McAfee vs Norton: which is better in 2025?

Having a robust antivirus is crucial in this day and age of the digital world. Cybercriminals are constantly looking for vulnerabilities to spread malware and steal users’ personal data. Even if some OSs do include antivirus software, it’s generally not robust enough to fully protect your device. That’s why we strongly suggest using a powerful third-party antivirus solution.

McAfee and Norton are two of the best-known antivirus programs on the market. These rivaling antiviruses both offer market-leading real-time protection that can keep any device safe from malware.

In this 2025 McAfee vs Norton comparison, we'll review both products' pros and cons, based on our hands-on tests, to help you decide which antivirus can better protect your device and suit your needs.

McAfee vs Norton at a glance

While both Norton 360 and McAfee have a huge feature suite and showed great protection performance in our tests, we found that Norton 360 was better at detecting malware, with a real-time protection rate of 99.9%, compared to McAfee’s 99.8%. Plus, Norton 360 offers faster scanning speed, a lower impact on system performance, and more affordable plans than McAfee. Norton 360 also outranked McAfee in our best antivirus software list.

	Norton Antivirus	McAfee Antivirus
⭐ Rating:	4.7 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★	4.2 ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🥇 Overall rank:	#2 out of #26	#7 out of #26
🔥 Coupons:	Norton coupon 58% OFF	McAfee Antivirus coupon 70% OFF
💵 Price:	From $29.99/year	From $39.99/year
✂️ Free version:	No	Yes (Android, iOS)
🖥️ Platforms:	Windows, macOS, iOS, Android	Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

McAfee vs Norton: which offers better security?

Many Norton 360 vs McAfee reviewers score this one as a tie. To determine the winner, we first looked at the German AV-Test Institute’s independent test results. Both McAfee Total Protection and Norton 360 earned a “Top product” rating, meaning that both providers offer similar levels of security.

	McAfee Total Protection	Norton 360
Independent tests	Highest marks	Highest marks
Real-time protection	99.8%	99.9%
Firewall	Effective	Effective
Scanning	Effective, caught 10/10 malware threats	Effective, caught 10/10 malware threats

When it comes to AV-Comparatives, both McAfee and Norton managed to score great online protection rates: 99.91% and 99.97%, respectively. However, there are some things to point out. While both providers offer almost the same online detection and protection rates, Norton has a slightly better offline detection rate but a higher false alarm rate.

We also looked at the SE Labs test results. Turns out, both competitors got the best possible award with a score of 99%.

When it came to our in-house testing, both antivirus providers performed really well. We ran various scan types to see how effective either of them is at removing malware threats. Both providers caught 10 out of 10 malware samples we’d placed without requiring too many resources from our device.

Real-time malware protection

Both Norton 360 and McAfee have reliable threat prevention systems, and to test them out, AV-Comparatives put them to a rigorous real-world protection test.

During the February – May 2023 tests, it detected 14 false positives (FPs) for Norton and 13 for McAfee. In the July – October testing, it detected 16 FPs for Norton and 6 for McAfee, to Norton’s disadvantage. Despite that, both antiviruses are capable of catching malware with a score of over 99%.

Independent testing aside, we decided to run our in-house tests to see how effectively Norton and McAfee detect malware. The results don't come far from independent testing. During the full scan, Norton and McAfee caught 10/10 malware we had planted on the device.

During the quick scan test, McAfee found 9/10 viruses during its 12-min-length scan. Norton, on the other hand, didn't find a single malware sample we had planted. However, McAfee took longer to scan and used more PC resources than Norton.

Despite the mishap, both McAfee and Norton are secure and reliable antiviruses. In fact, they are leading providers on the market.

Malware protection

Both Norton 360 and McAfee offer some great features for protection from malware and its removal.

Norton malware protection includes very reliable real-time protection that monitors and protects your device from various online threats. You can also add a Safe Web feature on your browser to strengthen your device security further. It indicates how secure each site you’re trying to visit is.

