DeleteMe is one of the best data removal services out there right now, helping you keep your personal data from data brokers and other internet parties easily.

In 2024, making sure your personal data is safe is hard, which is one of the reasons we recommend using a password manager, antivirus, and a VPN, and with the prevalence of social media, data brokers, and most jobs requiring an internet presence, it's a hard world out there. 

Responding to this situation, data removal services have sprung up, letting users quickly and painlessly remove their data from Google, social media, and the internet at large with the click of a few buttons. 

One of the leading services, and the subject of this review, is DeleteMe, a US-based service that deals with name, age, location, email, addresses, and much more, stored by over 750 data brokers across the US. 

• Sign up for DeleteMe

DeleteMe says the service completed over 50 million opt-out removals by 2022, after its parent company Abine launched DeleteMe in 2011, long before most people had ever heard of a data broker. 

The service has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and now, of course, TechRadar Pro, a sign that your data is safe and secure with its experts. 

Let's dive into the DeleteMe data removal service review. 

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DeleteMe: Pricing and plans

As we mentioned above, DeleteMe is sadly only available in the US right now, meaning that users in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere will be missing out. 

The company offers plans across one or two years, with the latter being cheaper on a per monthly or yearly basis, and for one or two users. 

One year and one person costs $10.75 per month, billed as $129 per year, while one person and two years costs $8.71 per month, billed as $209 over two years, or $104.50 per year. 

For two users, the price naturally rises, to $19.08 per month, or $229 per year as billed, for one year, or $14.52 per month, or $349 across two years. 

Which level you chose depends on your needs, and it's worth reiterating that all of these planned are billed annually, so the true cost to use DeleteMe is $129. Of course, they are paying a team of experts to do the work, but that might be too steep for some users. 

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DeleteMe: Basic features

DeleteMe works by using four simple steps: users submit their information (think age, location, emails, phone numbers, and so on), which is then searched for by the company's experts. For some data, DeleteMe requires a government or state ID. 

After that process, DeleteMe then sends you a detailed report (see an example) of your data from across the whole internet, which might be a little disconcerting, but it's better to know than not. 

Once you've received the report, DeleteMe then begins scanning the internet for your information and deleting it, before continuing the scan and delete every six months for the term of your year contract. 

DeleteMe removes data from over 750 data brokers, and there's a complete list of them on the website. In today's surveillance age, data brokers are one of the key ways that dangerous (and harmless) actors can obtain your data. It's worth noting that some competitors cover more data brokers. 

The process means that almost everything is handled by the company itself, which is a big bonus and part of the reason that the $129 cost is there: paying for expert data removal specialists isn't cheap. 

DeleteMe has a really useful dashboard that shows a range of information and, as you use the service over months and years, analytics for how your data is faring out in the big bad world. The service shows you how many data brokers have your data, and the number of removal requests, among other things. 

Finally, one neat feature is that users can make custom requests for removals to DeleteMe, whose experts will then assess the request and carry it out, a nice touch. 

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DeleteMe: Enterprise features

Alongside being able to remove personal data, DeleteMe also has an enterprise level that is used by Google, Pinterest, ProPublica, Yahoo, and other big US brands to help stop executive and employee exposure. 

DeleteMe helps with the data of public-facing employees, executives and board members, and individual contributors to your business.

Pricing is available on application, so if you're representing your business make sure to get in touch with DeleteMe. 

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DeleteMe: Support

DeleteMe offers a fully fledged online portal with tons of information to help users across a huge array of topics. Everything from password changes to pricing, two-factor authentication, data security, and more is covered. 

In addition, DeleteMe also publishes some really helpful DIY Opt-Out Guides, in the interest of ensuring that all users – and not even just DeleteMe users – can help keep their personal data out of the wrong hands. 

There are extensive guides on removing data from an array of different data brokers, as well as general guidance on best practices, all written by experts. It's a really handy resource, even if you don't ultimately get DeleteMe.

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DeleteMe: The competition

DeleteMe has competition from a wide array of services, including the likes of Mozilla Monitor Plus, Kanary, PrivacyBee, and OneRep. 

VPN provider Surfshark, which might be a familiar brand, has a service called Incogni that can do a similar job to DeleteMe, but starts at $12.99 per month, and doesn't need to be paid for a full year before signing up. The service is also available outside of the US, including in the UK, the EU, and Canada. 

We recommend checking out as many services as you can to find the right fit, especially if your needs are more specific and niche. 

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DeleteMe: Final verdict

DeleteMe, released in 2011, is one of the most long-running and well-respected data removal services out there, and with good reason. Across its personal and business editions, the service delivers everything you want in a quality package. 

Having experts on hand to help sift your data, and the tools available to find tune the kind of data you want removed, is really handy, and ensures that a) a machine won't muck something up and b) your data is in safe hands. 

While having to pay yearly is a slight drawback, and reports are only generated every quarter rather than monthly, DeleteMe is a comprehensive service for removing your data from data brokers. 

• Sign up to DeleteMe

Proton has established itself quite successfully in the world of security products. You may have heard of its offerings in the encrypted email and VPN industries. Well, it also has a superb answer to the best password managers in the form of Proton Pass.

This handy password manager promises end-to-end encryption for all your passwords, ensuring your sensitive data remains secure even from Proton itself. It supports 2FA, encrypted notes, and even email alias generation - all packed into Proton's signature user-friendly interface. And just like all of Proton's offerings, its open-source and regularly audited by security experts.

But does Proton Pass live up to its reputation for privacy and ease of use? With competition from established players, can a relatively new password manager carve out a space for itself? Let's take a look.

Proton Pass: Plans and pricing

Proton Pass offers a range of pricing options to suit different needs. The Free plan provides a solid foundation with unlimited passwords, support for passkeys, and two vaults, all protected by end-to-end encryption. For users seeking enhanced privacy and convenience, the Plus plan, priced at $2.99/month with an annual subscription, unlocks access to the Proton Sentinel service, unlimited hide-my-email aliases and premium support.

The Proton Pass Family plan is $4.99 per month, when paid for a year, and it allows up to six people to experience everything the Proton Pass Plus offers.

Those who want a comprehensive suite of privacy tools can opt for Proton Unlimited at $9.99/month with an annual subscription, which includes all Proton services like Mail, VPN, Drive, Calendar, and Pass.

The Business plans start with Pass Essential that costs $1.99/user/month when paid for a year (yearly total $23.88/user). It includes all the essential password management features such as the ability to store unlimited passwords, passkeys, notes, and credit card details, a built-in 2FA authenticator, and unlimited email aliases.

For larger organizations that need support for single sign-on (SSO), and detailed activity logs, there’s Pass Professional that costs $4.49/user/month with an annual subscription (yearly total $53.88/user). You’ll have to pay for a minimum of three seats for both Pass Essential and Pass Professional plans.  

Proton Pass: Setup

Here’s an overview of how to set up Proton Pass. 

First and foremost, it's important to have a Proton account. If you still need to create one, visit the Proton website and sign up for an account. Once you've registered and verified your credentials, you'll need to enable two-factor authentication (2FA), which is where Proton Pass comes into play. Two-factor authentication adds a level of security by requiring your password and a unique code that you can access only at the time of login.

To set up 2FA and Proton Pass, log in to your Proton account and navigate to the security settings page. Here, you will find the option to enable two-factor authentication. Click on it, and you'll be prompted to download a two-factor authentication app if you haven't already. Proton recommends using an authenticator app like Google Authenticator, Authy, or FreeOTP, which you can download from your mobile app store.

After installing the authenticator app on your smartphone or tablet, the next step is to link it to your Proton account. Within the Proton security settings, a QR code will appear on the screen. Open your authenticator app and use its 'Scan QR code' feature to scan this code. This will automatically add your Proton account to the app and generate timed, one-time passcodes.

The Proton security settings page will also provide you with a recovery code. Writing this down or printing it and keeping it somewhere safe is crucial. This code is a lifeline for instances where you might lose access to your second-factor device. With your authenticator app now synced, your Proton Pass is effectively set up. When you log in to your Proton account, you will enter your password and the unique code displayed in your authenticator app.

Proton Pass: Interface and performance

The Proton Pass interface is a masterclass in minimalist design, reflecting Proton's philosophy of providing simple yet powerful security solutions. Activating two-factor authentication (2FA) for your Proton account reveals a clean and intuitive dashboard that seamlessly blends user-friendliness with robust security.

Navigating to 2FA settings is effortless, with clear instructions and visuals guiding you through the setup process. The prominent display of the QR code for your authentication app ensures quick and easy account linking. Proton Pass excels in its handling of the recovery code, prominently showcasing it during setup and stressing its importance for account recovery. This thoughtful design prioritizes user understanding and preparedness.

Once set up, using Proton Pass becomes second nature. The login process is streamlined, requiring your password and 2FA code in a clear, two-step sequence. Input fields are unambiguously labeled and positioned for a frictionless experience. This commitment to simplicity extends throughout the interface, minimizing distractions and cognitive load to ensure a smooth and efficient authentication process.

The aesthetic minimalism of Proton Pass isn't just about visual appeal; it's a deliberate strategy to enhance usability and encourage secure practices. By prioritizing clarity and ease of use, Proton Pass empowers users to take control of their online security without unnecessary complexity.

Proton Pass: Security

Proton Pass takes a multi-layered approach to security, aiming to protect your passwords and sensitive data with the strongest possible safeguards:  

End-to-End Encryption: This is the cornerstone of Proton Pass's security. All your data, including passwords, usernames, notes, and even website addresses and metadata, is encrypted on your device before it's sent to Proton's servers. This means that no one, not even Proton themselves, can access your information in its unencrypted form.  

Zero-Knowledge Architecture: Proton Pass operates on a zero-knowledge principle. This means that your encryption keys are generated and stored only on your device. Proton has no access to these keys, further ensuring that they cannot decrypt your data.

Strong Encryption Algorithms: Proton Pass uses both asymmetric and symmetric encryption algorithms to secure your data, including AES256 and OpenPGP. These are industry-standard algorithms known for their resilience against brute-force attacks and other security threats. Proton Pass also encrypts stored passkeys using Curve25519.

Open Source: Much of Proton Pass's code is open source, allowing security researchers and the community to audit it for vulnerabilities. This transparency helps ensure the integrity and security of the software.  

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Proton Pass supports 2FA, adding an extra layer of security to your account. This requires a unique code from your authentication app in addition to your password when logging in, making it much harder for unauthorized access. As an additional bonus, Proton Pass also offers an in-app authenticator and will let you know when 2FA can be enabled on any of your stored accounts.

Password Generator: Proton Pass includes a strong password generator that can create complex, unique passwords for each of your accounts, reducing the risk of password reuse and vulnerability to breaches.  

Breach & Dark Web Monitoring: Proton Pass can monitor your accounts for data breaches and alert you if your information is compromised. This allows you to take immediate action to protect your accounts.

Proton Sentinel: For users in need of extra protection, Proton Pass also offers protection from it's Proton Sentinel high-security program which includes additional security protections, enhanced visibility into security logs, 24/7 suspicious login monitoring using both AI and human detections, and automatic security specialist referral for all account security support requests.

Hide-my-email Alias: Proton Pass also makes your email more secure by offering a fully integrated email masking tool that allows you to customize your masked domain and alias, and allows you to forward mail that is sent to your masked email to multiple inboxes.

Secure sharing: Outside of secure sharing with other Proton users, you can securely share vaults, links, and files with non-Proton users.

Secure payments: Proton Pass will let you securely store an unlimited amount of credit cards.

