McAfee Full Review: For Total Protection

This report will review McAfee's antivirus, its security features, cloud backup, VPN service, user experience, compatibility, and pricing plans. We will discuss all you need to know before making your next antivirus commitment. 

McAfee, is it the right antivirus software for you in 2021? Let's see.
 

McAfee Total Protection security feature protects against viruses, spyware, malware, and ransomware attacks, and it also keeps you protected from suspicious and shady websites. Upon several tests and trials, Total Protection was 99% successful at detecting and preventing threats and attacks. This is nothing fancy, and actually, this rate is on par with other top antivirus brands like Norton and Bitdefender.
 

1. Third-party lab test results

Rather than taking the words of an antivirus company on their own product, we use multiple third-party lab assessments to make sure we get the most accurate information regarding security.
 

 

• AV-Test scores

  • McAfee antivirus scores high on protection according to AV-Test. It gets a 6/6 score on its ability to detect malicious ware.
     
  • McAfee antivirus scores 6/6 in the impact on device performance department is negligible/ high, which means it won't take up your device's resources.
     
  • McAfee antivirus has a low false-positive rate with a 6/6 usability score. This means it's unlikely to mistake regular files for harmful ones.
     

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• AV-Comparatives

  • McAfee antivirus scores 3/3 stars (Advanced +) in the impact on device performance department is negligible, which means it won't take up your device's resources.
     
  • McAfee antivirus has a Real-World Protection Test with a 2/3 stars (Advanced) real-world protection score. According to a test conducted with 758 domains/files, this score is to check the rate of detection of malicious files and domains.
     
    • McAfee antivirus had 9 false positives (False alarms), with the industry average in the test being 17. While successfully blocking 98.5% of threats.
       
  • Malware Protection Test
    
    McAfee antivirus has a 3/3 (Advanced +) score regarding malware detection. This was done by testing 10102 Test cases with 100% detection and block, with 10 false positives.
     
  • Malware removal Test
    
    McAfee antivirus has a 1/3 (Standard) score regarding malware removal. This test checks the ability of an antivirus to remove malware that has already infected a PC. Out of 11 test cases, McAfee antivirus scored 61 out of 100, with the baseline being 83.
     

 

 

• SE Labs

  • McAfee scored (AAA) overall with a total accuracy rating of 100%.
     
  • McAfee had a score of 750/750 with 100% legitimate accuracy meaning it was able to differentiate accurately the products classify legitimate applications and URLs.
     
  • In terms of protection, McAfee antivirus detected 100 out of 100, blocked 100, and neutralized 0. Earning a protection score of 100/100.
     
  • McAfee antivirus had a protection accuracy rating of 399/399 (100%).
     

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2. Firewall and IDS protection

McAfee antivirus provides a firewall to protect users from attacks that may originate from their network. The intrusion detection system (IDS) ensures no threats go undetected.
 

3. USB rescue toolkit

McAfee provides its users with a rescue mode toolkit under the name McAfee CleanBoot disk (Can be downloaded on a USB drive). A rescue mode toolkit functions as a backup mechanism in the event malware infects your devices and renders it unable to start, or if malware requires your system to be booted to function well. Pre-installing a rescue mode toolkit can be a lifesaver in certain situations.
 

McAfee provides four different plans to choose from for your needs: the Single Device, Individual/Couples, Family, and Ultimate plans.

The features are summarized In the following table:
 

Plan	Single device	Individual/Couples	Family	Ultimate
Secure VPN licenses (must be enrolled in auto-renewal)	1	5	5	5
Performance Optimization	Block auto-play videos on websites and minimize bandwidth usage	Block auto-play videos on websites and minimize bandwidth usage	Block auto-play videos on websites and minimize bandwidth usage	Block auto-play videos on websites and minimize bandwidth usage
Home Network Security	Secure your firewall and block hackers from accessing your home network	Secure your firewall and block hackers from accessing your home network	Secure your firewall and block hackers from accessing your home network	Secure your firewall and block hackers from accessing your home network
Multi-device Compatibility	Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices	Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices	Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices	Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices
Password Manager	Securely store and manage all your online passwords	Securely store and manage all your online passwords	Securely store and manage all your online passwords	Securely store and manage all your online passwords
Safe Web Browsing	Anti-phishing protection	Anti-phishing protection	Anti-phishing protection	Anti-phishing protection
McAfee® Shredder™	Available	Available	Available	Available
Encrypted Storage	256-bit encryption of files on your pc	256-bit encryption of files on your pc	256-bit encryption of files on your pc	256-bit encryption of files on your pc
Identity Theft Protection	N/a	N/a	Essentials type (must be enrolled in auto-renewal)	Plus-type with (24/7 dedicated agents and $1M insurance) (auto-renewal not required)
Number of devices per plan	1	5	10	Unlimited
Price (1 year)	$79.99  $34.99	$99.99 $39.99	$119.99 $44.99	$159.99 $109.99

