McAfee vs. Norton 2022: Battle of the premium AV suites - ballengerisce1983

Rob Schultz / IDG

For age in North America there was single one inquiry you'd ask yourself when it was time to buy antivirus software for your Windows PC: Do I lack Norton or McAfee? There are outlying more choices these days (see our complete antivirus roundup for validation), but Norton and McAfee remain two of the top options under consideration today.

To answer the question of how these 2 American heavyweights compare today, we evaluate the nuts and bolts of each one's premium suite: McAfee Total Protection and Norton Security Premium.

Read along for the results.

McAfee vs. Norton: App aim

Both applications look nice sufficiency and are relatively easy to understand. McAfee opted for a intent with a left rail for navigation and an extra menu at the clear of the window. The main part of the windowpane, meanwhile, is where you access most features and see information about your PC's security status. Overall, it's a pretty well behaved conception, merely McAfee's tendency to split options 'tween the main window and left rail can exist a little confusing.

Symantec opts for a to a greater extent tablet-like come nea: Norton Security Premium has five panels that you privy tap or click on (depending on whether you have a touch screen) to reveal each dialog box's options. It's a very easy application to navigate with no rattling issues of confusion.

Winner: Norton

McAfee vs. Norton: Execution

mcafeetotalprotection — McAfee Total Protection

Looking at our in-house tests, Norton performed all right in the Personal computer Mark 8 quiz based along our most recent review, while McAfee did not. McAfee as wel didn't perform also as Norton in the Handbrake test, which involves winning a 3.8GB MKV HD file and converting information technology to Handbrake's Android tablet preset.

Winner: Norton

McAfee vs. Norton: Price

Norton Security Premium costs $50 for the first year, with a regular price of $110, and covers 10 devices. McAfee Total Protection is a touch cheaper for first-time users at $45 per year, with the duplicate even price of $110 for up to 10 devices.

Winner: Tie

On the far side the basic security scans and online monitoring, Norton Security Premium offers 25GB of cloud backup, a password manager, disk optimizer, lodge cleanup spot, and a inauguration manager.

McAfee Total Protection has the Trusty Key password and identity manager, but only for five of your 10 devices, Live Secure file encryption, file shredder, and a third-party practical application update manager. Few of these features are additional downloads.

Both offer a firm amount of extra features. McAfee's are a trifle more practical, though it doesn't have the cloud backup that Norton offers. Then again, Norton doesn't offer a file encryption vault every bit a part of its suite.

Winner: McAfee

McAfee vs. Norton: Tribute

You can't discourse an antivirus suite without looking at its protection capabilities. We don't bash our own in-house examination, but of the three examination houses we do follow, both McAfee and Norton were very highly rated—but thither are differences.

A-V Test rated Norton 100 percent in its September and October 2018 tests, for both 0-Day and widespread malware detection. McAfee was a little weaker for the same time period along the 0-day attack, hitting 99.4 percent in September and 98.6 percent in October. McAfee scored 100 pct on the widespread malware test just like-minded Norton.

For AV-Comparatives, its real-world protection trial ran from July to November 2018. Norton systematically scored between 99 and 100 percent, with about four false positives. McAfee's mountain chain was 98.5 to 100 percent, with fewer unrealistic positives. The Malware Auspices trial run from September 2018 saw Norton hit a 99.9 percent online signal detection rate, a 100 percentage online protection rate, and an 81.5 percent offline catching order. McAfee scored a 99.8 percent online detection rate, a 100 percent online protection rate, and a 84.8 per centum offline detection rate.

Finally, Atomic number 34 Labs gave Norton a AAA valuation for its July through September 2018 account, while McAfee received a AA rank. SE Labs said targeted attacks (where their experts proved to hack a organization) were more of a problem for McAfee and others, while Norton was in a radical that handled both targeted and widespread malware more effectively.

McAfee and Norton are very close in protection rates whole, only on that point are few profound areas based on the testing above where Norton performs just a little bit better.

Winner: Norton

McAfee vs. Norton: End

No surprise here, but our top peck is Norton Security Superior. McAfee has some extra features to recommend it, and its protection levels are very neat. Taken unitedly with the quality of the screen background app, the supernumerary features, the protection and the functioning, however, Norton is our winner in that close showdown.

Note: When you purchase something after clicking links in our articles, we whitethorn earn a small committee. Read our affiliate link insurance policy for more inside information.

Ian is an separatist author based in Israel who has ne'er met a technical school affected he didn't look-alike. Helium primarily covers Windows, PC and play hardware, picture and euphony streaming services, social group networks, and browsers. When He's not covering the news he's running on how-to tips for Microcomputer users, or tuning his eGPU setup.