We live in a digital world, where protecting our data should be our top priority. The frequency at which virus and malware attacks are happening is surprisingly high. According to some research firms, more than 300,000 new malware samples are found every single day.
It is quite intimidating that people still rely on Windows Defender in this era where extremely dangerous malware such as cryptoware is targeting the masses. A bad anti-virus/malware software would not provide you security which is required. Seriously, we take our data’s security for granted to a great extent.
Must read: Bitdefender vs Avast 2019 Comparision
Imagine you download a random file from internet and upon opening it you find a message stating ‘All your data is encrypted, pay a sum of $300 to get the data back’. This is not an unrealistic situation and a lot of people are facing such issues nowadays.
Bitdefender vs. Kaspersky:
In the above paragraphs, we talked about the need for a solid anti-virus program. Now we will help you choose the best between the above-stated programs. Many people put up such questions and we are just going to answer that.
Pricing
Bitdefender offers three plans, Plus, Internet Security and Total Security. The pricing is $34.99, $39.98 and $44.99 respectively. The first plan can protect one, three, five or 10 devices, and has built-in ransomware protecting.
The Plus and Internet security plan are windows only plan so they wouldn’t be able to provide you mobile support. However, most users opt for Total security as it supports macOS, iOS, Windows and Android all alike. We appreciate the fact that there is a decent plan line-up. However back in the mind, it feels as if being forced to buy Total security just because we want additional mobile support.
On the other side, Kaspersky also has 3 plans that you could opt for. Those are Antivirus, Internet Security and Total Security.
The first plan comes with a price tag of $29.99 per year and is 5 dollars cheap in comparison to the Bitdefender’s entry-level plan. However, this plan provides protection to a maximum of 5 devices as opposed to 10 devices in Bitdefender.
The second plan of Kaspersky is better than Bitdefender’s. The reason behind it is that it covers Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android too, as opposed to windows only by Bitdefender.
The final plan offers security for 10 devices and comes up with a password manager, parental control and other features.
So in essence, Kaspersky has multi-device plans for a lesser price than Bitdefender. However, the number of features offered by BD is higher even at lower level plans. All the mentioned aspects make BD a winner in this round.
Protection
AV-Test is an independent IT-Security institute which regularly creates benchmarks and tests for checking the potential of anti-virus and security software.
As per their tests, BD had issues launching some websites while the anti-virus was in use. With regards to slowing down PC, the industry average is 15% that means a standard AV program would slow down a PC by 15%. However, in BD’s case, standard PC slowed down by 25%. However other features such as launching application and copying files were at par with industry standards.
Kaspersky has high protection scores from AV-Test and does a good job of securing PCs. In the anti-virus industry, there is a test for finding the percent blockage of malware. In the same test, Kaspersky was 100% effective in blocking malware where the industry average was 99.5%.
With regards to slowing down PC, Kaspersky reduced the speed by 22% as compared to BD.
At last, we think it must be left upon you to decide which AV is better for you. We think that both are at par in terms of providing protection to your PC.
Also Check: Windows Defender vs Avast
Customer Support
We all have to face some situations when customer support from a company becomes quintessential. In these situations, getting proactive help from a company makes the whole experience even better. Thankfully both the companies listed here are known for their quality customer executive services.
We will further evaluate them to give you a better picture.
A special thing about BD is that you could contact them through chat, email, and even phone call. The phone support is available for 24 hours/7 days in 16 countries. Furthermore, there are several sorts of community forums, how-to-videos, which makes troubleshooting an issue even easier.
BD provides articles with screenshots and step-by-step instructions for outdated products too in case someone is still using them.
Kaspersky has a good CE support, however, when compared to BD it lags behind. Lack of availability of contact options is the primary reason behind this. There are a lot of articles for troubleshooting problems, however, they are not condensed.
At last, the quality of the forum is excellent and there is a proper division between the topics. So this round is clearly won by BD owing to it’s round the clock and efficient customer service.
Final Thoughts
For the purpose of this article, we did thorough research on pricing, customer support service and protection quality offered by both the players.
We saw how BD became a clear winner when it came to customer executive support. We also found both the software being at par with each other in relation to the protection offered. In terms of pricing, BD was a winner again, though with a small margin.
So the picture is clear, that BD is the final winner in the 3 points that we mentioned in the article. There are several features in BD that are not available in Kaspersky. It is also ahead of other programs such as McAfee, Symantec in many aspects.
In terms of User interface, BD is considered better than Kaspersky, which is an added advantage to BD (though we didn’t discuss this aspect in the article). So overall, if you are searching foranti-virus that suites all your need and is value for money, we suggest you go for Bitdefender.
This is all from our side, thanks a lot for reading.
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