In summary, Proton Pass employs a comprehensive suite of security measures to safeguard your sensitive information. Its focus on end-to-end encryption, zero-knowledge architecture, and open-source practices makes it a highly secure choice for password management.

Proton Pass Business: Team and Admin Features

Proton Pass Business offers adequate team management and administrative capabilities.

As is the norm for such offerings, Proton Pass Business offers a web-based centralized admin console for managing users, controlling permissions, and monitoring password health, and user activity.

Your users can use the platform to create organization-wide, or department, and team-specific vaults to share credentials, and other secure data. Users can share the vault with other users in the same team or department, with granular access permissions.

By default, the invited users can only view the items in a vault, but they can also be given Edit permissions to create, delete, and export items in the vault, or Manage permissions to grant, and revoke access to a vault to other members.

As an admin, you can prevent users from sharing vaults with others who aren’t part of your organization. In addition to vaults, you can also prevent your users from sharing individual items, and stop them from exporting their data as well.

If you do allow sharing of individual items, your users can share passwords, and other sensitive information, such as secured notes, with their colleagues.

They can also share these with anyone, even if they don’t use Proton Pass, with Secure Links. The feature helps create unique, expirable links to your login credentials, secure notes, and other items. You can set the expiration date from anywhere between one hour up to 30 days, and even restrict the number of times the recipient can access the link (from one to as many).

That said, you can’t control which devices can access company vaults. Neither can you restrict access by IP address.

You can use Proton Pass Business to define password policies. The platform gives you the ability to enforce password complexity requirements, including the ability to customize minimum and maximum password length, and whether they should include numbers, special characters, and uppercase characters.

One interesting option is the ability to ask the platform to help your users generate memorable passwords. That said, unlike some of its peers, the platform doesn’t allow admins to enforce a password rotation policy on its users.

Another strong security feature is the ability to require all your users to use 2FA. If you don’t want to force this upon them, you do have the option to gently remind them (via email) to enable 2FA on their own.

The platform also lets admins forcefully logout users after the expiry of a configurable idle period, which can range from one minute to one hour. Here too we miss a failed login attempt feature that you get with some of its peers, which locks accounts after detecting suspicious activity, like a number of failed logins.

Talking of suspicious activity, Proton Pass Business gives users access to a Pass Monitor feature that monitors the dark web for leaked passwords, and more. Business users are also enrolled in the Proton Sentinel program, which helps detect and stop unauthorized attempts to break into your account, even if the attackers have the correct password.

Finally, the platform offers detailed activity logs that help give visibility over all kinds of user activity, such as any changes made to passwords and vaults. The platform is pretty comprehensive in its logging, and tracks about two dozen events, for everything from invitations, and vaults, to individual items, and secure links.

Proton Pass Business: Integrations and Compatibility

Proton Pass works across platforms, and offers native apps for all the popular desktop and mobile operating systems, namely Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. It also offers extensions for the best web browsers including Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.

Proton Pass can import passwords from any of these browsers, as well as from the best password managers including 1Password, Bitwarden, Dashlane, Keeper, NordPass, RoboForm, and others.

If you are a Pass Professional user, you also get support for SSO and SCIM integration. Proton Pass Business plugs into all the mainstream identity providers (IdPs) like Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, and Google Workspace to streamline user lifecycle management.

Finally, as we have mentioned earlier, Proton Pass is also deeply integrated into the Proton ecosystem of services, including Proton Mail and Calendar, Proton Drive, Proton VPN, and Proton Wallet. As an admin you can control which of these services can users in your organization access.

Proton Pass Business: Ease of Use and Deployment

The admin panel of Proton Pass Business is clean, and fairly intuitive.

The first order of business is user provisioning, and the platform offers adequate options to help admins add (and later remove) team members.

Admins can invite members by sending them an email. You can also directly create a password for them, instead of sending them an invite, and then share the password with them using other secure means. The platform also offers bulk user import through CSV files.

In the same vein, the process of enabling SSO for the supported IdPs is also fairly intuitive, and is well documented. Once added, you can give admin privileges to other users, although only the primary admin can edit the plan of the organization.

Admins can track the activity of their users through the Reports section. It offers a Pass Monitor report that tells you the number of reused, weak passwords, if the passwords were found in any breach, and other details, for every user. Then there’s the Usage report that tells you the total number of items a user has access to, the number of vaults they own, and have access to, and other details, again for every user.

Finally, there’s the Activity Logs section that logs all user events along with their time, the user account that it happened on, the type of event, and the IP address the activity originated from.

You can filter the logs by email or IP address, event type, and date range. You can also click on a time or event entry to filter by that timestamp or event type. Both the reports, and the activity logs can also be exported as a CSV file.

Proton Pass: Customer support

Like any other company, Proton has a wealth of online guides to help you set things up and carry out basic troubleshooting and other issues. There are also helpful tabs on the latest Proton Pass updates and guides to enhancing personal privacy.

Getting in touch is easier than with some bigger companies, as there’s a clear form that’s easy to find, though responses will be by email rather than live chat. As more Internet users begin to question and value their privacy, turning to Proton and other security-focused products, we can only hope that the company invests in multi-channel support, be it live chat, social media support, or a phone number. Fortunately, it looks like all customers, free or paid, are treated equally.

Proton Pass: The competition

Proton Pass is not short of competition, and frankly the password management market is fairly saturated. However, Proton's open-source basis and wealth of security tools and features make it a very strong contender.

It's rivals include the likes of NordPass, which offers more competitive pricing with a similar feature set. For business oriented customers, 1Password is slightly more expensive but offers 24/7 support, however a business looking for a dedicated suite of secure business products may benefit from signing up to the full Proton Business Suite to access Mail, Calendar, VPN, Pass, and Drive for just a few extra dollars per user per month.

Proton Pass: Final verdict

Proton Pass simplifies strong security with its intuitive two-factor authentication (2FA) interface. Setting up 2FA is a breeze, thanks to clear instructions, a streamlined recovery process, and an uncluttered dashboard. While Proton Pass makes robust cybersecurity accessible to everyone, deciding whether to use it depends on your specific needs.

If you regularly handle sensitive information, Proton Pass provides a significant security boost, protecting your account from potential breaches. However, if you rarely deal with sensitive data or find 2FA workflows disruptive, alternative security measures might be sufficient.

Ultimately, choosing Proton Pass is about your commitment to online security. It's an extra step in your authentication process, but one that significantly strengthens your defenses and protects your digital identity.

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What to look for in a password manager

Choosing a password manager is a crucial step towards safeguarding your digital life. With so many options available, it's essential to prioritize features that guarantee both security and a seamless user experience. Here's a breakdown of key factors to consider:

Security is Paramount:

Robust Encryption: Look for a password manager that employs industry-leading encryption standards like AES-256. This ensures your sensitive data remains unreadable even if a breach occurs.

Zero-Knowledge Architecture: Prioritize providers who utilize a zero-knowledge model, meaning they cannot access your encrypted data or master password. This puts you in complete control of your information.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA for an added layer of security. This requires a unique code from your authentication app in addition to your master password, making it significantly harder for unauthorized access.

Open-Source Options: Consider open-source password managers. Their transparent code allows for community scrutiny and independent security audits, ensuring higher trustworthiness.

Usability Matters:

Intuitive Interface: A user-friendly interface is essential for effortless password management. Look for features like easy navigation, clear organization, and a straightforward password generation process.

Cross-Platform Compatibility: Ensure the password manager seamlessly integrates across your devices (desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets) and various operating systems (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android).

Auto-fill and Password Generation: These features streamline your online experience. Auto-fill automatically populates login credentials, while the password generator creates strong, unique passwords for each account.

Beyond the Basics:

Password Health Check: A good password manager should assess your existing passwords for strength and identify any weak or reused ones, helping you improve your overall security posture.

Breach Monitoring: Some password managers offer breach monitoring, alerting you if your credentials are compromised in a data breach. This allows for swift action to secure your accounts.

Secure Sharing: If you need to share passwords with family or colleagues, look for secure sharing features that maintain encryption and control over access.

Provider Reputation and Support:

Reliable Customer Service: Choose a provider with responsive customer support to assist you with any issues or questions.

Regular Updates: Frequent updates demonstrate the provider's commitment to security and addressing potential vulnerabilities.

By thoroughly evaluating these factors, you can select a password manager that not only protects your digital identity but also simplifies your online experience. Remember, a good password manager is an investment in your online security and peace of mind.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, keeping your personal data safe has become super important. With information constantly being shared and stored, it’s essential to take steps to protect your sensitive info. Thankfully, some pretty cool tools have popped up to help with this.

One of the standout options is data removal services, which are great for getting your personal information off the radar of data brokers—those companies that scoop up personal info and sell it without you even knowing. These services can give you peace of mind, knowing that your data is less accessible to anyone who shouldn’t have it.

Surfshark, known for its VPN services, also has a neat offering called Incogni. This service helps you remove your data from data brokers—a task that would take forever if you tried to do it yourself, given how many databases are out there.

• Sign up to Incogni

Incogni: What is it?

In addition to using basic cybersecurity tools like a VPN and antivirus software, adding a data removal service to your digital safety toolkit can give you more comprehensive protection. These services do a great job of tracking down and eliminating your personal data from various places. You might be surprised to learn how many companies have your information, and data removal services help you take control of your privacy.

The whole process usually involves searching for your data across different data broker platforms, figuring out what companies have it, and then asking them to remove it. Data removal services make this a lot easier and quicker since they automate much of the work. With their expertise, you can be confident that your data is getting scrubbed from as many sources as possible.

It’s worth mentioning that while data removal services are effective, they can’t completely wipe your info from the internet. Once your data is out there, it can be tough to get rid of it entirely. However, these services help reduce how exposed your data is, making it harder for unauthorized people to access it.

By taking action to safeguard your data, you're stepping up your identity theft protection and lowering the chances of financial fraud and other online threats. Data removal services are a powerful way to protect your privacy and personal info, helping you manage your digital footprint.

And it doesn’t stop at just removing your data; the ongoing battle is making sure it doesn't come back. Incogni continues to scan various databases to look for your name and personal details. When it finds your info, it steps in to get it removed, so it stays off these platforms.

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Incogni: Pricing and plans

Incogni offers a variety of pricing options for its data removal service, catering to both individuals and families who seek different levels of privacy protection. For individuals, the service provides a **Standard plan** that can be purchased either monthly or annually. The monthly Standard plan is typically priced around $16.58, but for those looking to save, the annual plan brings the effective monthly cost down to approximately $8.29, billed as $99.48 per year.

For users requiring a more comprehensive level of data removal, Incogni has an **Unlimited plan**. This plan is primarily available as an annual subscription for about $14.99 per month, totaling $179.88 annually. The Unlimited plan allows for custom removal requests from sites that may not be covered by the standard service, offering an enhanced layer of privacy.

On the family side, Incogni provides specific plans designed to accommodate multiple users. The **Family Standard plan** covers up to five individuals and is priced at around $32.98 monthly, or approximately $16.49 per month when billed annually (totaling $197.88 per year). For families seeking the most extensive coverage, the **Family Unlimited plan** is available, offering custom removal requests for all members at a cost of approximately $29.99 per month, billed as $359.88 annually.

All plans generally include automated removals from over 270 data brokers, 24/7 support, and come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, ensuring users can try the service risk-free. Additionally, Incogni can be obtained as part of the Surfshark One+ bundle, which may provide even more cost-effective pricing when combined with other cybersecurity tools. Whether you are an individual or part of a family, Incogni has flexible options to help protect your privacy online.

