With a powerful security suite installed on all your devices for local protection and a VPN available to encrypt and obscure your online connections, you’re in very good shape security-wise. But not every threat hits your devices, data, or connections. Bitdefender Ultimate Security starts with comprehensive security and reaches into the realm of identity theft. It actively foils some identity attacks, monitors for signs of exposure, and includes personalized help to remediate any problems that occur. Its combination of award-winning device-level security with sweeping identity protection features makes it an Editors’ Choice for security and identity alongside Norton 360 With LifeLock.
How Much Does Bitdefender Ultimate Security Cost?
Many security suites offer pricing tiers for one, three, five, 10, or even 20 licenses, with the per-device price shrinking as numbers go up. With Bitdefender Ultimate Security, the price depends on both how many devices you want to protect and how much identity protection you want to add. At each tier, you can purchase an individual subscription or a family subscription. The former gets you protection for five devices and one identity, while the latter expands to 25 devices and five identities. Family subscriptions also include parental control.
Your basic Bitdefender Ultimate Security subscription runs $159.99 individual and $199.99 family. Both prices are $30 more than the corresponding Bitdefender Premium Security subscription. You don’t get full identity protection at this level, though. The main addition is Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, which goes for $79.99 as a standalone product.
Upgrading to Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus raises those prices to $189.99 for an individual subscription and $269.99 for a family. This tier adds full identity theft protection and remediation with the standard million-dollar insurance coverage. At the very apex of protection is Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus Extended, costing $249.99 per year to protect five devices and one individual or $349.99 per year to cover 25 devices and five individuals. The Extended tier adds additional identity protection features and enhances existing ones. For example, you get tracking of three credit bureaus rather than one, and the insurance doubles to two million.
Compared with pricing for security suites without identity protection, these figures seem high, but they align with the competition. Norton 360 With LifeLock starts at the Select tier, recently raised to $189.99 per year, the same as Bitdefender Ultimate. That gets you basic identity theft protection, protection for five devices, and 100GB of storage for backups. Upgrading to the Advantage tier adds enhanced identity theft features, protects 10 devices, and raises backup storage to 250GB. At the maxed-out Ultimate Plus tier, you pay $369.99 for every iota of identity protection, 500GB of storage, and protection for unlimited devices.
It’s Surprisingly Easy to Be More Secure Online
Note that these prices offer Norton identity protection to just one individual. At each tier, a family subscription (two adults) costs extra, and a family with kids subscription costs even more. The Norton pricing table maxes out at $819.99 per year, which gets you Ultimate Plus protection for the family and kids.
Aura costs a bit less: $144 per year for identity protection with licenses for 10 devices or $264 per year to protect you and your partner against identity theft. A one-identity, three-device license for IDX Complete goes for a whopping $355.32, while a plan that protects your family and six devices runs almost double that.
For $149.99 per year, you can get a McAfee+ subscription that lets you install security software on every Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS device in your household. However, that entry-level subscription doesn’t include McAfee’s identity theft protection service. To get that component, you must upgrade to McAfee+ Advanced ($199.99 per year) or McAfee+ Ultimate ($299.99 per year). If you want identity protection for the whole family, those prices go up to $269.99 and $424.99.
Here’s another view on the pricing for Bitdefender Ultimate Security. This bundle includes Bitdefender Total Security, Bitdefender Password Manager, Bitdefender Premium VPN, Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, and Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection Standard. Purchased separately, a year’s subscription for these would cost $109.99, $29.99, $69.99, $79.99, and $129.99, respectively. That sums to $419.95. That makes the bundle’s $159.99 price tag look like quite a deal, but only if you actually want all the components.
Getting Started With Bitdefender Ultimate Security
As with most modern security services, you manage Bitdefender through an online portal; Bitdefender’s portal goes by the name Bitdefender Central. Once you’ve activated your license in Bitdefender Central, you can immediately install the security suite, password manager, and VPN on the current device or send a link for installation on another device.
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The identity theft service is handled entirely through Bitdefender Central. That means you can check alerts, update settings, and connect with support from any computer. I cover these services in detail below.
