The free antivirus software will finally be discontinued on December 31, 2021, as the developer has now announced on an information page. The associated downloads have also been removed from the Bitdefender homepage.
At the same time, users who have already installed the software or are still downloading it from an external source can use it until June 30, 2022. The associated download can also be found at CHIP under this section.
Bitdefender Free virus software is being discontinued: these are the reasons
On the info page, Bitdefender also provides information about the motivation for the move. As a result, the free version will be discontinued as part of the “focus on product development for cross-platform protection”. Since you “value your customers very much”, you will contact affected users shortly by e-mail and offer them a special offer for the paid version Bitdefender Total Security.
In the community forum, a Bitdefender employee also points out that the free product no longer meets the high standards of the developers. You constantly check your own product range in order to “protect users under all circumstances”. Since this can apparently no longer be guaranteed with Bitdefender Free, the version will be discontinued on December 31st.