As two of the greatest antivirus suppliers on the planet, having been round because the daybreak of the web, McAfee and Norton actually deserve their stellar popularity. On the floor, they’re fairly comparable – providing superior on-line security to each people and companies.
However dig deeper and also you’ll discover fairly a number of variations that decide which model’s options are the most effective for you within the face of the rising cyber threats. People, companies, and IT admins ought to perceive each the similarities and distinctions between these two behemoths – for all of our sakes.
So give us your consideration for the following jiffy as we examine the background, safety features, system efficiency and useful resource utilization, consumer interface and ease of use, and malware safety of McAfee and Norton’s digital security platforms.
McAfee versus Norton: Background
McAfee is a number one cybersecurity firm with a wealthy historical past courting again to the early days of non-public computing, based in 1987 by a Santa Clara pc programmer that the corporate is called after – John McAfee. All through its historical past, together with being the primary to have antivirus software program, McAfee has been on the forefront of the cybersecurity trade, adapting to evolving threats and applied sciences.
Norton is a formidable competitor. Very similar to its counterpart, it has lengthy had the popularity of a robust AV software program supplier and continues to beef up the safety trade, even into its most simple packages. Based by Peter Norton in 1982, Norton’s antivirus merchandise have been developed and distributed by Symantec (now Gen Digital) since 1990.
Although the 2 corporations supply overlapping instruments, Norton focuses extra on offering all-in-one digital safety suites, as an example, integrating its LifeLock identification theft safety for premium customers and a built-in VPN. However, McAfee combines versatile, multi-device, and identification safety with a user-friendly expertise.
McAfee versus Norton: Safety features
There’s little question about it – each suppliers are sturdy in core antivirus safety. They even have the identical record of safety features that no main self-respecting firm within the cybersec enterprise ought to be with out.
This implies potent real-time menace detection, a firewall, identification theft safety, a VPN, a password supervisor, and a set of succesful parental controls. What they differ in is how they implement these options.
Actual-time menace detection
McAfee boasts highly effective safety towards malware, which entails appropriately figuring out and stopping new threats that haven’t but been formally recognized or added to malware databases. To attain this, it deploys machine studying know-how that helps the AV vendor perceive distinctive behaviors and patterns in new threats. Nonetheless, it does generally have bother leaving legit information alone, giving plenty of false positives. It additionally didn’t do nice towards ransomware or phishing in our exams.
Norton’s malware-stopping skills are in the identical rank, catching harmful information earlier than they’ll launch, and demonstrating spectacular leads to third-party analyses. However, like its competitor, it additionally appears to wrestle with false positives, which in the end impacts its whole rating. In contrast to McAfee, it performs higher in battling ransomware, whereas it’s not utterly foolproof nor tremendous fast to behave there. So far as anti-phishing safety goes, Norton managed to dam a really acceptable 95% of our check hyperlinks.
Firewall
McAfee’s firewall boasts sensible options that present added safety to your community, searching for threats sneaking in via your web connection. It additionally retains an eye fixed on different machines linked to the identical community as your pc (like cell and sensible units) that may get contaminated this manner.
In the meantime, the firewall device in Norton’s options protects you from incoming community assaults and prevents untrusted apps in your gadget from connecting to the surface world. It does all this with out elevating a single alert and is exceptionally configurable, proper right down to customizing the way it handles particular site visitors varieties.
Identification theft safety
Relying on the product and subscription you select, McAfee has a protracted record of identification theft protections in place, together with monitoring for suspicious exercise, holding tabs in your credit score, its historical past, and locking it if obligatory. It additionally gives automated cleanups of non-public knowledge and on-line account info, and identification restoration after an ID theft with dwell brokers to stroll you thru each step of the best way. Sure, they even assist you to write letters, fill out types, and offer you right telephone numbers.
To supply comparable service, Norton has partnered with LifeLock, the main identification theft safety firm and a veteran in each monitoring and recovering identities. This fashion, it supplies credit score monitoring, SSN and credit score alerts, stolen pockets safety, identification lock, as much as one million {dollars} compensation for misplaced funds and bills, and help by identification theft restoration specialists.
VPN
McAfee gives limitless VPN entry in all of its McAfee+ subscriptions, routing your info via a safe server and assigning you a unique IP tackle from your individual, making it unattainable on your on-line looking exercise to be logged, saved, tracked, or traced again to you. Regardless, it’s a bit primary, overlaying just some core options – an on/off swap to attach you to the closest server by default, choice between 47 international locations, and settings that allow you to join manually or mechanically whenever you entry the web through WiFi or wired networks.
Norton gives limitless VPN with a few of its subscription packages, which fires up mechanically whenever you’re connecting to compromised or unsecured networks or P2P. It additionally options break up tunneling that lets you resolve which apps use the VPN and which don’t, a kill swap that blocks all web entry if the VPN drops, advert and tracker blocking, automated reconnecting after gadget restart, VPN entry to native units on non-public networks, and using Norton VPN even when one other VPN is lively. It connects shortly to servers in 29 international locations and achieves strong speeds.
Its price noting that if a VPN is the deciding consider your alternative of antivirus, it may be greatest having a look at our information to the greatest VPN, as many VPNs bundled in antivirus packages do not fairly match as much as the likes of devoted providers comparable to NordVPN or SurfShark.
Password supervisor
Unsurprisingly, each McAfee and Norton supply a password supervisor with their subscriptions.
