Bitdefender VPN Review

As my Bitdefender Premium VPN review will show, this service is good but probably not good enough for you to consider buying it. For the same price, you can get a far better product that’s faster and more secure.

Founded in Romania in 2001, Bitdefender is a well-known internet security software company with plenty of solid products in their range. While their main focus is internet security packages, now they have taken a step into new territory by introducing an independent Bitdefender VPN.

This service is included in different Bitdefender products, but only the priciest Premium Security package doesn’t have a debilitating 200 MB/day bandwidth limit.

In this Bitdefender Premium VPN review, I will try to answer:

• Is it’s safe to use?
• How fast is it?
• Can you use it for streaming and torrenting?

Continue reading for more questions and, hopefully, more answers.

Speed and server list

Bitdefender Premium VPN is slow. If you want maximum performance, check our Fastest VPNs list. According to our tests, the best VPN for speed is NordVPN, currently 68% off!

Bitdefender VPN has 1300+ servers in 25+ countries. While the quality of the servers is more important than the quantity, I find their spread to be quite thin. Most competitors will offer at least twice the number of countries, which is advantageous even if the servers are virtual.

The speed of Bitdefender Premium VPN is below-average. This service doesn’t offer the next-gen WireGuard protocol, meaning it will lag behind any competitor that does. If you’re a fan of streaming, torrenting, or gaming, I suggest looking elsewhere.

Luckily, those looking for the fastest connection speed and a wide selection of servers have many affordable alternatives, such as NordVPN.

Pricing and plans

As I mentioned earlier in my Bitdefender Premium VPN review, you can buy it separately or bundled in one of the online security suites. You should be aware of the latter option because only Premium Security has an unlimited bandwidth version.

There are only two Bitdefender VPN price options:

• Monthly: $2.99/month
• Yearly: $29.99, or $1.66/month

The Bitdefender VPN cost isn’t high when compared to the industry’s average. However, if we look at the bang-for-the-buck ratio, this service falls behind.

The payment options include credit cards and PayPal. Depending on your location, the third option can be either cash at 7-Eleven/ACE (US), WebMoney (Russia), POLi (Australia), or wire transfer for most of the rest countries.

This provider offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which should be enough to see if you really want to attach yourself to this service.

What’s more, you can choose a 7-day free trial that doesn’t require you to enter any payment details. Unfortunately, this gives you the Basic plan with the 200 MB daily bandwidth limit. On the bright side, both free and Premium deals come with 10 simultaneous connections allowed.

Is Bitdefender VPN safe to use?

Bitdefender VPN uses military-grade encryption to encode your traffic. This means that your IP address will be masked, and your personal information will be kept well out of reach of any potential hackers.

It also offers the following tunneling protocols:

• • IKEv2
  • OpenVPN
  • Hotspot Shield’s Catapult Hydra
  • L2TP/IPsec

While the first three options are legit, I would advise against using L2TP/IPSec. It’s considered to be already outdated, especially since the WireGuard protocol has become available. Unfortunately, Bitdefender is yet to implement it.

When it comes to security and privacy features in 2023, Bitdefender Premium VPN has little to offer. The only option is to turn on the kill switch, which is disabled by default. Without it, your personal data may be exposed in case of a VPN failure.

Does Bitdefender VPN keep logs?

The FAQ section on Bitdefender’s website states that your IP address and personal information won’t be shared with any third parties:

“…with Bitdefender VPN your privacy is 100% safe. Nobody (advertising agencies, ISP’s, insurance companies, etc.) will have access to your online logs.”

However, this means that your online logs do exist. The general privacy policy clarifies that the user’s personal data or sent by the product itself is collected. That also includes data from publicized leaks.

Furthermore, your data can be used “for marketing purpose for a maximum period of contractual duration, plus five years after the contract is terminated.” The one sent by the Bitdefender app might be stored for ten years.

There’s also some contradiction with the FAQ entry. Bitdefender’s privacy policy states that your personal data can be shared with authorities, partners, and subsidiaries.

Moving on to the VPN-dedicated part, we find that this company collects “randomly generated or hashed user and device IDs, IP addresses and randomly generated tokens to establish VPN connection.” If that wasn’t enough, the Premium version users should agree with audio, video, screen, and other types of recordings. At least they will inform you before doing so.

Does Bitdefender Premium VPN support my device?

When it comes to using Bitdefender VPN, you’ll find that it can be used on all of the main platforms:

• Windows
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

There’s no option to configure it on routers or other devices manually. Browser extensions are unavailable as well. Therefore, I must conclude that Bitdefender VPN device support is poor.

Each of the applications is easy to navigate and has a modern theme that is simple to read. However, this also stems from the fact that there’s not much to toggle save for the kill switch.

I liked that the Bitdefender client has the option to start up automatically when connecting to public wifi or starting a P2P app. This is very convenient in case you don’t want to run the VPN all the time.

Bitdefender VPN can be easily installed either separately or automatically added with your Bitdefender package. So, if you purchase Bitdefender Total Security, for instance, you will be able to use the free version of the VPN as this will come installed as standard.

Bitdefender VPN for Netflix and other streaming platforms

Bitdefender VPN unblocks multiple Netflix libraries. I’ve tried the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. That was a bit of surprise given that this provider is so limited in many other ways.

The speeds might be good enough for HD quality, but that depends mostly on how fast your internet connection is.

However, BBC iPlayer proved too much for Bitdefender VPN. Usually, if a VPN manages to unblock this one, it should fare with the rest content platforms. Sadly, that’s not the case with this service.

Streaming fans will also miss support for other platforms, such as Amazon Fire TV & Fire Stick or Android TV. Since Bitdefender Premium VPN doesn’t support routers, you won’t be able to connect it with other smart TVs or game consoles. Naturally, Smart DNS is also not in the package.

To sum up, I wouldn’t recommend Bitdefender VPN for Kodi, Twitch, or anything else not named Netflix. Instead, check out our list of best VPNs for streaming.

Bitdefender Premium VPN for torrenting

As Bitdefender VPN uses solid VPN protocols and offers decent encryption methods, it is likely to be safe for use when torrenting. My main concern is their privacy policy, discussed in detail above, which reveals quite an extensive logging. Thus I wouldn’t use Bitdefender VPN in any country where P2P activities are illegal.

Your download speeds will be most affected by your baseline internet connection. Bitdefender is far from the fastest torrenting service, so if your connection is slow, expect long hours of waiting. Besides, it doesn’t support port forwarding, so if you need to seed before downloading, this can become a problem.

For those willing to use Bitdefender Premium VPN for torrenting, I have two pieces of advice. One, you should not forget to turn on the kill switch, which is disabled by default. Two, choose to launch the VPN together with the P2P client automatically.

And for those looking for top-notch service, I recommend taking a look at our best VPNs for torrenting.

Customer support: live chat, phone line, email, and more

Bitdefender has one of the best customer support services among all VPNs. Your options include:

• 24/7 live chat
• 24/7 phone line
  
• Email support ticket
• Knowledgebase
• Forum

That’s a benefit of being a client for one of the best-known online security companies. The resources Bitdefender has allows them to offer a 24/7 phone line for English speakers. There’s also a working hours shift in main markets, such as Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, and Japan, among others.

Bitdefender’s knowledgebase is neat and easy-to-navigate. It starts with the popular articles and includes the FAQ. In case you can’t find an answer there, head straight to the lively and well-structured forum. You can check out the popular tags, choose one of the six categories, or simply use search.

I’ve also tested the 24/7 live chat and was impressed by the politeness and quick replies. If I were a subscriber, this would probably be my favorite support option.

Is Bitdefender VPN good for users in China?

Sadly, the answer is no. While the company states that you can have full unrestricted access to content regardless of whether you’re in a country that practices internet censorship, they have decided to make it unavailable for use in China:

We want to offer our VPN service for everyone but unfortunately in some areas there are restrictions on the use of such a service. For your protection, we’ve restricted connectivity in these countries:

1. China: Use of a VPN is illegal in China. VPN providers can still operate if they obtain a license from the government, but the terms and conditions which they have to agree to simply defeat the whole purpose.

In fact, they list 7 other countries where the VPN service isn’t available, including Russia, Belarus, Iran, UAE, Turkey, Oman, and Iraq.

Should you get Bitdefender Premium VPN?

After doing this Bitdefender Premium VPN review, I cannot recommend it for you. The price is too much for such a basic service with virtually no features. What’s more, your internet speed will slow down significantly when using Bitdefender VPN, mainly due to the lack of WireGuard protocol.

Even though this provider unblocks Netflix, serious streamers will miss other options, such as BBC iPlayer or Kodi. Once again, the video quality will depend on your internet connection. The same can be said about P2P.

Finally, Bitdefender Premium VPN logs simply too much. At least the jurisdiction (Romania) is privacy-friendly. So for all of you looking for a reliable VPN, I advise checking our top VPN providers instead.

You may also like to read:
NordVPN vs Bitdefender VPN
NordVPN vs ExpressVPN
Surfshark vs ExpressVPN
NordVPN vs VyprVPN
Best cheapest VPNs

FAQ

Is Bitdefender a good VPN?

No, it’s mediocre at best. The speeds are slow, the features are few, and the price is too high. I cannot recommend Bitdefender VPN.

How do I use Bitdefender Premium VPN?

You can get the Premium version with the 7-day free trial. The client is very easy to use: you simply have to choose either the Automatic mode or a specific country to connect to.

Is VPN Free with Bitdefender?

Bitdefender VPN has a free version that requires registration. Unfortunately, it allows only 200 MB/day. There’s also a 7-day free trial of the Premium version available right from the start.

Is Bitdefender VPN good for torrenting?

You can use Bitdefender VPN for torrenting. However, it’s not very good because of its slow speeds. What’s more, it doesn’t offer a free SOCKS5 proxy or split tunneling and doesn’t support port forwarding.