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Incogni: Basic features

Continuously gathering information about individuals, data brokers scour the internet, social media, and public sources like property record databases or alumni databases for names with addresses or graduates from specific institutions.

Data brokers gather and compile personal information to create individual profiles, aiming to sell this information for various purposes. While some data collection serves legitimate purposes, such as credit checks, this practice also raises concerns about the potential misuse of this data. Nefarious actors, such as hackers, may exploit this vulnerability and compromise sensitive information, posing significant risks to individuals.

Incogni is a cutting-edge privacy protection service that empowers individuals to take control of their personal data and safeguard their online privacy. At the core of Incogni's service is an exhaustive list of data broker databases. These data brokers collect and aggregate vast amounts of personal information from various sources, including public records, social media platforms, and online activities.

Incogni's comprehensive database of data brokers ensures that individuals can identify all entities that possess their personal information. This is a crucial first step in the process of data removal, as it allows individuals to target their efforts and focus on the specific data brokers that hold their information.

Recognizing the overwhelming task of manually navigating the complex and time-consuming process of data removal, Incogni provides a user-friendly data removal tool. This tool is designed to streamline the data removal process by automating many of the steps involved. With Incogni's tool, individuals can easily identify the data brokers that have their information, initiate the data removal process, and track the progress of their requests.

Incogni's data removal tool is designed to be intuitive and accessible, even for individuals who are not particularly tech-savvy. The tool guides users through the process step-by-step, providing clear instructions and prompts. It also offers personalized recommendations based on the specific data brokers that have the user's information.

By leveraging Incogni's exhaustive database of data brokers and user-friendly data removal tool, individuals can save hundreds of hours of work that would typically be required to remove their information from these databases manually. Incogni empowers individuals to take control of their personal data, protect their privacy, and minimize the risk of identity theft and other online threats.

To delve in deeper, Icogni uses laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), an EU law also from 2018, along with other privacy laws that apply to the location in question to compel data brokers to act.

Incogni initiates the data removal process immediately upon joining, sending out requests on day one. Within a week, they begin receiving responses. During the first month, the majority of these removal requests are processed. Subsequently, they periodically review and follow up on outstanding requests to ensure the complete removal of data.

Users enjoy the convenience of receiving weekly updates, a feature that distinguishes this service from others that provide less frequent updates, such as monthly or quarterly intervals.

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Incogni: Using Incogni

Using Incogni proved to be a user-friendly and straightforward process. Upon creating an account, the service promptly initiates a comprehensive scan across the web to identify your personal data. Subsequently, it presents you with a clear overview of data removal requests being initiated on your behalf.

The online dashboard is straightforward, displaying essential information such as the total number of requests. While the service collaborates with 180 data brokers, this number, while significant, falls short of its competitors' extensive networks.

Upon registering with most data removal services, the initial excitement wanes as the process unfolds. Incogni, like many others, requires users to patiently wait while it scans the web, sends data removal requests, and awaits responses. While waiting, the company does provide insights into the types of data held by each broker.

It's essential to acknowledge that data brokers may operate at a slower pace, which can make Incogni (and other data removal services) appear sluggish. However, there is no need for concern, as the process is ongoing, and positive results should be evident within a few weeks or months.

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Incogni: Support

While Incogni provides direct and self-help support options, we believe that enhancing both services would greatly improve the user experience.

On the direct side of things, we did not seem to be able to find a phone number, fax, snail mail address, or online chat box. Rather, there is an option for direct communication via an email address, support@incogni.com, and it is indicated that users should expect a response in 24 hours. Alternatively, there is a support portal for those that prefer that method.

On the website, there is a blog with some general information. We also located a Knowledge Base, which can be searched to get to various topics. We also found some opt out guides, such as how to remove your information from numerous people search finders. However, you don’t need to sign up for anything to take advantage of using the op out guide.

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Incogni: The competition

Incogni operates in a competitive landscape of data removal services, all aimed at helping individuals reclaim their digital privacy by removing personal information from data broker websites. Here’s an overview of some of its main competitors and what distinguishes them:

DeleteMe: Often regarded as one of Incogni's strongest rivals, DeleteMe has been in the data removal industry since 2010. Its key differentiator is a hybrid approach that combines automated processes with human agents to handle removal requests. While DeleteMe advertises coverage of over 750 data brokers (including many custom requests), Incogni generally covers more brokers automatically. Additionally, DeleteMe offers privacy tools like email and phone masking, but Incogni tends to be more affordable, particularly with its annual plans. Incogni also provides unlimited custom removals with its higher-tier plan, while DeleteMe limits custom requests.

OneRep: OneRep primarily focuses on people-search sites and has developed a robust methodology for scanning these platforms to locate specific profiles and verify removals. While Incogni offers broader international coverage, OneRep is currently limited to U.S. residents. OneRep provides a free scan and a 5-day free trial, which Incogni does not offer, although Incogni does have a 30-day money-back guarantee. There have been concerns raised about OneRep's data handling practices and the founder's past connections to data broker sites.

Optery: Optery distinguishes itself with extensive coverage of data brokers, often listing hundreds more than Incogni. It provides greater transparency by auto-generating links and screenshots of where your data is exposed, which Incogni does not do for all removals. Optery also has a free plan that performs an initial scan, while Incogni does not offer this feature. However, Incogni typically covers more non-public data brokers, such as those in marketing, recruitment, and risk mitigation, whereas Optery focuses more on publicly searchable people-search sites.

Aura: Aura is another strong competitor, often bundled with identity protection services. It offers data removal services at very affordable prices, sometimes starting at a lower cost than Incogni, and includes extras like a VPN and antivirus. However, Aura may not provide as much detail on individual removal requests compared to Incogni.

Privacy Bee: Privacy Bee provides comprehensive data removal with extensive data broker coverage and features like dark web monitoring and the ability to blur your house on public maps (available with higher-tier plans). Despite its large coverage, Incogni is generally more affordable and fully automated, while Privacy Bee may require some user input. Privacy Bee primarily targets U.S. customers, whereas Incogni has a wider international reach.

In summary, while Incogni excels in its automated processes, broad data broker coverage (including many non-public brokers), and affordability, its competitors often differentiate themselves through human oversight in removals, more transparent reporting of discovered data, additional privacy tools, or a greater focus on specific types of data brokers (such as people-search sites). The best choice often depends on an individual's specific needs, budget, and desired level of involvement in the data removal process.

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Incogni: Final verdict

Incogni offers a compelling and robust service for individuals looking to take control of their online privacy. With an annual subscription that includes a significant discount, users can enjoy substantial savings while gaining access to comprehensive privacy protection. The platform not only provides weekly updates on data removal efforts, ensuring that users are informed about the progress made on their behalf, but it also comes with a reassuring 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing potential customers to explore the service risk-free.

One of the standout features of Incogni is its effective data removal capabilities. The service is designed to help users eliminate their personal information from various data broker sites, which is crucial for those wishing to enhance their online anonymity. In an age where data privacy concerns are at an all-time high, such features can significantly reduce the risk of identity theft and unwanted solicitations.

However, it's worth noting that Incogni does not offer a free trial, which might deter some potential customers from exploring its features. Additionally, while the support infrastructure is functional, there is room for improvement in terms of responsiveness and the resources available to users seeking assistance.

Overall, despite some minor drawbacks, Incogni proves to be an effective and competitively priced solution for anyone who prioritizes their data privacy. For those serious about safeguarding their personal information, Incogni is definitely worth considering.

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PacketStream started its journey in California in 2018, when it was established by the entrepreneur duo Arthur Aivazian and Ronald Bell. They imagined it as a company solving a particular need in the market - offering a network of peer-to-peer (P2P) residential proxies, which are IP addresses sourced from real devices around the world, allowing users to bypass geographic restrictions when accessing various kinds of data.

As opposed to many other residential proxy providers, which are centralized, PacketStream’s peer-to-peer nature allows acquiring and selling residential proxies to customers directly. In other words, users buy or sell residential IPs from and to one another. This system makes proxies cheaper, albeit at the cost of reliability and speed.

Another problem that this platform could face is the risk of unreliable IP addresses potentially being added to the network. This is because PacketStream, despite offering secure proxies in general, doesn’t entirely control the IPs sold through its network.

PacketStream: Plans and Pricing

Unlike many proxy providers out there with complex pricing plans, PacketStream keeps things simple, charging per bandwidth, with a flat fee of $1 per GB. This way, you get access to the entire network of residential proxies, which is a lot more straightforward and may even be a cheaper alternative to providers charging for individual IP addresses.

Indeed, $1 per GB is one of the most affordable pricing options in the industry, as most competitors charge a lot more. These include IPRoyal with $6.5 per GB, Bright Data with $8.40 per GB, and Webshare with $2.8 per GB (depending on the specific package you selected).

That said, you’ll need to purchase at least 50 GB, which will set you back by $50. This means you can’t buy just $1 of bandwidth to take the platform for a spin before deciding - the 50 GB minimum is a must. Still, PacketStream offers rotating proxies (alongside their static counterparts), so if one IP address doesn’t work, you can switch to a different one in a jiffy.

PacketStream offers a free trial, but without a standardized process. You need to contact the sales team to request this trial, which is futile for most individual users. The free trial is only suitable for people who plan to spend significant sums on proxies. After all, why contact a sales team if you just need to test a few gigabytes worth of proxies?

PacketStream accepts payments through PayPal and major credit cards.

PacketStream: Features

PacketStream allows users not just to buy proxies, but also to acquire them and sell them on to offset costs, and sell your unused device bandwidth for profit, offering it at prices starting at $0.10 per GB. The minimum payout is $5 and is sent to your PayPal account once per week with a 3% fee applied to cashouts.

Interestingly, Microsoft Defender blocked the download and installation of PacketStream, identifying it as a program that “displays deceptive product messages.” This is typically how ‘scareware’ is described, or software that makes deceptive or fraudulent claims about your computer’s health to trick you into buying unnecessary or potentially unwanted products, which may not be inherently malicious in the same way as other malware.

However, since PacketStream doesn’t make any scary claims about your device, the flagging as potentially malicious could be due to the application’s process of using your computer to route third-party traffic when you share your bandwidth with other users. Hence, the antivirus interprets the app’s behavior as unusual or questionable. So, if you fail to install PacketStream, this could be the reason.

Residential Proxies

PacketStream offers a P2P residential proxy network spanning 190 countries. These proxies are sourced from real devices whose owners sell their bandwidth on the PacketStream network. You don’t have to worry about illegally sourced IP addresses, a major problem plaguing proxy providers. Every IP address on PacketStream was consensually added by its owner to earn money.

The company has both randomized and static IP options on offer, with randomized IPs changing with every new request to provide a high level of anonymity. Static IPs, on the other hand, remain consistent for scenarios where a single and steady IP address is required. Selection of the type of residential proxy you need is done as part of the request when buying access.

PacketStream’s proxy IP addresses were reliable during our test and offered reasonable speeds. We chose IP addresses from different countries, and they provided fast connections, although the speed varies depending on the country. PacketStream lets you choose proxies from roughly 190 countries, but you can’t select by city, which we consider a disadvantage. Many rival proxy providers let you choose proxies from specific cities to increase your chances of evading geographical restrictions.

The platform supports HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS proxy protocols, which differ in how they handle traffic and their compatibility, each having its own strengths and downsides. Having the latter option in particular is important as it reduces network delays and provides better speeds than HTTP/HTTPS, making it ideal for high-speed, general-purpose tasks like P2P sharing or streaming. The other two, on their part, offer benefits like content caching and content filtering.