On the other hand, McAfee offers a wider variety of features that include Tracker Remover, Secure Apps, and a file shredder. The Tracker Remover feature helps clean your device from cookies and temporary files to improve security. As for the other two, let’s just say that you won’t have to worry about your deleted sensitive files being recovered by cybercriminals or having to update apps manually. Furthermore, McAfee also has a feature to boost your browser security. It’s called WebAdvisor, and it protects you from misclicks and typos to ensure you won’t accidentally visit dangerous sites.

Firewall protection

Norton 360 Deluxe’s Smart Firewall works hand-in-hand with the Intrusion Prevention System. The former decides which data goes through, while the latter checks if there are no malicious pieces. It also hides all unused ports to limit the connection options for third parties.

Of course, the firewall can work the other way as well, blocking you from accessing potentially harmful websites. However, you should expect quite a few false positives.

McAfee’s firewall protection works better in the sense that you’ll encounter fewer false positives. Other than that, the settings and performance are quite similar to Norton’s.

In this case, it’s enough to know that both firewalls do their job, and you shouldn’t be thinking this part over when selecting between McAfee Total Protection and Norton 360 Deluxe.

Scanning

In terms of scanning, both providers have quite a few options to choose from. Norton 360, for instance, offers multiple types of scans – quick, full, smart, file, and more scans.

The quick one works as a great alternative for a regular checkup – it analyzes the most vulnerable spots of your device. Meanwhile, the full scan analyzes everything – your entire system. And if you believe that a certain file is infected, you’ll make use of the file scan.

Moving on, McAfee has three types of scans as well – quick, full, and custom. The quick and full scans have the same purpose as the corresponding Norton’s scans.

As for the custom scan, you don’t get a dedicated scanning button for it. If you need to scan a specific file or folder, you need to locate it on your device, right-click it, and press the “scan” button.

Pricing and plans

Plan	Norton	McAfee
AntiVirus Plus vs Plus	$29.99/year	$39.99/year
Standard vs Premium	$39.99/year	$49.99/year
Deluxe vs Advanced	$49.99/year	$89.99/year
Select vs Ultimate	$99.99/year	$119.99/year
	Check Norton Discounts	Check McAfee Discounts

Both McAfee and Norton have a number of subscription options. Each brand provides four main plans to choose from. However, comparing the prices, Norton has a cheaper starting plan at $29.99/year for those who don’t need that many features and are looking to save a buck. McAfee’s corresponding plan starts at $39.99/year, which is double what Norton costs. In this price comparison, you can clearly see that all of McAfee’s plan prices are much higher than Norton’s.

McAfee has a 30-day free trial, while Norton 360 gives you a 7-day free trial for annual subscriptions. Even after that, you get a 30-day money-back guarantee with McAfee and a 60-day money-back guarantee with Norton 360. You can pay for both products with a credit card or PayPal.

Norton pricing

When choosing Norton 360 as your antivirus, you have 4 main options to choose from. All of the plans include malware and online threat protection, a firewall, backup storage, and a password manager.

Here’s every plan Norton offers and what you get with it:

	AntiVirus Plus	Standard	Deluxe	LifeLock Select
Price	$29.99/year	$39.99/year	$49.99/year	$99.99/year
Price upon renewal	$59.99/year	$94.99/year	$119.99/year	$179.99/year
Devices	1	3	5	10
Cloud backup storage	2GB	2GB	50GB	250GB
Secure VPN	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes	✅Yes
Privacy monitor	❌No	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes
Parental controls	❌No	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes
Dark web monitoring	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes	✅Yes
Identity theft protection	❌No	❌No	❌No	✅Yes

Visit Norton Antivirus

The most basic plan option (from $29.99/year), AntiVirus Plus, offers 2GB of cloud backup storage and the security features available for all the plans, like a virus scan option, real-time protection, and a firewall. However, by investing more into the Standard plan (from $39.99/year), you also get a VPN and dark web monitoring.

