8.8/ 10 SCORE McAfee Antivirus Score Breakdown Performance 8/10Usability 9/10Worth 8/10Features 10/10 Pros
Broad compatibility
Wide vary of instruments
Easy to put in and use
No perceptible drain on processing energy
Efficient fast scans
Top marks for malware safety
Fast, useful buyer assist
Good worth for household plans
Allows for limitless units
Cons
Slow VPN
Subpar net safety
Shares info with third-party distributors
Steep worth enhance after first 12 months
McAfee antivirus software program has protected tons of of hundreds of thousands of units since its founding in 1987, changing into a family identify — however how nicely does it work? And does it really deserve its long-held place on our greatest antivirus record?I got down to reply these questions by putting in the total McAfee Plus Ultimate suite on a Windows 11 laptop computer and testing it — each the antivirus and different instruments just like the VPN — for usability and efficiency. McAfee impressed me at nearly each flip, proving itself an efficient instrument for shielding your gadget from malware. The private information cleanup instruments had been additionally quick and thorough, digging up on-line accounts and information breaches going again a number of years. My solely criticism was how lengthy the primary scan took — which, as you’ll see, is an extended course of for a great motive.McAfee antivirus featuresMcAfee gives a easy antivirus plan to guard as much as 5 units for $40 within the first 12 months and $120 a 12 months after that. You’ll get the absolutely featured antivirus on this plan, with background scanning whilst you surf the net, fast scans for doubtlessly susceptible areas of your gadget and deep scans to go looking each file and folder for malware. You may also schedule scans, a characteristic you received’t get from the built-in antivirus on Windows or MacOS.If you need extra sturdy safety whereas looking the web, you’ll need a McAfee Plus safety suite (costs are listed within the subsequent part). Every McAfee Plus suite consists of the core antivirus software program, an online safety extension that blocks malicious hyperlinks from opening and a McAfee Protection Score, which offers real-time perception into your safety. You’ll additionally get a VPN for improved on-line privateness.McAfee additionally lately launched an AI-powered Scam Detector for all McAfee Plus customers within the US, with the discharge rolling out to different international locations within the coming months. The Scam Detector scans emails for indicators of cybercrime, like suspicious electronic mail addresses and hyperlinks, and both alerts you to the rip-off or blocks it totally, relying in your settings. The Scam Detector additionally connects to some Android units to scan content material you view in your cellphone. It may even let you know if a video you’re watching is a deepfake. There’s additionally an on-demand instrument for scanning messages despatched on iOS units or by way of encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.McAfee Plus offers a number of layers of identification safety, beginning with a Social Privacy Manager that simplifies managing privateness settings on social platforms. Other identification safety options embrace Personal Data Cleanup (which screens information brokers in your info), Online Account Cleanup (which identifies out-of-use accounts storing your private info), identification monitoring and a password supervisor. These options may help you management the place your private information seems on-line.More superior plans embrace identification theft safety, monetary transaction monitoring and safety freeze choices to lock your belongings if suspicious exercise is discovered in your account. These options are nice if in case you have vital belongings or different causes to be particularly involved about identification theft.Overall options scoreMcAfee gives antivirus choices for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. The secure looking instruments are additionally suitable with Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge. This sturdy compatibility and the sheer variety of instruments accessible give the McAfee Plus safety suite a 10/10 options rating.McAfee pricing and plansMcAfee Plus gives each particular person plans — good for shielding a single particular person — and household plans that cowl a number of individuals.McAfee Plus particular person plansHere’s a fast breakdown of the pricing and options for McAfee Plus particular person plans: Plan Identity safety featuresWho it’s finest forPriceMcAfee Plus Premium Social Media Privacy Manager; Personal Data Cleanup (scan solely; identification monitoring and alertsCasual customers who need a greater understanding of how their information is getting used and the choice to manually take away their info from untrustworthy locations$50 for the primary 12 months; $150 a 12 months afterMcAfee Plus Advanced Full-service Personal Data Cleanup; $1 million in identification theft protection and restoration; financial institution and bank card