Residential proxies can be used for many things. A good example is data scraping, wherein people use proxies to bypass website geo-restrictions and scrape relevant information.

Suppose you run a website that tracks the prices of commodities and delivers this data to users. Running a price monitoring site requires extracting data frequently and quickly from many websites. The websites (primary data sources) are privy to external data scraping and block it by implementing geographical and IP restrictions. They can identify specific IPs from data scraping bots and block them from further access. They can also ban IP addresses of an entire country from accessing their information.

PacketStream gives you access to a large network of residential IP addresses to bypass restrictions and scrape commodity price data. If one IP address gets discovered and blocked, just switch to another and try your luck.) Although specific numbers may differ, this proxy provider has millions of IP addresses across 190 countries, so you’ll have no fear of running out of new proxies to bypass geographical restrictions on websites and services.

Online retail is another common use case for residential proxies. Many people use automated bots to snap up fast-selling products, placing orders before they run out of stock. However, e-commerce sites don’t like this and often blocklist bot IP addresses. PacketStream’s residential proxies let users circumvent this block and get their desired product.

As far as an e-commerce site is concerned, residential proxies belong to legitimate devices. It’s challenging for them to detect and block these proxies. Even when they do, you can switch to another proxy and visit the e-commerce site. PacketStream’s large network of residential proxies allows people to utilize automated scripts to bid for products.

One major drawback is that PacketStream offers only residential IPs. It doesn’t provide datacenter IPs, which are faster and more reliable. Datacenter IPs are sourced from dedicated servers with more speed, making them ideal for massive data scraping tasks. Large enterprises are the main users of datacenter proxies, but PacketStream doesn’t serve this cohort well. This proxy provider best suits individuals and small businesses seeking affordable residential proxies.

PacketStream doesn’t offer mobile-specific IPs. Mobile device IP addresses are present on this P2P network, but you can’t specifically choose that option. Many businesses use mobile IPs for app testing and ad verification, but performing these tasks with PacketStream is difficult.

Likewise, PacketStream doesn’t offer proxies sourced directly from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). ISP proxies provide higher data throughput and reduced delay than residential proxies, but you can’t get them on PacketStream.)

Selling Bandwidth

(PacketStream lets users sell their unused bandwidth and make money. You can add your IP address to the network and earn money when people use your device as a proxy. Pricing is $0.10 per GB, which can help you offset the cost of buying bandwidth on PacketStream.

Sharing your bandwidth requires downloading the PacketStream client on your PC. This client is available on Windows and macOS, as well as on Linux, where it can be installed by running a specific command via Docker. It can run even on low-end PCs. The primary requirement is a stable internet connection.

After installing the PacketStream PC app, you can open it anytime and activate a shared connection. Your payout is automatically calculated based on the amount of data your shared connection transmits. Closing the PacketStream app immediately terminates the shared connection, giving you complete control over the process. PacketStream can’t use your connection without your consent, which you give by opening the app.

There’s no limit to the amount of bandwidth you can share. The minimum payout is $5 for 50 GB of bandwidth, which makes sense because 50 GB is the minimum amount of bandwidth that PacketStream users can buy. A 3% fee applies to every payout.

Reseller API

PacketStream offers reselling/white-label services. This feature is for people interested in starting their own proxy providers. In that case, you can sell PacketStream’s proxies under your own branding and earn money. PacketStream provides a bare-bones version of its platform, which you can customize to build a brand atop the company’s infrastructure.

Resellers provide access to the same network of proxies available on PacketStream. Any device added to PacketStream’s network will become available on your proxy provider. This feature isn’t for individual users, but we consider it worth discussing to give a complete PacketStream review.

PacketStream: Ease of Use

PacketStream outshines many competitors in the user-friendliness criterion. It arguably has the simplest interface we’ve encountered in a proxy provider, thanks partly to its limited features (there’s not much to navigate).

All features are neatly arranged on the left menu, and the main dashboard lies on the right side. With a white background and a few contrasting colors, PacketStream’s interface feels visually appealing and easy to navigate. The average person won’t have any issues understanding this interface: this can’t be said for some proxy providers.

There’s a drawback, though. PacketStream doesn’t offer a browser extension to manage proxies. You need the desktop interface to manage and deploy new proxies, unlike other proxies with browser extensions for seamless proxy management. An extension lets you switch proxies at the click of a single button, but PacketStream doesn’t provide this benefit.

PacketStream: Customer Support

An area where PacketStream lags behind its competitors is customer support. It offers direct support only via email, with no live chat or telephone option. You can send a support email and expect a response within 48 hours, but there’s no option to hold a real-time conversation with support staff.

Also, PacketStream doesn’t provide as many self-help support resources as most competitors. There’s a FAQ section and user guides on the website, but they aren’t as detailed as what we’ve seen in other proxy providers.

PacketStream: The Competition

PacketStream has many competitors, the most notable being Bright Data, Oxylabs, and Decodo (formerly Smartproxy).

Bright Data offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies. It also offers advanced web scraping APIs as pre-built datasets. In contrast, PacketStream offers none of these except residential IPs. If you need PacketStream’s proxies for automated data scraping, you’ll need an external platform for the APIs. However, at $1 per GB, PacketStream’s residential proxy service is much more affordable than Bright Data’s, which costs around $8.4 per GB.

Oxylabs provides residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies, with a massive pool of over 100 million IP addresses. It also provides a Web Unblocker and web scraping APIs for enterprises. Oxylabs is undoubtedly the more sophisticated platform. It offers more reliable and speedy proxy IPs, with complete control over its proxy network, unlike peer-to-peer PacketStream. However, Oxylabs’ residential IPs cost $8 per GB, compared to PacketStream’s $1.

Webshare offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies, but not web scraping APIs. Its pool of 80 million+ IP addresses across 195 countries is on par with Oxylabs and Bright Data but larger than PacketStream. With pricing as low as $2.8 per GB, Webshare is one of the most affordable proxy providers for enterprises. Yet, PacketStream’s $1 per GB beats it in pricing.

In summary, PacketStream lags slightly behind most competitors in certain advanced features and customer support. However, it outperforms them in ease of use and affordability, helped by the lower costs of running a P2P network and the opportunity to earn money through offering your bandwidth for other users.

PacketStream: Final words

PacketStream is among the most affordable residential IP providers in terms of price per GB, although the minimum purchase is worth $50. This makes it ideal for individual users or small businesses that require rotating and static proxies for mundane online activities. Having said that, enterprises will probably find it lacking for any large-scale data scraping needs. Besides, it lacks the more reliable datacenter and ISP proxies and has limited customer support.

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Webshare came into existence in 2018 to meet the fast-growing need for proxies. To achieve this, it provides proxy servers for individual users and organizations, fulfilling over 650 billion proxy requests per month. Its service includes access to 80 million+ static residential proxies, rotating residential proxies, and proxy servers in every country in the world (yes, that’s 195).

In 2024, Webshare officially came under the auspices of Oxylabs, another notable proxy server provider. However, this doesn’t seem to have brought any major changes, as it has continued to operate independently as it did before. It also hasn’t received some of Oxylabs’ advanced features, like web scraping APIs.

Webshare: Plans and Pricing

Webshare charges its service by the type (proxy server, static residential, and rotating residential), number of IPs purchased (for proxy server and static residential), amount of traffic per month (for rotating residential), as well as the duration of the subscription (monthly or yearly).

Proxy server pricing starts at free for up to 10 proxies, which can be used as a free trial, just go get a taste of the service before committing to one of its paid plans with more IPs - but only this particular tier of the service.

The monthly-based proxy server plan with 100 proxies is charged $2.99 each month (that’s $0.0299 per proxy), and the more IPs you choose, the higher the discount, so 60,000 proxies come at a price tag of $0.0179 per IP. Going with the yearly option entails more discounts, so 100 proxies are charged $1.99 per month ($0.0239 per proxy), or $0.0144/proxy if you take 60,000 of them.

Moving onto the static residential proxies ranges from $4 per month for 20 proxies under the yearly plan to $20.01/month for 100 proxies, to $95.05/month for 500 proxies, to $180.09/month for 1,000 IPs, to $1,500.75/month for 10,000 IPs ($0.18 per proxy). There are other options based on the specific number of proxies required. The month-by-month plans are somewhat more expensive.

Finally, rotating residential proxies are cheaper than their static counterparts and are charged per GB. So, a 1 GB plan under the yearly commitment will cost you $2.8/GB/month, 10 GB goes for $2.20/GB or $20.20 per month, 25 GB can be yours at $2.08/GB or $52/month, 100 GB is charged $1.80/GB or $180/month, and 3,000 GB is priced at $1.12/GB or $3,360/month.

That said, Webshare doesn’t offer a free trial for its residential IPs. There’s no money-back guarantee either, but the company does provide a possibility of a refund under certain conditions. These include not having breached 1 GB of bandwidth, having fewer than 1,000 proxies used in the subscription, and making the request not later than 48 hours after the purchase.

Webshare: Features

A user’s adventure with Webshare starts at registration, which can be done via your email address or through an existing Google account. Considering that the platform already caters to more than 60,000 businesses, you know you’re going to be in good hands here. Once the registration is out of the way, you’ll be redirected to a dashboard with access to all of Webshare’s features.

Residential IPs

Webshare’s rotating residential IP addresses are ethically sourced, which means they come from consenting users, something that means a lot in a proxy industry overwhelmed by illegally obtained IP addresses. In other words, Webshare gets its IP addresses from device owners agreeing to join its proxy network in exchange for certain benefits.

Residential IPs are useful in many cases. For example, a hotel comparison site needs to scrape price lists from many hotel websites. However, hotel websites often discourage scraping by placing geo-restrictions and IP restrictions. Suppose a U.S.-based hotel blocks foreign IPs from accessing its website. Webshare lets you bypass it by choosing a proxy U.S. IP address to view the website and scrape pricing information.

Residential proxies are also helpful in e-commerce, wherein price comparison sites scrape data en masse to help people find the best deals. If you run a price comparison site, you can use residential IPs to access localized versions of a retailer’s website and scrape relevant information.

Webshare offers IP addresses in 195 countries around the globe (which means every country in the world as recognized by the United Nations), with the most popular locations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, China, Australia, France, and Canada. It has over 80 million IP addresses spread across all of these countries.

Still, Oxylabs has 102 million+ IPs, and Decodo has 125 million, but Webshare is getting there, as it has grown the number of its own proxies from 30 million in 50 countries in December 2024 to the current figure that now includes all the recognized countries in the world.

Static Residential IPs

Static IPs are a faster alternative to Webshare's residential IPs. They are technically still residential IPs, albeit sourced directly from internet service providers (ISPs). They’re faster and more reliable because the IP doesn’t change with each session, relying on the unstable Wi-Fi connections of the device owners. Static IPs are issued for long-term use and are harder to detect, helping you stay anonymous while browsing.

Webshare’s static IPs have unlimited bandwidth. That’s why it charges per IP instead of by bandwidth like the standard residential IPs. Webshare sources its static IPs from ISPs like AT&T, Sprint, and Cox Communications. These ISPs have massive networks and offer speeds of up to 1 GB per second. Once you pay for a static IP, it's assigned only to you, and your IP address is fixed as long as your subscription remains valid.

Webshare has over 100,000 static IPs in its pool covering various countries. You can manage your proxies in an intuitive dashboard, utilizing them to bypass geo-restrictions and browse the web without revealing your actual IP address to third parties.

