Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac

Bitdefender is a malware and antivirus solution for Mac. With the recent prevalence of Mac viruses, a good malware protection program like Bitdefender is an essential part of any Mac ecosystem.

Pros

No slowdown: Bitdefender ran smoothly in the background, without having any noticeable effect on the rest of the Mac.

Clear options: Some virus protection software is too complicated for the beginner to use effectively. Bitdefender is very straightforward, with three clear options when the program first launches. You can scan custom locations, do a full system scan, or scan a specific location.

Automatic virus definition updates: Bitdefender allows you to request that it update automatically to its virus database. Each update ran smoothly in the background.

Cons

Lack of scheduling options: A full system scan takes a great deal of time and computer resources. The lack of off-peak hour scheduling is unfortunate, as you usually don't want to initiate this yourself at a time when you want to be using your computer.

Bottom Line

Bitdefender is certainly a competent and useful protection tool for Mac. The lack of some advanced features seen in other solutions of this type, such as scheduling, is frustrating. However, it does work well, and doesn't seem to be overly taxing on a computer's resources.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac 3.1.