BullGuard Internet Security 2020 Test & Review

How We Test

Having the right antivirus is essential. 

To know whether BullGuard Internet Security is the right choice for you, we have put it to the test. We have used 6 categories to analyze its performance. All of them are important, but definitely not equal.

Below in the graph, you can see each category and the weight it has in the calculation of the final score. If you don’t know what each term means, don’t worry, we’ll explain all of them. 

And on top of that, we’ll tell you how BullGuard scored, how it compares to the best antivirus in the industry, and which sources we used to calculate our scores.

Note on BullGuard:

BullGuard only participates in the testing for Windows 10. We have no data from the test labs for BullGuard’s performance on Mac or Android. That is also why we have not concluded it in our roundup of the best antivirus for Mac or Android.

BullGuard 2020: Protection from malware

The Good: BullGuard has good protection scores.

The Bad: Although the protection is good, BullGuard does fall behind the industry average, which is 9.2 for protection on Windows.

What is a protection test?

The best antivirus are tested several times per year on their protection from malware and other online threats, such as adware, spam, and phishing scams. These tests are performed by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, the international leaders in IT security testing.

Generally speaking, antivirus software use three protection methods to keep you safe, both online and offline. The test labs set up their experiments in such a way, that each method is tested.

The methods, in brief, are:

1. Protection from known malware

Known malware have been encountered before. That’s why they are known. When discovered by a cybersecurity company, their digital signature is uploaded to a vast database of malware threats.

By analogy, you can imagine this digital signature like a fingerprint of a criminal. It allows the antivirus to discover the malware rapidly, as the police would discover a criminal using its fingerprint.

So in practice, the antivirus scans your system for these digital signatures to find any malware infections. This is the most straightforward protection method called signature-based detection, and often referred to as virus scanning.

2. Protection from unknown malware

Unknown malware are much harder to detect. After all, they have never been encountered before, and therefore have no digital signature in the database.

To discover these malware threats, antivirus use a different strategy. They hunt for behavioral patterns, rather than digital signatures.

This means the antivirus analyze files for suspicious behavior such as rapid file replication or the hiding of specific files. Once it uncovers a file acting this way, it flags it as malware, and investigates it further in a safe environment, called a sandbox.

3. Protection from user-focused threats

It is increasingly common for users to be the direct target of online scams. You’ve probably been targeted at least once yourself. Common examples are:

Phishing emails that seem to come from PayPal, requesting you to verify your login details. Of course, if you would reply, your details would not go to PayPal but to a criminal instead.

Nigerian email scams, where you are told that you can make a large sum of money, if you would only send 100 USD to a Nigerian bank account first. Of course, you would never hear from them again once you have made the transfer.

To protect users from such threats, antivirus software have developed a new range of tools. These include wifi scanners, web advisors, spam filters, anti-phishing tools, and many more.

BullGuard 2020: Windows 10 protection score

BullGuard’s protection for Windows 10 is great. But it’s not on par with the industry average. Have a look at our comparison of the best antivirus for Windows to find out which score better.

BullGuard 2020: Performance Impact

The Good: BullGuard scores ahead of the industry average, which sits at 8.5. This means it will not slow down your PC or Laptop.

The Bad: BullGuard was not tested for Mac.

What is a performance test?

To keep you safe from malware, antivirus operate in the background of your device. To do this, they require some resources, which can lead to a slow down of your device.

The test labs analyze just how big the impact is for each antivirus software.

BullGuard 2020: Windows 10 performance score

BullGuard does well in this test, scoring ahead of the industry average. It cannot match the performance of BitDefender, Norton, and McAfee, however.

BullGuard 2020: Devices & Features

The Good: BullGuard offers a very complete feature set for Windows 10 and Android.

The Bad: BullGuard offers only virus scanning on Mac, without any additional features. BullGuard does not support iOS.

What is a devices and features test?

In this test, we not only analyze which operating software the antivirus support, but also which features they offer on each. We then compare this data to the other antivirus.

A note on iOS:

Not all antivirus create an app for iOS.

Although it is true that iOS is a safer platform than Windows, Mac, and Android, users could still benefit from a security solution that offers them anti-theft, a VPN, a web advisor, and perhaps some parental controls. 

BullGuard 2020: Devices and features score

BullGuard follows the well-worn path of most antivirus: Developing a ton of security features for Windows, a few for Android, almost none for Mac, and ignoring iOS.

This is not necessarily a bad strategy. Windows and Android are the most susceptible platforms for malware infection. And most antivirus buyers, and therefor BullGuard’s customers, are Windows users.

