Bitdefender VPN Review: Is This VPN Worth It in 2024

Bitdefender is a VPN service from a well-trusted Romanian cybersecurity technology company best known for its excellent antivirus software. Since its last update on 2024/09/09, Bitdefender VPN has launched a newly designed, intuitive app and improved core features, such as split tunneling and kill switch. It stands out for its affordable price, yet it leaves wanting in the privacy policy department.

To give you a thorough review of the service, I purchased the Bitdefender VPN Premium plan and contacted the service’s representatives whenever I needed clarifications or explanations. I also compared Bitdefender VPN with other VPNs so you could base your choice on actual facts, my insights, and comparisons.

Bitdefender VPN Premium overview

To test out Bitdefender VPN’s full capabilities, I worked with four devices. For Windows tests, I used a laptop with Windows 11, i5-13600KF, 32GB RAM, and for Android tests – a OnePlus 10T. As for the Apple products, I tested Bitdefender VPN on a Macbook Air M2, 8GB RAM, and iPhone 12.

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How much does Bitdefender VPN cost per month?

Bitdefender VPN offers 1-month and 1-year plans. The 1-month plan costs $7.81, which is significantly lower than what most VPN services offer. The 1-year plan costs $39.08 for the first year, making the monthly payment stand at only $2.92/month. These prices make Bitdefender very reasonably priced, verging on the cheap side even, when compared to some other VPNs around.

If you want to truly save on your purchase, it is always better to choose the longer plan. In this case, the 1-year plan monthly price is 40% cheaper than buying the subscription each month separately.

In addition to the paid plans, Bitdefender Premium VPN also offers a free version of its service. However, the free version is limited and comes with a 200 MB daily data cap, which is completely insufficient for streaming, and there’s no server location choice. To get the free version, simply download the app and register. However, in my opinion, such a free version is pretty useless because there’s no way to test out the service’s potential. So, while Bitdefender VPN offers both a paid and free version, I sincerely recommend going with the paid version, as that’s the only way to truly get some functionality out of the VPN. If you’re still curious to try the free version anyway, remember not to expect too much from it as it’ll only really provide you with a glimpse of how the apps feel and work, but not much else.

Bitdefender offers a whole slew of payment methods for your convenience in case you decide to stick with the paid plans. You can choose to pay for your subscription using a credit card, PayPal, bank transfer, cash payment via PayNearMe, or an electronic check. Sadly, as a Bitdefender customer support clarified to me, the service does not accept cryptocurrency with no plans to add such an option anytime soon. It might be a bummer to those looking for complete anonymity.

Is Bitdefender a safe VPN?

Bitdefender Premium VPN is a safe and secure VPN provider. The whole software is based on the industry-standard AES-256 encryption to make your data imperceptible to anyone trying to get a hold of it. Plus, with Bitdefender VPN this encryption is further reinforced with SHA-256 hash.

Besides secure data encryption, Bitdefender VPN also has an ad & tracker blocker that effectively prevents any malicious ads from reaching you and any trackers from infiltrating your device’s system. All of this is also supported by a highly reliable kill switch which disconnects you from the internet if any VPN connection disruptions happen. This protects your data and IP from unexpected leaks.

With all that in mind, I wanted to determine whether Bitdefender VPN is truly safe and secure by, so I analyzed their privacy policy and communicated directly with Bitdefender VPN for clarification on some points. Keep reading to see what I found out.

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Bitdefender VPN Privacy Policy analysis

Bitdefender isn’t secretive about their privacy policy and I had no issues finding it on their website. All policies, including GDPR, Information Security Requirements, Code of Business Conduct, and Brand Policy come in neat PDF files, with most of them translated into 11 languages for user convenience. All of the documents are clear and simple to understand and here’s what I found out after reading them.

Bitdefender Premium VPN is owned by Bitdefender SRL, which is based in Romania and operates under Romanian law and it was confirmed to me by a Bitdefender representative. This is very good because Romania operates under the EU laws, which vehemently protect user data privacy. Plus, Romania does not belong to any of the Eyes Alliances.

