Bitdefender VPN
An antivirus-vendor VPN running on Aura/Hotspot Shield (formerly Pango) infrastructure, offered standalone or bundled with Bitdefender security suites.
www.bitdefender.com/en-us/consumer/vpn ↗- Jurisdiction
- Romania
- Founded
- 2001
- Owner
- Bitdefender (privately held; co-founders Talpeș family majority, Vitruvian Partners ~30% minority stake since 2017; originated as a SOFTWIN subsidiary)
- Best price
- $2.92/mo
- Devices
- 10
- Free tier
- Yes
Best for
- · Existing Bitdefender antivirus customers who want an integrated VPN add-on
- · Everyday privacy, public-Wi-Fi protection, and geo-unblocking of streaming
- · Users who value a simple, set-and-forget client over advanced configurability
Not ideal for
- · Users in heavily censored countries needing obfuscation/stealth
- · Privacy maximalists wanting open-source clients, anonymous crypto signup, or self-operated infrastructure
- · Linux users and power users needing port forwarding or self-hosted-style server control
Strengths
- ✓Independently audited no-logs policy (no browsing history, connection timestamps, or IP logging)
- ✓Headquartered in Romania, outside the 5/9/14-Eyes alliances and with no mandatory VPN data-retention law
- ✓Excellent value when bundled with Bitdefender antivirus suites; cheap first-year standalone price
- ✓WireGuard support with strong AES-256/ChaCha20 encryption, plus kill switch, multihop (Double Hop), and P2P-friendly servers
Weaknesses
- ✗Does not run its own network, relies on Aura/Hotspot Shield (formerly Pango), a US-based third party, so the privacy chain spans an additional operator
- ✗No obfuscation, so it works poorly in censorship-heavy regions
- ✗Clients are closed-source, the audit firm is not publicly named, and no detailed audit report is published; audit year and scope are reported inconsistently
- ✗Renewal prices jump well above the first-year promo, no native Linux client, and crypto/cash anonymous payment is not supported
Full data sheet
Every attribute we track, coloured by whether it helps or hurts your privacy.
| Based in | Romania |
| Eyes alliance | Outside 5/9/14 Eyes |
| Enemy of the Internet | No |
| Owner | Bitdefender (privately held; co-founders Talpeș family majority, Vitruvian Partners ~30% minority stake since 2017; originated as a SOFTWIN subsidiary) |
| Conglomerate | n/a |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Traffic / activity | None kept |
| DNS requests | None kept |
| Timestamps | None kept |
| Bandwidth | Some |
| Source IP address | None kept |
No-logs policy (independently audited; see audits): no browsing history, no connection timestamps, and no recording of originating IP address or destination websites. Bitdefender retains account data (email, payment info) and minimal non-identifiable/session data for authentication, connectivity and performance, plus some aggregate operational data. The network is operated by Aura/Hotspot Shield (formerly Pango), a US-based processor, so the combined privacy policy spans both Bitdefender and the third-party infrastructure provider.
| Anonymous signup | No |
| Accepts cash | Unknown |
| Accepts crypto | Unknown |
| PGP key | Unknown |
| OpenVPN | Yes |
| WireGuard | Yes |
| Proprietary protocol | Historically used Hotspot Shield's Catapult Hydra, but current clients have dropped Hydra in favor of standard protocols; Bitdefender's official protocol page now lists only WireGuard, OpenVPN and IKEv2 (no Hydra) |
| Multi-hop | Yes |
| Obfuscation | No |
| Kill switch | Yes |
| First-party DNS | Unknown |
| RAM-only servers | Unknown |
| Port forwarding | Unknown |
| P2P / torrenting | Yes |
| IPv6 | Unknown |
| Data cipher | AES-256 / ChaCha20 |
| Handshake | WireGuard (Curve25519) |
| Open-source clients | No |
| Independent audits | 1 |
| Transparency report | Unknown |
| Court / seizure-tested | Unknown |
No public record of a server seizure or legal demand testing Bitdefender VPN in court. The no-logs claim has been validated by an unnamed third-party audit (reported as 2025 on Bitdefender's own support page, 2026 by some review sites). Audit scope is described inconsistently, Bitdefender's page frames it as an audit of the infrastructure used by the VPN, while several review sites describe it as covering only the logging policy, not the full Aura/Hotspot Shield stack. No full report is published.