Proxy servers

Webshare offers its proxy servers with 400,000 IPs according to your specific needs. This means you can choose between shared proxy servers (shared with more than two users), private proxy servers (shared with one to two users), or dedicated servers (fully owned by you), with the pricing to match.

A dedicated proxy server offers much faster speed, as you aren't sharing resources with other users. It's similar to running your proxy network but with the features and flexibility that Webshare provides. With a dedicated proxy server, all your activities are only known to Webshare and are not shared with third parties.

You can connect to dedicated proxy servers using the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols. Webshare’s dedicated servers offer up to 100 Gbps and unlimited bandwidth, which is ideal for massive data scraping. With nearly 100% uptime, which we verified during our test, you shouldn’t worry about reliability when using Webshare’s proxy servers.

Webshare’s dedicated proxy servers start from $26.60 monthly for 20 proxies with 250 GB bandwidth. If you surpass your bandwidth allocation, you can pay extra fees to get as much bandwidth as you need. You can also pay additional fees for unlimited IP authorizations, high concurrency, and a high-priority network (recommended when using proxy servers for time-sensitive data scraping).

Meanwhile, choosing a proxy server that you share with multiple users (more than two) is a budget option that provides the reliability of a standalone, but comes at a more affordable price. You can connect to shared servers with the HTTP and SOCKS5 protocols and choose IPs from over 50 countries.

You have unlimited bandwidth and speeds of up to 100 Gbps, the same as a dedicated server. However, your speed will vary depending on the workload of other users sharing the same server.

A shared proxy server costs $24 monthly for 25 proxies and 250 GB bandwidth, which can be upgraded to as much bandwidth as needed. You can also choose add-ons like unlimited IP authorization, high concurrency, and high-priority network.

The middle road is the private proxy option, where you only share your server with one to two other users, but nonetheless, you have access to all the perks offered by the above services - reliable uptime, HTTP/SOCKS5 support, IPs in 50+ countries, and a lower price.

Chrome Extension

Webshare offers a browser extension for Google Chrome that lets users rotate proxies at the click of a button. This extension is ideal for individual users whose primary use case for Webshare is bypassing geo-restrictions. Whenever you encounter a geo-restriction, just choose a proxy IP from the relevant country and refresh the website to view the previously restricted content.

Webshare gives 10 free proxies, which you can access from the browser extension instead of visiting the website whenever you need a new proxy.

Webshare: Ease of Use

Webshare offers an intuitive dashboard that makes all features easy to understand. From your dashboard, you can set up any proxy type that you've paid for. Whether it's a static or rotating residential IP or a dedicated proxy server IP, you can spin one up at the click of a button. You'll see the complete list of all available IPs, which you can change anytime.

The dashboard shows detailed analytics about your proxies, including the error ratio and bandwidth consumption. This analytics lets you monitor your real-time proxy usage and make any needed adjustments. You can switch between dark and light mode depending on what suits you.

Webshare: Customer Support

Webshare offers reasonable support to users, both directly and indirectly. The Help Center contains detailed user guides and manuals for all its features, teaching users how to deploy and manage proxies effectively. Webshare provides extensive technical documentation for its APIs, making it easy to integrate its proxies into external applications. The API documentation guides users in configuring Webshare’s proxies to perform their required tasks.

You have access to a FAQ section with solutions to common problems. The Webshare blog provides numerous tutorials on integrating your proxies with other applications. We found this section very helpful when testing the app and its integrations.

If you need direct help, you can email Webshare’s support team and expect a response within 48 hours. However, there is no live chat or telephone support option, which we consider a drawback. You might need urgent support requiring real-time chat, but Webshare doesn’t provide this option.

Webshare: The Competition

There’s no shortage of competition in the proxy software market. We’d like to single out Decodo (formerly Smartproxy), Bright Data, and PacketStream as the most noteworthy Webshare rivals.

Decodo has a more expansive proxy network than Webshare. It offers 125 million+ IPs, compared to Webshare's 80 million+. Decodo offers search engine, social media, and e-commerce scraping APIs, but Webshare lacks this feature. The tradeoff is that Webshare has more affordable proxies.

PacketStream is a peer-to-peer proxy service, unlike Webshare, which is a centralized service. It is far more affordable and reimburses users who contribute their bandwidth to its network. The drawback is that PacketStream offers only residential proxies: there are no ISP proxies or dedicated proxy servers like Webshare. PacketStream’s peer-to-peer, decentralized nature also makes its IPs less reliable: the platform has no control over the internet speed of the device whose IP you share.

Bright Data offers residential, ISP, and datacenter proxies like WebShare. It also provides web scraping APIs, a Web Unblocker, and ready-made datasets to use instead of scraping from scratch. It has a significantly larger IP pool than Webshare and is overall a better tool. However, expect to pay for Bright Data’s proxies more than you will for Webshare.

Webshare: Final Verdict

Webshare is a reliable proxy provider that does a great job in its field. It’s easy to use, making the management and monitoring of your proxy usage a walk in the proverbial park. That said, it has its drawbacks, like limited customer support and the missing web scraping API feature offered by many proxy providers to let users automatically scrape public data from websites - a common use case for proxy servers.

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Your iPhones and iPods aren't nearly as vulnerable to malware as most devices, but they can’t offer any safety guarantees. You'll still face a number of privacy and security risks just about every time you turn your device on. 

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS for iOS has a free edition which offers a handful of tools which can help. There’s a basic VPN, which limits you to 200MB data per day (6GB a month) and doesn’t allow you to change location. A vulnerability scanner checks your device and network for security issues, and a data breach monitor raises the alarm if your email address shows up on the dark web.

The app gets more interesting if you pay to upgrade. The highlight is web protection, which blocks phishing and malicious apps in your browser, other apps, SMS, even calendar invites. And if you agree with us that 200MB a day just isn’t enough, buying the full VPN allows you to use it as much and as often as you like.

We’ve seen more generous free apps. Avast One Free’s VPN, for instance, gives you 5GB a week. But we’ve also seen worse - Avira Free for iOS has a 500MB a month VPN and no web protection at all - and, overall, there’s not a lot between the big providers on the iOS features front.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Pricing

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS can be upgraded by adding web protection, blocking access to phishing and other malicious sites. It's a worthwhile feature, and not expensive at $1.25 a month for the first year of the annual plan, rising to $2.09 on renewal.

If the limited VPN doesn't suit your needs, you can upgrade to a Premium Bitdefender VPN account for a low $2.92 a month on the annual plan ($5.84 on renewal.) That’s a decent price by VPN standards, and protects up to ten devices, but the best value comes in Bitdefender's suites.

For example, Bitdefender Total Security doesn't include the VPN, but it has full antivirus and other tools to cover any mix of five iOS, Android, Windows and Mac devices for only $5 a month in year one, $8.33 on renewal. 

Premium Security includes full antivirus, a stack of privacy tools and an unlimited VPN, and covers up to ten devices for $6.67 a month in year one, $13.33 on renewal.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Getting started

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS installs easily, then prompts you to sign in with your Bitdefender, Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft accounts.

After signing up, the app recommends running a 'quick scan'. Not for malware, but security vulnerabilities, apparently: an outdated iOS version, device configuration issues (the app doesn't clearly explain what these are) and Wi-Fi or network problems (we're unsure about those, too.) It's a very short list, but that made for a very quick scan (three seconds for us), and Mobile Security successfully identified a missing iOS update on our device.

Scan completed, the app directed us to its Dashboard. This doesn't do very much - in portrait, more than half the dashboard's screen space was taken up with a pulsing shield and a 'Scan device' button - but a simple menu bar does give speedy access to Mobile Security's other features.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Bitdefender VPN

Connecting your device to Bitdefender's Hotspot Shield-powered VPN is easy. Tap VPN, then Connect, and in a couple of seconds it's up and running, protecting your web traffic from snoopers. Speeds were reasonable in our tests, and connections proved stable, with no unexpected drops.

As we’ve mentioned already, the free version embedded into Mobile Security is extremely basic. You can’t choose a location,  switch protocols, adjust settings or reconfigure how the VPN works in any useful way. If you only need the core VPN essentials, maybe to access your email via public Wi-Fi a couple of times a week, this might be acceptable. But if you're looking for anything even slightly more advanced, it's likely to leave you disappointed.

You can opt to use the stand-alone free Bitdefender VPN app, instead. That's good news, as it gets you many more VPN features (ad and tracker blocking, choice of protocols, split tunneling, more.) But if the VPN is your priority, it's a reminder that you could simply ignore Mobile Security and just install the Bitdefender VPN for iOS app, instead.

(Thinking of paying for the unlimited Bitdefender VPN? Read our full review here.)

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Account Privacy

Bitdefender's Account Privacy feature scans a list of data breaches for as many email addresses as you need, and raises the alarm if your details have been exposed.

We tapped 'Account Privacy' to try it out. The app sent a code to the email address to verify that we owned it, then displayed an alarmingly lengthy list of breaches where our address appeared.

This isn't quite as useful as it sounds. Although our list included 19 breaches, only four were dated 2020 or later, and the most recent of those was from February 2021. If you follow the standard advice to change your passwords occasionally (and we do, of course), this isn't going to tell you much at all.

There is still value here. Maybe your list will be more relevant, and you can sign up to get alerts when new breaches appear. But the reality is you can do this for free anyway at haveibeenpwned.com, no need to install Bitdefender Mobile Security or anything else.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Web Protection

Bitdefender's Web Protection is an optional feature which blocks access to phishing and other malicious sites, reducing the chance that you'll be caught out by dangerous links in your inbox or social feeds.

Web protection automatically filters threats in your browser, but Bitdefender can protect you in other ways. A Scam Alert monitors your calendar events and SMS messages for dubious URLs, welcome bonus features which we don’t always see with other iOS security apps.

(If you’re uncomfortable with the idea of third-party apps reading your texts, don’t worry: iOS doesn’t allow anything to do this unless you give an app specific permission in Settings.)

We tested Bitdefender’s web protection by seeing how it performed when faced with 100 brand new malicious URLs from phishing experts OpenPhish [https://openphish.com/]. Bitdefender blocked 96%, which is a great result, but not quite the best we’ve seen. The company was just a touch ahead of Norton’s 95%, for instance, but Avast blocked 100% of our test URLs in its last test, for instance, while Avira blocked a full 100%.

Bitdefender does have an unusual plus, though, in its ability to block malicious URLs in SMS and calendar invites. Overall, if you’re solely looking for iOS anti-phishing, web protection could be worth the upgrade. 

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS: Final verdict

Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS isn't a bad product - it's easy to use, there's effective anti-phishing if you're willing to pay for it, there’s a simple if limited VPN - but the lack of features makes it difficult to recommend. Bitdefender Total Security is vastly more powerful and can protect iOS and other platforms for only a little more cash.  

We've listed the best iPhone antivirus apps.

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review

Security vendors often save their best features for Windows, leaving mobile users feeling a little short-changed. Fortunately, that's not the Bitdefender way, and Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android is actually more powerful than some of the desktop competition.

It scans your apps for malware, for instance. Protects you from phishing and other malicious sites. Monitors texts and chat messages for dangerous links. Shields your internet activities with a limited VPN. Locks apps to prevent others viewing sensitive data. Raises the alert if your details appear in a data breach. And tracks or remotely locks your device with Mobile Security's built-in anti-theft tools. 

The app does its best to look cheap at $1.25 a month for year one of the annual plan. But beware: it renews at $2.08 a month, and keep in mind that this only covers a single device.