However, Bitdefender’s policy about collecting personal data, who can access it and how they protect it is less than clear, and it raised a bit of concern to me. Here’s an excerpt from the Privacy Policy:

While Bitdefender clearly states its adherence to a strict no-logs policy on its official website, the Privacy Policy explains that some of your data is stored and may be sent to Bitdefender’s partners. Sure, your personal information will not be available to any advertisers, ISPs, or insurance companies, but the third-party unverified no-logs policy and the collection of some user data left me wanting for more assurance in the data security department. Here’s exactly what information Bitdefender collects:

• Names
• Email addresses
• Payment information
• Anonymized, randomly generated, or hashed user and device IDs
• IP addresses
• Randomly generated tokens to establish a VPN connection

While most of this information poses no threat, the IP address part raises a concern – if Bitdefender ever gets hacked, this information will reveal your real location. Plus, a VPN does not really need to log and keep such information to work properly. So, if you’re all about extra-tight security, Bitdefender Premium VPN might not be your best bet. Especially so when I know, there are providers like NordVPN and Surfshark with third-party audited no-logs policies around.

Does Bitdefender VPN effectively hides your IP address?

Luckily, Bitdefender VPN effectively hides your IP address. I performed an IP and DNS leak tests on various websites, including dnsleaktest.com, ipleak.net, geolocation.com, iplocation.net and Bitdefender passed all the tests faultessly. Here’s what makes Bitdefender so effective at masking your real IP address:

• Encryption. Bitdefender uses the industry-standard AES-256 encryption, which turns your data into imperceptible gibberish for anyone trying to access it. By the way, the US government uses the same AES-256 encryption to protect classified data.
• Tunneling protocols. While using Bitdefender, you can switch between its three tunneling protocols: OpenVPN, IPsec, and Hydra. The OpenVPN tunneling protocol is known for its security and versatility, but since this is a bit older technology, it gives for slower speeds. IPsec is one of the oldest tunneling protocols, and while it is widely supported, it’s even slower than OpenVPN due to encryption overhead. Lastly, there’s the Hydra protocol which is known for great speeds and is perfect for streaming, but since it is proprietary, it’s also less transparent. I’d choose OpenVPN for safe browsing and Hydra for streaming.

• Kill switch. Bitdefender VPN also comes with a reliable kill switch, which is essential for protecting your real IP address from peeking out. A kill switch prevents the system from connecting to the internet until the VPN connection is restored and is very useful for guarding your IP and data if VPN connectivity errors occur. During my testing, Bitdefender’s kill switch worked as it should, but remember that you have to turn it on first in the Privacy section of app settings, as it’s disabled by default.

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Bitdefender VPN speed test

There are several factors that affect VPN speed, including ISP, time of day, software, and especially your location in relation to the server you’re connected to. So if you select a Bitdefender VPN server far from your actual location, it could slow down your internet speed. Bearing that in mind, I did my own tests on Bitdefender VPN speeds with the Speedtest by Ookla online tool and found out that across all locations, the average download speed was 421.8 Mbps, while upload was 311.1 Mbps. This translates into an average 16% loss of my initial baseline speeds. This is absolutely not bad, remember that not so long ago, Bitdefender averaged only around 300 Mbps download speed. Take a look at the more detailed speed test results below:

Baseline: 500 Mbps download/500 Mbps upload speed

All in all, Bitdefender VPN performed as well as most of its competition during my speed tests, and with an average of over 400 Mbps I can safely say that it is suitable for streaming, gaming, and even torrenting. This makes Bitdefender VPN a great choice for any of these internet activities. In fact, when I tried Bitdefender VPN for streaming, I did not experience any lagging or buffering and streamed my movies in full HD, even forgetting that I was connected to a VPN at all.

Bitdefender VPN streaming sites unblocking results

Bitdefender Premium VPN works great for streaming and unblocking geo-restricted content. Not so long ago, the service was infamous for being unable to bypass most VPN blocks and incapable of unlocking geo-restricted content on some of the most popular streaming platforms. However, with the latest software update, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Bitdefender VPN is now very capable of unblocking almost all streaming platforms I tried it with. Bitdefender worked great with the most popular Netflix libraries, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, and Max. Here’s a more detailed view:

As you can see, I had no trouble accessing Hulu, Amazon prime Video, BBC iPlayer, Max, and Netflix US, UK, and Japan libraries. However, Bitdefender was detected when I tried reaching its other libraries, such as in Sweden or Germany. That might be either because the servers located there are of poorer quality or the VPN detection is better for those particular libraries. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised with these new Bitdefender capabilities, and thoroughly enjoy a whole slew of new content which it unlocked.