The most optimal plan is the Deluxe one (starting at $49.99/year), offering all of the Standard plan features and adding privacy monitoring, parental controls, and much more.

However, to get identity theft protection, cover 10 devices, and get 250GB of storage, you’ll have to pick the Norton LifeLock Select plan, which is the most expensive (from $99.99/year).

McAfee pricing

	Plus	Premium	Advanced	Ultimate
Price	$39.99/year	$49.99/year	$89.99/year	$119.99/year
Price upon renewal	$39.99/year	$149.99/year	$199.99/year	$279.99/year
Devices	5	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Parental controls	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes	✅Yes
Personal data cleanup	❌No	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes
Identity theft coverage	❌No	❌No	✅Yes (up to $1M per adult)	✅Yes (up to $1M per adult)
Lost wallet protection	❌No	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes
Security freeze	❌No	❌No	✅Yes	✅Yes
Ransomware coverage	❌No	❌No	❌No	✅Yes (up to $25K each for 2 adults)

Try McAfee today

McAfee’s cheapest plan (from $39.99/year), called Plus, is also the most basic one. Apart from the virus scan, real-time protection, and firewall features, it offers no addition to the security package.

However, if you invest in the Premium plan, which is slightly more expensive (starting at $49.99/year) but supports unlimited devices, you’ll also get parental controls and a VPN.

There’s also the Advanced plan (starting at $89.99/year), offering all that you get with Premium, as well as personal data cleanup, identity theft coverage, and many more features.

The most expensive plan (starting at $119.99/year), Ultimate, offers all of the above features plus includes Credit lock (to prevent unauthorized opening of accounts in your name) and $25K ransomware coverage.

Norton vs McAfee feature comparison

Norton provides you with a much wider range of security features than McAfee. While both antiviruses cover the essentials, Norton includes additionals, such as phone takeover and monitoring cloud storage.

Here’s what we found during our Norton vs McAfee feature research:

	Norton	McAfee
VPN (unlimited data)	✅Yes	✅Yes
Password manager	✅Yes	✅Yes
Dark Web Monitoring	✅Yes	✅Yes
Credit monitoring	✅Yes	✅Yes
401(k) & Investment Activity Alerts	✅Yes	✅Yes
Secure browser	✅Yes	✅Yes
Secure cloud storage	✅Yes	❌No
Review	Norton Antivirus review	McAfee Antivirus review

Overall, Norton is better in terms of features than McAfee because of the more extensive cloud storage. It doesn’t have McAfee’s file shredder or encryption, but that won’t be a major disadvantage for most users.

Norton’s arsenal is loaded with features beneficial for advanced protection from threats (obviously depending on the plan you choose). Besides, you get a 100% virus protection promise. McAfee Total Protection doesn’t fall far behind Norton’s plans, as it's very inclusive. Aside from threat and web protection, you get such essential features as a firewall as well as extras, such as a file shredder, to protect the documents you removed from recovering.

For a full cybersecurity suite, both Norton and McAfee offer a password manager and a VPN. What we like about Norton is that it has a PC SafeCam, which will stop unauthorized third-party access to your webcam.

Additionally, the Dark Web Monitoring feature, which both providers have, searches for your personal information and informs you if your data has been leaked.

Norton vs McAfee apps, interface, and ease of use

Both Norton and McAfee have a smooth installation and setup process. Their apps are user-friendly and simple to navigate.

Desktop app designs are not outdated or clogged with menus and buttons, so it all depends on which one appeals to you more. As for the mobile devices and their apps, I have noticed that Norton offers most of the features, while iOS users should expect a few less. McAfee is doing everything similarly but emphasizes improving your device’s performance with specialized tools. However, McAfee is easier to navigate, as in Norton's app, you have to open many new tabs and apps to find features.