If you've lots of hardware to protect, you can get Mobile Security bundled with Bitdefender Total Security. This offers full antivirus and many other tools for any mix of five iOS, Android, Windows and Mac devices for only $5 a month in year one, $8.33 on renewal.

The only catch here is the VPN, which limits you to 200MB a day, and doesn't support choosing a location (it automatically selects your nearest server.) But that could be enough for casual use, and it's more generous than some (Panda's free VPN allows 150MB a day, Avira's 100MB.) 

Upgrading to Bitdefender's unlimited Premium VPN costs $6.99 billed monthly, or $2.92 on the annual plan. These are fair prices, but there are faster and more capable Android VPNs around. If web privacy is a priority for you, check our Best Android VPN Apps guide for more. 

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Getting started

After a hassle-free install, Mobile Security ran its first scan, checking our system and apps for threats in a speedy 30 seconds.

Mobile Security's dashboard appeared moments later. If you've ever used another security suite or app you'll recognize the layout: the main area of the screen displays your current device status, while a sidebar gives you quick access to Mobile Security's many features.

There's a lot to explore, but work through the various functions individually and you'll find most are straightforward to use.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Malware Scanner

Mobile Security doesn't just check your apps for malware when you manually run a scan: it also monitors every app as it's installed, and raises an alert if it spots anything dangerous.

We tried this with a test app, and Mobile Security popped up an immediate warning.

Results from the big independent testing labs suggest these are very accurate recommendations, too. We checked the most recent AV-Test, AV-Comparatives and MRG Effitas Android reports, and they each placed Bitdefender Mobile Security in first or equal first place for malware protection. 

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Web Protection

Bitdefender's Web Protection blocks access to phishing and other malicious sites, reducing the chance that you'll be caught out by dangerous links in your inbox or social feeds.

We tested Bitdefender’s web protection by seeing how it performed when faced with 100 brand new malicious URLs from phishing experts OpenPhish [https://openphish.com/]. Bitdefender blocked 96%, which is a great result, but not quite the best we’ve seen. The company was just a touch ahead of Norton’s 95%, for instance, but Avast blocked 100% of our test URLs in its last test, for instance, while Avira blocked a full 100%. 

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Bitdefender VPN

Connecting your device to Bitdefender's Hotspot Shield-powered VPN is easy. Tap VPN, then Connect, and in a couple of seconds it's up and running, protecting your web traffic from snoopers. Speeds were reasonable in our tests, and connections proved stable, with no unexpected drops.

The problem? It's extremely basic. As we write, you can't choose a location, switch protocols, adjust settings or reconfigure how the VPN works in any useful way. If you only need the core VPN essentials, this might be acceptable. But if you're looking for anything even slightly more advanced, it's likely to leave you disappointed.

Bitdefender clearly realizes the problem, and Mobile Security for Android will soon be updated to use the regular stand-alone Bitdefender VPN app. That's good news, as it gets you many more VPN features (ad and tracker blocking, choice of protocols, split tunneling, more.) But if the VPN is your priority, it's a reminder that you could simply ignore Mobile Security and just install the Bitdefender VPN for Android app, instead.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Account Privacy

Bitdefender's Account Privacy feature scans a list of data breaches for as many email addresses as you need, and raises the alarm if your details have been exposed.

We tapped 'Account Privacy' to try it out. The app sent a code to the email address to verify that we owned it, then displayed an alarmingly lengthy list of breaches where our address appeared.

This isn't quite as useful as it sounds. Although our list included 19 breaches, only four were dated 2020 or later, and the most recent of those was from February 2021. If you follow the standard advice to change your passwords occasionally (and we do, of course), this isn't going to tell you much at all.

There is still value here. Maybe your list will be more relevant, and you can sign up to get alerts when new breaches appear. But the reality is you can do this for free anyway at haveibeenpwned.com, no need to install Bitdefender Mobile Security or anything else.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: App Locker

Bitdefender's App Locker enables protecting others from launching specific apps and perhaps viewing sensitive details. It's very useful if you'd like to pass your device to a friend or family to use the phone or browser, say, but don't want them to have full access to everything else.

It's an effective system, and far more usable than some lockers. Although by default App Locker prompts you to manually unlock every protected app, every time you launch it, for instance, you can also have unlocking one app automatically unlock all the others until your screen turns off. Far more convenient if you're just worried about someone picking up your device.

There are stacks of surprising bonus features, too. It can use a random numeric keyboard, reducing the chance others can read your pin by watching your finger movements. It'll snap a photo of the user after three failed PIN entries, and can then upload the pics to your Bitdefender account so you can view them from other devices. It's all very well put together, and adds real value to the app.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android: Anti-Theft

Bitdefender Mobile Security also includes some Anti-Theft features, which cover most of the ground you'd expect.

Remote Location support may allow you to track your device from Bitdefender's website or other apps, for instance. And if it doesn't, the app can snap a photo of the thief after three failed attempts to unlock the device, perhaps giving you more clues.

If your device really has been stolen, you can remotely lock it or even wipe its contents and reset to a factory state. Or if you've just mislaid it somewhere, a 'Scream' command plays an audio alert to help you track it down.

There's nothing new here, and if you've a number of Android devices, you could get very similar features and more convenient reporting with Google's Find My Device for free.

We found Bitdefender's Anti-Theft tools worked as advertised, though, and if you're planning to install and manage Bitdefender on a number of devices, it could be more convenient to have Anti-Theft available for all your hardware from the same dashboard.

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android:

Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android is a powerful security tool which gives you rock-solid protection from a host of security threats. Okay, the VPN is very basic, but we wouldn’t expect any better price, and overall Bitdefender Mobile Security is a great Android choice. 

We've listed the best internet security suites.

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review

Bitdefender is one of the best-known and oldest names in the consumer cybersecurity space, and has been chosen on multiple occasions as our pick for the best antivirus software. The Romanian business has been a big player in the market since its founding way back in 2001 and now operates worldwide, with offices across the globe and a big-time sponsorship deal with the Ferrari F1 team.

Beneath all of that, though, you’ll find a hard-won reputation for effective software and a product that goes beyond pure antivirus by offering a huge range of security features in one tool.

Despite the name, Bitdefender Total Security is actually the firm’s entry-level all-in-one security product now that the standalone Bitdefender Internet Security product has gone End-of-Life.

Total Security costs $59.99 for an annual one account, five-device licence, with that price jumping to $79.99 if you want five accounts and support for 25 devices. The former package is ideal for smaller households and the latter is ample for even a large family, but it’s worth noting that Total Security is a little more expensive than comparable products like Norton 360 Deluxe or Sophos Home Premium.

Upgrade to Bitdefender Premium Security and the one- and two-year packages cost $79.99 and $99.99 and add innovative email protection, more VPN ability and AI-powered anti-scam features, and there are pricier versions of the product for Ultimate customers, small businesses and creators.

Bitdefender Total Security: Interface

No matter which version you buy, you’ll get a slick bit of security software. Open up the Bitdefender Windows app and you’re greeted with a panel with recommendations for immediate actions and five large buttons that enable various quick scans and take you to the VPN and SafePay modules.

A sixth button can be customized with other features you use frequently, and a ribbon of buttons down the left-hand side of the app opens up the protection, privacy and utility menus with their deeper array of tools and settings. It’s all very well-organised.

If you want to use the password manager, parental controls and several other features, though, you have to use the Bitdefender Central web portal. This is just as well-organised as the desktop app, but it’s a little frustrating that you can’t manage your entire Bitdefender offering from one location.

Bitdefender Total Security: Antivirus

Total Security features complete, real-time data protection that is designed to protect every device from existing and new threats – and it gets to work right away by offering to conduct a full system scan when you install the product.

The app’s front page gives you options for system, vulnerability and quick scans with one-click operation, and if you delve into the Antivirus settings you can create custom and scheduled scans, use a separate rescue environment and scan flash and network drives.

That’s a good slate of features, but AV-Comparatives’ April 2025 Performance Test saw Bitdefender lag behind many of its rivals. Its Impact Score of 25.1 – one of the poorest recorded, with only Total Defence Essential having more of an impact on user systems.

Bitdefender had moderate levels of system impact when copying files and when launching applications – and had a severe impact when archiving or unarchiving data. If you want a utility that can help you quickly move files around or work with data, look elsewhere.

The situation was better when we considered AV Test’s latest performance figures: Total Security was awarded a 6/6 performance score. Its website launching and app installation figures matched industry averages, and there was little system impact when downloading and copying.

Bitdefender Total Security: Protection

Bitdefender may not be the fastest app in certain situations, but there’s no denying its ability when it comes to protecting your technology.

In AV-Comparitives’ February-May 2025 Real World Protection Test, Bitdefender was the leading performer with a 99.8% protection rate – a stellar result that sees it outpace apps from Avast, Norton, Malwarebytes and other big security names. It also did an excellent job in anti-phishing tests.

It’s a close-run thing – Bitdefender was compromised once while other apps like Norton 360 Deluxe were compromised twice – but it does mean that Total Security is a top-quality option.

Bitdefender’s performance was similarly impressive in AV Test’s June 2025 report. It scored a maximum 6/6 points for protection, performance and usability.

It’s no surprise that Bitdefender performs so well here – its Advanced Threat Defence system continuously monitors apps and processes on your PC to detect threats, and it uses real-time behavioural analysis to spot new risks, too.

Bitdefender Total Security: Other features

Bitdefender Total Security has a reasonable array of features.

There’s a safe remote desktop called SafePay that gives you a secure environment to make payments and handle your online shopping – it even includes a virtual keyboard to avoid keyloggers.

Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection uses 24/7 monitoring to alert you if your data has been caught in a breach, and there’s a Ransomware Remediation feature blocks attacks and restores stolen or encrypted files without you having to face paying any money to hackers.

Elsewhere, there’s microphone and webcam protection, a Safe Files section that protects files and folders you don’t want altering during scans or other operations, and an Online Threat Prevention feature that monitors for new online threats and blocks them before they can ever reach your systems.

There’s a Rescue Environment module that is a very easy option for recovering your system and there’s a performance optimizer that does disk, registry and privacy cleanup, alerting you to large files and optimizing your boot processes. The firewall is excellent, too, automatically blocking incoming attacks without fuss – it works and you won’t even know it’s working.

The software also includes a handy Anti-Theft module that includes location tracking, remote locking, wiping and alarming of devices, SIM card change alerts and even an option to take a photo if someone enters your PIN or password incorrectly three times – handy for spotting potential intruders.

In some areas, though, Bitdefender Total Security is lacking. While its Android app is great, for instance, its iOS offering is poor – devoid of features when compared to other tools. And, as with many other security tools, Apple users don’t get scheduled scans, a firewall, file shredder or other tools.

The VPN is limited, too: you can only use it to process 200MB of data per device per day unless you pay extra for one of the more expensive Bitdefender product.

That’s a bit of a theme with Bitdefender: if you want parental controls, for instance, you’ll have to buy the more expensive family version of Total Security – and, even then, it’s a relatively benign and underwhelming array of features. If you need parental controls but you’re happy with only five devices, you’re out of luck.

And if you want more in-depth dark web monitoring you’ll need to upgrade to one of the higher-end versions of the product, too.

Bitdefender Total Security: Final verdict

It’s no real surprise that Bitdefender Total Security doesn’t include every feature possible – this is technically now the entry-level product, and it’s unrealistic to expect that every feature is included, like a VPN with unlimited usage or in-depth dark web monitoring.