How many VPN servers does Bitdefender have?

Bitdefender has 4000 servers across 50 countries. While 53 locations isn’t much compared to Surfshark’s 100 or CyberGhost’s 100, the service does cover all of the most popular locations, plus some niche ones, too. Here’s a more detailed location and server list:

While the coverage of 50 countries with 4000 servers is definitely not bad and more than enough for most activities, the numbers are still significantly smaller than those of NordVPN or Surfshark fleets and locations. And while I’m fine with these numbers themselves, it really irks me that Bitdefender does not specify how many servers it has in each specific country or location. And I did not get a clarification on that even when I contacted the company’s representative. So, while I successfully unlocked gambling sites in the US, streamed BBC iPlayer, and downloaded some torrents, I’d like to know the exact number of servers in particular places before choosing my VPN provider.

Bitdefender app interface on different devices

I tested Bitdefender VPN smartphone apps on iPhone 12 for the iOS version and on OnePlus 10T for the Android version. My first impressions were great – the apps look sleek and I had no trouble understanding how it works and where to find its features.

Now, let’s get into the details. Both Android and iOS Bitdefender VPN applications look identical, with very similar features. One main difference is that the Android Bitdefender VPN application allows you to access the local network devices while connected to a VPN.

The application’s main window features a map with all of the available server locations, as well as a single-click connection. All of the necessary settings are enabled by default, so no additional user input is required. The Ad-Blocker and Kill Switch features are available under the Privacy section of the app settings and the Split-Tunnelling, protocol choices, and Double Hop features can be found under the Advanced section.

The application is suited both for tech-savvy and new users, as it is highly user-friendly. Additionally, it also offers advanced VPN features I mentioned before. I liked that it features a data dashboard, which displays your used internet data, VPN usage time, and IP address.

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Bitdefender VPN for Windows

I tested Bitdefender VPN Windows app on a laptop with Windows 11, i5-13600KF, 32GB RAM. Uupon launching the app, I was pleasantly surprised at how well-designed it looked and how simple it was to navigate.

Once I opened the app, I immediately found a map with available server locations, VPN connection data dashboard with connection time, traffic usage, and IP address, as well as a single-click connection button.

The Bitdefender application features are also really similar to the mobile version. However, the desktop application include an Auto-connect for P2P apps, and App Traffic Optimizer features. The Auto-connect for P2P feature instantly connects you to VPN when you launch a torrent client of your choice and the App Traffic Optimizer allows you to distribute your VPN connection speeds in the most efficient way.

All in all, it’s a well-designed app and I was astounded with the choice of advanced features, as it could easily compete with major VPN brands.

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Bitdefender VPN for Mac

I downloaded and installed the Bitdefender VPN app on MacOS app on Macbook Air M2, 8GB RAM to check how it works on an iOS device. And, honestly, I was very happy to find that the iOS version has the same feature set as the Windows one.

As with Windows, the main interface on the Bitdefender VPN app displays a map with server locations and VPN connection data dashboard. Plus, there are the same Auto-connect and App Traffic Optimizer features. All in all, I enjoyed this app and can firmly say that this is one of the rarer occasions where Windows and MacOS apps have the same identical looks, functionalities, and features.

Additional features you get with Bitdefender Premium VPN

In addition to the usual roster of VPN features like encryption and kill switch, with Bitdefender, you’re also getting a couple of more advanced functionalities:

• Ad-Blocker and Anti-Tracker. Because Bitdefender VPN comes from a renowned antivirus software company, it’s no surprise its ad-blocker and anti-tracker are extremely well-functioning. During my testing, the feature was capable of blocking over 90% of malicious ads and trackers from reaching me, so I can firmly say this feature is finely tuned and in good working shape.
• App Traffic Optimizer. As a company representative explained to me, this feature is unique to Bitdefender and while it might look like split tunneling at first, it actually works in a different way. App Traffic Optimizer prioritizes traffic to the app of your choice, allowing you to tackle VPN slowdowns without shutting down bandwidth-demanding apps or services on your device. In comparison, split tunneling routes some of your traffic through a VPN while leaving others unprotected. The fun part is that the App Traffic Optimizer and split tunneling can be used at the same time for maximum efficiency. When I tried the App Traffic Optimizer, I did notice better speeds on the apps I used it for, and I think it’s a great feature to enhance VPN speeds when you need it the most.
• Double hop. Usually, a VPN only encrypts your traffic once, but with a double-hop, your traffic is routed through two servers. This gives an additional layer of security. However, it also lowered the speeds quite significantly when I tested it, so double hopping and streaming do not go hand-in-hand.

