Bitdefender VPN Review

Here’s a summary of the information Bitdefender VPN logs:

Similar to other white-label VPN services, Bitdefender VPN’s privacy policy is very confusing.

There is a short three-paragraph section in Bitdefender’s “home solutions privacy policy” addressing the VPN service’s data collection.

However, it does say that the VPN collects your real IP address, which is the worst piece of data a VPN can log. Not only is this personally identifiable, Bitdefender doesn’t actually clarify when this data is deleted.

Importantly, Bitdefender VPN uses Aura’s server network, protocols, and software. This means that all of Bitdefender VPN’s data is actually collected and processed by Aura.

As a result, Bitdefender VPN users are subject to a strange combination of both Bitdefender’s privacy policy and Aura’s. We’re disappointed to see both services collect a lot of personally identifiable data.

Romania & US Jurisdiction

Bitdefender is based in Romania, a country subject to EU data retention laws and data-sharing agreements.

To make the situation worse, Aura is based in the US, which is a notoriously bad region for data privacy.

The combination of both these jurisdictions and the VPN’s complicated privacy policy admitting to excessive data logging makes this an extremely unattractive service for privacy.

Here are the speeds we recorded while using Bitdefender VPN:

As the data shows, Bitdefender is fast in every location. We were particularly impressed with its international speeds of 97Mbps, which outperform even top VPNs like ExpressVPN and NordVPN.

Bitdefender can achieve these speeds because it is one of a few VPNs to run on Hotspot Shield’s proprietary Hydra VPN protocol.

Bitdefender isn’t the only antivirus company to do this. In our McAfee VPN review we explain how its service also uses a Hotspot Shield white-label.

Bitdefender is quick to claim that its VPN can “unlock media from all over the world.” In our experience, this simply wasn’t true. Bitdefender is in fact a poor VPN for streaming.

In our streaming tests, Bitdefender VPN didn’t work with Netflix on any server, including the UK and US servers. It also failed to unblock HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video.

Based on our regular tests, Bitdefender simply cannot compare to the best Netflix VPNs and HBO Max VPNs we’ve found.

Like most VPNs, Bitdefender VPN does works to unblock YouTube videos, which is useful if the website is blocked at your school or workplace.

Unblocks BBC iPlayer & ITVX

Surprisingly, we were able to unblock a few free UK platforms like BBC iPlayer and All4 through the UK server.

Its download speeds are fast enough for streaming HD films and TV. But it doesn’t offer any dedicated streaming servers or special ability to bypass geo-restrictions.

Overall, we do not recommend this VPN for streaming.

Here’s a quick summary of showing how Bitdefender VPN performed in our torrenting tests:

Torrenting Attribute	Result
Average Download Bitrate	7.6MiB/s
No. of P2P Servers	1,300+
Logging Policy	Some User Logs
Kill Switch	Faulty
Port Forwarding	No

Bitdefender is not a good choice for torrenting. It does actually support torrenting on all servers and offer an auto-connect feature for when you open a torrent client, but in our experience it still isn’t trustworthy enough for torrenting.

Not only does the VPN leak your IP address with the kill switch enabled, it also logs way too much identifiable information for us to comfortably use it.

If you’re serious about torrenting, we recommend opting for trustworthy privacy-focused VPNs like ExpressVPN or Proton VPN instead.

Bitdefender VPN won’t bypass internet censors in countries like China, the UAE, and Turkey.

It’s not a surprise, though, considering Bitdefender even states on its website that it restricts use of the VPN in the below countries:

• Belarus
• China
• Iran
• Iraq
• Oman
• Russia
• Turkey
• UAE

We don’t recommend using Bitdefender VPN if you intend to travel to a highly-censored nation, because it just won’t work.

To beat aggressive web censorship, use our best China VPNs, Russia VPNs, Turkey VPNs or UAE VPNs, instead.

Bitdefender VPN has a decent array of technical features, including a kill switch, ad blocker, a public WiFi setting, and more.

It’s improved a lot in recent years, but in our experience it still hasn’t got the basics right. The VPN kill switch actually leaked our IP address when switching server locations without disconnecting first.

Overall, it’s still missing some key improvements. Before they’ve been added, we can’t call Bitdefender VPN a 100% secure service.

No IP, WebRTC or DNS Leaks

In our most recent security tests, we were pleased to find that Bitdefender VPN no longer leaks DNS requests. In fact, we detected no leaks at all.

Safe & Open-Source Protocols

Bitdefender VPN offers the best protocols on the market: OpenVPN and WireGuard. WireGuard is our preferred protocols due to its incredibly fast speeds, low data consumption, and modern encryption.

As a rebranded version of Hotspot Shield, Bitdefender VPN also offers Hydra – a proprietary protocol that’s extremely fast.

Failed Our Kill Switch Test

Disappointingly Bitdefender VPN’s kills switch leaked our real IP address when changing servers without disconnecting.

This is quite common among low-tier VPNs, but we expect VPNs to address this issue or send a warning to users to disconnect before changing servers.

Great Ad & Tracker Blocker

As an antivirus company, it’s no surprise to see the VPN’s ad and tracker blocker excel in our tests. It managed to block over 90% of intrusive ads and trackers, which is even better than some top tier VPNs.

But you can get even better results with an dedicated browser extension like uBlock Origin.

Security Features We’d Like to See

Bitdefender VPN has greatly improved its security since we last reviewed it. Importantly, the VPN now doesn’t leak your DNS requests and it offers more techincal features. But there are some things it’s still lacking:

• Functioning kill switch that hides your real IP address when you switch servers, not just when your internet disconnects.
• Diskless servers that prevent excessive data logging.
• Dedicated IP addresses for bypassing geo-restrictions and frustrating CAPTCHAs.
• Double VPN servers for an extra layer of protection.

Live chat support is available 24/7, but in our experience we there can be a queue. Support agents are also a mixed bag — we found some able to answer questions very quickly, others were frustratingly slow and uninformed.

Also, you have to fill in a form before actually speaking to an agent. This is a small way for services to filter out customers for different agents, but it feels like another irritating obstacle when you’re trying to quickly solve a problem.

Bitdefender also provides setup guides and troubleshooting instructions for most common problems, which are well set out and should solve most issues you may encounter.

The forums are pretty helpful too, although these are mostly user-operated so aren’t the most reliable source out there.