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Cybersecurity · head to head

Bitdefender VPN vs Soketi

Bitdefender VPN logo

Bitdefender VPN

Cybersecurity

Consumer VPN sold by Bitdefender that runs on network infrastructure licensed from a third party rather than its own.

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Soketi logo

Soketi

Developer Tools

Self-hosted, Pusher-compatible WebSockets server with a stalled maintenance record

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Soketi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Bitdefender VPN the network is not Bitdefender's: the servers and the Catapult Hydra protocol are licensed from Aura, formerly Pango and AnchorFree, so the company physically handling your traffic and subject to legal process is a United States based third party, not the Romanian vendor whose brand is on the client.; Soketi maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • They diverge on capability: Bitdefender VPN covers Suite integration, Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bitdefender VPN and Soketi actually diverge.

Attributes where Bitdefender VPN and Soketi differ
AttributeBitdefender VPNSoketi
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Windows
CategoryCybersecurityDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Bitdefender VPN

  • Suite integration
  • Catapult Hydra transport
  • WireGuard support
  • Kill switch
  • Auto-connect rules
  • Split tunnelling
  • Ad and tracker blocking
  • Free tier included

Only in Soketi

  • Pusher protocol compatibility
  • Presence and private channels
  • Horizontal scaling
  • App management backends
  • Webhooks
  • Prometheus metrics

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Bitdefender VPN

  • An existing Bitdefender customer who wants basic tunnel protection on public Wi-Fi without evaluating and buying a second productnot Soketi
  • Households wanting one security subscription covering malware protection and casual VPN use across a few devicesnot Soketi
  • Hiding browsing activity from an internet service provider or a shared network operator rather than defeating a determined adversarynot Soketi
  • Occasional access to region-locked content where a dedicated streaming-focused VPN would be more product than the need justifiesnot Soketi

Soketi

  • A Laravel application that already uses Echo and wants to stop paying a hosted realtime providernot Bitdefender VPN
  • Realtime notifications or presence indicators where data must not leave your own infrastructure for compliance reasonsnot Bitdefender VPN
  • A local or CI environment that needs a Pusher-compatible server without hitting a paid accountnot Bitdefender VPN
  • A high-connection-count application where hosted per-connection pricing has become the largest line in the infrastructure billnot Bitdefender VPN

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Bitdefender VPN

  • The network is not Bitdefender's: the servers and the Catapult Hydra protocol are licensed from Aura, formerly Pango and AnchorFree, so the company physically handling your traffic and subject to legal process is a United States based third party, not the Romanian vendor whose brand is on the client.
  • Catapult Hydra is proprietary and closed source, so unlike OpenVPN or WireGuard there is no public implementation for researchers to audit, and a buyer choosing on cryptographic grounds has nothing to inspect.
  • There is no published independent no-logs audit of this service comparable to the Deloitte, PwC and KPMG engagements the standalone VPN vendors commission, so the no-logging position rests on the privacy policies of two separate companies rather than on any external assurance.
  • The free tier bundled with the antivirus suites is capped at a small daily allowance and selects the server for you, so it is a demonstration rather than a usable VPN, and customers who assumed their suite included a VPN find they need a further paid upgrade.
  • Feature depth is well below the dedicated market: no port forwarding, no dedicated IP, no multi-hop, no city-level server selection and no Linux or router client, so routers, NAS devices, consoles and anything needing an inbound connection cannot be covered at all.

Soketi

  • Maintenance has effectively stalled: the maintainer has said time is severely limited, releases are infrequent, and the community has been discussing whether the project is abandoned, which means security fixes may not arrive.
  • Dependency drift on Node and uWebSockets.js will eventually force you to fork or migrate, and that cost is unbudgeted at the point you adopt it.
  • There is no commercial support to buy, so a production incident at three in the morning is entirely your problem with no escalation path.
  • Scaling beyond a single node needs Redis and careful configuration, and getting presence channels correct across nodes is a genuine source of subtle bugs.
  • It implements the Pusher protocol rather than tracking it, so any protocol feature Pusher adds later will not appear, and the compatibility guarantee slowly decays.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bitdefender VPN

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Bitdefender VPN review.

Soketi

Free
  • SoketiFree
    • MIT licensed
    • Unlimited connections subject to your own hardware
    • No vendor billing

Which should you pick?

Choose Bitdefender VPN if

  • You need suite integration.
  • You also want catapult hydra transport.
Bitdefender VPN review

Choose Soketi if

  • You need pusher protocol compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want presence and private channels.
Soketi review

Questions people ask

Is Bitdefender VPN or Soketi better?
Neither clearly leads. Bitdefender VPN starts at On request and Soketi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bitdefender VPN or Soketi?
Soketi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Bitdefender VPN and Free for Soketi.
Does Bitdefender VPN or Soketi run on more platforms?
Bitdefender VPN runs on Web. Soketi runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Soketi for free?
Yes. Soketi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Bitdefender VPN starts at On request.
What is Bitdefender VPN best used for?
Bitdefender VPN is most often used for an existing bitdefender customer who wants basic tunnel protection on public wi-fi without evaluating and buying a second product, households wanting one security subscription covering malware protection and casual vpn use across a few devices, hiding browsing activity from an internet service provider or a shared network operator rather than defeating a determined adversary, occasional access to region-locked content where a dedicated streaming-focused vpn would be more product than the need justifies. Of those, an existing bitdefender customer who wants basic tunnel protection on public wi-fi without evaluating and buying a second product and households wanting one security subscription covering malware protection and casual vpn use across a few devices are not what Soketi is typically brought in for.
What can Bitdefender VPN do that Soketi cannot?
Bitdefender VPN covers Suite integration, Catapult Hydra transport, WireGuard support, Kill switch. Soketi covers Pusher protocol compatibility, Presence and private channels, Horizontal scaling, App management backends.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bitdefender VPN: Who actually operates the servers?

The underlying VPN network and the Catapult Hydra protocol are licensed from Aura, previously known as Pango and AnchorFree, the operator of Hotspot Shield. Bitdefender identifies the arrangement in its VPN terms. Your traffic therefore passes through a United States based provider's infrastructure.

Soketi: Is Soketi still maintained?

Barely. The maintainer has stated that available time is very limited and releases have been sparse; treat it as community-maintained.

Bitdefender VPN: Is the free version enough?

Only as a taster. It is capped at a small daily traffic allowance and chooses the server itself, which rules out streaming and any sustained use. It exists to demonstrate the feature inside the antivirus suite.

Soketi: Do I need to change my client code?

No. Pusher client SDKs and Laravel Echo work by changing the host, port and credentials.

Bitdefender VPN: Has the no-logs claim been independently audited?

There is no published independent no-logs audit of this service equivalent to those commissioned by the dedicated VPN providers. If an audited no-logging claim is what you are buying, this is not the product for it.

Soketi: What does it cost?

Nothing in licence fees. It is MIT licensed; you pay for the server it runs on.

Bitdefender VPN: Does it work with streaming services?

Sometimes, but it is not built around that use case, there is no per-service server labelling, and there is no commitment to restoring access when a platform blocks a range. A streaming-focused provider is a better fit if that is the reason you want a VPN.

Soketi: What are people moving to?

Laravel Reverb for Laravel applications, and Sockudo, a Rust reimplementation, for others.

Bitdefender VPN: Can I run it on Linux or a router?

No. There is no Linux client and no router firmware or manual configuration option, so coverage is limited to the Windows, macOS, iOS and Android clients.

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