will probably be chosen subsequent time you go to attach. Even within the Home windows app the place there’s a brand new Dashboard view, you possibly can solely see your “Prime related places”.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The apps hold issues easy, and don’t present how busy every location is, or its ping. And that’s primarily as a result of you possibly can’t see particular person servers: decide a rustic and the server is chosen for you robotically.

One other new function is an advert blocker and anti-tracker. You may allow these individually and also you’ll discover them in all apps.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The ‘Powered by Hotspot Defend’ wording has been moved from the house display and hidden within the About part of the settings, and that’s as a result of Bitdefender is solely utilizing Hotspot Defend’s service and making it accessible by way of its personal app.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Amazingly, Bitdefender Premium VPN works out so much cheaper than you should purchase the standalone VPN service from Hotspot Defend.

It’s price noting, although, that Bitdefender doesn’t supply a stay chat service like a variety of different VPN companies. So in the event you want some tech help, put together to attend for a solution by way of electronic mail in the event you can’t discover a answer within the on-line help articles.

Privateness

One of many greatest considerations with any VPN service is the privateness coverage. This outlines precisely how a lot – if any – info it logs about you and your use of the service. Bitdefender says it collects solely sufficient info to offer the service similar to system IDs and hashed IP addresses.

Today Hotspot Defend is owned by Pango (previously AnchorFree), which itself is owned by Aura. Precisely who does what together with your knowledge isn’t amazingly clear from Bitdefender’s privateness coverage, however in any case, Aura is a US-based firm. The US doesn’t have privacy-friendly legal guidelines for knowledge retention and HotSpot Defend hasn’t had a latest audit to substantiate that it doesn’t log your knowledge.

Finally, it signifies that whereas Bitdefender Premium VPN may be secure to make use of, it’s nonetheless a lot much less reassuring in comparison with utilizing a VPN that has been audited just lately.

After all, you may not care an excessive amount of about privateness. Which leads us to efficiency.

Efficiency

We used a gigabit broadband connection that has the identical add and obtain speeds to check Bitdefender. As traditional, we examined utilizing the Home windows app and Ookla Speedtest. The outcomes aren’t fairly.

Though the speeds could also be quick sufficient for you, and doubtlessly sooner than your personal broadband connection, they’re significantly slower than the quickest companies supply. Add speeds had been notably poor, with even the comparatively shut New York server slowing our connection from round 900Mbps to beneath 60Mbps.

Utilizing the automated choice improved issues dramatically, with a a lot nearer server in San Jose delivering over 750Mbps down and 680Mbps up. So Bitdefender is able to nice pace, however the likelihood is that you simply received’t get these if you want to decide a server that’s far-off.

Jim Martin / Foundry

We discovered no issues when checking for IP and DNS leaks, which is nice.

There was an issue, although. Though Bitdefender advised us that it’s now capable of unblock widespread streaming companies, we couldn’t watch BBC iPlayer or different UK-based video companies when related to any of the the UK servers. Neither would it not enable us to signal into and watch exhibits on the Australian 9Now service.

However in the event you’re solely considering Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max and different US-based companies, you need to be okay, as Bitdefender unblocked these with no points.

Worth & availability

Upgrading to Premium VPN prices £2.50 / $2.50 per 30 days and also you solely should commit for a 12 months, which is half (or perhaps a third) of the time that a variety of VPNs need you to pay for up entrance. You do nonetheless should pay the £29.99 / $29.99 multi function go, and it doubles when your subscription renews ranging from month 13.

Likewise, it’s good to see a extra inexpensive one-month subscription: most VPNs cost much more with the intention to persuade you to as an alternative go for a 12 months or two.

Jim Martin / Foundry

There aren’t any nameless cost choices, solely the standard card and PayPal strategies, plus financial institution switch.

Verdict

Bitdefender Premium VPN has actually improved since we first checked out it, however nonetheless isn’t the only option, even whether it is fairly priced. In case you’re prepared to pay extra up entrance and don’t thoughts a two-year subscription, there are an excellent few alternate options (NordVPN, Surfshark and Private Internet Access) which provide higher general speeds, a much bigger collection of apps (which even have extra options similar to double-VPN), extra servers in additional locations, and higher unblocking of streaming companies.

Plus, fairly a number of of these rivals (together with the three talked about) even have latest impartial audits that present reassurance that they don’t log something, one thing HotspotShield (and Bitdefender) lacks.

If you have already got Bitdefender Complete Safety, you would possibly profit from the free VPN service when utilizing public Wi-Fi. It’s easy to make use of and no trouble.

The massive query is whether or not it’s price paying for the Premium model. Put merely, in the event you simply need a VPN for on-line privateness and anonymity, it’s completely advantageous and fairly priced. However in the event you’re extra demanding, wish to unblock streaming companies and have a better stage of safety and extra settings, you’d be higher off with
NordVPN,
PureVPN or 
ExpressVPN.

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