Desktop apps

Norton 360 offers a minimalist design with fewer colors and fewer things to click on, which can be easier to navigate for beginner users. There’s no left sidebar, only five big buttons clearly informing what purposes they perform (Security, Online Safety, Backup, Performance, My Norton) at the bottom and settings at the top right of the window.

However, there’s a small price to pay for this initial simplicity – Norton uses pop-ups that are informative, but I found them to be quite annoying. Yet, the most important part is that everything is clear and easy to understand, even for beginners.

In the meantime, the McAfee antivirus program gives you a clear and concise main screen. However, for some reason, I was not able to maximize the window or change its size in any other way, which can be irritating for users.

On the top menu, you will find the 4 main options related to McAfee functions: Protect your PC, Protect yourself on the web, Protect your identity, and More security. During the test, clicking each of them showed us what was on or off, what McAfee did while we weren't looking, and buttons at the bottom to choose a possible action.

Mobile apps

Norton's Android version installation starts with choosing your desired tools. It can be basic Norton Security, or you can add a password manager and Norton VPN. We recommend installing all three if you don’t have separate apps for the latter two. With McAfee, you get to install everything at once.

Norton’s mobile apps are pretty similar in the number of available features. What iOS might miss are an app installation checker, a spam call checker, and battery usage warnings. Also, it’s not possible to have it start up automatically whenever you switch to a public or another unsecured Wi-Fi.

Moving on, McAfee’s mobile app seemed simpler than its desktop counterpart. Compared to the desktop app, the mobile one heavily lacks certain features. For example, it no longer offers features like a Storage Cleaner, Memory Booster, App Lock, and Anti-Theft.

Customer support

	Norton	McAfee
Email	✅Yes	✅Yes
24/7 live chat	✅Yes	✅Yes
Phone line	✅Yes	✅Yes
Knowledge base	✅Yes	✅Yes

Both competitors have solid customer support. McAfee or Norton, they both offer 24/7 live chat options, as well as a phone line for contacts with human agents. The waiting times for a response are a few minutes tops, so for any urgent issues, you’ll receive the needed help quickly.

There are also forums for individual research for both providers, and we were able to find more help from the McAfee community. Their knowledge base is also nicely structured.

Looking for some external opinions, I checked what the Better Business Bureau had to say about the customer service of each provider. Turns out, they both get an A+.

Final verdict: McAfee or Norton?

	Norton	McAfee
Features	✅Wins	❌Loses
Malware protection	✅Wins	❌Loses
Pricing	✅Wins	❌Loses
User interface	✅Draw	✅Draw
Support	✅Draw	✅Draw

After careful consideration, we can clearly state that Norton is a better antivirus compared to McAfee. Based on independent and our in-house tests, Norton has better malware protection ratings and more security features, brings more value for your money, and offers great customer support options.

Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that both of these competitors are among the best antivirus providers that you can find in 2025. They both have a good selection of features, similar settings, and great protection performance. But they also have their own strengths and weaknesses.

McAfee is a reliable antivirus provider that has unique security features, such as a file shredder. It also offers a free version and a longer free trial than Norton 360. However, McAfee shows a slightly inferior overall protection performance and has fewer scanning options.

Norton 360 is the better antivirus provider in this comparison. While it shows more false positives during scans and doesn’t have a free version, overall, Norton 360 is better at detecting malware and has faster scanning speeds than McAfee. Plus, its plans are more affordable, and it offers a longer money-back guarantee than McAfee.

How we tested and compared Mcafee vs Norton

Choosing the best antivirus software depends on what you need this AV for. The relevant characteristics change based on your OS, the level of protection you need, your financial situation, etc. To help you decide, we performed in-house tests and compared Norton vs McAfee based on the following criteria:

• Malware detection and removal
• Real-time protection
• Performance
• False positive detection rates
• Extra features
• Compatibility
• Customer support
• Price

You can learn more about our testing methods in our How We Test Antivirus Software article.

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