While it may be true that McAfee has been around for quite some time, and that it holds a sizable market share among the best antivirus software, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best at what it does.
Numerous new devices come preinstalled with McAfee, but users occasionally complain about its missing features, higher costs and, at times, slowdowns they experience on their machines while using it.
Nevertheless, McAfee has a lot to offer in terms of its protection prowess, so finding a suitable alternative may prove to be a challenge. For this exact reason, we would like to share the best alternative we’ve found for McAfee. Let’s take a look!
Best alternative to McAfee
Norton represents another industry giant in the AV space, along with McAfee. Yet, substituting one premium offering for another might not sit well with some users; however, with Norton, you do get that extra performance and features that you do not with McAfee, making it a near-perfect substitute. In the bundle, you will get comprehensive real-time protection with a 100% virus protection promise (on selected plans), a secure VPN, password manager, cloud backup, and parental controls, along with dark web monitoring. To top it all off, the most basic plan comes a few dollars cheaper than McAfee.
Installing either Norton or McAfee is quite straightforward. After installation, you immediately land in a very modern UI that offers most of its features in 4-5 buttons from which you can call functionalities ranging from Security to Performance. Mobile apps are equally well-designed and useful. This goes for both Norton and McAfee, therefore, deciding which is better or “nicer” will depend on personal preference. Note that ease of use was the main design point for both AVs, which shines through from the moment you boot up either of these solutions.
Looking at the first advantage for Norton, we land on the most important aspect of an AV, and that is protection. In the latest from AV-Comparatives, Norton comes out on top for both false positives and protection rate. The number of blocked threats is 99.5% with Norton versus 99.3% for McAfee. Another advantage Norton has is that it uses fewer system resources to run a quick or a full system scan, which is great for older machines. Moreover, its real-time protection system is quite reliable, blocking threats from even entering your machine. There is also a Safe Web feature that integrates into your web browser to offer color-coded safety ratings and link guarding features. In addition to that, you also get fraud prevention in the form of credit monitoring and identity theft alerts with Norton. On the other hand, McAfee offers its WebAdvisor feature that protects you from online threats, but we find Norton’s solution more comprehensive.
When it comes to firewall protection, a slight advantage is on the side of McAfee in our opinion, though Norton does include an Intrusion Prevention System with its firewall. This system makes sure that the data that passes through the firewall has no malicious pieces, which is a great addition, but it tends to trigger some false positives. For this reason, we give a slight advantage to McAfee, but if you don’t want to use a third-party firewall, sticking with Windows Security is always a good way to go.
In the introduction, we mentioned that Norton has a better pricing option at the lower tier, which is the case; however, it also offers additional features at higher tiered plans, just like McAfee. Therefore, if you need coverage for more devices and dark web monitoring, you need to move to the second or third tiered plans. Note that Norton is slightly cheaper on the lowest tiered plan, whereas McAfee is slightly cheaper at the highest tiered plan.
Entry into Norton’s ecosystem starts with the Standard plan at $32.99 for the first year, and you get protection for one device, you get 10GB of cloud storage, and there are no dark web Monitoring or parental control features. Next is the Deluxe plan, which costs $44.99 for the first year; it includes the previously mentioned two features and ups the cloud storage to 50GB. Finally, the Premium plan costs $59.99 and adds a total of 75GB of cloud backup storage.
When it comes to support, the Better Business Bureau gives an A+ rating to both providers. There are multiple contact options, live chat being the quickest. You also get great knowledge bases and how-to videos if you want to fix things on your own with both providers.
In the end, Norton delivers a multi-device premium protection, coupled with cloud backup and a wide range of security tools and features. Unlimited VPN, dark web monitoring, and advanced parental control (at higher plans) all combine to give you a total package that does everything slightly better than McAfee, making it a better choice overall.
Take a look at our full Norton 360 review.
Check out our guide to the best antivirus software for even more alternatives