BullGuard Review

BULLGUARD KEY DATA

GENERAL INFO:

Price: From $29.99
Money-back Guarantee: YES
Platforms: PC, Mac, Android

SCANNING:

Real-time Antivirus: YES
USB Virus Scan: YES
Auto Virus Scanning: YES
Manual Virus Scanning: YES
Registry Startup Scan: YES
Scheduled Scan: YES

THREAT TYPE:

Anti-Spyware: YES
Anti-Trojan: YES
Anti-Phishing: YES
Adware Prevention: YES
Anti-Ransomware: YES
Anti-Malware: YES
Anti-Theft: YES
Email-Protection: YES
Anti-Worm: YES
Anti-Rootkit: YES
Anti-Spam: YES
Chat/IM Protection: NO

EXTRA FEATURES:

Personal Firewall: YES
Password Manager: YES
Identity Protection: YES
Adware Blocker: YES
Gamer Booster: YES
Smartphone Optimizer: NO
Secure Browser: YES
Parental Controls: YES
VPN Service: NO
PC Tune-up: YES

SUPPORT:

Live Chat: YES
Email Support: YES
Phone Support: NO
Ticket Support: YES


SEE WHAT USERS HAVE TO SAY

“Very helpful service and a very good price. Very helpful for people who are not great with computers like me. It was a very simple and stress-free process and I felt confident with the service being provided the whole time. Thank you for this service option.”

“I have protected all of my computers with BullGuard for many years. I've never had problems with it, either during installation or in use. BullGuard reliably protect my computers against viruses and much more. The automatic optimization of the PC is also perfect! I am completely satisfied with it; just perfect!”

“Brilliant service - great product - nothing more to say. I have been a customer for over a decade and found their products and services to be fairly priced and excellent.”

“I have used BullGuard (very successfully) for many years never any issues with virus etc; I added VPN with great results, had to use chat to obtain help with a login on to sites; resolved by BG technician in about 10 minutes. Very satisfied with the full BullGuard family of apps.”


FEATURES

Bullguard's set of security and privacy features aren't nearly as extensive as those of full-featured mega suites, but it does the essentials quite well. What's even more impressive is how it leverages dynamic machine learning, behavioral engine, and new cloud protection technology to take malware detection to a whole new level. Check out Bullguard’s eight layers of protection against malware:

Dynamic Machine Learning - Outpace and outsmart cyber attackers with Bullguard's dynamic machine learning AI technology. By continuously monitoring every file and process in your network, it can catch malware as it happens and block them before it causes damage to your computer or smartphone system. What's even better, it works online or offline, so even if malware cuts off your internet connection, you'll still be protected.

Sentry Protection for Zero-Day Malware - Bullguard uses a Sentry behavioral engine to protect your network against zero-day attacks and other complex threats.

On-Access Antivirus Engine - designed to offer optimal protection against all types of malware, even if you never run a manual scan.

Firewall - Bullguard now comes with a powerful firewall component that acts as a virtual moat between your computer network and the web. It provides end-to-end protection before, during, and after downloading applications to keep cyber attackers at bay. It also makes sure that your operating system always has the latest security updates. It's configured to use less processing power, so you won't have to worry about other applications slowing down.

Vulnerability Scanner - most people ignore security update notifications, especially if their computer is running fine. However, ignoring these updates is basically allowing cybercriminals to discover all sorts of vulnerabilities before you do. Thankfully, Bullguard's vulnerability scanner lets you spot security risks at-a-glance. It also warns you against unsecured Wi-Fi networks and drivers and applications that may contain malware.

Home Network Scanner - Unlike corporate networks, your home network isn't protected by rigorous security protocols. And with about 25 connected devices per household, it has never been easier for hackers to access your network. Bullguard's home network scanner prevents potential breaches by monitoring your home Wi-Fi network and all devices connected to it 24/7. This includes gaming consoles, smart speakers, fitness trackers, baby monitors, thermostats, smartwatches, and more. When a new device is connected, Bullguard does a thorough security scan to keep your network safe. In addition, it also alerts you when connecting to an unsecured network.

Ultimate Identity Protection - included with BullGuard Premium Protection only, this feature helps detect, prevent, and deter identity theft and fraud. It keeps your personal information private, including your email addresses, bank account details, credit and debit card numbers, driver's licenses, telephone numbers, passport details, and more. If any of your personal data shows up on the internet or the dark web, you will receive an email alert warning so you can take action before it's too late.

BullGuard also offers Mobile Security to protect your smartphone and tablets against trackware, adware, spam calls, SMS bombers, theft, and data harvesters. The free version has decent features, including antitheft, antivirus, automatic virus scans, backup and restore, SIM protection, and mobile security manager. Plus, it can do all these without draining your battery too! If you want to protect up to 5 devices and get parental control with application monitoring and GPS tracking, you can get the premium version for an additional fee.


ARE THERE ANY EXTRAS?

On top of protecting your physical devices, Bullguard also offers a few extras meant to make your digital life secure and more efficient.

