Malwarebytes and Bitdefender are two of the most recognized names in the cybersecurity market for the latest antivirus software, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and endpoint protection platforms (EPP).
Both vendors share a number of the same solution capabilities for potential clients, meaning there’s plenty to compare in terms of malware detection and analysis, supported endpoints, and incident response. Though Malwarebytes and Bitdefender offer personal anti-malware coverage, our focus remains on each vendor’s business and enterprise-level services.
This article looks at how Malwarebytes and Bitdefender compare regarding products, cybersecurity capabilities, client base, pricing, industry recognition, and more.
Products and Solutions: Malwarebytes vs Bitdefender
Malwarebytes Products and Solutions
Malwarebytes offers its three endpoint security products (EPP, EDR, and incident response) in addition to channel partner solutions for resellers, managed service providers, repair technicians, and technology partners.
Endpoint Protection Platform
Malwarebytes EPP solution provides advanced malware detection and endpoint protection for organizations small and large. The solution’s lightweight agent can detect and block malicious code without slowing performance and end-user productivity. To guard against today’s sophisticated attacks, Malwarebytes provides clients with comprehensive web protection, device hardening, signatureless payload analysis, and behavior-based blocking.
Endpoint Detection and Response
For Windows and macOS environments, Malwarebytes offers the gamut of EDR capabilities, from next-gen antivirus software to threat remediation and zero-day protection. Malwarebytes EDR’s features include a cloud management console, Windows ransomware rollback, threat hunting, and brute force RDP.
Incident Response
As uptime and response times increasingly translate to direct business impact, Malwarebytes’ Incident Response offers automated endpoint remediation functionality. Clients with existing Security Operations Center (SOC) infrastructure can benefit from the vendor’s API integrations providing threat intelligence and automation capabilities across security solutions.
Malwarebytes Incident Response connects systems network access control (NAC), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), security incident and event management (SIEM), or IT service management (ITSM) to offer visibility and control when responding to events.
Read more: Malwarebytes Endpoint Protection Product Review
Bitdefender Products and Solutions
Bitdefender offers its formidable security stack as a service (SECaaS) with managed detection and response (MDR) and channel opportunities for managed security service providers (MSSPs). Bitdefender’s flagship endpoint security platform is GravityZone, with plans covering endpoints, cloud infrastructure, servers, mobile devices, and email exchange for direct clients. Clients can also add on tools for integrated patch management and full disk encryption.
GravityZone Enterprise Security
Bitdefender’s premium solution combines its endpoint security technologies to form GravityZone Enterprise Security. From a single console platform, Bitdefender provides clients with comprehensive security functionality for systems across the hybrid IT environment. Integration with Active Directory and hypervisors for VMware and Citrix and support for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems provides administrators with the most visibility and control organization-wide.
Endpoint Detection and Response
Bitdefender Endpoint Detection and Response uses machine learning, cloud scanning, and a sandbox analyzer to detect the latest techniques, tactics, and procedures. With industry-leading threat detection technology, Bitdefender EDR offers continuous event monitoring, analytics, and protection against fileless attacks.
For threat hunting and incident response, administrators can query the events database to find compromise indicators (IoC), utilize threat intelligence, and terminate processes in real-time to protect critical network segments.
Also read: Bitdefender Review 2022 | EDR & Antivirus Security Solution
Pricing: Malwarebytes vs Bitdefender
Malwarebytes Pricing
Below are the annual licensing costs per device. Malwarebytes for Teams under ten devices goes for $49.99 per year per device, while anything over 10 is:
| 10 – 99 Devices | 100+ Devices | Servers | |
| EPP | $70 | $70 | $250 |
| EDR | $85 | $85 | $300 |
Bitdefender Pricing
Bitdefender’s pricing isn’t as clear-cut, but prospective clients can play with the vendor’s quote calculator for licenses ranging from 1 to 3 years and by the number of devices covered (desktops, laptops, mobile devices, file and mail servers). Minimum coverage plans start at five devices, while clients looking to cover 100 or more can request a custom quote.
Below are the approximate per device costs for a range of devices and licenses.
| 5 Devices | 50 Devices | 99 Devices | |
| 1 Year | $58 | $46 | $46 |
| 2 Year | $93 | $73 | $73 |
| 3 Year | $116 | $91 | $91 |
Read more: Top Cybersecurity Companies for 2022
Industry Recognition and Reviews: Malwarebytes vs Bitdefender
MITRE ATT&CK Evaluations of Endpoint Security Products
The most recent MITRE ATT&CK evaluations showed a notable difference between Malwarebytes and Bitdefender. While Malwarebytes did beat Bitdefender in total analytic detection, Bitdefender’s 90.80% overall detection rate was considerably better than Malwarebytes’ 66.67%. Malwarebytes also took on MITRE’s new protection test, scoring a solid 80% in the difficult adversarial attack simulation.
| Telemetry Detections | +Analytic Detections | Overall Detection Rate | |
| Malwarebytes | 99 | 116 | 66.67% |
| Bitdefender | 150 | 158 | 90.80% |
Gartner Magic Quadrant and Peer Insights
Magic Quadrant: Endpoint Protection Platforms
| When | What | |
| Malwarebytes | 2017–2019 | Niche Player, Visionary |
| Bitdefender | 2017–2021 | Niche Player |
Peer Insights: Endpoint Protection Platforms
Malwarebytes and Bitdefender share hundreds of reviews on Gartner Peer Insight in the endpoint protection platforms category. Malwarebytes also holds an average score of 4.6 out of 5 across 150 reviews in the Endpoint Detection and Response solution category.
Both companies hold an average score of 4.6 out of 5 stars for EPP, but Malwarebytes has the edge in review quantity with over twice as many as Bitdefender.
| Rating | Reviews | |
| Malwarebytes | 4.6 | 623 |
| Bitdefender | 4.6 | 289 |
Making a Decision: Malwarebytes vs Bitdefender
Malwarebytes and Bitdefender help thousands of businesses secure their IT infrastructure with much of the same coverage. As the industry evolves, both companies compete to add the latest endpoint protection features but clients ultimately want to know – are malicious threats detected, and how does the solution enable faster remediation?
As last year’s MITRE ATT&CK evaluations showed, Bitdefender held an edge in telemetry detections for an overall detection rate substantially better than Malwarebytes, but Malwarebytes’ solid performance in the important protection test is also worthy of note