Bitdefender Total Security Supplies Device Protection
When you install device-level security from Bitdefender Central, it installs Bitdefender Total Security. The protection you get for your devices is the same as Total Security because it is Total Security. That being the case, there’s no need to repeat my review of that product here. I advise you to click the link and read all about it. I’ll summarize here very briefly.
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Bitdefender Total Security is an Editors’ Choice winner among what we term security mega-suites. At the core is Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, an Editors’ Choice in its own right. The antivirus boasts a cornucopia of features that number-wise beat out many security suites, and Bitdefender Total Security is an Editor’s Choice security suite.
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Total Security could also qualify as a cross-platform multi-device suite, given that it includes protection for devices running Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Admittedly, the Windows edition has the biggest collection of features, but the macOS edition receives top marks from independent testing labs, and the Android app is a comprehensive mobile protection suite. Again, you can learn more by reading my separate review of Total Security.
Bitdefender Premium Security Adds VPN and More
Bitdefender Total Security includes a VPN element, but it’s limited to 200MB of VPN bandwidth per day. Any bandwidth-intensive action like streaming video will quickly burn through that daily maximum. In addition, you don’t get a choice of VPN server location. The VPN just connects to whatever server it deems most efficient.
Upgrading to Bitdefender Premium Security, the tier just below Ultimate Security, gets you the full VPN experience. Bitdefender Premium VPN installs as a separate program with features that vary when you use it on Windows, macOS, Android, or iOS. Bitdefender Premium also expands the Scam Alert feature to an AI-powered Scam Copilot, complete with a chatbot that helps you understand scams. If you have a Google or Outlook email account, the Email Protection feature identifies dangerous messages in the cloud, so you get protection on every device.
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I’ve covered the bundled components of Premium Security thoroughly in a separate review. Please peruse that article for a full understanding. Bitdefender Ultimate Security’s distinguishing feature is its identity theft protection and remediation, which I’ll cover in detail here.
Adding Digital Identity Protection to the Mix
The basic Bitdefender Ultimate Security package bundles everything from Bitdefender Premium Security with Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, which is available separately for $79.99 per year. This tool helps you take charge of your digital footprint online, scanning legitimate sources for data you may want removed and flagging any data breaches that may expose your personal profile.
(Credit: Bitdefender/PCMag)
You won’t find this tool on the Total Security page of Utilities or anywhere else in that app. Rather, you go to your account at Bitdefender Central and use it directly from there.
From this tool’s main dashboard, you can view your overall security score and take actions to improve it, such as deleting compromised accounts or changing your password. I’ve covered this component in detail in a separate review.
Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection
Taking charge of your digital footprint is nice, but full-scale identity theft management is better. As noted, you get that when you purchase the Plus or Plus Extended tier of this suite.
Activate Your Identity Protection
Identity protection is independent of any platform, so it’s naturally managed through Bitdefender Central. Don’t forget to log in and set up this service—you’re paying for it, after all! Like any such service, Bitdefender can’t completely prevent identity theft, but it can notify you when any problems arise and help with a quick resolution. Note that IdentityForce, a TransUnion brand, powers Bitdefender’s identity theft protection system.
When you upgrade to Ultimate Security Plus, you’ll find a new item, Identity Theft Protection, in the Bitdefender Central left-side menu. Click it and agree to the terms and conditions, then fill in your contact info, consisting of your full name, birthdate, phone number, and physical address. Next, you’ll confirm a disclosure from TransUnion, enter your SSN, and supply a one-time code sent by TransUnion either as a text message or voice call.
The Hub
Once you’ve gotten through that initial signup, you’ll see nine tabs: Hub, Identity Vault, BreachIQ, Alerts, Credit, Transactions, Resources, Support, and Account. If you’re not using the Ultimate Plus Extended edition, you won’t see Transactions.
The identity protection console opens to the Hub, a page that summarizes important facts and events. A large panel on this page invites you to contact a resolution specialist if you ever experience identity theft. Another panel prompts you to prepare for the possibility of a lost or stolen wallet.
