Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky – An Honest Comparison For 2022

Choosing between two of the big names in antivirus software, Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky, can prove to be difficult. So, in this in-depth comparison, I’ll be helping you make a decision.

I mainly use antivirus software to protect myself from the cyber-attacks and threats that loom over us in our daily use of the web. I’ll guide you throughout this article to help you pick the best antivirus software that will suit you, just like how I chose mine.

I’ll tell you the essential tools and features, pros and cons, pricing, and more to assist you in making the best-informed decision.

Without further ado, let’s get started.

1. Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky At A Glance

When it comes to antivirus protection, you’ll usually have two of the industry’s biggest names as the options. Let’s take a look at this Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky comparison.

4.8	4.7
Best Overall. Provides all-around security against cyber threats and malware with extra desktop utilities. Starts at $89.99/month.	Best for real-time protection. Powerful threat analytics and detection tools with multilayer threat protection. Starts at $379.99/year
Try Bitdefender	Try Kaspersky

2. Who Is Bitdefender Best For?

Bitdefender is perfect for those looking for an affordable antivirus package and still comes with powerful features for detection, prevention, and protection against a wide range of threats such as viruses, malware, phishing, and more. 

Students, parents, families, and anybody who uses the internet will benefit from Bitdefender’s protection against cyber threats. Parents can protect their children with Bitdefender’s Parental Control feature.

3. Who Is Kaspersky Best For?

Kaspersky is excellent for users looking for comprehensive security and protection features against unwanted malware, viruses, and more. Just like Bitdefender, Kaspersky will also benefit students, families, and anybody who uses the internet since Kaspersky will provide them protection against web-based threats.

4. A Close Look At The Features Of Bitdefender and Kaspersky

Between Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky, what features make each of them stand out? Let’s take a closer look at their features.

Features
Antivirus And Vulnerability Scan
Web Protection
Password Manager
Parental Control
System Cleanup/Optimization Tools
VPN
Anti-Theft
Anti-Tracker
Webcam Protection
Firewall
Ransomware Protection
Get Started	Try Bitdefender	Try Kaspersky

Both Bitdefender and Kaspersky offer amazing antivirus protection features. Bitdefender outshines Kaspersky with Bitdefender’s additional features such as anti-theft that come in handy.

Burkhard Berger

5. Key Features Of Bitdefender

Bitdefender is a global leader in providing cybersecurity solutions. Let’s take a look at the features that Bitdefender offers.

#1 Virus and Vulnerability Scan

An antivirus scanner is the core of all antivirus software. The antivirus scanner is what detects and identifies the threats that your computer has.

Bitdefender’s antivirus scanner is one of the best in the market. It’s fast, lightweight, and has a 100% detection rate.

Bitdefender’s antivirus is lightweight and thorough. It has a vast malware directory that it uses to detect known malware and machine learning to identify emerging malware.

Most of Bitdefender’s scanning happens in the cloud, making it lightweight and having a low impact on your computer’s CPU performance.

Bitdefender gives you four scanning options: quick scan, system scan, custom scan, and vulnerability scan.

A quick scan is a lightweight scan of the core system files and temporary files—the location where malicious programs usually store viruses.

The system scan is an in-depth analysis and scan of your entire system for malware, viruses, and vulnerabilities. 

The custom scan is when you choose to scan a specific location where you think there might be potential threats. You can also schedule your custom scans either daily, weekly, monthly, or startup.

The vulnerability scan scans for privacy risks in any settings of your applications and also checks your computer for critical software updates.

Unlike most antivirus software, Bitdefender’s antivirus engine has minimal impact on your system performance. The slowdown in your system processes during the entire scanning process is so low that it’s almost negligible and unnoticeable.

#2 Web Protection and Bitdefender Safepay

Most of the threats that we encounter are mainly from the web; that’s why Bitdefender offers you web protection to address this problem. With web protection, you can be at ease when browsing the web.

