Bitdefender and Comodo both offer protection against malware, a range of other features, and intuitive apps. But there are a lot of differences.
Bitdefender has a 100% malware protection rate, a great range of well-designed extra features, and affordable prices. Comodo, on the other hand, offers most of its features for free, but a lot of them don’t work well, or at all.
Short on Time? Bitdefender vs. Comodo — Final Verdict:
- 1st place:
- 2nd place:
Bitdefender is better for malware protection, overall security, and extra features. If you want one of the best internet security suites in 2024, go with Bitdefender.
Comodo offers most of its features for free. If you want malware protection without paying a dime, go with Comodo.
Malware Protection
Bitdefender
Bitdefender has a powerful and lightweight malware scanner that detected 100% of the malware in my tests. And because it’s fully cloud-based, it causes zero slowdowns on your device during the scans.
Bitdefender’s full disk scan took around 1 hour to complete, and it found every single malware sample I had hidden on my device, including rootkits, ransomware, viruses, and more.
Its real-time protection is just as effective, scoring 100% in my tests and blocking every malicious file before it could start to download. Bitdefender’s real-time scanner also comes with a great range of customization options, making it an excellent choice for advanced users.
Comodo
Comodo’s malware protection is okay, but it’s not great. I tested Comodo by installing hundreds of malware samples on my PC and then running a full disk scan. The scan took almost 3 hours, which is much longer than most top antivirus scanners, and it only found 93% of the malware files. While this isn’t terrible, it’s nowhere near close enough to 100% for my liking.
Its real-time protection also missed a number of samples, blocking just over 90% of the malware in my tests. The customization options for the real-time scanner are also limited — for example, it’s not possible to adjust scan intensity, and it’s hard to whitelist safe files.
Web Security
Bitdefender
Bitdefender has very effective web protections. It uses a huge database of known phishing websites and blocks access to any sites on that database you try to visit. It successfully blocked every phishing site I tried to access during my tests.
It also stops you from accessing sites with downloadable malware, fraudulent content, and missing SSL encryption.
I particularly like that Bitdefender issues a pop-up detailing every blocked website and the reason for blocking it, making it easy to manage your browsing security and whitelist any safe site if you’re 100% sure of a false positive.
Comodo
Comodo’s web protection isn’t very good. The phishing protection missed a lot of known phishing websites during my tests — including many that Chrome’s built-in protection was able to block.
The website filtering feature is also completely useless as it’s only compatible with Internet Explorer, which is an obsolete browser in 2024.
Features
Bitdefender
Bitdefender offers a range of different plans, which cover up to 10 devices and include:
- Advanced malware detection.
- Real-time protection.
- Web protection.
- VPN (limited to 200 MB/day/device on most plans).
- Parental controls.
- Firewall.
- Secure browser.
- Wi-Fi network protection.
- Anti-theft protections.
- System optimization.
- File shredder.
- Password manager.
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
- And more…
Bitdefender has a great range of additional features, and they’re all very good. The parental controls are one of my favorite features — they’re functional, useful, and highly customizable. The VPN is also excellent, with fast speeds, tight security, and great torrenting and streaming support.
The password manager is more basic than most standalone password managers, but it’s not bad. It only comes included with the top-tier package Premium Security, but this plan also includes unlimited data on the VPN (rather than the limited 200 MB/device/day on all other plans) and is cheaper than a lot of competing antivirus suites, making it an excellent value overall.
Comodo
Comodo’s antivirus for Windows can cover 1 or 3 devices and includes the following features:
- Anti-malware protection.
- Real-time protection.
- Secure firewall.
- Anti-phishing protection.
- Virtual desktop.
- Secure browser.
- Ad blocker.
- Gaming mode.
- 24/7 tech and product support (premium plan only).
- $500 virus-free guarantee (premium plan only).
Most of Comodo’s features are included in its free plan, but most of them aren’t very good. The phishing protection, secure browser, and ad blocker are all mostly ineffective, and the malware scanner and real-time protection only detected or blocked around 90% of the malware in my tests.
The only additional features in the paid plan are the tech support and an anti-virus guarantee, so it’s one of the worst-value paid plans around.
There is also a mobile plan that is completely separate and includes features like ID protection, app lock, and Wi-Fi security. The paid version additionally includes an unlimited-data VPN and secure vault. The VPN and secure vault aren’t bad, but the other features don’t work very well, so the upgraded cost really isn’t worth it when compared to other products on the market.
Ease of Use
Bitdefender
Bitdefender has a well-designed and user-friendly interface. The software is quick to install and very intuitive to use. The main dashboard has 3 buttons (Privacy, Protection, and Utilities) behind which all of Bitdefender’s features are organized. There is also a Quick Access option that you can customize to include the features you want at the click of a button
Bitdefender’s mobile apps are also well-designed. The Android app in particular is very feature-rich and offers a smooth user experience. The iOS app has very few features, but it’s intuitive and easy to use.
Comodo
Comodo’s user interface is nice and straightforward to navigate. It comes with two views: basic and advanced. The basic view hides the more advanced features from the main dashboard, making it ideal for users who want a simple experience and not to be overwhelmed by too many tools and controls. The advanced view allows access to the full range of features.
Using Comodo’s features, e.g. scheduling and running scans, is all pretty simple and intuitive. However, you need to install a number of separate applications and extensions in order to access the full range of features, which is a bit of a pain. Most antiviruses include all tools in a single user interface.
Comodo’s mobile apps aren’t bad in terms of design, but most of the features don’t work very well, or are just buggy and ineffective.
Customer Support
Bitdefender
Bitdefender’s customer support center is one of the best I’ve come across. It includes email, live chat, phone support, a knowledge base, and a community forum — and they’re all pretty good.
I was pleased with the quick and knowledgeable responses I got from live chat and phone support reps during my tests. I also think it’s great that phone support is available 24/7 in English and during local business hours in other languages.
The community forum is fairly active, and the knowledge base is excellent, with lots of easy-to-find articles and videos that are helpful and informative.
Comodo
Comodo’s customer support is okay but far from great. It includes live chat, email, phone support (paid plans only), a knowledge base, and community forums.
The live chat was always quick to connect when I tested it, but the responses were mostly unhelpful, uninformed, and slow. The email support was a similar story — I received a reply in 30 minutes, which is great. But it didn’t answer my questions and I had to email back and forth many times before getting the answers I needed.
The phone support was better, with a helpful support rep who was able to answer most of my queries. This is only available on the paid plan, however, which doesn’t come with enough features to make it worth paying for
The knowledge base is pretty good. There are a range of articles with easy-to-follow instructions for most of Comodo’s features.