| Simultaneous devices | 10 |
| Countries | 100 |
| Servers | 3000 |
| Linux support | No |
| Month-to-month | $6.99 |
| Best $/mo | $2.92 |
| On plan | 1-year (first-year promo, e.g. $34.99 first year ≈ $2.92/mo; renews higher, ~$69.99/yr) |
| Free trial | 7 days |
| Refund window | 30 days |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Logging policy | Consistent |
| Marketing honesty | No overclaiming |
Independent audits
- Independent third party (firm not publicly named)· 2025 · No-logs / privacy verification, confirmed no logging of browsing activity, connection timestamps, or IP addresses. Year (2025 vs 2026) and exact scope (full infrastructure vs logging policy only) are reported inconsistently across sources; no detailed report published.report ↗
Bitdefender VPN does not operate its own servers; the network is provided by Aura/Hotspot Shield (formerly Pango), a US-based processor. Bitdefender itself is a privately held Romanian cybersecurity firm founded in 2001 by Florin Talpeș (originating as a subsidiary of SOFTWIN, founded 1990), dual-HQ in Bucharest and San Antonio. It has no parent company/conglomerate; London-based PE firm Vitruvian Partners holds an ~30% minority stake (since 2017) and the founders retain the majority. A free tier exists (200 MB/day, 1 server), often tied to Bitdefender security suites. Server count is reported between ~3,000 and 4,000+ across reviews; Bitdefender's own product page states "more than 3,000 servers in 100+ countries," so 3,000 is used as the conservative official figure. CORRECTIONS vs draft: OpenVPN is in fact supported (Windows/Android per Bitdefender's official protocol page), changed from "no" to "yes"; Catapult Hydra appears discontinued in current clients (no longer listed officially); Linux changed from "unknown" to "none" (no native client, manual WireGuard config only); servers reduced from 4000 to 3000 to match the official figure; company.parent annotated with the Vitruvian Partners stake. The no-logs audit firm remains unnamed and audit year/scope are contested (2025 per Bitdefender vs 2026 per some reviews).
Sources
- Bitdefender VPN No-Log Policy (official support page; audit '2025', infrastructure framing) ↗
- Bitdefender VPN Protocols Explained: WireGuard, OpenVPN, IKEv2 (official; confirms OpenVPN on Windows/Android, no Hydra listed) ↗
- Bitdefender Premium VPN official product/features page (3,000+ servers/100+ countries, $6.99/mo, 30-day money-back, 7-day trial, WireGuard+Hydra wording) ↗
- Security.org, Bitdefender VPN pricing & plans 2026 (free tier 200MB/day 1 server, $39.98/yr ≈ $3.33/mo and $2.50/mo promo, 10 devices, 30-day refund) ↗
- Security.org, Bitdefender Premium VPN Review 2026 (Romania/outside Eyes, multihop now present, no IP logging for VPN, no Linux support, 4,000+ servers) ↗
- VPNMentor, Bitdefender VPN Review 2026 (Hotspot Shield servers + Pango/Aura processor, 3000+ servers/100 countries, 10 connections, 30-day money-back) ↗
- VPN.com, Bitdefender VPN Review (WireGuard-only framing, audit 2026 'logging policy only', Aura network, double-hop, no Linux native) ↗
- SoftwareLab, Bitdefender VPN Review 2026 (OpenVPN/WireGuard/Hydra+IPsec, Aura/Pango infra, $34.99 first year / $69.99 renewal, 30-day refund) ↗
- AllAboutCookies, Bitdefender VPN Review 2026 (no-logs audited 2025, 3,000+ servers/100+ countries, OpenVPN+WireGuard+IPsec, no Linux, $2.50/mo–$6.99/mo, split tunneling/kill switch/double-hop) ↗
- CyberScoop, Bitdefender valued at $600M after Vitruvian Partners buys ~30% minority stake ↗
- Wikipedia, Bitdefender (founded 2001 by Florin Talpeș, dual HQ Bucharest/San Antonio, SOFTWIN origin 1990, Vitruvian 30% 2017, no parent company) ↗
Last verified 2026-06-17. Point-in-time data, so always confirm on the provider's own site.