These are what you’ll get with Bitdefender’s web protection:

• Web attack prevention – Bitdefender will check every web page you access for threats so you can avoid them downloaded on your device.
• Search Advisor – Bitdefender will check your search results and warn you against dangerous web pages before accessing them.
• Encrypted web scan – Bitdefender checks if the encrypted web pages are safe since some encrypted web pages use certificates issued by untrusted certificate authorities or stolen certificates from legitimate sources.
• Fraud protection –  Bitdefender checks if the web pages you access have fraudulent content. Most of the time, these fraudulent pages attempt to trick you into sending money with malicious intent. 
• Phishing protection – With phishing protection, Bitdefender checks if the web pages you visit have any phishing behavior. Usually, phishing pages try to obtain sensitive information like login credentials or credit card details by disguising them as trustworthy entities.
• Network threat prevention – Bitdefender prevents exploitation of your device’s vulnerability by helping prevent complex threats like ransomware to use these vulnerabilities to attack your device.
• Email scan – Bitdefender will scan email content for potential threats that can compromise your device.

Another way for Bitdefender to provide you with web protection is with Bitdefender’s secure web browser, Safepay. Safepay is a safe environment where you can keep your online banking, e-shopping, or any type of online transaction private and secure.

With Safepay, you can keep hackers from stealing your personal information when you make online transactions on e-commerce websites like Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, and more.

Safepay prevents hackers from accessing your desktop remotely. It also uses Bitdefender’s password manager to protect your passwords.

Safepay lets you use a virtual keyboard to prevent keystroke tracking and turns on Bitdefender’s built-in VPN protection.

#3 Bitdefender Password Manager

Bitdefender’s password manager keeps your passwords, credit card information, email credentials, license keys, and other sensitive information safe and secure in your wallet. 

Bitdefender’s password manager has multi-device sync, lets you store unlimited passwords, auto-save and auto-fill, allows you to have separate password vaults and generate passwords.

Although Bitdefender’s password manager is not as feature-rich as the standalone password managers like 1Password and LastPass, it is a very convenient alternative and well-made for users that don’t need your child’s activity and an advanced password manager app.

#4 System Optimization with Bitdefender

Bitdefender’s OneClick Optimizer checks your system and removes unnecessary files from your device like temporary system files, windows junk files, recycle bin files, broken registry items, and browser history. 

With Bitdefender’s OneClick Optimizer, you can free up several gigs of junk files from your computer quickly and easily with just a single click. After using the optimizer, you can notice a significant speed increase on your computer.

#5 Parental Control

Bitdefender offers you parental control called Parental Advisor to help you monitor your child’s activity when using their device. 

To set up the parental control, you have to create a child profile, install the Bitdefender parental control app on your child’s device, and set up the permissions on your child’s device.

With parental control, you could do the following:

• Set daily device limits
• Set device usage schedules
• Manage (allow and block) apps
• Whitelist and blacklist specific sites or categories of sites
• View location and set sage and restricted areas
• View the latest phone contacts added to your child’s contact list

Bitdefender’s parental controls give some of the best protections that a parent would look for in any parental control app. If you are a parent who wants to make sure that your kids are safe in the online and real-world, Bitdefender’s parental control will work for you.

6. Key Features Of Kaspersky

Kaspersky is one of the big names in the cybersecurity industry. Let’s see the features that come with it.

#1 Antivirus Engine

As with any other antivirus software, having an antivirus scanner is crucial. The antivirus scanner is the primary tool for detecting and identifying potentially malicious programs or files on your computer.

Kaspersky’s virus scanner utilizes a virus database and machine learning to detect all types of malicious software, programs, and files. Kaspersky uploads the detected new and potentially malicious file to Kaspersky’s cloud-based scanner for further analysis and uses machine learning to determine if the file is malware.

Kaspersky presents you with five different types of virus scans: quick scan, full scan, selective scan, removable drive scan, and vulnerability scan.

With the quick scan, Kaspersky checks your system startup files, boot sectors, and system memory files. These are the core system files where you can usually find the malware.

A full scan is a deep scan where Kaspersky scans every file, folder, and partitioned sector on your system.

The selective scan is where you can choose what drive, file, or folder you want to scan for potential threats.

Removable drive scan scans your removable drives like flash drives or portable hard drives.

With the vulnerability scan, Kaspersky scans your system for vulnerabilities by including out-of-date applications and software exposed to malware.

Kaspersky also gives you the option to schedule a scan at a specified time, after application startup, or after every update.

