McAfee Review

By how much did McAfee improve, though? What makes their current services on par or better than other existing services? Today, we’re taking a look at what makes the McAfee we know today the best version of itself.

McAfee, just like Norton, is an America-based antivirus company. They were established in 1987 and purchased by Intel decades later during 2011. As part of their security division, McAfee worked with Intel untile they were spun back out on April 4, 2017.

McAfee Total Protection, the company’s antivirus subscription, comes with plenty of features that anybody will love. Aside from their state-of-the-art encryption and data protection systems, they also come neatly presented in a simple and sleek client app that makes managing your computer a breeze.

Pros and Cons

Security

When it comes to protecting your files, you can rest assured that McAfee’s gotten a lot better than before. In fact, according to independent studies conducted by various antivirus labs, the results show that their antiviruses are one of the best in the business, with nearly perfect test results and consistent performance.

Let’s first talk about AV-Test. AV-Test, for those of you who don’t know, is an antivirus lab that tests various antivirus systems to see how effective they are at blocking and preventing malware and ransomware from corrupting your data.

According to their results, McAfee has consistently scored either a 5.5 or 6 in Protection, Performance, and Usability in all of their tests since 2018, with only their June 2019 test resulting in a score of 5 for Protection. AV-Test’s perfect score is a 6, so scoring that high consistently is impressive. In fact, AV-Test has marked McAfee as Top Product multiple times.

AV-Comparatives, another independent antivirus lab, also conducts regular tests on McAfee as well as other well-known brands. In their real-world protection tests, where they subject a computer to potent malware, McAfee was able to block over 99% in all tests conducted during 2019. This is only beaten by names such as Kaspersky and Avira, as they have had their fair share of 100% block rates, too. Overall, McAfee’s antivirus is, at the very least, above average. At its best, it rivals some of the best names in the business too, which is a great sign for a company that used to be under the radar for many users

Features

Aside from its powerful antivirus and anti-malware systems, McAfee also comes with a plethora of features that provide a wide range of benefits for just about any type of user. Whether you’re a single professional looking to protect your sensitive information or a parent that wants to secure their family’s privacy and safety, McAfee has solutions catered to your needs.

One incredibly useful feature that McAfee has is its performance optimization. As the name suggests, it optimizes your computer’s performance by blocking those annoying auto-play videos that take up both resources and bandwidth. It also minimizes bandwidth usage in general, which lets you surf the Internet a lot more smoothly than before.

Speaking of surfing the internet, McAfee also allows for safe web browsing. Many websites on the web can contain malicious software that can snoop through your information. McAfee prevents this from happening by blocking any possible risky sites that you may end up visiting by accident.

McAfee also comes with embedded home network security. You won’t have to worry about hackers accessing your home network and snooping around your private files as McAfee bolsters your firewall to prevent them from ever doing so.

Aside from home network security, McAfee also does a great job of keeping you safe in public networks, too. Their on-the-go Secure Wifi makes sure that any data and browsing habits that you exhibit when browsing public networks stay with you so that anybody trying to take a sneak peek will come up empty-handed.

Password managers are a must-have among many antiviruses these days, and McAfee is no exception to this. Users can safely store any of their passwords in a single location so that they don’t have to keep track of all the different passwords they’ve made across different websites.

If you’re experienced with computers, you know that even permanent file deletion isn’t all that “permanent”. You can end up leaving traces of the files that you’ve deleted. McAfee solves this issue with its patented Shredder software, which removes any trace of the files you delete, to make it as if they never even existed in the first place.

Finally, a feature that’s available to all McAfee Total Protection plans is their encrypted storage. McAfee comes with 256-bit AES Encryption for your local files so that any sensitive information that you store in your system is kept safe from hackers, even if they do manage to access your computer.

McAfee Total Protection also comes with bonus features that are only accessible in their more expensive plans. For example, while their cheapest plan only supports a single device, McAfee’s “Individual & Couples” and their “Family” plans come with multi-device compatibility.

Exclusive to the Family plan is the Identity Theft Protection feature. Identity Theft Protection is an identity-monitoring and recovery tool that makes sure nobody ends up stealing your identity online.

Finally, let’s talk briefly about McAfee’s secure VPN. All subscriptions to McAfee Total Protection comes with free access to their secure VPN network, which provides bank-grade encryption for an anonymous and safe browsing experience, especially when coupled with their other internet-based features.

It’s worth noting, however, that you can only access McAfee’s Secure VPN if you sign up for auto-renewal in your subscription. Canceling the auto-renewal immediately loses your access to this feature, so you’ll have to remember to cancel the subscription manually if you want to use their VPN. McAfee’s Identity Theft Protection is also tied to the auto-renewal condition.

Platforms and Devices

Supported Platforms and Devices

• Windows
• macOS
• Android
• iOS

McAfee supports both major PC and mobile platforms and devices. It’s also worth noting that as mentioned earlier, you have multi-device support included, depending on the subscription that you choose from. Their basic plan only supports one device. Their Individual & Couples plan provides support for up to five devices, whereas their Family plan supports up to ten at a time.

Pricing

• Single Device - $29.99 for the first year, then $79.99/year
• Individual & Couples - $34.99 for the first year, then $99.99/year
• Family - $39.99 for the first year, then $119.99/year

The pricing model of McAfee follows the trend of antivirus subscriptions today - a large discount during the first year, then regular pricing for subsequent years. What makes McAfee different from other antiviruses is how they incentivize their users to maintain auto-renewal for their plans through added features such as their Secure VPN and Identity Theft Protection.

Ease of Use

McAfee’s antivirus client programs and associated programs are incredibly easy to use, even for beginners. The brand has always been about minimalistic design and simple layouts, which is very helpful for users who can quickly become confused by how antiviruses work in general.

The apps and programs are responsive and sleek. They only show what’s needed, and are easy enough to navigate for first-timers. The only real drawback of McAfee’s programs is the amount of resources that they consume, though - for mid-range to high-end PCs, it shouldn’t be a problem, but lower-end devices will find it difficult to function as usual with McAfee running in the background.

Customer Support

McAfee takes pride in its customer support, so much so that they even added them as a feature in their subscription plans. And it’s hard to not see why - with a dedicated team that helps customers with any troubles regarding their software, as well as a dedicated knowledge-base, users can have peace of mind that their issue will be resolved in no time. It also helps a lot that technical assistance comes from actual security experts who know what they’re doing, and not just a third-party answering service.

Conclusion

As it stands, McAfee has really made a name for itself these past few years. From being a second choice to many, McAfee has grown to rival the likes of Norton and Avida, with their state-of-the-art protection systems and a vast array of extra features that keep their users safe at all times.

With that in mind, we’re giving McAfee a score of 9.5. Their services are objectively some of the best in the industry, and they’ve absolutely nailed aspects of the antivirus that often get overlooked, such as usability and customer support. While it is a bit pricey, it’s still definitely worth the price for what it offers.