Netgear Armor vs Bitdefender Total Security: Double-pay, but stripped features

---

Sailbound88 wrote:

As a loyal BD user, I am very disappointed with the way BD has rebranded --and nearly duplicated-- its Total Security solution as Netgear Armor on my new router. In order to get complete protection on my network, I must purchase a Netgear Armor subscription which *pretty much* negates the need for total Security 2020l a duplication that was not explained well when I renewed my BD Total Security subscription for 2 years.

 

I say "nearly" duplicates because the Netgear Armor solution also strips out the parental controls that I depended on in my original BD subscription. So, I have now paid for two subscriptions, yet can't use either solution to arrive that the complete feature sets I want on my router and family devices.  I realize Netgear wants to sell me other parental control solutions on their routers, but I think Netgear and BD have an obligation to better explain the redundancy of costs, as well as the feature sets that will be stripped when using the Armor solution.  Anyone else having this problem?  Or better yet, a workaround?  TIA!

---

Ultimately Armor has 2 components. The Bit Defender process running on the router, and the Bit Defender client.

You are correct, the Bit Defender Client w/ Armor has most but not all of the features.

If you want the other features from Bit Defender, then you need to pay Bit Defender.

However Netgear on most devices now does offer the Circle Parental Control feature, where premium features may require a subscription uplift.  So Netgear's total solution appears to be Armor + Circle.  

If you're ok w/ the Netgear options, then you don't need the Bit Defender paid subscription.  If you just renewed, I know Bit Defender will refund (at least in the US) if you cancel within around a month of renewal, so I'd contact Bit Defender, let them know, and if you just renewed, you likely are within the return/cancel-with-refund policy.

Not trying to defend Netgear here..as the docuemntation around Armor is definately lacking as you found too, but Netgear can choose to offer whatever features they want, so if they want to use Circle for their Parental Control solution instead of Bit Defender, that's up to them.

Netgear does need to improve how they plan on handling hand-offs between Bit Defender and Netgear though, it's definately not easy nor consistent to navigate support organizations.