At its core, Bitdefender does an excellent job of protecting your devices – its security scores provide evidence of that. It’s a well-designed app that’s easy to use on both desktop and in the browser, it has smart functionality to support online shopping, preventing theft and protecting your identity, and it’s got an excellent Android app.

Norton is a bit cheaper, and you shouldn’t invest in Bitdefender if you want to protect a single device or any Apple kit. But if you want a capable product for protecting a house full of devices, then Bitdefender Total Security is worth the investment.

We feature the best internet security suites.

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review

Bitdefender Internet Security may be Bitdefender’s entry-level Windows internet security suite, but it’s absolutely stuffed with features: real-time malware protection, anti-phishing, parental controls for desktops and mobiles, a secure browser, tracker-blocking, a limited 200Mb a day VPN, anti-spam, it’s all here. Factor in Bitdefender’s consistently excellent protection rates and Bitdefender Internet Security could be the ideal security suite for your PC; keep reading and we’ll take an in-depth look at everything it has to offer. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Pricing

Bitdefender Internet Security is priced from $39.99 to protect a single Windows device for a year ($59.99 on renewal.) Many entry-level suites are priced around $30-$40 for year one, but they typically cover far more hardware. Avast One Silver and Norton 360 Standard both support three devices, for instance, and they can be Mac, Android or iOS, as well as Windows.

Value improves hugely if you’ve a lot of PCs to protect. Bitdefender Internet Security’s 10 device license costs only $94.99 a year, and if you’ll use all 10, that’s only $0.79 to protect each device for a month: a real bargain. 

If you need a full VPN, don’t rule out Bitdefender Premium Security. It adds Mac and mobile device support, an unlimited VPN and a password manager, yet is cheaper initially than Bitdefender Internet Security at $79.99 in year one, and still reasonably priced at $159.99 on renewal.

Bitdefender Internet Security isn’t the cheapest product around, then, especially if you only need to protect a single PC. But the features you get are top quality, and if you can use a 10 device license, the suite looks like a much better deal.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Ease of use

If you’re looking for antivirus software you can install and forget, Bitdefender Internet Security has a lot of appeal. The app installed easily for us, then moved to the background and made most of its decisions entirely automatically, keeping any technical hassles to a minimum.

Other providers often have a very different user experience. Present Avast One with an app it doesn’t recognize, for instance, and it’ll launch a scan and leave you waiting for up to 15-20 seconds before you can continue. By comparison, Bitdefender might ask if you trust the app, but mostly it sorts out the issue for itself.

Try Avira antivirus and you’ll get notified with pop-up alerts for every threat, which can become annoying (a malicious web page opens lots of dangerous links, for instance.) Bitdefender displays the first alert, but doesn’t bother you with the rest. The information is still available in a Notifications page, but you don’t have to look at it unless you’re interested.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Interface & use

Bitdefender Internet Security opens with a simple dashboard offering one-click access to its most useful features: quick scan, system scan, the VPN and the secure browser, Safepay.

In theory you can customize the dashboard with your own shortcuts. But in practice, there are only two other items you can add, in the Password Manager (only a trial) and the Data Shredder. The dashboard would benefit from more flexibility, such as the ability to pin your own custom scans (more on those below.)

There are plenty of other tools and options available, and Bitdefender organizes those with icons in a left-hand sidebar: Protection, Privacy, Utilities, Notifications, Settings. If you need to control the Anti-Tracker, for instance, click Privacy, and you can edit its settings, or turn it on and off with a click.

Bitdefender hasn’t changed the core of its interface for a very long time. That’s a pity, because as we’ve discussed, there is room for improvement. But at its heart the interface is generally easy to use, and it’s likely you’ll find the functions and features you need without any difficulty.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antivirus scanning

Bitdefender offers a strong range of scan types covering all kinds of situations.

Quick Scan runs a brief check which inspects the most commonly-infected areas only. This took a reasonably short 8:14 on our test system, falling just a little to 7:36 on the second scan.

System Scan is a deeper analysis which crawls your entire storage device and explores everything it finds. That takes much longer for the first scan, but drops hugely afterwards as Bitdefender only scans new or changed files.

To test this, we scanned 50GB of application files. The first run took 37:44, a little behind Avast (35:40) and Norton (32:01.) The story changes on subsequent scans, though, with Avast taking 34:53, Norton falling to 3:48, but Bitdefender completing in just 90 seconds.

Rescue Environment is a bootable scanner which lives on your hard drive and removes even the most stubborn of threats. It’s a great tool and the ability to launch it from your Bitdefender app is a major usability plus (Avira and many other vendors expect you to download, set up and run their boot scanners separately.)

This is all very configurable, too, with options including the ability to build your own custom scans and schedule them to run automatically, perhaps overnight or whenever you’re not around.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antivirus lab test results

Although we put every antivirus app we review through our own series of tests, we also pay close attention to results from the big antivirus testing labs.

We follow nine tests from labs including AV-Comparatives (Real-World Protection, Malware Protection, Android, Anti-Phishing, Performance), AV-Test (Windows, Android), MRG Effitas (360° Protection Testing) and SE Labs (Endpoint Security Home).

As each site has its own scoring system, we use a special algorithm which converts the various figures into an overall score from zero to 10.

Bitdefender score appears in the latest reports for eight out of our nine core tests, making this a strong all-round test of its abilities. But Bitdefender’s combined score was a little disappointing at 9.92, earning the company seventh place in our charts behind the likes of Avast (9.97), ESET (9.94) and Avira.

Looking at the individual tests, Bitdefender was a little below par in both the AV-Comparatives and AV-Test’s Windows reports. The differences are small, though, and not always about protection; AV-Test found Bitdefender blocked 100% of test threats, for instance, but marked the company down for reducing device speeds a little and falsely flagging 5 legitimate apps. 

Bitdefender isn’t leading the way with the independent labs right at this moment, but the margins between providers are tiny, and it’s not far behind. Where Bitdefender has scored in the past is for its consistency over the long term - it won 2023’s ‘Outstanding Product’ at AV-Comparatives but the sheer number of awards won across all its tests - and we’ll be watching to see if its normal market-leading performance returns soon.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-ransomware

Defeating ransomware isn’t just about spotting known threats as they’re downloaded. A good antivirus needs multiple other layers of protection, such as using behavior monitoring to detect even brand new threats before they can do any harm.

We tested Bitdefender by running our own custom ransomware simulator. This defeated Avira, but Bitdefender killed our simulator before it could damage a single file.

That’s not the end of the story. Bitdefender’s Ransomware Remediation can automatically protect ransomware-encrypted files, recovering them once the infection was removed. The technology has worked faultlessly in previous reviews, giving Bitdefender a major advantage over other security vendors.

The latest MRG Effitas Ransomware tests also brought positive news. Bitdefender, ESET, Microsoft and ThreatDown all blocked 100% of test threats, earning them an equal first place. That’s another great result, and more confirmation that Bitdefender is one of the best vendors around for battling ransomware.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-phishing

The best security tools don’t just detect and block web threats as they appear: they prevent you ever reaching them in the first place. That’s why we’re always very interested in an app’s ability to keep you safe from phishing and other malicious websites.

Antiphishing doesn’t get much attention from the labs, but AV-Comparatives did run a small test on the feature last year. Bitdefender led the pack with an excellent 96% protection rate, just ahead of Avast (94%), AVG (94%), ESET (92%) and Avira (88%.)

We ran a test of our own, and attempted to access 100 brand new phishing URLs on a Bitdefender-protected system. The protection rate was identical at 96%, but Bitdefender didn’t lead the way this time. Avira topped our anti-phishing chart with 100% protection, while Avast managed 99%, and Norton scored 95%.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Performance impact

We expect a quality antivirus to offer reliable and accurate malware protection, but that’s not all. The best apps deliver their protection without slowing down your device, raising endless false alarms or otherwise causing daily hassles.

AV-Comparatives’ Performance Test measures the performance impact of 16 antivirus apps when browsing websites, downloading files, installing and launching applications, and more. Bitdefender had a little impact on application launch times, but was still very fast overall, and received AV-Comparatives top Advanced+ award.

Our own tests with the excellent PCMark 10 benchmark found barely any performance impact from Bitdefender and although our boot times lengthened a little, they’re still comparable to similar apps. Our test system took 65 seconds to fully load Windows and 81 seconds to fully load a collection of apps, for instance; Bitdefender increased this to 73 and 100 seconds, but that’s almost identical to Avast’s times of 72 and 102 seconds.

Overall, our tests suggest that although Bitdefender isn’t quite the most lightweight of antivirus apps, it has less performance impact than most, and didn’t cause us any significant speed issues.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Safepay

Many security vendors offer some form of ‘privacy browser’, but typically you can get much the same result by installing a few well-chosen extensions, or a third-party freebie like Brave Privacy Browser.

Bitdefender Safepay is a secure browser which protects you both from web dangers, and malware which might have smuggled itself onto your own system.

The protection starts by Bitdefender recognizing when you’re accessing a sensitive site. When we visited a banking site, for instance, an alert prompted us to open the website in Safepay (it can automatically connect to the VPN, too.) Sounds like a small point, but that one idea reduces the chance that you’ll forget to turn Safepay on.

The other major Safepay plus is it’s isolated from every other process on your system. Malware can’t capture your keystrokes or record screenshots of what you’re doing (we tried with commercial and custom tools of our own), and the virtual keyboard prevents even hardware keyloggers from recording your activities.

Put it all together and Safepay offers way more protection than other privacy browsers, making it one of the highlights of Bitdefender’s range.

Bitdefender Internet Security: VPN

Bitdefender Internet Security includes the free version of Bitdefender VPN. The paid edition is an excellent service with quality apps using the Hotspot Shield network, but, unfortunately, the freebie is so restricted that many will find it unusable.

You only get 200MB of data a day, for instance. We opened desktop Outlook and a few other applications on a Windows laptop, but just left them running without doing anything ourselves on the device,, and the background traffic alone used 70MB of data over the next hour. The free Bitdefender VPN is only suitable for light use.

The other big issue is you can’t choose your location. Hit Connect and Bitdefender VPN automatically selects whatever it thinks is the best server for you (the closest or the fastest, most likely.). That means there’s little hope of unblocking anything, and, if the VPN chooses a location in a neighboring country to you, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Still, if you only need a VPN very occasionally, perhaps to securely access your email on public Wi-Fi, the free Bitdefender VPN just might be enough. And, if you can live with the data and location limits, there’s a lot to like here.

Bitdefender Internet Security: VPN Features

Bitdefender’s Windows app takes up a lot of screen space, thanks to a large and mostly pointless map. But it looks good, and provides a lot of information: your current IP address, the session length, the data you’ve used, and more.

Using the VPN is easy - just hit the blue Connect button - but connection times were relatively slow for us at around 6-8 seconds (the best apps typically take under two seconds.)

Speeds were acceptable at 60Mbps+ on a 70Mbps connection. That’s adequate for browsing, or a short period of low-quality streaming (30 minutes of standard definition YouTube watching needs around 180MB, for example.)

Useful settings start with a strong choice of secure protocols, including WireGuard, OpenVPN and Hotspot Shield’s Hydra. Quality ad and tracker blocking enhances your privacy online, and we found the effective kill switch immediately blocks your internet access if the VPN drops.

Split tunneling support allows you to select apps which bypass the VPN and use the internet directly. That could help cut your VPN data usage and stretch that 200MB a day just a little further.

A very clever Auto-Connect option can automatically connect to the VPN when your device starts, if you connect to unsecured Wi-Fi, when you access specific domains (your business network, say), even if you visit a particular category of website: banking, online payments, health, and more.

