Bitdefender had earlier announced they are discontinuing the only free version of their antivirus product; Bitdefender Antivirus Free. At this time, they have removed the link to download it from the website, while leaving a note that current users will continue to receive support until June 30, 2022.
However, before the time even came to an end, the support Bitdefender pulled off a stunt and re-introduced Bitdefender Antivirus Free for Windows as a whole new product built from scratch.
Why Bitdefender Antivirus Free is Restored
By the looks of it at the time, users had to either shift to paid versions of Bitdefender products to maintain their security or opt for Bitdefender alternatives. This would have meant losing a significant clientele for Bitdefender.
Bitdefender then experienced some backlash from its customers, since most famous antivirus software manufacturers do provide free versions of their products, and Bitdefender was perhaps the only one to adopt this business technique.
This might have led the company to then revamp and restore their free version of the Bitdefender software, thus making it resurrected from the dead.
Download Bitdefender Antivirus Free
You can now download and install Bitdefender Antivirus Free from Bitdefender’s website. However, once it is installed, you will be required to sign in using a registered Bitdefender account.
Note: Each account can be used for up to 3 devices for the free version.
Check out whether your PC meets these minimum requirements before you being the installation:
- Operating System: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 SP1
- RAM: 2 GB
- Available free disk space: 2.5 GBs
If your system meets these requirements, follow these steps to download Bitdefender Antivirus Free and secure your PC as well as your data:
- Open Bitdefender’s website in a web browser.
- Click For Home from the top to expand the menu, then click Bitdefender Antivirus Free.
- Click Free Download.
- The setup file will then begin to download. When completed, double-click it to begin the process.
- The installation wizard will then download some more content, which will be nearly 550 MBs.
Once downloaded, the software will then be installed and you will be asked to perform a quick scan. Get done with the scan. - Once the scan results are presented, click Create Account to either create a Bitdefender account, or sign in using your existing credentials.
Once logged in, Bitdefender Antivirus Free is all set to secure your machine.
If you already use the older version of Bitdefender Antivirus Free, you can still install the new one using the same steps above and the old version will be automatically replaced.
Features in Bitdefender Antivirus Free
We believe the old Bitdefender Antivirus Free was not up to the company’s standards and wasn’t enough to protect the devices as they should be. This is probably why the new one has been rebuilt from the ground up.
The new Bitdefender Antivirus Free offers email protection for both Microsoft Outlook and Thunderbird. The tool can perform custom scans to ensure that an email doesn’t contain any malicious content. It also detects exploits and other protective features to ensure your PC is protected from ransomware attacks.
On top of this, it includes the following features:
- Ability to block advanced and zero-day threats.
- Built-in firewall to monitor and control network traffic.
- Quick and deep system scans.
- Web protection.
- Ransomware remediation.
- Real-time threat detection.
- Monitors applications and blocks malicious activity.
These features are nowhere near what the paid versions offer, such as Bitdefender Total Security and Premium Security, but are still better than having nothing to protect our computer.
Furthermore, the Graphical User Interface (GUI) is neat and simple to use, not causing any confusion, so the user always knows what and where an issue has occurred which requires your attention.
Bitdefender Antivirus Free vs Antivirus Plus
If you are torn about whether to use the free antivirus version or pay for Antivirus Plus, the table below will help you determine to choose:
| Bitdefender Antivirus Free | Bitdefender Antivirus Plus | |
| Antivirus |  | |
| OnAccess Scan | | |
| On-Demand Scan | | |
| Windows Rescue Environment |  | |
| Online Threat Prevention | | |
| Web Protection | | |
| Network Threat Prevention | | |
| Ransomware Remediation | | |
| Vulnerability | | |
| Wifi Security | | |
| Safepay | | |
| AntiTracker | | |
| VPN | | |
| profiles | | |
| File Shredder | | |
Final Thoughts
We believe that reinstating the free version of Bitdefender would be a wise move by Bitdefender, as it is most likely that they will lose a majority of the free users to their competitors had the support ended.
That said, the new free antivirus offers just enough features to protect a computer as any free software should. As long as it uses the same antivirus engine as the rest of Bitdefender’s product line, the tool can be considered reliable.