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You’ll also see a panel titled Let’s Get Started, with five big prompts and a percentage complete score. You’ve already made it to 20%, having created your profile. Clicking Add your Additional Information takes you to the Identity Vault page, where you can record more personal data for monitoring. This is also where you link Bitdefender to your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube), so it can watch for “posts that could be perceived as violent, are using profanity, or could be categorized as cyberbullying or discriminatory.” Each of those actions takes you closer to 100% completion. I’ll discuss them in detail below.
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Lost Wallet Assistance
Setting up Lost Wallet Assistance gets you another 20%. This step involves going through your physical wallet and inputting details about everything in it. You can record one or more of these item types:
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Bank Account
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Combination
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Credit/Debit Card
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Customer Rewards Card
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Driver’s License
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ID Card
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Medical ID Card
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Passport
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Social Security Card
This step is separate from recording your personal items for dark web tracking. In this case, you fill in every little detail, including the card issuer’s website and customer service phone number. I can’t help but think it would be convenient if Bitdefender could somehow link wallet items with monitored items.
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Discover Additional Resources is the final Let’s Get Started list item. Clicking this takes you to a page with identity protection resources More on that below.
Now that you’ve reached 100%, you can hide the prompt to take startup actions, leaving the Hub as a quick overview of your identity protection.
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Identity Vault and Alerts
You’ve already worked with the Identity Vault page while setting up your account. You can return here anytime to edit or expand your recorded identity data. On the Monitored Info page, you can record one apiece of the following:
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Address
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Date of Birth
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Driver’s License
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Mother’s Maiden Name
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Social Security Number
Those are typical one-off items, though McAfee lets you track two driver’s licenses, and Norton monitors up to five physical addresses. You probably already took care of these during setup. Do look over the page and consider recording additional entries for these categories:
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Bank Account
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Credit/Debit Card
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Email
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Medical Insurance ID
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Passport
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Phone
You can enter five passports and 10 each of the other types. The Identity Vault includes a separate Secure Storage tab that lets you upload scanned images of important documents, such as passports, up to 100MB of data.
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As soon as you record your personal data, Bitdefender starts scanning dark web sources and known breaches, alerting you about any problems it finds. I’ll discuss alerts below.
Bitdefender Monitors Your Social Media
In addition to recording personal info, you can use the Identity Vault page to link Bitdefender with your social media accounts. Social media monitoring, managed by Bitdefender partners Sontiq and ZeroFox, warns if you post what seems to be personal information or if your posts (or their comments) seem inappropriate. For example, a comment saying a YouTube video “sucked” got a warning.
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Bitdefender tracks your accounts on Facebook, Twitter (now called X), Instagram, and YouTube. Yes, that list is a bit dated, especially given the number of people dropping X in favor of BlueSky or Mastodon. And where’s TikTok?
In testing, I only got one social media alert about a Facebook post from years ago. It was a cover photo from the New York Post, something I didn’t expect to be flagged. Bitdefender suggested taking down the post (already done) and offered to open a case if the post was made by someone else using my account.
Rather than rely on Bitdefender or another third party to police your social media posts, you may want to simply raise your own consciousness. Lock down your accounts so only your friends can see them, and look over every post to make sure you’re not oversharing.
BreachIQ Rating
While Bitdefender alerts you on all types of dark web data detections, the BreachIQ page focuses on known data breaches that include your personal information. This page has five tabs: ID Safety Score, My Breach Exposures, Action Plan, Search Breaches, and FAQ.
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For each breach, My Breach Exposures lists the date, Breach Risk Rating, and up to two exposed data types—you can click a link to view any additional exposed data types.
Clicking ID Safety Score reveals your risk score, from 0 (least protected) to 100 (most protected), along with some risk factors that went into the rating. As for what to do about a bad score, proceed to the Action Plan page.
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Your marching orders on the Action Plan page include more than 20 specific actions you must take yourself. Congratulations! You’ve already accomplished one by setting up dark web scanning. Strengthening multi-factor authentication for your online banking is another priority.
Many of the remaining items are similar actions, such as setting up USPS informed delivery, installing an antivirus that includes phishing detection, and requesting a PIN from the IRS. Check these off as you accomplish them. There are also more nebulous items, such as advice to beware of social engineering and watch out for spam.
