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BitDefender vs. Kaspersky
Choosing the right antivirus software for your PC can be easy (even though it might seem a bit daunting at first.)
When choosing software, you may've gotten some recommendations or read a couple of reviews. After that it often comes down to just a couple of choices.
That's where this section of our site can come in especially handy.
By using it, you can easily compare antivirus software feature-by-feature and see which one is best for your needs. You'll be able to quickly pit today's best antivirus software head-to-head against one another.
Even though neither of these products were our overall winner for best antivirus software of 2009, VIPRE Antivirus, by Sunbelt Software, got the nod for 2009, we still want to offer our visitors and customers a way to compare these two applications directly with one another.
This page compares:
BitDefender Antivirus vs. Kaspersky Antivirus.
$24.95*
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Vs. |
$59.95*
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Which Has the Best Real-time Protection?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
BitDefender's real-time protection actively scans all files, emails, and web-pages accessed.
Independent testing showed BitDefender antivirus to have a 96% success rate at stopping incoming virus and malware attacks.
Not bad considering no antivirus is 100% accurate.
With only a small percentage of viruses getting through, BitDefender antivirus has strong real-time protection.
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Kaspersky antivirus showed promising test results while running in real-time.
A high percentage of incoming malware threats were accurately captured or blocked while only a few escaped.
No antivirus is 100% accurate, so a high, real-time success rate is notable.
Kaspersky actively scans emails, web activity, and all files.
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RESULT: Tie
Both BitDefender and Kaspersky both offer excellent antivirus protection when it comes to real-time threats.
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Which is Most Effective Against Spyware?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
BitDefender's active, real-time protection also successfully captures and prevents spyware.
The latest spyware definitions are downloaded hourly to keep your PC safe.
Independent tests showed BitDefender's antispyware feature to effective against spyware.
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Spyware, viruses, and malware are treated with equal thoroughness.
New spyware definition updates are downloaded with no trouble.
Independent testing labs showed Kaspersky's antispyware feature to be efficient in deflecting spyware.
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RESULT: Winner BitDefender
While extremely close, BitDefender nudges ahead only slightly due to faster update times.
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Which Has the Lowest Resource Usage?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
When it comes to resource usage, BitDefender ranges from average to good.
During a manual scan, BitDefender used slightly more PC memory than Kaspersky.
Further, the percent of CPU used during a scan was slightly better than Kaspersky.
And finally during real-time protection, BidDefender was neck and neck with Kaspersky.
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Kaspersky's resource usage can be considered average to good.
Manual scanning used a bit less memory than BitDefender.
The percentage of CPU used was slightly less than BitDefender.
And during real-time protection, Kaspersky ranged almost equal with BitDefender.
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Winner: Kaspersky
On balance, both BitDefender and Kaspersky used approximately the same amount of PC resources, but
we give Kaspersky the win here because BitDefender does consume slightly more resources.
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Which Has the Best User Interface?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
BitDefender's user interface is easy to use and easy to navigate.
Tabs display each section instead of one easy page to show each feature status.
This requires a bit of searching for the user in order to find which features to adjust.
Overall, BitDefender's UI is still a good, clean setup.
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Instead of tabs for navigation, Kaspersky has opted for an expandable tree navigation on the left, which
some people like and others dislike.
Features, scan results, and risks can all be easily found under the expandable navigation.
This makes finding antivirus status and scan results relatively easy to find.
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RESULT: Tie
Both BitDefender and Kaspersky's UI are easy enough and clear enough to navigate.
We like VIPRE's UI the best, but these are still good interfaces.
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Which Has the Best Customer Support?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
BitDefender offers the basic customer support including chat, email, and knowledge base.
Phone support is technically available, but they make it very hard to get to.
There have been numerous complaints about BitDefender's lack of easy phone support--or any support for that matter.
While phone support is free, you'll need to click up to 12 links just to find the number.
Then you'll need to create an account just to ask a question.
There are far too many barriers to get any one-on-one phone support for our liking.
Additionally, the rest of the help is also highly encumbered by this seemingly endless series of drill-downs on their website.
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A good knowledge base, live chat, and support forums are all available from Kaspersky.
However, phone support is not toll-free, but at least they offer otherwise free phone support.
For most consumers, this isn't a major hinderance.
Their phone lines are open during US business hours 8AM-9PM M-F, which is a fairly wide window that should accommodate most customers.
With the exception of VIPRE, Kaspersky offers perhaps the best support options for their antivirus software.
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RESULT: Winner Kaspersky
With so many hoops to jump through to get support--especially live, one-on-one phone support with BitDefender, Kaspersky easily wins this round with easy phone access.
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Which is Easiest to Install?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
BitDefender's installation is quick and painless.
The standard installation wizard walks you through a few basic questions then gets you on your way.
Minimal PC resources are used, and antivirus and antimalware definitions are quickly updated.
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The Kaspersky installation is fast and compact.
There are only a few steps to complete without too many steps or hang-ups.
However, upon installation, you'll need to run a full system scan since Kaspersky doesn't automatically launch a scan like most antivirus software does.
But overall, an easy install.
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RESULT: Winner BitDefender
With no hang-ups or install issues, BitDefender nudges slightly ahead of Kaspersky because of the automatic scanning issue.
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Which Has the Best Email Virus Protection?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
Email scanning isn't enabled by default in BitDefender.
You'll need to enter the Advanced View section to activate it.
We're not sure why BitDefender chose to disable email protection by default considering the history of email-transmitted viruses--especially where Microsoft Outlook is the mail client in use.
However, once activated, BitDefender easily scans and protects incoming and outgoing emails.
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The email scanning feature of Kaspersky is thorough, but can be a bit slow sometimes.
However, all emails are fully scanned before entering your inbox.
All major email clients that support SMTP or POP3 are supported.
Overall, an adequate email protection feature.
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RESULT: Tie
BitDefender isn't enabled by default, but Kaspersky can be a bit slow.
These two dings equal one another out in our eyes.
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What's the Best Antivirus Software?
| BitDefender |
Kaspersky |
While BitDefender Antivirus can't be considered the "best antivirus software" this year, it was our top pick last year for good reason.
It's still a strong antivirus solution overall despite a few small bumps.
Considering its poor customer service, and initially inactive email protection, BitDefender still packs a powerful punch against viruses, spyware, and malware of any kind.
While not as light and fast as the 2009 best antivirus, VIPRE, BitDefender still out-performs all other antivirus software below it.
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Kaspersky's antivirus application is still gaining ground in today's market for good reason: it's good software with solid support.
The makers of Kaspersky are very serious and dedicated when it comes to PC security, and it shows in this year's antivirus.
The resource usage is average, and the customer service is far better than most.
However, the price tag is perhaps the highest on the market, pushing Kaspersky farther out of reach for most consumers.
Overall, Kaspersky still holds its own when it comes to solid, reliable antivirus protection.
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RESULT: Winner BitDefender
BitDefender comes out ahead mostly for its lower, more affordable price tag.
But when it comes to great antivirus protection overall, BitDefender and Kaspersky are virtually neck and neck.
If support is extremely important to you, you may want to compare VIPRE and Kaskpersky, as they both have excellent support that bests BitDefender's by a mile.
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BitDefender vs VIPRE Antivirus
