McAfee vs. Norton: Which Antivirus Should You Use?

PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Price

Skipping any new-user discounts, you pay $119.99 per year for a Norton subscription. That gets you licenses to install security for five devices, plus VPN protection for those devices. As for McAfee, if you want similar five-device protection, you pay…$119.99 per year. Yep, same price. You can buy a single McAfee license for $89.99, but really, who’s going to do that? As far as pricing goes, there’s no winner.

Winner: Tie

Independent Lab Test Scores

Just as J. D. Power makes a business of evaluating vehicles, independent labs around the world put antivirus products through rigorous testing. I follow four of those labs—AV-Comparatives, AV-Test Institute, MRG-Effitas, and SE Labs—that release new reports on a steady schedule. Their results come in many forms: pass/fail, certification from AAA down to C or Standard up to Advanced+, and even straight numeric results. Over the years, I’ve devised an algorithm to map these disparate results onto a scale from 0 to 10 and merge them for an aggregate lab score.

Norton’s current lab score is 9.6, while McAfee’s is 9.8. McAfee wins this one, but not by much.

Winner: McAfee

Scores From Our Hands-On Tests

Lab scores are a handy metric, but many security companies, even some big ones, don’t participate in the labs' independent tests. I always challenge each antivirus to defend an isolated virtual machine test system against real-world malware and other threats. This not only gives me quantifiable scores for comparison but also lets me experience just how each app handles malware defense.

In my simple malware blocking test, Norton scored 9.9 of 10 possible points, handily beating McAfee’s 8.5. My malicious URL blocking test challenges each antivirus with 100 very new malware-hosting URLs, measuring how well it prevents downloading those threats. Norton blocked 99% of those, while McAfee lagged a bit with 95%. Finally, I test each application’s ability to steer the browser away from phishing frauds. McAfee had the top antiphishing score, 100%, but Norton was very close with 99%. Norton clearly has better test scores overall.

Winner: Norton

VPN Protection

Antivirus protection is local. It finds and eliminates malware on your devices and prevents new infestations from reaching them. When you connect to the internet, though, antivirus has no power to protect your data. For maximum protection, you need to run your internet connections through a virtual private network (VPN). This protects your data in transit and masks your IP address to keep your location private.

Both Norton and McAfee include a VPN component with no bandwidth limitations and full access to the company’s network of VPN servers. Neither will challenge the best standalone VPNs for dominance, but they’re both serviceable.

Winner: Tie

Firewall Defenses

Traditionally, one big benefit from upgrading from an antivirus to a security suite is that you get a firewall, a security component that blocks outside attacks and ensures that the programs on your system don’t misuse their connection.

Norton’s firewall is top-notch, with added protective features like exploit detection and a program control system that does its job without hassling the user. McAfee, on the other hand, has been backing off on firewall protection. It now leaves much of the network defense task to the built-in Windows firewall and doesn’t attempt program control at all.

Winner: Norton

Ransomware Protection

If a zero-day virus or data-stealing Trojan gets past your defenses, an antivirus update will typically remove it before long. But if you got hit by a ransomware attack, it’s already too late. Your important files are encrypted and recoverable only if you pay the ransom.

Both Norton and McAfee recognize the importance of preventing ransomware before it can do its dirty deeds. Each adds protective layers specific to detecting ransomware behavior. In tests using real-world ransomware samples, Norton proved very effective, while McAfee exhibited a couple of impressive failures.

Winner: Norton

Dark Web Monitoring

The first sign that your personal privacy has been breached may well be the sale of personal data on the dark web. Both Norton and McAfee feature a monitoring system to catch such exposures before they progress to full-on identity theft. Both include obvious items like bank accounts, credit cards, email addresses, and phone numbers, but diverge in other ways. For example, Norton’s collection includes your address and mother’s maiden name, while McAfee monitors date of birth and Social Security number. Both also include a very limited personal data removal component.

With McAfee, you must verify that you own each email and phone number, a good precaution against misuse. Some of McAfee’s alerts include a direct link to change a compromised password. And it encourages following through with a performance score that rises as you take care of alerts. McAfee’s implementation is just a bit better.

Winner: McAfee

Security Features Collection

As Joseph Stalin probably didn’t say, quantity has a quality all its own. Every security suite worth consideration covers all the security essentials. Norton and McAfee both include password management and cross-platform security, for example, and both offer a money-back virus protection guarantee. But plenty more protective features are available, and you’ll want to consider those before you decide.

I mentioned earlier that McAfee has reduced the scope of its firewall, but downsizing doesn’t stop there. In the last few years, it has also dropped parental control, performance tuneup, spam filtering, and vulnerability scans. Norton, too, has bowed out of filtering spam, but it retains the rest. Other features found in Norton but not McAfee include a rescue disk, secure browser, startup manager, and webcam security. Norton wins on sheer number of features.

Winner: Norton