BitLocker Drive Encryption Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8.4 out of 10

Score

8.4 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for BitLocker Drive Encryption are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Ease of Use: Users have highlighted that the disk encryption software is user-friendly for both technicians and general users. They appreciate the straightforward installation process and simple setup, making it easy to encrypt their computers.

Efficiency and Performance: Users noted that the software is efficient and does not heavily impact system resources when encryption is enabled. They mentioned that their computer's performance remains unaffected, except during the initial encryption process.

Enhanced Security Features: Reviewers find the software valuable for protecting computers from intrusions and data breaches, particularly for sensitive information. They appreciate features like seamless hard drive encryption, added security with drive encryption, and functionality for encrypting removable media. The robust disk encryption algorithms were also praised for effectively improving security measures.

Reviews

11 Reviews

BitLocker Drive Encryption is great for Windows

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

May 6, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We encrypt all Windows, end-user PCs with Bitlocker 256 bit XTS encryption. BitLocker Drive Encryption helps us stay compliant with HIPAA, 3rd party risk requirements, and our own security practices. BitLocker Drive Encryption is a top tier product and and is greatly effective. More so because it is baked into the Windows 10/11 operating system. We're also able to centrally manage encryption keys using active directory, Intune, or other 3rd party management applications.

Pros

Disk Encryption
Security
Used space or full encryption

Cons

Key Management
Deployment
Onboarding

Likelihood to Recommend

BitLocker Drive Encryption is free with the Windows operating system and is a great choice if Active Directory is already in place for management of keys. Intune is a good way to manage the keys too. BitLocker Drive Encryption is well suited for any use case where disk encryption is needed. Either full disk or used space only can be accomplished.

Justin Graves

HIPAA Security Officer in Information Technology at Area Agency on Aging Region 9, Inc (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

11 years of experience

View profile

MBAM Software Drive Encryption it's very intuitive and it's easy to maintain!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 25, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BitLocker Drive Encryption is being used as the global standard solution for Drive Encryption, it's deployed across the organization to fulfill regulatory needs in terms of Data Protection. It's intended to Protect Data from stolen and lost assets and it's helping Risk Information Security Officers to reduce the gap in terms of Threats

Pros

Agent Initialization
Robust Disk Encryption Algorithms
Reporting on Compliance

Cons

Encryption key Management
OS Compatibility
Console Management

Likelihood to Recommend

It can be used if you are already familiar with other Microsoft System Center tools, it will provide integration and it will be easy to use from an Administrator's perspective. However, if you want more detailed information related to the troubleshooting, specific fields, or data, it will not be that granular.

Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Good encryption tool

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 26, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BitLocker Drive Encryption is being used to encrypt all laptop's hard drives in the company, keeping our data safe and giving us peace of mind that if [users] lose their [laptops] or get [them] stolen, no data from their disk will be compromised. That said, Bitlocker Drive Encryption does not limit to hard drives only.

Pros

Encrypts data in Hard Drives to improve security
Easy to manage
Allows you to encrypt removable media as well

Cons

Encryption is not resumed after being suspended sometimes
Sometimes it take a long time to encrypt a disk
Encrypting secondary drives can be tricky

Likelihood to Recommend

<div>BitLocker Drive Encryption is well suited for any company that

wants to ensure security of [its] devices and that no one will be able to

access files in a stolen or found device.</div>Even if someone

tries to remove the drive from one device and add to another, BitLocker

Drive Encryption will prevent access to any data in the drive.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Encryption is key

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

November 19, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Using BitLocker Drive Encryption helps our company keep files encrypted and secure on our devices. It's easy to set up and configure and allows for it to be encrypted on all our devices and servers. The cost for it is built into the price of windows products and services and usable on consumer systems as well.

Pros

Drive encryption.
Added layer of security.
Ease of setup.

Likelihood to Recommend

Data encryption should always be a priority from home computers to work stations to be on the go. Keeping everything secure is more important than leaving the information insecure and visible for everyone.