monitoring; safety freezeBusy professionals who need extra help with private information safety or have vital belongings to guard$90 for the primary 12 months; $200 a 12 months afterMcAfee Plus Ultimate Full-service Online Account Cleanup; $2 million in identification theft protection; 3-bureau credit score monitoring; $25Ok ransomware protection; funding monitoring; credit score lock; McAfee Assist safety setup sessionBusy professionals who need full-service information safety and protection for greater than $1 million of belongings$200 for the primary 12 months; $280 a 12 months after McAfee Plus household plansThe McAfee Plus household plans supply related options to the person plans. The foremost variations are that the Social Privacy Manager covers as much as six individuals, and different identification safety options cowl two adults. Here’s the worth breakdown for household plans:McAfee Plus Premium for households: $70 for the primary 12 months; $170 a 12 months after.McAfee Plus Advanced for households: $120 for the primary 12 months; $300 a 12 months after.McAfee Plus Ultimate for households: $250 for the primary 12 months; $425 a 12 months after.McAfee antivirus usabilityI examined three areas of McAfee to find out its ease of use:Account navigation: How simple it’s to seek out the obtain and setup choices for all instruments.Antivirus set up and navigation: How simple it’s to place the software program on my gadget and run or schedule scans.Additional instruments: How simple it’s to arrange and use Personal Data Cleanup, VPN and different instruments.I discovered these processes remarkably easy for even the least technically inclined, with just one delicate hiccup on the activation section.Account navigationI activated my account by getting into some fundamental info and instantly acquired an inventory of software program obtain choices. Unfortunately, these weren’t the obtain hyperlinks I anticipated to see, only a reminder of the working techniques McAfee is suitable with. I did discover choices for sending a obtain hyperlink to a secondary gadget, which was mildly complicated since there wasn’t a straightforward obtain choice for the gadget I used to be utilizing. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETThankfully, McAfee despatched me an activation electronic mail with a hyperlink to my account dashboard once I activated my account. I created a password, opened my dashboard and located fast hyperlinks for organising the entire McAfee instruments included in my subscription. I additionally appreciated the QR code for shortly connecting your cellphone to your McAfee account.The one hyperlink I needed to hunt for was billing settings, which are not immediately seen within the sidebar or the Account drop-down menu. I needed to open the Account drop-down, click on Manage Your Accountand go to the Subscriptions space to view my plan particulars. This makes it a little bit tougher to vary or cancel plans than I’d like, nevertheless it’s not a serious problem for day-to-day use.Installation and setupThe McAfee set up wizard for Windows is a near-instant obtain, and the remainder of the setup course of is straightforward, too. You don’t must fiddle with any settings for the core antivirus. The set up unpacks the software program and begins real-time scanning instantly, with an automatic schedule for lively scans already in place. You see choices to put in and arrange extra instruments, just like the VPN, however these are simple to skip if you wish to persist with simply the antivirus. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETOnce put in, McAfee’s dashboard is intuitive to navigate, with fast hyperlinks to latest scan particulars and setup pages for McAfee’s different web safety instruments. The sidebar consists of hyperlinks to all of McAfee’s instruments, permitting you to navigate between them from any space of the software program.Scheduling scans is equally simple, and you’ve got full management over the time and frequency of the scans. The automated schedule runs scans each Monday round 5:30 a.m. in your time zone, once you’re more likely to be away out of your gadget and never fearful about slowdowns. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETThe solely factor I disliked about McAfee for Windows scheduling choices is that the primary web page for antivirus scans solely features a button for fast scans. To run a full scan, you want to go to Scan Types and click on Full Scan. This isn’t an enormous deal, however I would favor to see the total scan choice within the first antivirus space.Setting McAfee up on my Android cellphone was equally quick. I used the QR code from my account space to unlock the software program, waited a few minutes for it to obtain and gave it permissions to scan my textual content messages for potential scams. From there, the Smart Scan button within the high proper nook made it simple to scan my units for viruses at any time. My solely disappointment was that I couldn’t determine how one can schedule scans. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETAdditional instrumentsYou can activate McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup, on-line account administration and identification monitoring instruments in a couple of minutes by navigating to every instrument and getting into your identify, electronic mail handle and different fundamental private data. These instruments scan your information and create personalised dashboards the place you possibly can view every thing they’ve discovered. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETThe Personal Data Cleanup instrument goes a step additional by mechanically sending removing requests to any information brokers storing your info. The on-line account administration and identification monitoring instruments don’t have automated removing choices, however they do present suggestions and instruments for eradicating accounts and defending your information. This helps you scale back each present safety points and future vulnerabilities.The password supervisor and Social Media Privacy Manager are browser extensions, so that you’ll want to attach them to your browser. This solely takes just a few seconds, and each downloads take you to a dashboard the place you possibly can join them to your most necessary accounts. It solely takes a couple of minutes to arrange each. Similarly, you possibly can set up the Web Protection extension in your browser in seconds, and it doesn’t require extra setup — although you possibly can management what it blocks within the extension settings.The VPN is computer-based reasonably than browser-based, so that you’ll have to show it on from the house space of the McAfee software program. You can do that with a easy toggle slider, and activation takes round 30 seconds. The location is mechanically set to the quickest location (sometimes the server closest to you), and you may change it simply within the VPN settings. You may also allow break up tunneling — a characteristic that allows you to use a community connection and not using a VPN on websites that restrict VPN connections — within the VPN settings space.Finally, the Protection Score is mechanically calculated based mostly on outcomes from McAfee’s monitoring instruments. This rating is prominently listed within the sidebar of your account dashboard. The safety rating web page exhibits you a visible illustration of your safety ranking (out of 1,000) and provides you an inventory of actions you possibly can take to enhance it. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETOverall usability ratingMy expertise with McAfee began with a minor hiccup — not seeing obtain hyperlinks instantly — however every thing was easy after I completed creating my account. The software program itself is simple to navigate, the identification safety instruments are intuitive and the browser extensions will be arrange in a few minutes even if you happen to’re not tech-savvy. This earns McAfee a 9/10 usability rating.McAfee antivirus efficiencyWith the fundamentals arrange, I moved on to testing McAfee’s efficiency, specializing in three issues:Background efficiency: How McAfee’s real-time scanning (a characteristic mechanically turned on once you set up the app) impacts web utilization and different day by day laptop duties.Active scan efficiency: How quick scans are and the way they have an effect on day by day duties like looking the web.Additional instruments efficiency: How shortly and successfully instruments like the net account supervisor carry out their duties; how the net safety instruments and VPN have an effect on web site pace.Most of McAfee’s instruments proved environment friendly, utilizing minimal sources and performing their jobs successfully. However, the VPN slowed my web speeds by a big quantity, and the Web Protection extension failed to dam many of the suspicious hyperlinks I encountered throughout my checks.Note: I ran these checks on a model new Lenovo ThinkPad with an Intel i5 processor and round 100GB of recordsdata, largely images and pictures. Performance might range relying in your setup and the quantity of storage you’re utilizing.Background performanceI spent one week utilizing my laptop computer with McAfee operating within the background. Most of my utilization was browser-based, with 5 to 10 browser tabs open at a time and a video or podcast taking part in within the background always. I additionally used the snipping instrument to gather screenshots. McAfee had no perceptible influence on these actions.Browsing the web isn’t essentially the most resource-intensive exercise you possibly can carry out on a pc, although, so I checked McAfee’s useful resource utilization with Task Manager as nicely. McAfee’s CPU utilization fluctuated between 0.1% and 0.5% through the hour I spent monitoring it, with disk utilization sitting at a strong 0MB/s. That means McAfee isn’t an enormous drain on processing energy and might run successfully within the background even once you’re performing resource-intensive duties like video enhancing.Active scan performanceI carried out three deep scans utilizing the Fast scanning setting in my week of testing, with different outcomes. Fast scanning permits McAfee to make use of extra of your laptop’s processing energy.My first deep scan took round 4 hours, far longer than I anticipated, nevertheless it didn’t considerably intervene with my continued gadget utilization. In dialog with a McAfee consultant, I realized that this primary scan is slower as a result of it takes a extra complete have a look at each file in your laptop, whereas later scans skim recordsdata the software program beforehand evaluated. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETThe second and third deep scans had been a lot quicker, with the second take a look at taking simply over an hour and the third taking round half an hour. Again, they didn’t noticeably intervene with my continued looking. Opening Task Manager confirmed that the deep scan used between 35% and 50% of my CPU’s processing energy, plus 7% to 10% of my laborious drive’s sources. These numbers fluctuated quickly all through the scan, with useful resource utilization peaking towards the tip.A fourth scan, this time with the Fast scanning setting disabled, took round half an hour. However, this scan used extra sources than these carried out with Fast scanning enabled: 50% to 60% of the CPU’s processing energy and 20% to 24% of my laborious drive sources. These numbers dropped towards the tip of the scan (all the way down to round 45% of CPU energy and 10% of disk utilization), however this implies you’ll have higher laptop efficiency if you happen to maintain the Fast scanning characteristic on.The Quick Scan lived as much as its identify, wrapping up in roughly three minutes on the primary scan — even quicker than the 5-to- 10-minute estimate the software program offered. Like the deep scan, I didn’t discover any change to my laptop’s efficiency whereas the scan was operating. I carried out two extra Quick Scans, each of which wrapped up in the same timeframe to the primary. These scans used between 60% and 70% of my CPU processing energy and round 10% of my laborious drive sources.Overall, lively scans with McAfee are quick and use an affordable quantity of processing energy, permitting you to proceed doing most on a regular basis actions whereas the scans run. However, you need to count on the primary scan to take considerably longer than the remaining — probably a number of hours if you happen to’ve received loads of information. You can also wish to keep away from operating scans when performing resource-intensive duties like gaming or video enhancing.Additional instruments efficiencyNext, I had Personal Data Cleanup, Online Account Cleanup and identification monitoring instruments scan the net for my information. I additionally put in and examined the net security extension and the VPN, utilizing Google Chrome for each. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETThe Personal Data Cleanup was carried out in a few minutes, and McAfee mechanically despatched a removing request to the only information dealer it discovered my info on. I used to be stunned that it solely discovered my info on one information dealer web site — I’ve been on-line for a very long time and haven’t at all times been cautious with my private data — however I’m not sure if McAfee failed to seek out all of my information or if my data hasn’t been leaked as usually as I anticipated.The Online Account Cleanup took nearer to 5 minutes for the preliminary scan and turned up 108 accounts. I regarded by means of these accounts, returned to the dashboard and was met with a “Scanning” message. After one other half hour, the dashboard loaded, this time with a full 434 accounts discovered. These accounts had been mechanically sorted into classes based mostly on their danger degree, latest utilization and connection to my monetary info. I’ve used the e-mail I plugged into this instrument for nearly 20 years, so these outcomes felt correct.The preliminary identification monitoring scan lasted round half an hour and located 47 breaches courting again to 2016. I used to be impressed by how thorough this was, particularly contemplating it didn’t take very lengthy.Next, I examined the VPN. I began by operating three Ookla checks with out the VPN enabled. These checks confirmed a median obtain pace of 720.21 Mbps (megabits per second), add pace of 868.65 Mbps and ping of 3 Ms (milliseconds).Running three checks with the VPN set to my nation, Canada, confirmed that the VPN slows issues down significantly, with a median obtain pace of 276.05 Mbps, add pace of 248.83 Mbps and ping of 4 Ms. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETI ran extra checks within the US, UK, France, Germany, Singapore and Australia, with the next common outcomes: USUKFranceGermanySingaporeAustraliaObtain (Mbps) 449.03252.75159.75315.0797230.4Upload (Mbps) 161.593345.3241.5916.1729.17Ping (Ms) 41178.66196.33191.33492.66403.9 While these checks aren’t as intensive because the VPN testing course of CNET makes use of for full VPN opinions, they do present that McAfee’s VPN has a big influence on pace. I undoubtedly seen the slowdown when looking with the VPN on, particularly when utilizing the Australian and Singaporean areas. If you’re on the lookout for a VPN with minimal impact on web pace, you’ll wish to purchase one of many instruments beneficial on our greatest VPNs record.Finally, I put in the Web Protection extension on Chrome and spent a while browsing the net. There was no noticeable change in my browser pace, suggesting that this extension makes use of minimal sources. Satisfied with this end result, I moved on to clicking by means of a number of the suspicious hyperlinks in my spam folder. Unfortunately, the extension solely stopped me from opening one of many 4 suspicious hyperlinks I clicked on, suggesting that it doesn’t work very nicely. Personally, I’ve discovered uBlock to be extra profitable in blocking doubtlessly dangerous websites.The one instrument I wasn’t capable of take a look at for efficiency was the Scam Detector. I had to make use of a separate electronic mail account to entry this software program, because the account I used for the remainder of my testing was linked to a Canadian account and the rip-off detector hasn’t rolled out to Canadians but. Using this backup electronic mail handle meant there have been no scams for the instrument to detect in my inbox.However, a McAfee consultant walked me by means of how the Scam Detector works, together with a number of the parameters it makes use of to determine scams. These embrace most parameters cybersecurity specialists let you know to search for, like electronic mail addresses with lengthy strings of numbers or complicated letters, permitting it to determine most possible scams. The deepfake identification facet of the instrument additionally regarded promising, because it shortly recognized small tells of AI utilization that the untrained consumer may not discover on their very own.Overall efficiency ratingWhile the preliminary scan took considerably longer than I anticipated, I respect McAfee’s option to carry out a extra detailed evaluation on the primary run. I additionally appreciated the pace — and effectivity — of later scans, particularly the Quick Scans.Most of McAfee’s instruments had equally efficient outcomes, except the sluggish VPN and less-than-spectacular Web Protection extension. Overall, McAfee earned an 8/10 for efficiency.McAfee antivirus securityMcAfee’s safety suites look nice to this point, with glorious options, an intuitive setup and minimal useful resource utilization. But how nicely does it defend you?To reply this query, I researched McAfee’s efficiency in third-party lab testing, earlier information breaches, encryption protocols and privateness insurance policies, together with information anonymization protocols. The outcomes right here had been combined. McAfee has nice safety rankings from high third-party labs and makes use of internationally acknowledged encryption protocols, however its privateness coverage has some holes.AntivirusMcAfee has persistently earned a six out of six safety rating from AV-Test in each take a look at since mid-2020. McAfee has additionally acquired quite a few AV-Comparatives awards for safety — typically thought of an trade gold commonplace — over the previous a number of years. Notably, McAfee’s antivirus engine had a 99.6% on-line safety charge throughout AV-Comparatives testing in March 2025. This exhibits that McAfee’s antivirus safety persistently retains up with quickly evolving malware to guard your units from the most recent viruses and different dangerous software program. However, its offline detection charge dropped considerably, to 79.3%, suggesting that McAfee might not be as efficient at scanning recordsdata on USB keys or exterior laborious drives as it’s at scanning recordsdata from the web.Security for extra toolsMcAfee’s password supervisor, True Key, protects all saved passwords utilizing the AES-256 protocol, an internationally acknowledged encryption technique. You can additional defend your passwords by organising multifactor authentication, which requires you to offer biometric indicators (like your face or fingerprint) or different info (like a code despatched to your cellphone) alongside along with your grasp password earlier than you possibly can open the password supervisor.The VPN claims to make use of the identical encryption techniques banks do, making certain secure information switch. However, McAfee has the encryption key for revealing your information, and the corporate is headquartered within the US, so McAfee has a authorized obligation to disclose your information to authorities businesses on request. This is why we sometimes advocate VPNs headquartered elsewhere, like ExpressVPN, which is headquartered within the British Virgin Islands.The excellent news about McAfee’s VPN is that it doesn’t log prospects’ VPN utilization, so what it may share with legislation enforcement is restricted. McAfee additionally goes by means of annual third-party audits from Remedy53 to judge its ongoing privateness protocols. These outcomes are listed underneath TunnelbearVPN, the identify of the