When you’re the sole employee of your tiny business, a consumer-level security suite is probably fine. But when you start hiring employees and expanding the business, you need a comprehensive business-grade suite to secure all company devices, including those used by your employees. Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security is designed for that next phase, supporting businesses with up to 25 employees. You get award-winning device-level protection from Bitdefender Ultimate Security for desktop and mobile devices, along with central management and business-specific exposure monitoring. Thanks to this, Bitdefender is our Editors' Choice winner for small business suites. For those who value total remote management over a large local feature set, Avast Premium Business Security is our other top pick.
When examining consumer-facing security suites, it’s common to see multiple pricing tiers that protect one, three, five, 10, 15, or 25 devices. If you get a big multi-license pack, you’re typically paying much less on a per-device basis.
At first glance, Bitdefender’s small pricing fits this model. It starts with a three-pack for $189.99 per year, a five-pack for $269.99, and a 10-pack for $399.99. Like the consumer-side Bitdefender products, this one maxes out at 25, which costs $799.99 per year.
However, Bitdefender’s numbers aren’t devices. Rather, they represent employees. At each tier, you can install protection on twice as many devices as employees. In addition, Bitdefender’s tiers separately include protection for Windows servers. At the three-, five-, and 10-employee tiers, you get protection for one, two, or three servers, respectively, while the top-level 25-employee tier protects five servers. I’m not equipped to test server-specific security, which isn't something every small business needs.
Similar Products
Bitdefender’s pricing is roughly in line with the competition. Norton Small Business Premium, like Bitdefender, covers two devices for each employee. You pay $299.99 per year for 10 employees or $399.99 per year for 20 employees. Malwarebytes for Teams charges $799.99 per year for 20 users, the same price Bitdefender charges for 25 users. ESET Small Business Security costs slightly less, at $512.50 per year for 25 devices.
Avast Premium Business Security and AVG Internet Security Business Edition travel in more rarefied pricing circles. You can order anywhere from one to 999 seats, starting at roughly $50 per seat and decreasing as the number increases. Both cost more than $1,000 per year at the 25-pack level.
As with other Bitdefender security tools, your journey starts with a visit to Bitdefender Central. Here, you either create or log into a Bitdefender account and activate your purchase.
In a home setting, the person who installs security software is the administrator by default. With the Small Business Edition, you need to make a conscious decision about who’s in charge. As part of the activation process, you will name your business and identify yourself as either the owner and security administrator or just the administrator, not the owner.
At this point, you have a subscription but haven’t installed any protection, a fact the dashboard makes clear. You can install Bitdefender Total Security, the Bitdefender VPN, and Bitdefender’s SecurePass password manager on your devices. Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection and business-specific protection against asset exposure are handled entirely in the dashboard.
If your Bitdefender Central dashboard doesn’t look businesslike, you may be in the wrong workspace. In addition to the business space where you manage Small Business Security, you also get a personal space, where you can manage your separate, personal Bitdefender installation (if you have one). A simple selector at the top right lets you flip back into the business space.
You don’t have to do absolutely everything yourself—that’s what delegating is for. Once you’ve installed Bitdefender on the devices you personally use, it’s time to think about the rest of the team.
Clicking Business Dashboard in the online menu provides easy access to employee management. In the top left corner, you’ll find a panel for managing and inviting employee members. To the right is a scrolling feed of security activities, including activities by all members.
Extending protection to your team is as simple as clicking Invite members and adding an email address. You can choose to make the invitee a security administrator or just an employee. The former can share your responsibilities, helping to manage business assets and employees. Employee members are responsible for the business PCs and other devices assigned to them, as well as for protecting their business identity.
From the employee overview online, you can see any invitations still awaiting a response. You’ll receive an email notification when any invitee accepts the invitation and creates their Bitdefender Central account. And, as noted, you can see in the activity list when they’ve installed protection.
At the core of every successful security suite is antivirus protection that eliminates any lurking malware infestations and stands firm against all future malware attacks. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is the beating heart of this business suite. Here are some details on that protection.
Four of the five independent testing labs I follow include Bitdefender’s antivirus technology in their latest reports, all of which give it perfect or near-perfect scores. My algorithm yields an aggregate Bitdefender lab score of 9.6, with a maximum possible score of 10. Also tested by four labs, ESET earned 9.8 aggregate points, and Microsoft Defender Antivirus took 9.3 points.
Only Norton and Avast appeared in the latest reports from all five labs. Norton owned the field, taking nothing but perfect scores, for an aggregate score of 10. Avast also did quite well, scoring 9.6 points.
Bitdefender tends to earn mediocre scores in my hands-on malware blocking test. Indeed, the last time I tested the antivirus, it detected 90% of my samples and scored 8.6 out of 10 possible points. To confirm, I ran this test separately with Small Business Security. The score came out the same.