It just makes them less interesting for Mac and iOS users. For those, we recommend BitDefender.

For Windows, BullGuard offers a very complete security suite. Packed with all the usual suspects (anti-malware, anti-phishing, anti-ransomware) and a variety of bonus features: Safe browsing, game booster, cloud backup, home network scanner, identity protection, and parental controls.

A VPN would be a nice addition, but one cannot really fault the offering for Windows 10 by BullGuard.

For Android, a similar rich feature set is offered. Antivirus, anti-theft, parental controls and cloud backup are all present. The antivirus includes both actual antivirus scanning and app-scanning, which is one step more than offered by Norton and BitDefender, who stick to app-scanning only.

For Mac, BullGuard offers only the basics: A virus scanner.

BullGuard does not support iOS.

BullGuard 2020: User Reviews

The Good: BullGuard has excellent user reviews, scoring a 9 out of almost 1.500 reviews on TrustPilot, and an 8 out over 4.000 reviews in the Google Play Store.

The Bad: Nothing

What is a user review test?

User reviews help you make a better purchasing decision. That much is obvious. Which user reviews to trust, it far less obvious, as they are often used as a marketing tool.

We analyze the user reviews by TrustPilot and the Google Play Store for large quantities of trustworthy reviews. We then compare these with the reviews of the other antivirus brands.

BullGuard 2020: User review score

BullGuard does very well in this department. Scoring a 9 in TrustPilot takes a lot of effort and dedication to customer satisfaction. Of all antivirus tested, BullGuard has the highest score among TrustPilot users. 

That both BullGuard and TrustPilot come from Denmark might offer a slight home turf advantage, but that is speculation. The only thing we know for a fact, is that it is a very impressive score.

Also in the Google Play Store, BullGuard does well. With an 8 out of more than 4.000 user reviews, it certainly isn’t a big player (Norton has an astonishing 1.2 million reviews there), but it still is a great score.

BullGuard 2020: Value for Money

The Good: BullGuard frequently has special discounts and is priced very competitively.

The Bad: BullGuard scores slight under average in the protection tests and has limited features for Mac, decreasing its value for money a bit.

What is a value for money test?

We compare the protection, bonus features, and price, to the offering of the other antivirus software in the market.

BullGuard 2020: Value for money score

BullGuard is a great product for Windows 10, with a bunch of advanced bonus features. It is, for instance, the only antivirus to offer a game booster.

It also frequently features deep discounts, making it significantly cheaper than the expensive American brands Norton and McAfee.

Having a slightly under-average protection score on Windows 10, and very limited protection for Mac, doesn’t help its score though.

BullGuard 2020: False Positives

The Good: BullGuard mistakes very few clean files as malware, giving it a very good false positive score, ahead of the industry average.

The Bad: Nothing

What is a false positive test?

Each antivirus programs makes a few mistakes, called false positives. This occurs when the antivirus in question thinks a clean file is malware.

In general, this is nothing to worry about. However, some antivirus produce significantly more false positives than others. And at large numbers, this can become annoying.

The test labs measure how many false positives an antivirus detects during its protection efforts on Windows 10, Mac, and Android.

BullGuard 2020: Windows 10 false positives score

BullGuard scores well ahead of the industry average, and also beats Norton and Panda in this area. It does fall behind BitDefender.

Data sources we use

Protection, performance, and false positives data:

These three factors together, make up 70% of the final score. It is the core of the analysis. To use only the most trustworthy data, we analyze tests by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, which are the leading IT security test labs.

The two test labs run several tests per year. In our analysis, we have included every test since January 2017. This covers over 30 tests and 20 antivirus software. BitDefender, Norton, Panda, BullGuard, McAfee, and Avast, belonged to the overall best performers among the antivirus.

We believe it is valuable to use the average of the tests since January 2017, rather than the single latest tests, as it gives a fairer comparison between the antivirus and a better impression of what you can expect.

Finally, we include the industry average, which is also based on the average test scores since January 2017. We do this to give you a measuring stick to understand what a good score actually is.

User review data:

To get valuable insights from data, you need scale. In this case, you need lots and lots of user reviews to say something meaningful.

On top of that, you need trustworthy sources that are not easily manipulated by manufacturers who want to sell more products.

That’s why we analyze the data from TrustPilot and the Google Play Store.

TrustPilot is an internationally recognized platform where over 200.000 companies have been reviewed by more than 45 million user reviews.

The Google Play Store is the download market for Android apps. It is one of the largest sources of user reviews in the world. For example, Norton and Avast combined have nearly 7 million reviews there.