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Finally, there’s a page where you can search for any data breaches related to a specific company. I don’t see the value here. The identity service should already be telling you what breaches were relevant.
Alerts and Cases
The Hub page shows your five latest alerts, but for a broader view, check the Alerts page. Opening any listed item gets you a detailed view. As with other identity monitoring products, I found that many of these alerts referenced breaches from years ago, breaches I had already dealt with. Also, as with others, quite a few did not provide any specific website where I could change my password, referring instead to opaque names like “Sanixer Collections 2019.dmp” and “Ultimate_Breach_Compilation_2017_1400M.”
The detail page for each alert includes advice on what to do and a button to Archive the alert when you’ve handled the problem. Some alerts come with an Open Case button that connects you to a resolution specialist. When a known breach is involved, you may see a Breach Risk Rating such as “8 High Risk (8 of 10).
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It may seem tedious, but you need to go through these one by one. Take any necessary action and then archive the item. That way, any new alerts stand out.
If you’ve responded to any of your alerts by opening a case with a Resolution Specialist, a separate page helps you track those open cases. As I mentioned earlier, you should work through the initial flood of alerts, if only to suppress ones you’ve already dealt with.
Social media alerts show up here as well. If you’re prone to oversharing, Bitdefender’s warnings may be useful, though, of course, they come after you’ve already revealed too much. I’m less impressed with warnings about posts considered inappropriate in some way. It’s best not to mention anyone named Mary Jane or talk about Law & Order creator Dick Wolf.
IDShield offers similar monitoring of Social Media for data exposure but keeps that separate from its Reputation Management system. That’s a good thing because Reputation Management proved wildly unreliable in testing, for example, identifying photos of garden plants as weapons. IDX Complete handles things more like Bitdefender, with a similar flood of alerts.
Credit Services
The setup processes mentioned above don’t include configuring Bitdefender to track and manage your credit score. To get your credit protection launched, open the main dashboard and click Credit. The resulting page has four tabs: Credit Score, Credit Report, Credit Simulator, and Freeze My Credit. The main Credit Score page pulls your score from TransUnion. Those who’ve paid for the Plus tier also get scores from Equifax and Experian.
You can view details of your credit reports on the corresponding page in the identity dashboard or print it out for reference. Bitdefender updates your credit report just once a year. Note that you can get your annual reports from all three credit agencies for free without involving Bitdefender. Like Aura, Bitdefender checks your credit score once a month. Aura also includes the ability to freeze your Experian credit with a click, providing links to freeze the other two bureaus. With Bitdefender, freezing credit is a DIY operation, though the service does provide all necessary links.
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If your credit score is low, you surely want to improve it. If you have a high score, you want to avoid driving it lower. With Bitdefender’s unusual Credit Simulator, you can get a preview of how almost 20 financial events could affect your score. These include, among other things, adding a new credit card, paying off all your cards, taking out an auto loan, and declaring bankruptcy. Of course, the estimated new score isn’t guaranteed, but you can learn a lot by experimenting in the simulator. Who knew canceling your oldest credit card could decrease your credit score?
Resources for Identity and Credit Protection
To complete the startup configuration tasks from the Hub page, you had to at least glance at the Resources page. Take another look; this page is loaded with useful tools and information, divided into Calculators, Forms, and handling of Junk Mail & Calls.
On the Calculators tab, you’ll find a variety of financial calculators. For example, you can quickly compare two loans or credit card deals. If you’re considering refinancing your mortgage, a simple calculator lets you see how much you’d benefit. TransUnion hosts all these calculators; they aren’t just links to resources on other websites.
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The Forms page includes templates for letters ranging from a general complaint to one for resolving a credit dispute. It also offers resources such as consumer action handbooks, consumer contacts for major corporations, and contacts for federal, state, and local consumer protection offices.
Junk mail and unwanted phone calls don’t threaten your privacy and identity, but they’re annoying and might cause you to miss important communications. The Junk Mail & Calls page contains links to external sites where you can remove yourself from direct marketing lists, opt out of preapproved credit offers, and reject specific direct mailings.