#2 Web Protection and Kaspersky Safe Money

Kaspersky offers you multi-layered web protection. Kaspersky’s Web Anti-Virus feature works hand in hand with the Kaspersky Protection browser extension that detects and blocks malicious and phishing sites.

Kaspersky’s Web Anti-Virus feature checks the sites you visit by comparing them against a database of malicious web addresses and uses heuristic analysis to determine if URLs have suspicious behavior.

Kaspersky’s browser extension helps detect malicious links and marks sites as safe/unsafe, blocks trackers and ads, and lets users use a virtual keyboard. 

Kaspersky Safe Money is a secure browser for accessing banking websites or entering your payment information. Kaspersky’s secure browser keeps your banking and payment information safe from potentially malicious software attacks online.

Kaspersky’s virtual keyboard works well with the secure browser to prevent keyloggers from getting your password through your keywords. You can use the secure browser best when visiting e-commerce sites in Wix, WordPress, Squarespace, BigCommerce, and more.

#3 Kaspersky System Cleanup Tools

Kaspersky offers you various PC cleanup tools like PC Cleaner, Unused Data Cleaner, and Privacy Cleaner.

Kaspersky’s PC Cleaner checks your system for any applications and browser extensions you may want to remove or fix, including the programs you rarely use along with your PC’s bloatware.

The Unused Data Cleaner searches your log and temporary files in the Recycle Bin. Kaspersky then gives you several options of what you want to do with the files found.

The Privacy Cleaner clears your browser history, cookies, caches, and other traces of your online activity.

Kaspersky’s system cleanup tools help eliminate unwanted or unused files, programs, applications and remove traces of your online activity quickly and easily. 

#4 Kaspersky Password Manager

You can keep all of your passwords, bank cards, addresses, and other sensitive data safe and secure with Kaspersky’s Password Manager which uses 256-bit AES encryption and has a strict zero-knowledge policy.

Kaspersky’s password vault is very simple and easy to navigate since all of the features and options have clear labels. Kaspersky also allows you to organize your passwords into folders.

The password manager also comes with a good password generator accessible from the app and the browser extension. The password generator lets you create a password 4-99 characters long, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

Like Bitdefender’s password manager, Kaspersky’s password manager lacks features compared to standalone password managers like LastPass but offers the essential security you need to keep passwords and other sensitive information safe and secure.

#5 Kaspersky Safe Kids

Kaspersky is one with parents who want to keep their children safe and secure in the online world. Kaspersky offers parental controls, Safe Kids, to help make it easy for parents to protect their kids online.

Kaspersky gives you a quick tutorial and advice on discussing with your children about parental controls and internet safety when setting up your parental controls.

With Kaspersky Safe Kids, you’ll be able to set usage limitations, filter content for sites and apps, monitor your children’s social network, and location tracking. 

Kaspersky’s Safe Kids offers one of the most comprehensive features for parental control in the market. It’s fully featured and easy to use and comes with advice to help you talk with your child about internet safety.

Kaspersky’s handling of its parental control feature makes it one of the best parental control apps in the market. Kaspersky’s advice to help you discuss with your child about internet safety is a very welcome one.

Burkhard Berger

7. Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky – Pros And Cons

All antivirus protection software has its pros and cons. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky.

Here I’ll show you Bitdefender’s pros and cons to help you see if it fits you.

Bitdefender:

Pros	Cons
Comes with ransomware protection	Unlimited VPN available only on the top-tier plan
Offers anti-tracking	Slight false positive problems
User-friendly
100% detection rate
Affordable
Free version available

Take a closer look at Kaspersky’s pros and cons to find out if it’s just what you need.

Kaspersky:

Pros	Cons
100% detection rate	A bit pricier
User-friendly	Unlimited VPN available only in the premium plan
Offers ransomware protection
Free version available

8. Where Do I Get The Most For My Money?

Between Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky, which antivirus software offers the most value for your money? Which one should you invest in?

Here I’ll show you the pricing plans that Bitdefender and Kaspersky offer.

Bitdefender Pricing Plans

Bitdefender offers one free limited plan and six paid plans. Bitdefender’s free plan is only good for one device and comes with limited features. 