Game Booster - enjoy lightning-fast and secure gaming with BullGuard's new and improved game booster. How? Well, game booster works on computers with four core processors. As soon as BullGuard detects that a user has entered a gaming session, it pulls all other active applications into one or two cores, keeping the remaining cores exclusively dedicated to the game. This prevents random lag (freeze) spikes in your games caused by other applications running in the background. This award-winning game booster feature is now made even better with anti-cheat engines and enhanced support for major online games.

Secure Browser - this custom-built browser keeps you away from malicious and potentially fraudulent websites. It marks safe sites with a checkmark in a green circle and potentially dangerous ones with a red stop sign. Offering multi-layered protection, BullGuard's Safe Browser feature provides a safer way to browse the internet, shop, make payments online, download apps or files without the risks of getting malware, and many more.

Parental Controls - BullGuard's parental control feature is designed to help parents protect their kids against inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online predators, cybercriminals, and hackers. Using this feature, you can block access to suspicious websites, filter web content, or limit their time online. You can also use it to block certain apps, such as chat/messaging services, and restrict the transmission of sensitive data such as your name, email address, phone number, and credit card information.

PC Tune-Up - This will help keep your PC in shape by removing unnecessary temporary and duplicate files. It also provides information on what features you can turn off or remove to boost your computer's performance.

Cloud Integrated Backup - backing up your valuable data has never been easier with BullGuard's online backup feature. It only includes 5GB of storage space, but you won't have to worry because files are encrypted and transferred in compressed form to ensure minimal use of resources. You can schedule backups and pretty much forget about it. When unfortunate things happen, your computer crashes, damaged or infected with a virus, you can access and restore your files from any computer worldwide. This way, you can protect months or years of irreplaceable photos, videos, documents, folders, emails, and any other files!


IS IT SAFE AND RELIABLE?

BullGuard boasts of "award-winning" protection, so we sought out how it performed in recent tests conducted by independent labs. The awards they've posted on their website were mostly from 2017 - 2020, however. Is it still any good in 2024? Turns out it is. At least according to one of the top independent antivirus testing labs — AV-Test. In July and August 2021, AV-Test evaluated 21 home user security products to see how they've performed against malware infections (such as viruses, worms, or Trojan horses), impact on computer speed daily, and their usability as a whole. BullGuard emerged on top with a "TOP PRODUCT" award, scoring 6/6 in each of the three categories.


EASE OF USE AND SETUP

Quick and no-fuss is how we would describe our experience setting up BullGuard on our computer. After choosing your desired plan and hitting the "download" button, all that's left to do is click on the tiny installer a few times, and you're all set. However, using the interface itself may be far from intuitive. The dashboard is easy on the eyes, albeit a tad dated, with colorful icons on a white background. It packs a lot of features into a small space, so everything is right there in front of you. However, this may actually be a problem as many essential settings are hidden behind multiple drop-down menus. This means doing something as simple as scheduling a scan would require at least four clicks compared to other antivirus suites that let you do it in a single click. Navigating can be tricky, at least until you've had some time playing around with it.


WILL IT SLOW DOWN MY COMPUTER?

As shown in the recent evaluation by AV-Test, BullGuard's impact on system performance is significantly lower than the industry average. For example, most antivirus products cause a slowdown of 14% when visiting popular websites compared to BullGuard's minimal impact of 8%. The industry average on how much an antivirus slows down installation of frequently-used apps is at 20%, and BullGuard only slows it down by 16%. Overall, with an average RAM consumption is 200MB, BullGuard is pretty lightweight and does not bog down the OS, RAM, and CPU.


PRICING AND PLANS

BullGuard currently offers three security packages: Antivirus, Internet Security, and Premium Protection. The first one has a current price tag of $29.99 and provides protection only for a single Windows computer. If you want to protect multiple devices simultaneously on all major operating systems, you will need either Internet Security (from $59.99) or Premium Protection (from $99.99). The former lets you cover from 3 to 10 devices, while the latter can protect up to 15 devices. With Premium Protection, you also get the Ultimate Identity Protection feature. All three packages include automatic updates, 24/7 live chat, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Take note that prices may change at any time without prior notice. If you want to save at least 50%, visit our link before the special offer expires.


CUSTOMER SUPPORT

BullGuard extends customer support via three channels: live chat, email, and an on-site ticket system. Unfortunately, they don't offer phone support, but their live chat option is an excellent alternative. It's available 24/7 to customers who speak English, Chinese, and Spanish and during regular business hours to those from Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Sweden. Their email and ticketing system are equally great, and you typically get a response within a day. If you don't mind browsing for answers yourself, you can check out BullGuard's informative articles on their support page.


THE VERDICT

BullGuard is an impressive lightweight antivirus product with a powerful anti-malware scanner and a few memorable features, including the best gaming mode in the industry, cloud backup, identity protection, and a decent parental control feature. That said, VPN is only available as an add-on, and you will also have to pay extra to get parental control on mobile devices. All in all, it's a good entry-level antivirus solution, especially for Windows users.

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