Out of these three advanced features, I found the Ad-Blocker and Anti-Tracker features to be the most useful and truly well-functioning, while the double hop seemed to have slowed down my speeds way too much for comfortable regular use.

Is Bitdefender VPN good enough in 2024: final verdict

Bitdefender VPN is a secure and useful service from a trusted cybersecurity company. With the newest software update, Bitdefender upped its download and upload speeds, enhanced geo-unblocking capabilities, and made its existing features, such as the kill switch and double-hop, even more functional. All in all, it’s a well-rounded service that covers all the necessary bases while still keeping its interface clean and simple to use, even for beginners. But there’s some space for further improvement, too. For one, I missed some of the advanced features like dedicated IPs and RAM-only servers. Plus, I’d like it to have a clearer Privacy Policy and a third-party audited no-logs policy to make Bitdefender a truly trustworthy VPN provider.

Bitdefender VPN for streaming ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – limited access to some services

Due to the surprisingly excellent speeds, Bitdefender VPN works great for seamless streaming. That is when it gets through VPN blocks and manages to bypass geo-restrictions. So, while it does a great job in unlocking most platforms, it struggles with others and only provides limited access to some services. Because of that, I’m giving it 4 stars out of 5.

Bitdefender VPN for gaming ⭐⭐⭐⭐ – reduces latency and speeds up internet connection

Bitdefender VPN can help you bypass bandwidth throttling and geo-restrictions while gaming. However, to keep your speeds up to par with gaming needs, I recommend choosing the Hydra protocol, which is much speedier than OpenVPN and more suitable for gaming.

Bitdefender VPN for torrenting ⭐⭐⭐ – does not protect the torrent traffic

While Bitdefender VPN supports torrenting on all its servers and offers an auto-connect feature when you open a torrent client, because of its unclear Privacy Policy and some data logging it is potentially unsafe to use it for torrenting. So, while the speeds and the torrenting support is there, Bitdefender VPN is missing safety aspects needed for torrenting.

Bitdefender VPN for betting ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ – unlocks sports betting and casino platforms

I had no issues with accessing various sports betting and online casinos, including DraftKings and FanDuel. I found that Bitdefender’s geo-unblocking capabilities were great in this case and since I didn’t catch any IP or DNS leaks when I tested the service, I can firmly say it’s great for accessing such platforms and keeping you safe.

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FAQ

Do I have to pay for Bitdefender VPN?

No, you don’t have to pay for Bitdefender VPN as it has a free version. However, the pay-free version comes with a daily data cap of 200 MB and gives you no server choice. If you need a free VPN without any data limitations, I recommend looking into Proton VPN.

Is Bitdefender Premium VPN unlimited?

Yes, Bitdefender Premium VPN is unlimited. With the paid subscription you’ll be able to access its full set of features without any limitation on servers, functionality, or bandwidth.

What protocol does Bitdefender VPN use?

Bitdefender VPN uses 3 protocols: OpenVPN, IPsec, and Catapult Hydra. Out of the three OpenVPN is regarded as the safest, while Hydra manages the best download speeds.

Does Bitdefender VPN store data?

Yes, Bitdefender VPN stores some of its user data. The stored data includes name, email, and IP address, to mention a few. If you’re looking for a VPN that adheres to the no-logs policy 100%, then I suggest looking into NordVPN or Surfshark.

Does Bitdefender VPN slow down the Internet?

No, Bitdefender VPN does not significantly slow down internet speed. On one hand Bitdefender VPN can even increase your speed by bypassing bandwidth throttling. On the other hand, it has an excellent 84% initial speed retention rate which will not slow down your speed significantly.

Is Bitdefender VPN blocked by Netflix?

Yes, Bitdefender VPN is blocked by some Netflix libraries. While the service is capable of unlocking most of Netflix libraries, some, including Germany and Sweden proved to be inaccessible with Bitdefender.

Does Bitdefender VPN hide IP address?

Yes, Bitdefender VPN hides IP address. The service provides you with a secure virtual IP address in your chosen country, which is protected by IP and DNS leak protection. Plus, a kill switch further prevents any IP leaks.