Tested with the same samples, Malwarebytes scored an excellent 9.8 points. Avast, AVG, and Norton all scored 9.7 points. Those identical scores aren’t surprising given that the three all rely on the same underlying antivirus engine.
UltraAV scored a perfect 10, detecting and foiling every single sample, though this was a test using my previous sample collection. Also tested with that previous collection, Webroot Total Protection detected 99% of the samples and scored 9.7 points.
I run a separate test using up-to-the-minute malware-hosting URL samples supplied by testing lab MRG-Effitas. The defending antivirus can score by blocking access to the dangerous URL or by eliminating the malware download. Bitdefender has often aced this test, but when last evaluated, it scored a decent (but not perfect) 95%. I repeated that test for the business suite using today’s latest dangerous URLs. The result was a somewhat lower score, so I kept the earlier 95%.
That’s a decent score, but others have done better. When last tested, Avira Prime, Guardio, and Sophos Home Premium scored a perfect 100%. Several others reached 99%, including Emsisoft, Norton, and UltraAV.
The same web protection component that identifies and blocks malware-hosting sites also flags phishing pages. These fraudulent pages masquerade as legitimate websites, aiming to lure unsuspecting internet users. When you log in to the fraudulent page, you’ve given your credentials to the fraudsters, and they now own your account. Sure, if you’re sharp, you can learn to recognize and avoid these fakes, but with Bitdefender running interference, you’re doubly protected.
Tested against hundreds of real-world fraudulent pages, Bitdefender achieved a perfect 100% detection rate, an accomplishment it shares with AVG, ESET, and Norton. Avira, McAfee+, Webroot, Guardio, and Surfshark One also scored 100% in their latest tests.
Bitdefender Antivirus Plus is an Editors’ Choice for a standalone antivirus. As you’ve seen, it’s effective, and it comes loaded with numerous features that rival those of some competing security suites. Please read my antivirus review for the most detailed information; I’ll provide a brief digest here.
There’s no type of malware that you want on your computer, but ransomware is worse than most. If a zero-day ransomware attack gets past your defenses, it doesn’t matter if your antivirus gets an update to deal with the threat an hour later. Your files are still encrypted. Like many competing products, Bitdefender includes built-in ransomware protection layers. In testing, with all other antivirus components turned off, it perfectly foiled all but one of a dozen real-world ransomware attacks. That one outlier managed to encrypt two (just two) files before Bitdefender caught it…and Ransomware Remediation restored those files. That’s with the regular antivirus turned off. With all components active, the ransomware had no chance.
Software isn’t perfect, and sometimes an important program is released with security flaws. Hackers seek out these vulnerabilities and create attacks to exploit them. The Network Threat Protection component, part of the larger Online Threat Prevention system, aims to detect and fend off such attacks. When I tested it using exploits generated by the Core Impact penetration testing tool, it actively blocked 52% of them, identifying most by their official CVE names. Of recent products, only G Data Total Security has scored better in the exploit test, with 56% blocking. Do note that since the test system is fully patched, even a missed exploit could not do any real harm.
Even after developers patch the security holes that enable exploits, your device remains vulnerable until you apply the patch. Bitdefender’s vulnerability scan runs in the background and warns you about Windows security updates you haven’t installed, missing security patches for popular apps, weak Windows account passwords, and more. The related Wi-Fi Security Advisor warns you about potential security issues on your home, office, or public Wi-Fi hotspots and recommends using a VPN as needed.
Among the other bonus features Bitdefender supplies at the standalone antivirus level are: SafePay, a hardened browser that you can use to secure your most sensitive transactions; Anti Tracker, which prevents advertisers and others from tracking your online activities; and a Rescue Environment that lets you boot into an alternative operating system to root out the most entrenched malware. For more information on these valuable bonuses, refer to my review.
When you upgrade from the antivirus to Bitdefender Total Security, you get the expected core suite features. Antivirus, firewall, spam filter, parental control, and performance optimization—you get all of these. Other suite-level features include a bandwidth-limited VPN component, webcam protection, and laptop anti-theft. Anti-theft is particularly useful in the business edition, as administrators can manage any losses or thefts.
Upgrading to Total Security also gets you full access to Bitdefender’s SecurePass password manager. Read my Total Security review for a deeper dive into SecurePass. Briefly, it’s a functional password manager with all the expected features, including a password generator, password capture and replay, and a slightly awkward secure sharing system. It stores personal data and automates filling web forms. Feel free to use it if you prefer, as it comes with the suite. However, you may be better off choosing one of our favorite business password managers for your company.
While the antivirus is technically cross-platform, support for multiple operating systems really comes into its own with Total Security, as suite licenses are available in five- and 25-packs, whereas the antivirus is sold either as a one-off or in packs of three. Bitdefender Antivirus Plus for Mac is an Editors’ Choice for macOS antivirus, and the Android edition holds perfect scores from three independent testing labs.
