Defencebyte Review: Quick Expert Summary
We’re unable to publish a review of Defencebyte at the moment, for several reasons. Frankly, we didn’t feel comfortable reviewing it after our testing process revealed multiple security concerns. In the past, we referred to Defencebyte as “an outdated offering in a market that has moved too fast for it.” At the moment, it raises too many red flags to recommend at all.
These concerns include:
- Major issues with the website. The website is full of dead links and misspellings. It jumps between a .com and .net website, making navigation confusing. Old customer support options that used to be available are gone, and it lists multiple customer support numbers depending on the page you’re seeing. Even though we found 3 different US numbers across various pages and from an email, only one worked (it was the number listed in the email, not the website). This is the least damning point, as sometimes websites transitioning from .net to .com frameworks can experience these difficulties.
- Inability to create an account using the website during tests. While trying to create an account on the website, we met an infinite loop. Any time we entered our credentials when attempting to create an account, the screen would turn gray for a moment and then stay on the same “create an account” page. We used multiple browsers and multiple computers but always experienced this loop.
- Inability to activate the product after paying for it. The website allowed us to pay for a product but wouldn’t let us activate it. To start, it took several days from the point of purchase to the time the activation code was given. That can be excusable, especially for a small company. What’s inexcusable is that the activation code is too long to fit within the app. The app has space for a 20-character activation code, while the email activation code you’ll receive has 25 characters. The company took our writer’s money, but he was unable to create an account or activate his product.
- Alarming customer support experiences. After dealing with these issues for several days, our writer received an email from the company with a new customer support number to call. After asking about the activation process, the representative demanded they grant remote access to the writer’s computer. The website they were directed to triggered security warnings from both their browser and antivirus (support.me, a site regularly used by scammers). After pointing out the security warnings and asking if they were able to help with the activation without remote assistance, the representative became irate and demanded they grant remote access even more fiercely. After hanging up, they tried immediately calling the writer back.
- Frightening privacy policy. The privacy policy contains a number of red flags, including misspellings and vague permissions. If the company doesn’t even care to proofread its own privacy policy, then that’s a huge problem in and of itself.
- Concerns about the product’s discontinuation. The product doesn’t seem to have gotten any major updates over the past several years. Multiple customer support pages and the blog are all gone. Defencebyte’s social media hasn’t been active in several years. Email support never responded, leaving a single customer support phone number that as discussed above, only presented more issues. It’s worth noting that other international phone numbers may work. We used the US numbers for our calls.
As of now, there is no definitive proof that Defencebyte is a malicious company, and we’re not in any way calling it a scam. However, there are too many security concerns to recommend Defencebyte.
There are better options out there that don’t come with any lingering suspicions about the company’s credibility. Not only that, but even if Defencebyte is a completely legitimate company, options like Norton and Bitdefender still come with significantly more security features that actually work. The kicker here is that both options are more cost-effective as well.
