I was previously using avira, then avast but now that I did a fresh install on a new machine, I thought of trying something different, with bitdefender. Because I'm the gatekeeper for security at a few firms, I have a few old bits of malware I sometimes use to test apps. Of the 30 files I had, this program detected 24, which is mediocre (no antivirus is 100%, but some get closer). None of the malware samples I have are even zero-day, with some being 3-5 years old, more than enough time for a virus scanner to detect them. What really turned me off was that this program doesn't even have right-click access, which makes scanning incoming files so easy! Once you use an app that has right-click access, you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. In all, this app is just too limited for my tastes. For now I'll go back to avg. Maybe I'll look for something else later and rate it.

Bitdefender has a paid version, yes, but this version is not the one that costs money, this version is 100% FREE! “Bitdefender Virus Scanner”, the thing you see here, is the free one. “Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac” (from their website) and “Bitdefender Virus Scanner Plus” (from the Mac App Store) both cost money. Oh and they also have something else free on their website called “Bitdefender Adware Removal Tool for Mac” but it can only remove TWO adware programs, “Genieo" and “Vsearch”, not a very long list, although to be fair, those are the most common ones.Anyway the point is, there are some other reviews here which are rather negative and complain about being ripped off out of money. Well none of those apply to this product because it is completely free, right here in the Mac App Store it is listed as free, sure there is a “Plus” version that costs money but if you get this free version you will NOT be charged anything. I am trying this along with the free version of Malwarebytes Antimalware, hopefully using both of them can clean up my Mac from an infection of some malware.

I had somehow gotten malware on my Mac that caused every single safari page i opened to redirect to Bing, making it nearly impossible to use safari because even after i typed in a search it would clear it and just launch bing. Very annoying. I tried a few other apps that did not work or promised to work after charging me. I tried EVERYTHING to clear it without an app as well. I then came across this app. I downloaded it and after about 5 minutes of setup, I had it run a deep system search on my Mac (I strongly encourage you do the same if you have a similar issue. It took about an hour but it searched EVERYTHING on my mac for viruses. Much more thorough than the regular system search option). After I ran the deep system search I restarted my mac and boom the problem was all gone. Very appreciative of this free app.

Some of the reviews here describe things I haven’t experienced. I’ve used this completely free software for many years, and I’m currently using Sequoia. I’ve never seen any ads or emails, and I don’t even see a way to either provide my email address or buy anything via the software. There is no VPN component, and because there’s no active monitoring there’s no need to allow some sort of extension or background activity. New virus definition updates become available frequently, and downloads are usually quick. This software has quarantined a few viruses on my machine that were found in downloaded email.