As noted, even with Total Security, you still experience usage limits on the VPN component. You can’t choose your server location, and you’re limited to 200MB of bandwidth per day. Upgrading to Bitdefender Premium Security strips away those limitations, so you can choose your server location from any of the available countries or city locations, and you can use as much bandwidth as you need. Small Business Security, reviewed here, also includes a VPN with no bandwidth or server location limits.
You’ll also find features like a kill switch to ensure you don’t accidentally send unprotected data if the VPN connection drops, split tunneling to route some apps outside the VPN, and an unusually flexible auto-connect system. The VPN supports modern protocols OpenVPN and WireGuard, and offers double-hop connections for enhanced anonymity.
The Premium-only Email Protection feature is specifically designed to work with Google or Outlook accounts. To activate it, you give Bitdefender full access to a supported email account. Bitdefender runs in the background, checking each incoming message for scams and spam and labeling it as safe or dangerous. It doesn’t matter what device or client you use to access your mail.
Scam Protection Pro is another defense against the many scams and frauds that constantly appear in texts and other messages. If you get a suspicious text or other message on your phone, just copy the link to Scam Protection Pro for analysis. It will also analyze screenshots of suspicious communications and can even work from a verbal description. You can also chat with Scam Protection Pro on your PC.
Scam defense is a rapidly emerging feature in many security suites. McAfee and Malwarebytes both strongly emphasize scam detection. In addition to analyzing messages, text, and screenshots, McAfee can analyze video and flag deepfakes, provided you’re using supported hardware. The free Norton Genie is a standalone scam chatbot, and the Norton suite products include scam protection.
On the consumer side, Bitdefender Ultimate Security is the top-of-the-line, but it’s divided into three tiers. At the basic tier, it adds Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection to all the features included with Premium Security, along with dark web monitoring and digital footprint visualization.
It’s only at the Ultimate Plus tier that you get full-on identity theft monitoring and remediation. Ascending to the Ultimate Plus Extended tier adds additional identity theft features and doubles the million-dollar insurance limit. Note that identity theft features are handled by Bitdefender partner TransUnion, which also provides similar features for Avast One Platinum, Malwarebytes Ultimate, and ESET Home Security Ultimate. Bitdefender’s Small Business Security edition matches the basic Bitdefender Ultimate, not the Plus or Plus Extended tiers. My Bitdefender contacts confirmed that the Small Business Edition only has one tier.
I’ve separately reviewed the standalone Bitdefender Digital Identity Protection, so please refer to that review for full details. This app is accessed from Bitdefender Central online. Its main dashboard begins with an identity protection score and a risk map that details the types of exposures that may have the most significant impact on privacy. Note that this isn’t just your privacy at risk; it reflects on your business. You should treat improving the privacy score as a work imperative.
Scrolling down, the next section shows what Bitdefender calls your digital footprint. Its analysis of your footprint begins when you grant it access to your email account (Google or Outlook). Much like the Online Account Cleanup in McAfee+, it looks through your emails to identify sites where you have an account. Bitdefender provides details about each account, along with advice such as deleting your account, adding multi-factor authentication, or changing your password. If you choose to delete the account, Bitdefender can supply an email template to request full removal.
The dark web monitoring feature works much like you’d expect. You supply personal information such as email address (up to 10), your full name, and phone numbers (up to 5). Bitdefender scans the dark web and reports any instances where your data appears. And you diligently review all the reports, take necessary actions, and mark off the items you’ve dealt with. Deal with enough breach worries and exposed accounts, and you’ll find your score going up.
The Fraud Assistance tab doesn’t contain any references to your own personal data. Rather, it lists a collection of topics that might affect you, things like tax identity theft and credit card fraud. For each topic, you can dig in to see what actions you can take if you’re affected. In many cases, the actions include relevant links, such as to obtain your credit report or contact the FTC.
Data brokers and aggregators scour the web for legally available personal data, process that data into profiles, and sell those profiles to the highest bidder, including advertisers, researchers, and possibly identity thieves. Several large security companies have begun offering a personal data removal service as part of their suites. At its higher tiers, McAfee+ scans your profile across 40+ brokers and automates the removal process if it finds it. Norton’s Privacy Monitor feature tracks several dozen brokers, but automated removal requires purchasing the Privacy Monitor Assistant.
With Bitdefender, Data Broker coverage is strictly informational. The data broker page, reached by clicking More in the top-row menu, starts with FAQs to help you understand the topic. It lists eight popular data broker sites, each with a link to check if your data is present. If so, another link directs you to a template for submitting an official removal request. Removal is DIY—according to the report page in Bitdefender, “…because of legal restraints we can’t verify what information they [the brokers] own about you.”