infrastructure used for McAfee Secure VPN. Similarly, transparency experiences can be found for TunnelbearVPN, although there aren’t any particular experiences for McAfee Secure VPN.Privacy insurance policies and information breachesMcAfee has an in depth privateness coverage, however there are some sections which will provide you with pause. Notably, McAfee says it might share details about the way you work together with its companies to third-party advertisers and distributors, together with social media firms. While that is widespread for tech firms — and web sites typically — it’s regarding when you think about how a lot information McAfee collects and the dearth of specificity about what it might share.Another potential problem, as talked about above, is that McAfee states it would share your information with legislation enforcement on request. While it’s unlikely that legislation enforcement will ask in your info except you’re suspected of committing a severe crime, it’s necessary to know this chance moving into.McAfee says you’ve gotten a proper to request anonymization, which means that this isn’t carried out by default. A McAfee consultant defined that each one information is encrypted utilizing the internationally acknowledged TLS 1.3 and AES256/SHA384 protocols throughout switch and stays encrypted with the AES-256 protocol at relaxation. While these measures can maintain your information secure from hackers, this implies McAfee can nonetheless entry your information utilizing its encryption key — and share it with the broad record of distributors referenced within the privateness coverage.As for information breaches, I wasn’t capable of finding any information of McAfee’s information being breached inside the previous 5 years. This means that McAfee retains its information extremely safe, making certain your ongoing digital security. However, it’s value remembering that sharing your info with third-party distributors doesn’t rely as an information breach. With no full record of those third-party distributors, it’s inconceivable to say what number of locations McAfee could also be sending info — or precisely what info the corporate is sharing — about how you employ its apps.Overall safety scoreMcAfee’s top-notch antivirus engine persistently earns recognition for its capacity to detect malware. McAfee additionally makes use of instruments like encryption to maintain your information secure, however its privateness insurance policies have exceptions for a wide range of third-party distributors and legislation enforcement. Still, its protections — and its lack of knowledge breaches up to now 5 years — earn McAfee a 9/10 safety rating.McAfee antivirus buyer supportMcAfee gives three layers of customer support: a self-serve data base, 24/7 reside chat and 24/7 cellphone assist. I examined all of those assist avenues for ease of navigation, helpfulness and, within the case of direct communication strategies, response occasions.Knowledge baseMcAfee’s data base is clearly laid out, with buttons resulting in the most typical varieties of inquiries and a search bar for shortly discovering particular solutions. You’ll additionally see your subscription info, any latest assist circumstances linked to your account and a button for contacting assist. This clear, clean interface is nice for individuals in any respect ranges of technical experience, from the programmer to the grandparent who can simply barely use the web. Screenshot by Dianna Gunn/CNETIndividual articles use a mixture of jargon-free textual content (explaining the jargon when it completely should be used) and pictures to stroll you thru varied processes. There are movies in some areas, which is nice, however I’d like to see extra of them for individuals who want studying by means of video. Still, the data base is nice for coping with most elementary points you may encounter when utilizing McAfee instruments.Direct communicationLike many tech firms, McAfee has constructed an AI bot into its reside chat. The bot doesn’t mechanically redirect you to an individual when you’ve gotten a query too difficult for it — I needed to outright ask to talk to an individual as a substitute. However, the bot processed this request instantly and linked me to an individual in about 2 minutes. The agent who responded was fast and useful, bringing the whole course of to an in depth in round 5 minutes.McAfee additionally gives 24/7 assist in lots of international locations, with distinctive cellphone strains relying in your location. The cellphone strains are nicely organized, with separate departments you possibly can contact for identification safety companies, antivirus technical assist and gross sales. I chosen tech assist and was talking to an individual inside minutes. The agent had the solutions I wanted and despatched me additional sources, wrapping up the dialog in simply 6 minutes.I wasn’t capable of finding a assist electronic mail handle or email-based assist ticket system. While that is advantageous for many individuals, it might be a difficulty if you happen to want electronic