Bitdefender Internet Security vs. Norton Internet Security

I would like to get some opinions regarding Bitdefender Internet Security vs. Norton Internet Security.
I've been around computers a long time and I know that every time you turn around there's a new "king of the hill" when it comes to Security Software so I realize that things can change rapidly so I'm going to take any information with a grain of salt. At this point I have not evaluated Security software in the last few years but I'm thinking that now might be a opportune time to do so.

Right now I have Norton Internet Security installed on both my laptop and my desktop PC and I have several months left on my subscription. I have noticed that on my laptop I've had some issues with restarts (i.e. black screen with circling white dots) after a Norton Patch and sometimes after Microsoft Updates. Another person on another forum said that he ditched Norton and his similar restart problems went away but he opted to go with the Microsoft solution which I don't trust. From what I understand Bitdefender is pretty good at protecting ones system but I would really like to know (A) is it as good or better than Norton all around and (B) is system performance any better under Bitdefender? If Bitdefender is that much better than Norton I would buy a copy of Bitdefender Internet Security and ditch Norton but I need to be sure that I would not be shooting myself in the foot. Thanks.

I have been a Norton user for over 9 years and have current subscriptions to Norton Security Premium, Kaspersky Internet Security & Bitdefender Total Security.

My 1st pref is either Norton or Kaspersky followed by BD. BD introduces a noticeable lag in the internet connection. One has to turn off the anti-port scanning option to get rid of this issue.

Kaspersky runs well but AV signature update speeds are slow. It may be due to the update server being located in Europe/Russia. BTW BD has a similar slow update problem.

Norton pushed an updated yesterday that messed up the installation. The hot fix could not be applied and I was asked to uninstall the program and reinstall it. I may take this chance to try the new 2017 Kaspersky or BD products.

Hi:

Beaupeep said:

Kaspersky runs well but AV signature update speeds are slow. It may be due to the update server being located in Europe/Russia. BTW BD has a similar slow update problem.

Each system is unique, of course.
But I've run KIS on multiple Vista, 7 and 10 desktops and laptops for years and have not noticed that issue. Updates take only seconds on a decent-but-not-awesome cable HSI connection.
Besides, the updates run silently in the background. TBH, unless I happen to notice the animated system tray icon, I would not even know they are happening. IOW KIS pretty much purrs like a kitten, with neither muss nor fuss, at least for me.

Cheers,
MM

Just pick the one you can afford and like it, because both of them are pretty good in general. Asking this question will just make you having a hard time to pick because everyone have their own opinion.

Beaupeep said:

I have been a Norton user for over 9 years and have current subscriptions to Norton Security Premium, Kaspersky Internet Security & Bitdefender Total Security.

My 1st pref is either Norton or Kaspersky followed by BD. BD introduces a noticeable lag in the internet connection. One has to turn off the anti-port scanning option to get rid of this issue.

Kaspersky runs well but AV signature update speeds are slow. It may be due to the update server being located in Europe/Russia. BTW BD has a similar slow update problem.

Norton pushed an updated yesterday that messed up the installation. The hot fix could not be applied and I was asked to uninstall the program and reinstall it. I may take this chance to try the new 2017 Kaspersky or BD products.

Been using Internet Security 2016 for a year now, and everything is working fine with me.

Let me ask this question a different way. Has anyone noticed any problems with Norton running on laptops? Since the November release of Windows 10 I've noticed that my laptop takes forever to boot and once booted it takes forever for it to be usable as it's busy loading stuff. I've also had problems with my system after Norton patches that require a restart and Windows 10 Updates that require a restart. When a restart is required after one of these two types of updates the system will somtimes display the Windows logo and then the logo would go away and all I would see is a black screen with a rotating circle of white dots and that's where the system would hang. Sometimes I would have to press the power button and restart the laptop several times before it would get past the black screen and the circle of rotating dots. In addition I've had to uninstall and reinstall Norton 2 times on this laptop on recent months. The first time Windows 10 said the version of Norton I had installed was incompatible with Windows 10. The last time I had to reinstall was a week ago after a patch where Control Panel said that Norton was installed but I had no icons and no record of the app in the system tray or in the applications list when you pressed the start button.. After the most recent uninstall/reinstall things seemed to stabilized but startups were still sluggish. I posted a query about this condition on another forum and the response that I received led me to believe that all of the issues I was having was due to Norton as this person has the same issues and resolved them by removing Norton. Today, just for grins, I again uninstalled Norton on my laptop and installed the 30 day trial of Bitdefender and at this point I'm not sure if it's wishful thinking or reality but it seems that my startups are no longer sluggish and overall system performance seems better. This is one reason why I want to know what others are seeing regarding the difference between Bitdefender and Norton in terms of performance. If it is true that my system is not as sluggish as before and Bitdefender performs equally as well as Norton for Virus preventions, anti-spam, anti-malware, and keeping my inbox clean I might make the switch permanent and also replace Norton on my desktop PC that does not seem to have the problems my laptop is having..

Right. So, I'm now running BDTS 2017 and the internet lag that I experienced with the 2016 version seems to be resolved. At least for now. Will use it for a few more days before coming to a conclusion.

RubberDucky said:

Just pick the one you can afford and like it, because both of them are pretty good in general. Asking this question will just make you having a hard time to pick because everyone have their own opinion.

+1 to that. These are mature security solutions and have minor pluses and minuses when compared with each other.

The OP could take a 30 day test drive before taking a decision on which AV suite to purchase.

Beaupeep said:

Right. So, I'm now running BDTS 2017 and the internet lag that I experienced with the 2016 version seems to be resolved. At least for now. Will use it for a few more days before coming to a conclusion.




+1 to that. These are mature security solutions and have minor pluses and minuses when compared with each other.

The OP could take a 30 day test drive before taking a decision on which AV suite to purchase.

The 2017 is still in beta atm, so you can submit a feedback to them to make it better, and this is what you expected from beta software.

I don't think that the 2017 Version of Bitdefender Internet Security is still in Beta. When you go to their website they are advertising the 2017 versions (there are 3) as available now and when I downloaded the trial version it specifically indicated that it was the 2017 version.

The 2017 version of BDTS is the release version, not beta. Anyway, I experienced the same minor lag issues (not as bad as v2016) and uninstalled BD. Now trying Kaspersky IS 2017. Works without a hitch. So, after test driving these applications my preferences remain unchanged i.e. It's a Norton/Kaspersky tie with BDTS at 2nd place. These are preferences based on my experience. YMMV of course.