Kaitlyn Delacruz

CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in Corporate at Yokai Sakura Limited (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

The best computer encryption product available today

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

September 30, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using it across the whole organization. It has been implemented campus-wide, and each department is responsible for deploying/supporting Bitlocker for all its users. We are using it across our organization to fully protect desktops, especially in cases where users are accessing sensitive data. It addresses the business problems of how to protect computers in the best manner possible, in which the computers either store or access sensitive data (this could be either be local or across the network).

Pros

It is fairly easy to use, from both a technician and users point of view. The install itself is pretty simple, and setup of the software is also fairly simple. For users, it is easy to use the software to encrypt the computer.
It doesn't seem to use a whole lot of system resources when the encryption is enabled on the computer. You shouldn't experience any slowness of the computer, other than the time it takes to first encrypt the computer.
It serves its main purpose very well, and that is to protect computers from intrusions/data breaches. It is particularly good for protecting computers that are accessing/storing sensitive/confidential data.

Cons

Users need to make sure their computer can support encryption. There is a special TPM chip that is needed to be able to encrypt the computer, but most newer computers today should have this built-in.
There is some slowness of the computer with the encrypting/decrypting part of the software. This part can also take a long time to complete, depending on the size of the hard disk.
It is very important that the recovery key is never lost, or else the user may never be able to unlock their drive. Microsoft should look into maybe having a feature which would automatically upload the recovery key to the cloud (in a secure manner).

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited especially for users that access or store sensitive/confidential data on their computers. In the case of where users are accessing confidential data over the network, it is highly recommended to use Bitlocker to encrypt the computer. In the case where users are storing confidential data on their computer, it should be a requirement that BitLocker is used/enabled.

It would be less appropriate if someone was using a computer and they were not dealing with any sensitive data, or in cases where the computer is used for recreational purposes (browsing the web, playing games, etc).

Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Bitlocker is fine as it is, just not sure of real case scenario where it would actually matter.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

September 19, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used across the whole organization.

Pros

Encrypt the hard drive seamlessly
Protect data to be extracted from the hard drive once out of the computer

Cons

Bitlocker should be paired with a proper backup solution, if no backup, data is gone for ever when the drive has an issue.
Bitlocker mainly works if the encrypted drive is pulled out of the computer, it is useless when paired with the computer. I mean if someone stills the computer, the hard drive will be inside so the the real life scenario of someone stealing the drive but not the computer is very unlikely to happen.

Likelihood to Recommend

I am not sure I can think of a single real life scenario for end-user laptop, I mean BitLocker only triggers once the HDD is separated from the TPM chip and I am not convinced a thief would only steal the hard drive and not the computer.

Verified User

Manager in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

Microsoft Windows Whole Drive Encryption Solution - Worth Considering

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

February 4, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In this world with an increased need for data security and all the compliance initiatives, data and drive encryption has become a necessity. We use BitLocker Drive Encryption (BitLocker) on any Windows server that contains any personally identifiable information (PII), or sensitive personal information (SPI) or Protected health information (PHI). It has become a standard part of our security policy. BitLocker can only be used to encrypt the entire drive in a Windows product and not specific folders. If you see a folder option to encrypt contents to secure data, that is Encrypting File System (EFS) not BitLocker. We also use BitLocker on laptops to protect and secure information in the case of loss or theft.

Pros

Encrypts the entire drive and provides a high level of security.
In an Active Directory environment, you can set up BitLocker to automatically save keys to AD.
As part of Windows, no additional licensing costs.
Set up and configuration is relatively easy.
Uses TPM module to increase security.

Cons

There is a read/write impact on performance, but the protection is well worth the minor performance hit.

Likelihood to Recommend

BitLocker Drive Encryption is only designed for use with Microsoft Windows O/S's.

Richard Russell

Principal Network Administrator in Information Technology at Rensselaer County (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Best whole disk encryption for Windows

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 24, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it across our whole organization to encrypt all internal drives on our employees' computers. The main problem it addresses is stolen or forgotten computers. With Bitlocker we don't have to worry about credentials or confidential information getting stolen when a computer is stolen or forgotten somewhere. It also saves us some work as we don't have to reset all the credentials and access of the user when this occurs. In addition, it gives our users the peace of mind if they have to leave their computer in a car or in an hotel room for a day. And finally, with whole drive encryption, you don't have to count on your users to put the sensitive information in the encrypted container.