mail communication.Overall buyer assist scoreMcAfee offers a number of the finest buyer expertise I’ve encountered when working with tech firms of any sort. The data base is complete and makes use of jargon-free tutorials that will help you use McAfee’s varied instruments. The reside chat and cellphone strains are each 24/7, and the assist workers is quick and useful. Compared to working with different tech firms, the place I’ve usually spent over 30 minutes (and typically as much as a number of hours) ready, coping with McAfee’s assist is a dream. This earns McAfee a buyer assist rating of 9/10.McAfee antivirus worthFinally, I thought of how McAfee’s worth compares to different common safety suites. I began by breaking down the fundamentals of two high rivals: Basic plan costMid-range suite price and unitsMost costly suite price and devicesStandout safety featuresMcAfee $30 for the primary 12 months; $90 per 12 months after; protection for one gadget$90 for the primary 12 months; $200 per 12 months after; protection for limitless units$200 for the primary 12 months; $280 per 12 months after; protection for limitless unitsScam Detector; Social Privacy Manager; Online Account Cleanup; as much as $2 million of identification theft insurance coverageBitdefender $25 for the primary 12 months; $50 per 12 months after; protection for one gadget$90 for the primary 12 months; $160 per 12 months after; protection for 5 units$150 for the primary 12 months; $250 per 12 months after; protection for 5 unitsScam safety, ad-blocker/anti-tracker; digital footprint visualization; identification theft insurance coverage of as much as $2 millionNorton $30 for the primary 12 months; $60 per 12 months after; protection for one gadget$50 for the primary 12 months; $120 per 12 months after; protection for 5 units$100 for the primary 12 months; $200 per 12 months after; protection for 5 devicesGenie Scam Protection; cloud backup; LifeLock identification theft safety; $25,000 ransomware insurance coverage This information tells us 4 issues about McAfee’s worth relative to different common antivirus instruments:McAfee’s base plan, priced at $30 for the primary 12 months, begins out at roughly the identical price as related plans from rivals. But it turns into considerably dearer than comparable choices in 12 months two, rising to $90 per 12 months. The mid-range plan has the identical problem, beginning at $90 for the primary 12 months however rising to $200 per 12 months on renewal.The costliest plan prices greater than different high-level safety suites, beginning at $200 for the primary 12 months and rising to $280 per 12 months on renewal. This is far more costly than Norton’s highest-tier plan and considerably dearer than the comparative Bitdefender plan.The options are fairly commonplace. The solely factor you received’t get elsewhere is the Social Media Privacy Manager.Other antivirus software program limits units, with Bitdefender capping protection at 5 units and Norton at 10 units.Overall worth scoreMcAfee might not present nice worth if you happen to solely have one laptop and cellphone, however the limitless gadget protection makes it nicely value the associated fee for customers with quite a few units, similar to households. This earns McAfee a price rating of 8/10.McAfee: Is it best for you?Before we make any selections about buying McAfee, let’s assessment the way it carried out in every of our classes:Features: 10/10Usability: 9/10Performance: 8/10Security: 9/10Buyer assist: 9/10Worth: 8/10Averaged collectively, these numbers give McAfee an general rating of 8.8/10. I discovered McAfee to be an amazing alternative for shielding your computer systems and telephones — particularly if you happen to and your loved ones have greater than the 5 to 10 units allowed on different safety suites’ highest-tier plans. However, the suite isn’t good. The VPN majorly slows down your web, the net security extension doesn’t at all times determine malicious hyperlinks and the privateness coverage has some regarding language. I like to recommend in search of out a separate VPN and secure looking extension instruments if you need complete safety in your on-line actions. McAfee antivirus offers glorious safety, persistently incomes high marks for safety from AV-Test. My checks discovered that McAfee can be quick and straightforward to make use of. Moreover, I used to be impressed by how fast and thorough the net identification scan searches had been — and the actionable steps they gave me to take away my info from unsafe locations on the internet. The foremost drawback of McAfee is the steep worth enhance after 12 months one, with most plans growing by $60 to $100 per 12 months. These worth hikes are notably greater than the renewal price will increase of different high antivirus instruments like Bitdefender and Norton. No, McAfee isn’t shutting down, nor are there any recognized plans to discontinue current McAfee companies. Most McAfee plans price between $100 and $200 per 12 months, with many providing steep reductions of $80 to $100 for the primary 12 months.