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Extra Features

McAfee's Total Protection offers plenty of features, including:

• Safe Browsing 
• Encrypted Storage (256-bit encryption)
• Home Network Security (firewall)
• PC Performance Optimization tool
• Password Manager
• Multi-device compatibility

 

McAfee provides two types of scans; Virus Scan, which is a great and straight-to-the-point process to scan and identify viruses in your devices. The second one is the Vulnerability Scan, which searches and scans all out-of-date programs and software on your device, trying to spot any sort of vulnerabilities.

One of its best security features is the WebAdvisor, which helps avoid any malicious websites and gives you a warning before downloading any sort of suspicious attachments or downloadable contents. The only downside of this feature is the fact that it is only available on Windows.

One of the best features offered is Identity Theft Protection, which looks through the dark web content to find if any of your personal information has been shared or leaked to the dark web. The Identity Theft Protection checks your email addresses, social security numbers, bank accounts, phone numbers, credit cards, passports, and driver's licenses. It compares them to the dark web content to see if there are any matches. The only setback for this feature is that it's only available for US customers.

Installing Total Protection is both quick and straightforward; it will take you a few minutes. When it comes to user experience, McAfee did not do their best in this regard. McAfee does not organize the app's information well, and there are even some misleading titles in their application.

The application itself is pretty simple to use, but the application and features' design can be much better. However, this won't affect your entire experience with Total Protection as, after a couple of days, you will be used to the design and very familiar with its ins and outs.

When it comes to the mobile app, the best thing is that it works pretty well and offers real-time protection. You can also simply scan your mobile phone by pressing the big shield at the top of the screen, saying "Scan." This scan checks your apps, files, and Wi-Fi connection and ensures they are all malware-free and secured.

The anti-theft feature allows you to remotely lock and clear your data if your device is ever stolen. And the Thief Cam feature enables you to take a picture of the person who stole your phone using your stolen mobile front camera. In general, the mobile app works efficiently without affecting the performance of your mobile phone.
 

MacAfee's Total Protection is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.
 

Customer Support 

McAfee has all support bases covered, from phone support to live chat and community forum. Phone support and live chat are available around the clock. You can usually get a response from McAfee's representative in a few minutes, but it may be a bit longer, depending on the time of day. In addition, McAfee provides a detailed knowledge base option that answers many typical technical support questions. 

The community forum is also an excellent option to search for an answer to your issue as it is both organized and active. If you're new to the community forum support, it's basically customers ask questions and other customers or McAfee experts answer them. What great about the community forum is it's available in multiple languages, including Arabic, German, Italian, and Spanish.

To summarize, McAfee Total Protection's support options are reliable and efficient as you can get everything covered by a personal phone chat to a virtual live chat assistant.
 

McAfee Total Protection antivirus offers four different pricing plans starting from $24.99 per year. The three of them have the same basic features, such as real-time protection, firewall, WebAdvisor, app boost, and file encryption tools.

The difference between the three plans is the number of devices you can install Total Protection on: 

• Single: 1 device/$34.99 per year (2-year commitment) 
• Individual/Couples: 5 Devices/$39.99 per year (2-year commitment) 
• Family: 10 devices/$44.99 per year (2-year commitment)
• Ultimate: Unlimited Devices/$109.99 per year (2-year commitment)

 

 

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Money-back guarantee

McAfee offers a 30-day trial with no credit card required or any sort of commitment. It puts you on the 10 device plan for a whole month. As for refunds, McAfee offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
 

Conclusion

Is McAfee's Total Protection any good?

McAfee Total Protection is a significant improvement of McAfee's old version of the antivirus software. It is very reliable and efficient when it comes to malware detection and ransomware prevention. McAfee's antivirus package offers a handful of extra security and performance features; most of them are sometimes very handy.

We must also note that McAfee's mobile app is "spot on" and a great addition to McAfee's antivirus package. It's light, fast, and practical and comes with many features that work together to keep your mobile device clean and safe. 

All in all, we like McAfee's new enhanced version of their antivirus software, it's clearly a big step forward for the cybersecurity firm, and their pricing plans are fair compared to their antivirus capabilities. All that being said, we are still convinced that both Norton 360 and Bitdefender are better options and the best on the market.