Ilijia Miljkovac is a Techopedia writer with seven years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about cybersecurity topics, spanning VPNs, antiviruses, and hosting,…
Michael is a Tech Content Editor at Techopedia, who is passionate about delivering high-quality tech content online and ensuring the accuracy of our guides. With…
We uphold a strict editorial policy that focuses on factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content, created by leading industry experts, is reviewed by a team of seasoned editors to ensure compliance with the highest standards in reporting and publishing.
Disclosure
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn how our funding model works. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
Norton and McAfee are among the best antivirus products on the market. My in-depth Norton vs McAfee review will pit the two against each other and provide all the details you need to decide which is right for you.
Both providers deliver exceptional results and shield millions of devices around the world from a wide range of cyber threats. In my guide, I’ll dig into the Norton vs McAfee comparison and assess their features, pricing, and functionality to determine which is the best antivirus provider.
McAfee and Norton are both great choices if you’re looking to keep your devices safe from malware. However, antiviruses offer far more than just anti-malware scanning features today, and some of their extra tools may just tip the scales for you.
Here’s a quick comparison of Norton and McAfee’s key features.
Internet users are faced with a huge range of malware threats today, so it’s important to have protection in place – and if you’re looking for a reliable product for long-term use, it’s worth investing in quality.
Here’s a quick overview of Norton and McAfee’s plans to help illustrate which provider offers better value for money at various stages.
Although the providers offer broadly similar pricing, I’ve picked Norton as the winner because of its lower prices at each step and its lower renewal rates.
While you’ll pay less if you opt for McAfee’s most expensive security suite, you’ll be missing out on Norton’s 500GB of cloud backups and extensive parental controls.
Both providers offer protection for one device with their basic plans and unlimited devices with their most expensive plans. However, Norton extends its protection to just five devices with its 360 Deluxe plan, while McAfee Premium protects unlimited devices for $49.99/year.
Thanks to its 30-day free trial and lengthy 60-day money-back guarantee, though, you can try Norton for an extended period without any risk. McAfee, on the other hand, offers a 30-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Norton vs McAfee – Which One is Safer?
Winner: Draw
Online threats are unpredictable and constantly evolving today, meaning that only the best antiviruses can achieve a 100% protection score. I’ve thoroughly tested Norton and McAfee to assess which is better at blocking malware threats such as common viruses, phishing attacks, and ransomware.
Here’s how their core antivirus features stack up.
Malware Protection
McAfee vs Norton Malware Protection
Norton and McAfee both offer industry-leading malware detection powered by AI, which allows them to detect suspicious behavior – even in the case of fileless malware attacks – and novel viruses, including zero-day threats.
In testing, I attempted to download over 1,000 files containing Trojans, worms, and other malware and viruses. Both antiviruses successfully blocked and removed these test files from my system.
These results are perhaps unsurprising, as Norton and McAfee both have a 100% refund guarantee if their software proves ineffective against malware.
In addition, I reviewed the results of assessments from independent research labs like AV-Test and AV-Comparatives. Both providers performed to a consistently excellent standard in these tests.
In AV-Test’s assessments, McAfee issued a single false flag while testing just under a million files and consistently beat industry averages for performance. Norton had zero false flags and a 100% zero-day detection rate, and it beat industry performance averages in seven of ten categories.
For additional analysis, see our full McAfee review.
Firewall Protection
Norton and McAfee Firewall Protection
McAfee’s Advanced Firewall feature
Both providers offer integrated firewalls to prevent unauthorized access to your devices. Whenever your device establishes a connection with a website or another device, the firewalls will check for malicious traffic and stop it reaching your device. The firewalls also prevent malicious actors from extracting sensitive data via trusted connections.
Although I found McAfee’s Advanced Firewall to be more flexible and user-friendly, Norton’s Smart Firewall includes the Norton Intrusion Prevention System, which offers an additional layer of protection with a secondary traffic check.
Ultimately, both firewalls are highly effective and will stop malicious internet traffic and data hijacking – meaning it’s a draw between the two providers in this case.
Real-Time Protection
McAfee and Norton Real-Time Malware Protection
McAfee’s Real-Time Scanning feature
Antiviruses offering real-time malware protection continuously scan your devices for threats. This significantly bolsters your security but can slow your device down.
Norton and McAfee had similar, positive results in my testing. I tried downloading malware-infected files while the feature was active, and both providers prevented them from infecting the PCs and smartphones I was using.
Both antiviruses also quickly detected infected files downloaded after real-time malware protection features were temporarily disabled.