To get more advanced security and protection features, Bitdefender offers six paid plans:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus (Discounted Price: starts at $19.99 for one year for one device; Regular Price: $39.99 for one year for one device) – The Bitdefender Antivirus Plus gives you the essential real-time protection against all viruses and ransomware, prevents phishing and online fraud while you shop and browse and a secure VPN for complete online privacy (200/MB limit per day per device)
• Bitdefender Internet Security (Discounted Price: starts at $24.99 for one year for one device; Regular Price: $59.99 for one year for one device) –  The Bitdefender Internet Security comes with all the Antivirus Plus package features and offers unbeatable online threat detection, privacy firewall to block unauthorized access and filter your network traffic, and webcam and microphone protection.
• Bitdefender Total Security (Discounted Price: starts at $39.98 for one year for five devices; Regular Price: $89.99 for one year for five devices) – Bitdefender Total Security has all the Internet Security package features plus the addition of innovative technologies to protect against zero-day attacks, advanced parental controls, minimal impact on system performance, device optimizer, multi-platform protection, and unbeatable threat detection.
• Bitdefender Family Pack (Discounted Price: starts at $49.99 for one year for 15 devices; Regular Price: $119.99 for one year for 15 devices) – The Bitdefender Family Pack has all the Total Security features except you can now protect up to 15 devices per household, and you get comprehensive 24/7 support.
• Bitdefender premium security (Discounted Price: $74.99 for one year for ten devices; Regular Price: $149.99 for one year for ten devices) – The Bitdefender Premium Security has all the Total Security features with the addition of unlimited, secured VPN traffic and priority support.
• Bitdefender Small Office Security (Discounted Price: starts at $49.99 for one year for ten devices; Regular Price: $99.99 for one year for ten devices) – The Bitdefender Small Office Security is complete protection for your small business to help prevent data breaches and secure your clients’ personal and financial data. It includes Bitdefender’s unbeatable multi-layered protection from all new and existing cyber threats, minimal system impact, and privacy protection.

Kaspersky Pricing Plans

Kaspersky offers one free plan and three paid plans. Kaspersky’s free plan, like Bitdefender, also comes with limited features.

For advanced security and protection, here are Kaspersky’s three paid plans:

• Kaspersky Anti-Virus (Discounted Price: starts at $29.99 for one year, per 1 device; Regular Price: $39.99 for one year, per 1 device) – The Kaspersky Anti-Virus package lets you block viruses and malware, filter phishing emails, gives you ransomware protection and defend your network against attacks.
• Kaspersky Internet Security (Discounted Price: starts at $44.99 for one year, per 1 device; Regular Price: $59.99 for one year, per 1 device) – Kaspersky Internet Security package has all Kaspersky Anti-Virus features plus payment protection, two-way firewall, privacy cleaner, protection for multiple devices, and webcam protection.
• Kaspersky Total Security (Discounted Price: starts at $59.99 for one year, per 1 device; Regular Price: $79.99 for one year, per 1 device) – The Kaspersky Total Security comes with all Kaspersky Internet Security features with the addition of data encryption, password manager, and parental controls.

9. Conclusion – Which Is Better: Bitdefender Or Kaspersky?

As the article concludes, it’s time to decide between Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky as the better antivirus software.

When it comes to providing reliable antivirus software with excellent protection features, Bitdefender and Kaspersky are head-to-head. But Bitdefender wins over Kaspersky because Bitdefender offers the same level or even better antivirus features than Kaspersky but at more affordable prices.

Kaspersky is still an excellent antivirus software and will still provide you with the exceptional security and protection you need against unwanted cyber threats.

10. Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky – FAQ

Here I’ll answer four of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky.

Is Bitdefender really the best?

Bitdefender is one of the best and most feature-rich antivirus software on the market. It provides 100% detection rates, excellent web protection, and significant additional features such as VPN, parental controls, and more.

Will Bitdefender remove viruses?

Bitdefender works against all threats from viruses, Trojans, worms to zero-day exploits, rootkits, spyware, and ransomware. 

Can Kaspersky remove malware?

Kaspersky will scan your software to find threats, and Kaspersky finds a threat, Kaspersky will remove it from your device and notify you.

Is Kaspersky VPN safe?

Kaspersky provides you with a secure connection by using the military-grade 256-bit AES encryption and provides you with DNS leak protection to prevent your DNS requests from leaking accidentally to your ISP.