There’s even an App Traffic Optimizer, which can improve speeds of up to three apps by giving them priority for your available bandwidth. That won’t help much with the free version - the more apps you use, the faster your data will disappear - but we have to applaud Bitdefender’s technical expertise.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Webcam and microphone protection

Bitdefender Internet Security includes video and audio protection, a feature which can prevent apps accessing your webcam or microphone without your permission.

Bitdefender says the suite blocks untrusted apps by default. We tested this by running our own custom webcam hijacker app, and Bitdefender realised there was a problem, displayed a notification, and our app couldn’t access the webcam until we clicked ‘Allow.’ 

We ran a safe but little-known command line tool to record microphone audio. Once again, Bitdefender handled the situation well, allowing the app to access our microphone but using a notification to keep us informed.

Although most top suites have similar tools, they don’t always work as well. If Avast One asks permission for an app to access your webcam, for instance, and you close that dialog box without giving an answer, Avast allows access anyway. Bitdefender is more secure because it blocks dubious apps until you specifically hit the Allow button.

If you don’t like the default settings, Bitdefender provides various ways to customise your protection. You can turn notifications on or off, for instance; block browsers from accessing your webcam, or even block webcam access entirely if you’re sure you’ll never need it.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Firewall

Bitdefender’s firewall watches the network connections made by your apps, decides which apps can get online and which can’t, and works to protect you from network scans and attacks.

If you’re a networking novice and that’s already more than you want to know, that’s fine: the firewall makes all its decisions automatically, so you can safely leave it alone (or forget it even exists.) But if you’re the more technical type, there are potentially useful features to explore.

An ‘Application Access’ list showed us which processes had accessed the internet recently, for instance, handy if you’re monitoring what’s happening on your system. 

The Rules page listed the apps Bitdefender allowed online, and any it was blocking. You can change these rules or add new ones yourself, perhaps to prevent specific applications from connecting to the web.

Useful options provide various ways to configure the firewall to suit your needs. For example, if you’re looking for maximum security, you can have the firewall only allow traffic for known trusted processes. That might break a lot of applications (which is why Bitdefender intelligently decides which apps are safe by default), but it does make your system more secure, and could work for some people.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Antispam

Bitdefender’s Antispam tool is a simple spam filter that works for local email clients only (Outlook, Thunderbird, anything which sends and fetches emails via SMTP and POP3.)

The feature isn’t going to be relevant if you access your email in a browser, or you’re using Gmail or some other top provider. The likes of Google, Apple and Microsoft already do a decent job of filtering spam. If you get email from your ISP or a hosting provider, though, and they don’t provide spam filtering, then Bitdefender Antispam may be useful.

In theory, the feature should be easy to operate. Turn Antispam on, and it automatically scans incoming emails,moving anything sufficiently spam-like into your Junk folder. You can customise the results by building block and allow lists, or enabling one or two generic junk-blocking tricks (stop all emails encoded with Asian characters, for instance.)

In practice, it wasn’t quite that simple for us. Antispam should have added a toolbar to our Outlook, but we didn’t see it. Investigating, we found Outlook had disabled Antispam because it was taking too long to load. That’s disappointing, but it was easy to re-enable, and a quick test showed the filter working as advertised.

Overall, Bitdefender Antispam could be handy for some users. If you really need a local spam filter, though, something like MailWasher  gives you more features with even its free version. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Parental Controls

Bitdefender Internet Security comes with a built-in parental control system to keep your kids safe from the worst of the web.

A decent feature set includes content filtering, screen time limits, device usage scheduling, location monitoring and more.

The service is managed from the company’s Bitdefender Central web dashboard, where you’re able to set up protection and monitor what’s happening on each of your kid’s devices.

Although the Bitdefender Internet Security license protects up to five Windows devices only, those rules don’t apply to Parental Control. These work on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, and you can install them on as many devices as you need.

Installation varies depending on the device. Desktops are relatively simple, mobile devices more complex, as you have to set up various permissions. 

IOS setup is particularly complicated because the content filtering and app blocking relies on Apple’s built-in parental controls. For comparison, Bitdefender’s Android setup guide lists three main steps; the equivalent iOS document has six, and the Apple Family Control guide potentially has another 23. 

Apps installed, the next step is to create a profile for each child. This is quick and easy - enter your child’s name and birth date, and choose an icon - but Bitdefender does a little more work, using your child’s age to automatically configure which web content they’re allowed to you.

If you’re in a hurry then you could apply that profile to any device your child uses. You’ll probably want to fine-tune Bitdefender’s options to best suit your own children, though, and there are plenty of interesting options to choose from.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Content Filtering

Bitdefender’s Content Filtering allows you to block web content by an impressive 43 categories, covering inappropriate topics (porn, drugs, guns), social media, online shopping and more. We tested this and it worked correctly, blocking the specified types in all browsers.

This approach often blocks at least some sites you’ll feel are safe, but it’s easy to add exceptions so you can block YouTube and TikTok, say, but allow your child to watch their favorite Netflix kids shows.

Bonus features include the ability to enforce safe search at search engines and YouTube, reducing the chance that your child can find inappropriate content. 

The content filtering isn’t tamper-proof, and there is at least one way to bypass Bitdefender on Windows and browse whatever you like. It’s not straightforward and there’s no chance that young children will discover the trick by accident, but teenagers are more likely to find the workaround (or be told around it by more technical friends.)

Bitdefender Internet Security: Screen time limits

Bitdefender’s Parental Control provides several ways to define just how long your kids can use your devices.

You can manually set a total device usage time for each day of the week, though only in 30 minute increments. Your kids can request extra time from their device, or you can add extra time as a reward, or if they need it for some important reason (finishing homework, maybe.) But again, you can only add time in 30 minute blocks, which is a little restrictive.

A separate Focus Time supports creating a simple schedule. If you want your kids to do their homework in the evening, for instance, you could set up Focus Time to run from 7:30-8:30pm, and only allow them to use web search or educational apps during that time. While that’s useful, we’d like the option to set up multiple Focus Time blocks per day.

You’re also able to define two periods of time when device usage won’t be allowed: Bedtime and Family Time. That’s important, but again, you’re limited to one block of time in each case. That’s not much use if you want to set up two or three Family Time blocks for meals.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Location monitoring

The Parental Control system allows you to view the current location of your child’s mobile device (there’s no location support on Windows or Mac.) Just open the Bitdefender Central web dashboard, choose your child’s profile and click Locate to see the device location on a map.

What you don’t get is even the most limited form of geofencing (the ability to raise an alert if your child leaves or arrives at a particular area.) Some security suites deliver far more. Norton 360 Deluxe, for instance, can create multiple Favorite Locations - home, school, grandma, the local park - and display notifications as your kids move from one to the other.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Reporting

Bitdefender Parental Control not only limits what your children can do online: it also logs their activities to help you find out more about what’s going on.

Access your child’s profile from the Bitdefender Central web account and you can view stats including their internet use over the past one, seven or 30 days, and the apps, website categories and websites they’ve used most often.

The ‘Prevented content access’ panel lists any content that Bitdefender Parental Control has blocked. That’s useful, and not just to check whether they’re trying to break the rules. If Bitdefender is preventing access to a kid-safe site then you’ll see it listed here, and can quickly create an exception to make sure it’ll be accessible the next time they visit.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Will Parental Controls work for you?

Bitdefender Parental Control has a lot of features, but these aren’t always available on every platform. Sometimes this is understandable (location monitoring is on mobile devices only), but others are a surprise: kids can only request more time on Android and iOS, for some reason. 

The system isn’t as powerful as the top specialist parental controls applications, either, which are typically more configurable, with better content filtering tools and the ability to raise location alerts when your child arrives at (or leaves) key places.

If your needs are relatively simple then Parental Control could still be useful. That’s especially true if you’ve devices on several platforms, as you can manage them all from the Bitdefender Central web dashboard.

If your devices are all on a single platform, though, especially iOS, we would recommend checking out the built-in parental controls options first. Or if you need lots of functionality, check our Best Parental Control guide to the top competition. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: More features

We’ll complete this review by running through some additional features that Bitdefender Internet Security shares with Bitdefender’s starter product, Antivirus Plus. We’ve only space for a summary here, but check the full Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review for more details. 

Bitdefender Internet Security: Vulnerability scan

Bitdefender’s Vulnerability Scan checks your device for various issues which might make it open to attack: missing updates, weak passwords, dubious Windows and browser security settings, and more.

Sounds good, but this didn’t help us much, incorrectly reporting that our Wi-Fi network had no password and highlighting a couple of very minor technical issues. Avast and Avira did a better job of identifying issues on our review system.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Password manager

Bitdefender includes a password manager on its feature list, but this turns out to be only a three-month trial. That still beats Avast, who dropped its own password manager a few years ago, but it can’t match Norton, who still includes a password manager with even its starter Antivirus Plus package.

We signed up for the trial, and were happy to see Password Manager was available on desktops via Chrome, Edge and Firefox extensions, with mobile apps for Android and iOS.

The option to import passwords from browsers or your current password manager should get you up and running quickly, at least in theory. Bitdefender didn’t correctly import all of our Dashlane logins, though, so it might not always be so simple. 

We found some issues with the tool in real-world use. Importing data from Dashlane didn’t work if we had multiple accounts for a website; it didn’t always automatically enter our email address on login forms, and it had occasional problems capturing our credentials from complex forms.

But there are plus points, including a secure password generator, highlighting of weak or reused passwords, and a check to see if your email address appears in any data breaches.

Bitdefender Password Manager might be suitable if you only need the password basics, especially if you get the full version for free as a part of Bitdefender Ultimate Security or Bitdefender Premium Security. But we wouldn’t pay for it, and if you’re looking for a powerhouse password manager with every possible feature, check our Best Password Manager guide for better ideas.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Anti-tracker

Bitdefender’s Anti-tracker is a Chrome, Edge and Firefox extension which prevents intrusive trackers from collecting data on your online activities.

The technology blocked an impressive 93% of sample trackers, but that success came at a price: it broke some websites, preventing key features from working. There are ways around this - you can tell Anti-tracker not to block anything on these troublesome sites - but that’s perhaps more hassle than it’s worth. 

You might be more lucky, though, so Anti-tracker is well worth a try. And if it doesn’t work out, no problem, you can disable it with a click.

Bitdefender Internet Security: File shredder

Bitdefender’s File Shredder is a simple tool which securely deletes files by overwriting them multiple times. Use File Shredder on your most sensitive documents and even if someone has full access to your device (you’ve sold it, or it’s stolen), they won’t be able to undelete or recover that dara.

The feature worked for us, but it’s not very configurable, and there are far more powerful file wiping tools available for free. File Shredder’s ease of use is a plus, though, and we’re glad it’s included in the package.

Bitdefender Internet Security: Final verdict

Bitdefender Internet Security is a capable entry-level security suite that mostly does a great job of keeping your PC safe. We’re just not sure the parental controls, firewall and webcam add quite enough to justify the upgrade from Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, though, especially when many other entry-level suites protect Macs, Android and iOS devices, as well as Windows.

If you’re happy with Bitdefender Internet Security’s PC-only protection then it could still be a decent choice, but Bitdefender Premium Security looks the best value product in the range to us, with apps for desktops and mobiles and an unlimited VPN, too.

We feature the best internet security suites.

Read more Bitdefender reviews:

• Bitdefender Antivirus Plus review
• Bitdefender Internet Security review
• Bitdefender Total Security review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for Android review
• Bitdefender Mobile Security for iOS review