Scanning
Norton and McAfee Scanning
Norton’s scan options
Full system scans are valuable for detecting spyware, malware, adware, and other cyber threats. When it came to Norton vs McAfee antivirus scans, I measured their malware removal effectiveness, versatility, and the performance load they put on my testing devices.
Both providers offer:
Scheduled Scans – Choose a time and date and set Norton and McAfee to perform a scan of your choice
Quick Scans – The providers check your device for malware in commonly infected storage areas
Full Scans – Norton and McAfee scan every file on your device to detect even persistent, well-hidden malware
Custom Scans – Both providers allow you to scan specific files, folders, and drives on demand
Beyond these scan types, Norton also offers a Smart Scan. This will check your device for performance, security, and network errors to help you keep your system safe and up to date.
McAfee, meanwhile, offers a Vulnerability Scan, which scans your device for outdated apps and operating system updates to help improve your security.
Norton vs McAfee – Ease of Use
Winner: McAfee is easier to navigate and is ideal for beginners
Norton and McAfee are both simple to use and offer intuitive user interfaces. However, I found Norton’s interface slightly more dated, while McAfee was more intuitive and easy to use.
The Norton Antivirus interface
Norton’s apps have a bottom menu that separates their features into five categories. Navigating them isn’t difficult, but it’s easy to get lost while looking for a feature.
McAfee offers an at-a-glance view of your security features on its home page. You can find feature settings, and each category and feature has a short description to help beginners find their way around.
The McAfee antivirus interface
While locating the scanning features is simple in both programs, you’ll notice less system performance impact while running McAfee’s scans, based on my experience. I tried watching a TV show on my computer with McAfee’s full system scan running in the background and saw minimal impact.
McAfee is also slightly less likely to incorrectly flag files during its scans, reducing disruption caused by false positives for files and apps.
In addition, neither provider will bombard you with ads or push notifications, and neither includes bloatware. McAfee is more beginner-friendly out-of-the-box, but users won’t have any issues with setting Norton to their preferences.
Norton vs McAfee Key Features
Winner: Norton has a wide range of features
Norton and McAfee are tied in my comparison of their essential antivirus features, but the additional tools Norton offers make it the winner here. As a fully featured antivirus program, Norton will safeguard your devices from basic and advanced online threats – but McAfee doesn’t fall too far behind.
Web Protection Features
Web Protection Features
Norton web protection blocks a page
Norton’s Safe Web browser extension is available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari to protect you from malicious websites, phishing domains, and scams.
It analyzes every website and link you view and provides a safety score before you access it. If its database flags a website as hosting malware, Safe Web will prevent you from entering it.
McAfee’s equivalent is called Web Protection, and it functions in a similar way. Besides blocking malware and fraudulent websites, both extensions will safeguard you from malvertising. Both extensions can scan your social media feeds and highlight links leading to unsafe websites.
However, Norton Safe Web’s layout and integration left me with a slightly better impression. It also detected more malicious links when I tested its capabilities against email-based attacks, which is important for protecting against phishing attacks.
Parental Controls
Parental Controls
Norton parental control tools
Norton’s security software can stand alongside some of the best parental control apps thanks to its comprehensive monitoring tools.
Here are the parental control features offered by Norton:
Time Supervision – Norton provides an at-a-glance view of your children’s activities on their PCs and mobile devices. You can choose a limit, set curfews, and review statistics daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
Video Supervision – You can view the videos your kids have watched on their PC, Android, or iOS devices, including a snippet of each video.
Mobile App Supervision – This feature shows you which apps your children have installed on their devices, allowing you to block anything inappropriate.
Web and Search Supervision – Norton lets you block inappropriate websites remotely and track the websites your kids frequently visit.
Location Supervision – This lets you monitor your children in real time with the GPS location tracker on your child’s device. In addition, you’ll have a 30-day log of where they’ve been.
School Time – Norton allows you to block websites unrelated to schoolwork while they study.
McAfee only offers parental control features with its family plans. They allow parents to manage content access and screen time and get location-based alerts, but it’s a more limited toolset than Norton’s offering.
Password Manager
Password Manager
Both providers offer password managers that enable you to create strong passwords, store them in secure password vaults, and auto-fill your credentials into online forms whenever you need them – and the tools match the best password managers available today.
This means you won’t need to remember your login info after saving it with either Norton or McAfee’s password managers, as you can set them to auto-populate your details when you visit a website where you have an account.
Both apps will also alert you if your current passwords are weak or vulnerable, prompting you to update them with safer options to prevent brute-force attacks and account hijacking.