Dedicated Resolution Specialist
What if dark web monitoring reveals that your details are for sale? What can you do if someone else uses your Social Security Number, for example? Bitdefender makes getting help easy. Some alerts come with a built-in button to open a case. You can click the Support tab and fill out a report. Or you can just pick up the phone and talk directly to a dedicated identity theft resolution specialist.
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Like almost every service in this field, Bitdefender promises to spend up to $1 million to remediate an identity theft event. Upgrading to Ultimate Plus raises that figure to $2 million. As always, this comes with some restrictions. For example, if you lose your job due to identity theft, Bitdefender covers lost wages, but at no more than $1,500 per week for up to eight weeks. The insurance allows a maximum of $1,000 for eldercare and childcare. And so on.
As always, I can’t test this service’s ability to help with recovery from identity theft. I can report that it’s very easy to open a case.
What Do You Get By Upgrading to Extended?
As noted, Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus includes Bitdefender Identity Theft Protection Standard. Upgrading to Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus Extended costs $60 more for an individual subscription and $80 more for a family plan and raises your identity theft protection to the Premium level. What does that mean?
Tracking Unusual Transactions
Upgrading from Bitdefender Ultimate Security Plus to the Extended edition adds monitoring for anomalous transactions. The difference is visible, as a Transactions tab appears in the Hub. Bitdefender can monitor various banks, credit cards, and other financial accounts.
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To get started, select your financial institution and supply your online login credentials for that site. The site may require additional verification, such as a code texted to your phone. Once the account has been registered, click Set Alert Preferences to continue setting up.
By default, Bitdefender alerts you if a purchase, withdrawal, transfer, or uncategorized transaction over $300 takes place. In each case, you can change the trigger amount or set it to monitor only specific accounts. You can also view all your recent transaction activity right inside Bitdefender Central. This can be quite handy if you’re searching for a charge but don’t remember which account you used.
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Aura, IDShield, and Norton also offer their own forms of transaction alerts. Aura doesn’t worry about transaction types but lets you set the threshold separately by category: bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments. Norton watches for various anomalous events, including changes that don’t fit your normal pattern and increased charges in recurring payments. IDShield offers a collection of specific triggers, including high credit account balance, large credit card purchases, large account withdrawals, low account balance, net worth change (percentage), and portfolio value change (percentage).
More Credit Bureaus
The basic service gets monthly credit checks and yearly credit reports from TransUnion. You get those checks and reports from all three bureaus when you upgrade to Extended. For comparison, Norton doesn’t offer monthly credit checks at the basic Select level—you get that at the Advantage level, which costs an additional $70 per year. And if you want credit checks from all three bureaus, you need the top tier, Ultimate, costing another $100 per year.
More Money for Reimbursement
I mentioned that upgrading raises the insurance cap from $1 million to $2 million. I doubt the average case would come close to even a single million, but if your net worth is huge, you might benefit from this upgrade. Note that the sub-limits on things like travel expenses don’t change.
Upgrading also adds a separate ransomware resolution fund of up to $25,000. Another $25,000 is reserved for remediation of problems caused by social media account takeover.
Other Extended Features
In addition to monitoring your credit card and bank accounts for anomalous transactions, Bitdefender alerts you to possible fraudulent transactions in your investment accounts. It tracks court records for signs your identity is being abused, so you don’t find yourself arrested for a crime someone else committed in your name. And it watches for spurious address change events, which can be part of a full-on identity theft push. As with similar services, you don’t see these features in action unless they catch an attack.
Verdict: Outstanding Device Security and Excellent Identity Protection
Bitdefender Ultimate Security combines Bitdefender Premium Security with Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection. Its identity monitoring and recovery are roughly on par with McAfee and Norton. Powerful identity protection combined with award-winning cross-platform device protection make Bitdefender Ultimate Security an Editors’ Choice winner in the realm of security suites with identity theft protection. Norton 360 With LifeLock likewise combines excellent identity protection with security for all your devices and shares the Editors’ Choice honor in this category.
Bitdefender Ultimate Security
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The Bottom Line
Bitdefender Ultimate Security combines an award-winning security suite with comprehensive identity theft detection and remediation.
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About Neil J. Rubenking
Lead Analyst for Security
