During September and October 2025, among the 16 security products for home users using their default settings, Bitdefender lost performance!
The differences are really marginal there, imho.
What is always expected is the highest score. Especially if Windows Defender is at 6.✌️
I think there's always a challenge to ensure a balance between system security and performance…Simply because not all systems are identical and depending on the system health, available resources, intensive tasks carried out on the device, hardware, CPU and memory, but not limited to this, performance figures may vary. For example, during on-demand or background scan performed by Bitdefender, it is normal for CPU, RAM, and disk usage to increase. Should we tie this to performance? Scanning involves intensive processes that require significant resources to analyze files, folders, and system areas for threats. Although Bitdefender is designed to operate efficiently, it's true that some users have encountered higher than expected CPU and memory usage, so a decrease in performance if you will. Naturally, each case is different and the reasons behind decreased performance also vary. Also, after installing a security software, the computer will slightly slow down, which to a certain degree is normal. Performance is a hot topic indeed, one that has been brought into discussion before on these pages, and we can talk about it for hours. 😄 But then again, these margins are negligible, and I think what matters most is that the antivirus performs as expected in the specific environment where you are using it, in your specific use case and configuration, so if it works well for you, then who cares about 0.5 in a test? 😉
I understand your position. But the margin is a test performed by Av.org to a high standard and with worldwide reliability. In this respect, Bitdefender needs to maintain its leading position.
In my opinion, this is an issue that should not be taken lightly, given that even in AV Comparatives tests, where Bitdefender had always scored full marks (3 stars) for years, it has been achieving disappointing results for over a year now, two stars (which, in my opinion, cost Bitdefender the title of product of the year 2024 in favour of ESET) or even one, while many other AVs continue to perform well or have even improved. It is true that protection is the most important thing, but this cannot be at the expense of performance. I have been a loyal Bitdefender customer for years, and I purchased another year's subscription a few days ago, but if the performance issues continue, I don't know if I will renew my subscription in a year's time, especially if competing products manage to achieve and maintain 3 stars for both protection and performance (and, currently, there are already a couple...).
Thank you for raising this point and sharing the link to the AV-Test results discussion. As a moderator of this community forum and a long-time Bitdefender user, I would like to provide some clarity and perspective regarding the observed performance score change.
First and foremost, there is no evidence of a widespread performance issue with Bitdefender. As our Admin, @Alexandru_BD correctly noted in the thread you referenced, the differences observed in the AV-Test performance category are minimal. For instance, if all competitors scored 6 out of 6 and Bitdefender scored 5.5, this represents a very small variance rather than a systemic flaw requiring major intervention. The same principle applies to malware detection—minor differences in test scores do not indicate a widespread problem.
From my personal experience, Bitdefender runs reliably on my primary machine, and feedback from other users, moderators, and admin in this forum similarly indicates stable performance. Acting solely on minor variations reported by independent antimalware testing organizations would not be productive.
We greatly respect the work of these organizations, which is why we maintain a dedicated section of this forum for results from AV-Test, AV-Comparatives, MRG Effitas, and others (https://community.bitdefender.com/en/discussion/99467/bitdefender-awards-and-certifications-industry-recognition#latest). A slight drop in a single test metric is not a cause for concern; it only becomes significant if there is a major decline. There is a universal truth in cybersecurity: no solution can be perfect in every scenario—whether in malware detection, system performance, or usability across diverse hardware configurations.
We sincerely appreciate you sharing your personal feedback and data. However, any specific performance issues with a Bitdefender product on your system should be addressed directly with Bitdefender Support, as the Bitdefender community forum cannot troubleshoot problems related to individual hardware or configurations.
If you are facing any performance issue, kindly contact Bitdefender support by visiting https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/help/
Select, How to's & Troubleshooting Bitdefender products→Troubleshooting→I don't know→Contact Support→ You will get the option of chat, call or email.
To get an immediate update, make use of the chat option. Also, ensure that no ad blockers or privacy extensions are enabled in your web browser, as they may prevent the chat window from appearing.
Bitdefender support may request diagnostic logs and will guide you through the process of generating them.
Since there is no further discussion remaining on this topic, and any performance issues can only be addressed by Bitdefender Support, this post is now closed to further comments.
Regards