Although McAfee’s tools and apps are generally easier to use, it’s a different case here. Norton’s password manager is much easier to use, looks more modern, and does a better job of auto-filling information.
VPN
VPN
The Norton Secure VPN interface
A VPN is a must-have online privacy tool, and both McAfee and Norton offer Virtual Private Network functionality. While neither service can match the best VPNs, their offerings are functional and reliable.
McAfee offers a secure VPN with 2,000+ servers across 48+ countries, while Norton has a network of 1,500+ servers in 29+ countries. This makes McAfee a better pick if you’re looking for a VPN with a large server fleet.
However, Norton offers better VPN features, including split tunneling, which allows you to choose which websites or apps will be encrypted, but McAfee only includes this feature for Android. Both providers offer a kill switch, which cuts off your connection if your VPN gets disconnected.
Both VPNs offer solid connection speeds with minimal performance issues, and their privacy features worked well during my testing. Ultimately, you can pick between better global coverage with McAfee or additional privacy features with Norton.
Dark Web Monitoring
Dark Web Monitoring and Identity Theft Protection
McAfee’s data breach leak alert
When companies suffer a data breach, your information and credentials may be leaked online, compromising your security and putting you at risk of fraud.
Norton and McAfee both offer dark web monitoring tools that continuously scan the dark web for leaks of your information and alert you in the event of a hit. This enables you to update your logins and security settings to protect yourself.
Both providers can track email addresses, credit cards, IDs, and even gamer tags to help protect you. In addition, their identity theft protection tools complement this feature by tracking transactions and allowing you to freeze your credit cards if needed.
McAfee offers this feature with its cheapest plan, while Norton includes it with its first upgrade.
Norton Antivirus vs McAfee – Compatibility
Winner: Norton for everyone except Chromebook users
Both Norton and McAfee are compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. However, there are some differences in which operating system versions they support:
Besides these operating systems, both providers offer web extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. As a bonus for ChromeOS users, McAfee’s apps are Chromebook-compatible, though neither supports Linux.
McAfee and Norton Antivirus Customer Reviews
Winner: Norton has more positive customer reviews
I’ve extensively tested Norton and McAfee for this guide, assessing their performance and the capabilities of their features and tools. In addition, I’ve researched feedback on platforms like Trustpilot to explore what long-term users have to say about the providers’ services.
Norton has a score of 4.5/5 stars, with more than 30,000 reviews. More than 61% of the reviews gave Norton the top score. To better understand user perspectives, though, I thoroughly explored both positive and negative reviews.
Norton has made it easier for me to have secure cover on all my devices, no matter where I’m using them. Easy subscription, no fuss. It runs quietly in the background monitoring activity. Also love the “safe search.”
In addition, dozens of reviews describe Norton’s customer support team as being knowledgeable and patient, which is a compliment McAfee also often gets from its users.
Many users complained about the short duration of Norton’s seven-day trial, apparently having been unable to find the longer trial offer. In addition, some users noted that Norton lacks a file shredder feature to permanently erase sensitive documents. McAfee, on the other hand, does offer the feature.
While Norton has a very positive score on Trustpilot, McAfee has the opposite. With over 2,400 reviews, McAfee has a rating of 1.2/5 stars on Trustpilot. This is a surprisingly low score given its excellent performance in our testing and in third-party tests by AV-Test and AV-Comparatives.
Having read some of the negative reviews, I have to disagree with them. I have used McAfee Total Protection for several years now. I have never had any issues, either with the antivirus or other protection services they offer. It has saved my devices on quite a few occasions from attacks… McAfee continues for me to be the best protection and peace of mind for my devices.
After some research, I found that most user complaints stem from its pop-up notifications for free trial users. While this is a common upselling practice among antiviruses, I don’t believe McAfee deserves such a low score on Trustpilot, considering that AV-Test gave the service 18/18 points for its performance, usability, and protection capabilities, and it earned an AV-Comparatives Gold award for malware protection.
When individual user reviews are assessed, they generally agree that Norton and McAfee’s customer support teams are helpful, their additional features are valuable, and they offer strong protection for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices.
However, Norton has a significantly better customer feedback score, so it comes ahead in this respect.
We base our recommendations on first-hand experience and in-depth testing. All the Antivirus products we suggest, have been tested based on the following criteria:
Core Security Features: We make sure that the antivirus software is fully equipped with features like real-time protection, scanning, a firewall, web protection, and more.
Malware Detection Rates: We test malware detection rates ourselves by running both in-depth and quick scans on our devices. Additionally, we check independent lab tests.
Compatibility: We check which devices and operating systems the antivirus software is compatible with. Often, different-looking dashboards and slightly different packages of features may be available.
Performance Impact: A reliable and functional antivirus should not slow down your device significantly. So, we examine our device performance with and without the antivirus running.
Customer Experience: Alongside our own experience, we are curious to know what real users have to say regarding the services. So, we’ve scoured the web for feedback on each of our tested antiviruses.
Value for Money: We always consider value for money and how much each product is offering for the set price point.
How to Choose the Best Antivirus Software and Compare Norton and McAfee
Comparing the best antivirus software can be difficult, as many reputable providers offer comparable feature sets. Here’s a list of key factors to consider to help you find the right product for your needs:
High detection rates and the ability of antiviruses to tackle emerging threats is critical.
We conduct our own tests, and following our comprehensive testing methodology, we refer to results from independent research labs, like AV-Test and AV-Comparatives, for deep, technical analysis of cybersecurity products and their ability to tackle threats.
Ease of Use
Top antiviruses don’t require a guide or technical expertise to set up or use. Look for products with intuitive, easy-to-use apps for a range of operating systems and browsers.
Compatibility
Avoid antiviruses that aren’t compatible with major operating systems. While most providers offer support for Windows and Mac, look for products that offer native Android and iOS apps and browser extensions.
Key Features
Check which features providers offer with their plans. Most providers start with core antivirus protection tools with basic plans and then add on additional functionality.
When analyzing Norton and McAfee, I thoroughly tested their core antivirus features and additional features, including password managers, VPNs, and identity theft solutions.
In terms of features, Norton and McAfee are often also compared with TotalAV. See our TotalAV review for more details.
Customer Support
Comb through online user reviews to see how long-term users feel about their customer support. In addition, pick a provider that offers multiple customer support options, such as live chat, phone, and email.
Value for Money
A plan that offers extra features like VPNs, password managers, and similar tools is worth paying extra for, as a package may save you a lot of money.
Most antivirus providers offer multiple plans, so pick one that suits your budget while also considering introductory prices, trials, and money-back guarantees.
In my comparison of McAfee vs Norton, Norton comes out ahead, but that doesn’t mean McAfee doesn’t have anything to offer. It’s one of the cheapest antiviruses if you’re looking for protection across unlimited devices, it’s one of the best Windows antiviruses, and it’s an exceptional pick for identity monitoring.
That said, Norton offers more value for money overall, with a stronger range of plans, more comprehensive features, and more favorable user reviews.
When it comes to Norton 360 vs McAfee, Norton is better if you want a comprehensive antivirus solution that comes with excellent customer support and compatibility with all major operating systems. However, McAfee is a more beginner-friendly solution, and its cheapest plan includes VPN protection.
What are the disadvantages of Norton Antivirus?
Norton is relatively resource-heavy while performing full system scans, meaning it’s best to schedule them while you’re away from your device. In addition, some versions of its apps, such as the Mac app, could use a more modern layout.
Which edition of Norton is the best?
If you’re looking for an antivirus to combat malicious software, Norton’s cheapest plan is a great starting point. If you require advanced security features like parental controls or identity theft protection, upgrading to the Deluxe or LifeLock plans will get you a lot more functionality.
Is Norton really the best antivirus?
Every user has different needs, but Norton is an ideal pick for individuals looking for an antivirus with a 100% virus removal guarantee, robust VPN and password management solutions, and comprehensive identity protection features.
Are there any compatibility issues with McAfee or Norton Antivirus?
Although you can install and simultaneously run both programs on a single device, doing this will likely lead to major conflicts. Their real-time antivirus protection functionality will significantly slow down your device, the rate of false positive detection will increase, and their firewalls will interfere with each other, to name just a few issues.
Will McAfee slow your computer down?
McAfee has minimal performance impact and took first place in independent testing for its limited impact on system processes. By removing malware and
Techopedia’s editorial policy is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.
Ilijia Miljkovac is a Techopedia writer with seven years of experience covering all things tech. He writes about cybersecurity topics, spanning VPNs, antiviruses, and hosting, helping to inform B2B and B2C audiences about the latest products and services. He's written for publications such as Business2Community, TheTechReport, Comparitech, and more. When he's not working, Ilijia spends his time hiking in nature or holed up in his apartment gaming.
We uphold a strict editorial policy that focuses on factual accuracy, relevance, and impartiality. Our content, created by leading industry experts, is reviewed by a team of seasoned editors to ensure compliance with the highest standards in reporting and publishing.
Disclosure
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn how our funding model works. By using this website you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
When you buy through affiliate links in our content, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn 
