McAfee antivirus review Australia

Compared to peers like Norton, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Avast and AVG, McAfee is an expensive antivirus service. The cheapest version of McAfee costs $64.95 for the first year before reverting to a $99.95 annual fee, but that’ll only protect one device.

It’s more practical, then, to go with McAfee Standard as the starting plan, which protects up to three devices on PC, Mac, Android or iOS. McAfee Standard costs $64.95 for the first year but is typically $119.95 per year. McAfee Plus protects five devices for an initial $84.95 annual fee (typically $149.95 per year), while McAfee Premium covers up to 10 devices per year for $94.95 (normally $195.95).

In comparisons to other antivirus software competitors, McAfee has the best value for McAfee Standard in terms of typical pricing and the lowest price jump between first-year and ongoing fees. Still, it’s beaten out in every other pricing comparison by one of the aforementioned antivirus providers.

Compared to peers like Norton, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, Avast and AVG, McAfee is an expensive antivirus service. The cheapest version of McAfee costs $64.95 for the first year before reverting to a $99.95 annual fee, but that’ll only protect one device.

It’s more practical, then, to go with McAfee Standard as the starting plan, which protects up to three devices on PC, Mac, Android or iOS. McAfee Standard costs $64.95 for the first year but is typically $119.95 per year. McAfee Plus protects five devices for an initial $84.95 annual fee (typically $149.95 per year), while McAfee Premium covers up to 10 devices per year for $94.95 (normally $195.95).

In comparisons to other antivirus software competitors, McAfee has the best value for McAfee Standard in terms of typical pricing and the lowest price jump between first-year and ongoing fees. Still, it’s beaten out in every other pricing comparison by one of the aforementioned antivirus providers.

If you’re curious about McAfee, start with the 30-day trial, which is available on any of the four supported platforms: PC, Mac, iOS and Android. While it’s not great to see parental controls paywalled behind more expensive versions, there’s also a 30-day trial of McAfee Safe Family, which is a separate download.

Across my Windows and Android tests, McAfee is as easy to use as you’d expect from antivirus software these days. You do need to create an account for the free trial, but you can use your 30 days across multiple devices. In terms of day-to-day use, it’s great to see functions contextualised with a punchy description.

If you just want McAfee for real-time threat protection, it’ll happily run in the background as you go about your internet goings-on. Running manual threat scans takes between five and 15 minutes to complete, and you shouldn’t have any trouble with playing around with basic protection features on computer or mobile versions.

In recent real-world threat protection tests from the respected analysts at AV-Comparatives, McAfee had some promising results when it came to the main function of its antivirus. It blocked 96.1% of the tested threats, with only 1.1% threats and 2.8% user-dependent threats let through. McAfee also reported a low number of false positives (four). While those numbers are impressive, McAfee is behind Norton and Bitdefender (both blocked 100% of threats) as well as AVG, Avast and Kaspersky (all blocked 99.4% of threats). Check out the full scores below.

AV-Test tests a little differently across PC, Mac and Android platforms (not iOS, unfortunately), and grades antivirus providers from zero to six across protection, performance and usability metrics. The latest versions of McAfee were recently tested by AV-Test on Android and Windows, and McAfee earned an almost-perfect scorecard. Android was slightly lacking for protection, with a 5.5 rating instead of the sixes everywhere else. Check out how McAfee fares in comparison to other close competitors on the AV-Test scores below.

When you pay for a reputable antivirus service these days, you can safely expect that it’s built to handle both viruses and malware. Given the rising subscription costs, though, it’s also great when an antivirus service offers more security add-ons.

McAfee antivirus bundles a bunch of great extra features. It starts with a nonintrusive firewall and digital file shredder, then extends to handy features like a web protection and the option to monitor up to 10 email addresses for identity threats. There’s an unlimited VPN for up to five devices, but we wouldn’t recommend the McAfee VPN over some of other best VPN picks.

All of these features are available across versions, including McAfee Basic, but parents may be tempted to pay extra for McAfee Premium to access parental controls.

McAfee is a solid place to start if you’re happy to go with the 30-day trial to see what the antivirus fuss is all about. For those who do go on to pay, you’ll receive respectable real-time threat protection that’s not as flash as competitors, but there are some great advanced features that help boost the overall value.