Pros

Practically no impact on read performance and low impact on write performance compared to others.
Integrated into Windows/no additional cost
Easy deployment
Whole drive encryption
Uses hardware chip to offer better security

Cons

Even if it's the best we tested, I think write performance could be improved. Maybe with dedicated hardware inside the TPM?
No integration with OS password is a shame as most others have it and it is Microsoft on Microsoft so they can probably do it better then anyone else and safer.
I wish they would support multiple passwords like FileVault on macOS. If it's a shared computer, you have to give the only password to Bitlocker to both users.

Likelihood to Recommend

Bitlocker is perfect if you want the peace of mind. It's whole disk encryption and easy to manage. It doesn't do fancy stuff, like MFA or multi-users, but it does what it does really well and will not cause you problems as long as you manage the recovery keys correctly.

The only scenario I would not recommend Bitlocker for is for shared computers, like meeting rooms audio/video shared setup, as you have to share the Bitlocker password for this to occur. Bitlocker doesn't allow more than 1 password.

Marc-Olivier Turgeon-Ferland

System Administrator in Information Technology at Coveo (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Best options for Windows

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

January 16, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

<div>As you know, data security is very important. You do not want your personal data to be stolen, the company must also protect its data. The computers we use are of great value, and could fall prey to thieves. Since it is difficult to physically protect the hardware from being stolen, it is very important to encrypt the data.</div><div>

</div><div>With the combination of Bitlocker, TPM and user/password, it is much harder for a thief to recover the data on the disk. Together with LAPS, Bitlocker is a must! Don't forget to backup your data.</div>

Pros

Part of Windows Pro and + licensing.
Very easy to deploy and maintain.
Embedded in the software, and Windows patching.
Well known

Cons

Cannot Dualboot (disaster)
Should be integrated in AD out of the box (MBAM)
Add 2FA (with RSA/Authenticator?) out-of the box

Likelihood to Recommend

BitLocker is perfect for company that uses Windows only, but if you have Windows, Mac, and Linux, you may need 3 solutions because Bitlocker is proprietary code for Windows only. We have to use FileVault for Mac and LVM for Linux.

It can run on desktops, laptops, and servers, and now on VM 2016, only TPM required, one technology.

Tommy Boucher

IT Director in Information Technology at Coveo (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

Use BitLocker Drive if you Really Need It

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I work as a government contractor and there are times where the equipment we use require BitLocker Drive Encryption to be used.

The business problem is the performance of the device that is using BitLocker.

Pros

Definitely encrypts the drive and provides a high level of security
Protects the drive from any tampering and good luck trying to get back the data after lots of bad attempts.

Cons

Performance hit with non SSD hard drives or up to date equipment
Slow boot times due to the encryption of the drive.

Likelihood to Recommend

It should be used if the information on the device is worth securing. Otherwise it is a pain and hassle each and every time you want to turn on your computer.

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

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The best computer encryption product available today

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

September 30, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

It is fairly easy to use, from both a technician and users point of view. The install itself is pretty simple, and setup of the software is also fairly simple. For users, it is easy to use the software to encrypt the computer.
It doesn't seem to use a whole lot of system resources when the encryption is enabled on the computer. You shouldn't experience any slowness of the computer, other than the time it takes to first encrypt the computer.
It serves its main purpose very well, and that is to protect computers from intrusions/data breaches. It is particularly good for protecting computers that are accessing/storing sensitive/confidential data.

Cons

Users need to make sure their computer can support encryption. There is a special TPM chip that is needed to be able to encrypt the computer, but most newer computers today should have this built-in.
There is some slowness of the computer with the encrypting/decrypting part of the software. This part can also take a long time to complete, depending on the size of the hard disk.
It is very important that the recovery key is never lost, or else the user may never be able to unlock their drive. Microsoft should look into maybe having a feature which would automatically upload the recovery key to the cloud (in a secure manner).

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience