92 Macworld • October 2019BUYING GUIDEsuch as a kill switch that quits certain apps if the
connection is lost.
Other notable features include a browser plug‑in
that indicates which sites are safe, and which aren’t.
It also shows which trackers are in use but, weirdly,
appears not to actually block them.
We also noted a switch hidden away within the
app’s preferences dialog, turned on by default, that
lets Bitdefender pop‑up notifications about ‘special
offers’ from Bitdefender. People use an app like
this to get rid of adware, yet it comes with its own
built‑in...? This left a nasty taste in our mouths.
A neat feature is the Bitdefender Central web
interface by which you can see at a glance which
devices/computers are protected, and see the
results of malware scans or warnings of infected
files being cleaned. Alas, you can’t initiate scans
remotely, but there is a powerful parental control
feature which is outside the scope of this review.Verdict
Despite a few small irritations, there’s a whole lot to
like about Bitdefender. It’s hard to argue with that
100 percent clean‑up rate and some truly useful
features. However, we didn’t rank it as our number
one choice because of the adware component,
which is simply unacceptable. We would’ve given
it top placement in our group test otherwise.System requirements- MacOS 10.10 or later
- 1001GB hard disk space
92 Macworld • October 2019
BUYING GUIDE
such as a kill switch that quits certain apps if the
connectionislost.
Othernotablefeaturesincludea browserplug‑in
that indicates which sites are safe, and which aren’t.
It also shows which trackers are in use but, weirdly,
appears not to actually block them.
We also noted a switch hidden away within the
app’spreferencesdialog,turnedonbydefault,that
letsBitdefenderpop‑up notifications about ‘special
offers’ from Bitdefender. People use an app like
thistogetridofadware,yetit comeswithitsown
built‑in...? This left a nasty taste in our mouths.
A neat feature is the Bitdefender Central web
interface by which you can see at a glance which
devices/computers are protected, and see the
results of malware scans or warnings of infected
files being cleaned. Alas, you can’t initiate scans
remotely, but there is a powerful parental control
feature which is outside the scope of this review.Verdict
Despite a few small irritations, there’s a whole lot to
likeaboutBitdefender.It’shardtoarguewiththat
100 percentclean‑up rate and some truly useful
features. However, we didn’t rank it as our number
one choice because of the adware component,
which is simply unacceptable. We would’ve given
it top placement in our group test otherwise.Systemrequirements- MacOS10.10orlater
- 1001GB hard disk space