Mcafee vs Norton 2024: Which is Better Norton or Mcafee?
The past 8 years have seen a major shift of the population to the digital world. The Internet has grown immensely over the years and so its user base. With this rise in user digital threats have also grown at the same rate. These threats majorly spread through online activities and infect our system. Hackers get inside our computers and steal our private data for their malicious activities. This arises a need to have antivirus software on our systems. Only these software have the power to save us from any online attack. Mainly two antivirus software companies come to our mind while deciding which antivirus to choose i.e. McAfee or Norton. People get stuck which is better McAfee or Norton?. To figure out this we have written this McAfee vs Norton comparison. This will help you to make the best choice between the two.
Norton vs McAfee 2024: Difference between McAfee and Norton
Both companies are leading internet security providers. McAfee is headquartered in Santa Clara, California whereas Norton is based out of Mountain View, California.
McAfee offers mainly 3 products
- Total Protection
- Livesafe
- Mvision
On the other hand, Norton Offers:
When we compare McAfee and Norton in terms of pricing. Norton’s products cost less than McAfee’s products. But they offer fewer features and coverage as compared to McAfee.
Detailed McAfee vs Norton comparison: Features
First, let’s see what McAfee has to offer in its feature list
- Firewall Protection
- File lock
- Password manager
- Identity theft protection
- Vulnerability scanner
- Parental control
- Performance optimizer
- File shredder
Norton’s Features
While McAfee offers a variety of features in its single product, Norton offers those features in different products.
- Real-time threat protection
- Password manager
- Smart firewall
- 2GB pc cloud storage
For Norton 360 (extra features)
- Secure VPN
- Safecam for pc
- 10GB pc cloud storage
For Norton 360 deluxe
- Parental control
- 50GB pc cloud storage
- Lifelock Identity protect the system
- 100 GB pc cloud storage
Field Test: Mcafee vs Norton
Antivirus Protection
When we compare McAfee and Norton in terms of antivirus protection. We might think once both companies provide the best antivirus software. So what may be the difference between McAfee and Norton?
Well, the difference is all about the performance and extra features that the company offers.
While Norton offers basic protection from viruses and malware, McAfee offers ransomware protection. Ransomware makes copies of original files on your system and then later deletes or sends the original file to a targeted location.
Norton also doesn’t scan the USB drive inserted into the device automatically. The user itself needs to scan the drive manually.
Firewall
As long as the firewall is concerned both the software offers decent and efficient firewall protection. McAfee’s 2-way firewall continuously monitors incoming and outgoing traffic on your device. It also alerts or warns you if a suspicious site is being visited. Moreover, this feature is also compatible with smartphones.
Norton’s smart firewall also monitors viruses and malware continuously. It also cloaks unused ports as a measure to avoid malicious intruders. In addition to this Norton offers a 100% protection guarantee and in case if the device gets infected by viruses. The Norton customer support team helps the user to get rid of the viruses. This is an edge over McAfee.
Performance
Both the antivirus caused the system to slow down. Now you might think what’s the difference between McAfee and Norton then? The point to notice here is which software had the least impact on performance. While testing the Norton system scans took a lot of time and also system lagged a lot. However this was not the case with McAfee, a quick scan of Mcafee was completed in about 30 secs. System speed slowed down but not as in Nortons case
Also, McAfee also has a gaming mode that offers an uninterrupted gaming experience. It stops all the scans in the background so as to limit the resource drain in the background. It also silences alerts and notifications when the user is playing the game. This feature is not offered in Norton antivirus.
User interface
Both the software offers a simple, clean, and easy to use interface. Their windows have tabs on the home screen to execute various operations such as setup parental control, run quick scans, set up VPN, and many more.
Popularity
According to data collected by OPSWAT(a security company that collects and releases data on the market share of antivirus products). McAfee performed better in this than Norton.
Mcafee held a market share of 12.66% while Norton held a market share of 11.98%.
Customer rating
Both the companies hold A+ BBB ratings meaning customers are fully satisfied with their service.
McAfee vs Norton 2024: Pricing and plans
Mcafee’s flagship product McAfee Total protection is available with 3 plans
Individual
This plan offers various features listed below and is for 1 device only
- Antivirus
- Performance Optimization
- Home Network Security
- Security Experts and Online Support
- Password Manager
- Safe Web Browsing
- McAfee Shredder
- Encrypted Storage
All this comes at a price of $34.99*
Multi-device
This plan has all the features listed above. The only add ons is that it is available for 5 devices and has identity theft protection and safe web browsing feature. This plan has a pricing of $39.99.
Family
This plan comes with all the features of a multi-device plan except it has 10 device compatibility and has additional safe family features. this plan is available for $44.99*
Norton: Pricing and plan
Norton offers 3 plans
Standard
This plan includes
- Antivirus
- Cloud backup of 2GB
- Firewall
- Password manager
- 100% virus protection promise
This plan is available only for pc and comes at a price of $39.99
Deluxe 3 devices
This plan has all the features of the standard plan. it can run on 3 devices at the same time, it supports 50GB cloud backup, parental control, and dark web monitoring.
This plan comes at a price of $49.99.
Deluxe with Lifelock
This plan has all the features listed above. It supports 100GB cloud backup and has the following features apart from the deluxe plan.
- Lifelock identity protect the system
- Credit monitoring
- SSN and credit alerts
- Stolen wallet protection
- US-based identity restoration specialists.
All this available for $99.99
McAfee vs Norton: Conclusion
Both the software are leading market shareholders. Both of them provide the best internet security services. If affordability is kept in mind then McAfee has an edge over Norton. Mcafee proves to be ideal in a situation where the user needs to manage multiple devices. However, Norton provides better security than McAfee. So if someone is looking for a more secure antivirus on a personal level then Norton is recommended. But if one needs to need antivirus for a big enterprise then McAfee will be an excellent choice.