The previous has it within the type of the True Key Password Supervisor, which permits for creating and syncing passwords throughout units, and boasts sturdy multi-factor authentication – e mail, fingerprint, a second gadget, Home windows Hey, and extra. Nonetheless, it doesn’t supply normal form-filling or safe password sharing. It may well import saved passwords instantly from Edge, Chrome, and a few the greatest password managers in LastPass and Dashlane. Generic CSV assist may enable True Key to learn logins from elsewhere.
The latter has a easy password administration device to arrange your logins, generate safe credentials, and share them throughout all of your units. It’s out there as a Chrome and Firefox extension, with standalone Android and iOS apps for cell customers. Norton Password Supervisor additionally lets you import current knowledge from Chrome, Firefox, and some different widespread password managers: 1Password, LastPass, Dashlane, and – McAfee True Key.
Parental controls
Lastly, every has some type of parental management system in place. McAfee’s comes within the form of a Secure Household function in its household plans, and Norton has its Parental Management set of capabilities.
Particularly, McAfee’s Secure Household parental controls embody blocking web sites by content material kind, proscribing entry to particular apps, and limiting gadget entry to specific occasions of the day. They’re additionally simply configurable and versatile. Moreover, the device enables you to test the placement of your youngsters’ units on a map and obtain alerts after they go to or depart particular areas.
The place Norton’s Parental Management instruments are involved, they go effectively above and past the standard, including detailed content material filtering, cell GPS monitoring, and in-depth monitoring. They mean you can hold monitor of something out of your youngsters’ search queries and the web sites they go to to the movies they view. It additionally helps you handle their display screen time and gadget utilization, management app use, and extra.
In abstract, so far as the safety features go, Norton has a slight benefit, primarily due to its LifeLock integration and a extra complete identification safety suite. That is very true for the purchasers in america, the place its identification restoration specialists are situated. Having mentioned that, McAfee doesn’t fall that far behind, with its bountiful platform full of all kinds of spectacular further options.
McAfee versus Norton: System efficiency
For a minimum of a decade, McAfee has scored extremely (5.5 to six/6) for the previous 10 years, persistently demonstrating superior outcomes when it comes to safety, efficiency, and value throughout exams performed by third-party unbiased lab AV-Take a look at, incomes its ‘Prime Product’ award.
On the identical time, Norton’s varied options have additionally scored prime marks (5 to six/6) from the identical antivirus testing platform, additionally receiving a ‘Prime Product’ award. It is because, like McAfee, it has minimal impression on system pace, even throughout installations or file transfers.
One other third-party lab that examined the efficiency of each manufacturers’ merchandise is AV-Comparatives, which has put McAfee Whole Safety and Norton Antivirus Plus side-by-side with 17 different main names within the cybersecurity trade in its April 2025 check.
Right here, McAfee took the lead place with an impression rating of two.6 (on this case, the decrease rating is best), receiving the ‘Superior+’ mark. Norton did barely much less effectively however nonetheless acquired a 4.6, with the identical mark. Between them, Avast and AVG share the second spot, with an impression rating of three.8.
In relation to efficiency, there appears to be a stalemate between McAfee and Norton, as they’re almost equally straightforward on the customers’ methods. On prime of that, each are always engaged on making their merchandise as unobstructive to an everyday consumer’s digital expertise as potential.
McAfee versus Norton: Ease of use
Talking of consumer expertise with antivirus platforms, a number of it will depend on how straightforward their interface is to navigate with out showing overly primary. And right here as effectively, factors go to each side due to their trendy and trendy apps, that are all decently user-friendly – although that may be subjective and rely upon the extent of experience in all-things cybersecurity.
As an example, McAfee’s UI could be very approachable and subsequently perfect for non-technical customers who may get confused and overburdened with all of the superior options. It emphasizes simplicity and gadget standing, which is why it may be optimum for households or first-time customers.
Against this, Norton’s refined, skilled interface may scare away learners, however superior customers will really feel proper at residence with extra depth and tons of hidden, advanced options to tinker with. Be that as it could, the educational curve isn’t too steep, so informal customers will get used to the platform very quickly.
Typically, McAfee seems to be extra user-friendly and simple for newcomers to the area, whereas Norton is a little more advanced and tech-oriented, which consultants will recognize, but it surely nonetheless isn’t unattainable for a novice to know.
McAfee versus Norton: Safety
A protracted record of safety features, long-term presence within the digital sphere, ease of use, and minimal system impression are all tremendous and dandy, however witnessing an antivirus platform in motion towards real-world hazards is the place you’ll decide its true worth and distinction from the competitors.
Within the most up-to-date spherical of malware safety testing by AV-Comparatives – for March 2025 – McAfee and Norton did famously, blocking 99.96% of all threats they encountered, though the previous mistakenly reported extra legit information as threats (15, which is taken into account ‘many’ false positives) than the latter (10, thought of ‘few FPs’).
Concurrently, SE Labs gave each McAfee Whole Safety and Norton LifeLock Norton 360 an ‘AAA’ score, because it had an ideal 100% rating in safety, authentic accuracy, and whole accuracy, with 0% false positives in its Dwelling Endpoint Safety exams.
McAfee versus Norton: Which is greatest?
All issues thought of, McAfee and Norton differ in a number of methods, however they’re comparable the place it issues – effectively defending customers towards the malicious actors lurking within the darkest corners of the World Broad Net. Finally, selecting between them will depend on your particular wants.
So, choose McAfee should you want user-friendly safety for a number of units, or go for Norton if you’d like superior options and prioritize identification safety (offered you’re within the US). Nonetheless, whichever you find yourself with, you’ll be in good palms.