Bitdefender definitely won’t replace a dedicated personal data removal service such as Incogni, Optery, or Privacy Bee. However, you can use its advice to at least cut back your presence in the personal data profile market.
Each of your employees has access to all the security features I’ve described to this point, though getting everything installed and working does require some effort on the employee’s (or your IT person's) part. From the Employee Overview panel in the Business Dashboard, you can quickly see all your members, along with the number of devices they’ve protected with Bitdefender and whether they’ve configured password management and digital identity protection. Do encourage them to set up those two features, as better security for all your employees translates to better security for your business.
You can access each employee's devices to check their status and verify that all essential apps are installed. Depending on the device, you can take various remote actions. If there’s a problem, such as an important security feature being disabled, you can usually correct it remotely.
If it’s a PC, you can run a quick or full scan, optimize system performance, or scan for system vulnerabilities. For a Mac, malware scanning is the only remote option. From the dashboard, you can trigger a malware scan for your Android. You can even trigger a simple security scan on your iPhone or iPad remotely.
Previously, the Business Dashboard was also where you would manage lost devices. The boss account could access and activate anti-theft for all corporate devices. However, Bitdefender’s developers determined that this arrangement could cause privacy concerns. In the current configuration, anti-theft features must be invoked from the employee account.
When all your employees are equipped to monitor breaches and unauthorized digital footprints, they’re individually less vulnerable to phishing and other targeted attacks. That’s a serious benefit, as spear phishing (targeted phishing) attacks on individuals with access to business assets are a common path to a company-wide data breach.
As the owner or system administrator, you also have access to the Business Assets Exposure page, which is accessible from the Business Dashboard online. Here, you can set up asset monitoring for business-owned assets, rather than for any individual. Specifically, Bitdefender can track one business email account, one business credit card, and a total of 10 social media accounts: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, WhatsApp, X/Twitter, and YouTube.
When you first visit the assets exposure page, it displays information about just what it can do for you. Once you’ve entered the tracking data, it switches to a three-part display of its findings. If there are any breaches related to your business email, a summary and a link to all found breaches are displayed. Suggested actions naturally include changing the password for any breached sites. But the app also suggests encouraging employees to use Digital Identity Protection, the password manager, and Scam Copilot. It also advises installing the protection offered by your business plan on all your business devices.
In a similar fashion, Bitdefender reports any exposures to your business credit card or the social media accounts you selected. For each type of exposure, the suggested actions include both direct security enhancements, such as enabling multi-factor authentication, and general advice, such as reminding employees to use a password manager.
Final Thoughts
(Credit: PCMag Composite)
Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security
- 5.0 - Exemplary: Near perfection, ground-breaking
- 4.5 - Outstanding: Best in class, acts as a benchmark for measuring competitors
- 4.0 - Excellent: A performance, feature, or value leader in its class, with few shortfalls
- 3.5 - Good: Does what the product should do, and does so better than many competitors
- 3.0 - Average: Does what the product should do, and sits in the middle of the pack
- 2.5 - Fair: We have some reservations, buy with caution
- 2.0 - Subpar: We do not recommend, buy with extreme caution
- 1.5 - Poor: Do not buy this product
- 1.0 - Dismal: Don't even think about buying this product
Read Our Editorial Mission Statement and Testing Methodologies.
If your business is small enough, you might get by with consumer-grade security, but once you have a significant number of employees and all their devices, you’re better off with a business-specific solution. Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security builds on the company's impressive security technologies, expanding its existing Bitdefender Central online console with employee and device management. In addition to protecting your people and devices, it specifically monitors for exposure of business assets such as social media accounts and company credit cards. Accordingly, Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security is our Editors' Choice when your needs expand beyond consumer-grade security. If your goal is to maintain only essential security features on your company computers while maintaining full control from a central hub, Avast Premium Business Security is also a winner.
STILL ON THE FENCE?
About Our Expert
When the IBM PC was new, I served as the president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years. That’s how I met PCMag’s editorial team, who brought me on board in 1986. In the years since that fateful meeting, I’ve become PCMag’s expert on security, privacy, and identity protection, putting antivirus tools, security suites, and all kinds of security software through their paces.
Before my current security gig, I supplied PCMag readers with tips and solutions on using popular applications, operating systems, and programming languages in my "User to User" and "Ask Neil" columns, which began in 1990 and ran for almost 20 years. Along the way, I wrote more than 40 utility articles, as well as Delphi Programming for Dummies and six other books covering DOS, Windows, and programming. I also reviewed thousands of products of all kinds, ranging from early Sierra Online adventure games to AOL’s precursor Q-Link.
In the early 2000s, I turned my focus to security and the growing antivirus industry. After years of working with antivirus, I’m known throughout the security industry as an expert on evaluating antivirus tools. I serve as an advisory board member for the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), an international nonprofit group dedicated to coordinating and improving testing of anti-malware solutions.
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