McAfee Total Protection

All your devices need antivirus protection, especially the PCs and Android phones. Even the more secure macOS and iOS devices can’t protect data in transit—they need a VPN, at least. McAfee Total Protection used to let you install security on every device in your household, but now that generous licensing is only found in the McAfee+ suite. Without that all-devices licensing and without several features that have been dropped, this suite doesn’t bring as much to the table as it once did. Our top pick for entry-level security suite is Bitdefender Internet Security. With perfect lab scores and a wealth of features, it still costs less than McAfee at every pricing tier.

How Much Does McAfee Total Protection Cost?

McAfee has long been known for its unlimited licensing, but at present, that bountiful offer applies only to McAfee+. The standalone McAfee AntiVirus now covers just one PC for $49.99 per year, with no volume discount. McAfee Total Protection starts at $89.99 per year for a single license, which is rather more than most. Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, and ZoneAlarm all cost $59.99 for a single license, while Avira and Panda Dome Advanced go for a few dollars less.

For just $10 more, $99.99, you can get three McAfee licenses. That’s clearly a better deal, but it’s still high compared to many competitors. ESET, G Data Total Security, and Webroot are among those that cost less than $70 per year for three licenses, while K7 Total Security charges just $41 per year.

When you reach the five-license tier, McAfee has some company. Along with F-Secure Total and Norton 360 Deluxe, McAfee charges $119.99 per year for five licenses. That’s still a bit high. For example, Bitdefender, ESET, and Trend Micro all cost just under $90 at the five-license tier.

There’s one more tier, but you won’t find it on McAfee’s website. Some third-party retailers sell a version of Total Protection that offers unlimited licenses, with a steeply discounted first year and a list price of $149.99. For that same price, you can get McAfee+ directly from McAfee, though. And McAfee+ has extended tiers that Total Protection doesn’t. In particular, if you upgrade to the $199.99 McAfee+ Advanced, you get full-scale identity theft protection on par with that of Norton 360 with LifeLock Select. Norton’s Select tier costs $179.99 per year and protects 10 devices.

You don’t want your antivirus protection to end abruptly, so opting for auto-renewal is smart. McAfee contacts you before the automatic renewal kicks in, giving you a chance to opt out. Auto-renewal also comes with significant benefits. For one, it activates McAfee’s Virus Protection Pledge. If malware gets past the antivirus, McAfee’s fearless virus hunters will remote-control your computer and eradicate it manually, a service that would normally cost $89.95. In the rare event they fail at their efforts, McAfee will refund the price of the suite. In addition, auto-renewal removes the draconian 500MB per month bandwidth limit on the VPN.

Simple Installation

As with McAfee’s antivirus, you start by activating your registration code online. At that point, you can either immediately install it on the device you're using or send links to install it on other devices. There’s also an option to start mobile installations by snapping a QR code. When you download the program, you get a serial number distinct from your activation code. Hang onto that number, as you might need it to reinstall McAfee.

After the quick install, McAfee is ready to protect you. As with the antivirus utility, a banner across the top of the main window either reports that everything looks good protection-wise or offers advice to improve your privacy and security. Below that, you see six panels: Check Your Protection Score, Antivirus, Secure VPN, Tracker Remover, Protect More Devices, and ID Protection.

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Down the left side of the main window is a simple set of icons for Home, My Protection, Protection Score, Account, Help, Settings, and Feedback. Clicking My Protection opens a menu of all available protection features, divided into four groups: Protect Your PC, Protect Yourself on the Web, Protect Your Identity, and More Security. This is a step up from the feature-reduced standalone antivirus, which only has Protect your PC and More security. To complete your setup, follow the prompts to install McAfee’s WebAdvisor in your default browser (presuming the default is Chrome, Edge, or Firefox).

Shared Antivirus Features

Of course, everything you get as part of McAfee AntiVirus is also present in the full suite. The two programs look very similar, the main difference being the full suite displays different features in the main window’s six big buttons. Below is a synopsis of my findings on the antivirus; for the details, you can read my full review.

Three of the four independent labs I follow include McAfee in their testing, and it earned perfect scores from all three. Along with all the other tested antiviruses, McAfee took AAA certification from SE Labs in its latest report. McAfee also picked up the maximum possible score, 18 points, in the latest test by AV-Test Institute. And in three tests from AV-Comparatives, McAfee attained three Advanced+ certifications.

I use an algorithm that maps lab results onto a 10-point scale and returns an aggregate score. With perfect scores, that algorithm naturally yields 10 for the aggregate. The only security tool that tops McAfee’s feat is Bitdefender Total Security, which also scored a perfect 10, but that score is based on results from all four labs.

In my own hands-on malware protection tests, I observed that McAfee doesn't scan files just because Windows Explorer accesses them for display. Rather, it waits until they try to launch and will quarantine any that prove to be malware. With 95% detection and 9.4 of 10 points, McAfee ties with Webroot Internet Security Complete. Among regular antivirus programs tested with my current sample set, only Malwarebytes scored higher, with 9.8 points. Guardio and PC Matic also scored 9.8, but both required a modified testing regimen due to their unusual modes of operation.

Challenged with a collection of 100 active malware-hosting URLs, McAfee used two techniques to defend the test system. Its WebAdvisor browser plugin prevented the browser from even visiting 53% of the URLs, and it eliminated the malware payloads during download for another 46%, earning a 99% protection rate. Guardio, Norton, Sophos, Trend Micro, and ZoneAlarm Extreme Security edged out McAfee’s impressive score, all reaching 100% protection.

WebAdvisor also steers users away from phishing sites, those fraudulent sites that pose as banks, finance sites, and even dating sites, with the purpose of stealing your login credentials. In testing with 100 very new phishing sites, McAfee scored a perfect 100% detection. It shares that top score with Avast, Guardio, Norton Genie, Trend Micro, and ZoneAlarm.

WebAdvisor warns you when it detects tech support scams, sites that try to trick you into letting them remote-control your PC. Its cryptojacking blocker rats out websites that stealthily suck up your PC's computational power to mine for Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. By default, it marks up results from its own search engine to help you avoid dangerous links; you’ll want to tweak that feature so it marks up results from other search engines as well. Markup also extends to links in LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit posts.

McAfee includes a layer of protection against ransomware. When it detects a whiff of illegitimate "file transformation," it backs up files that might be affected. If that whiff matures into evidence of a ransomware attack, it quarantines the attacking program and restores the files. Because turning off ordinary antivirus protection also turns off Ransom Guard, I couldn’t use my usual technique for isolating ransomware protection in testing. Undaunted, I created new hand-modified versions of a dozen real-world ransomware threats. McAfee caught 11 of them, but the remaining one ran rampant despite McAfee having all possible protective layers enabled.

Fewer Shared Features

McAfee AntiVirus Plus once contained quite a few features beyond merely protecting against malware, but most of those aren’t present in the Windows-only McAfee AntiVirus. These include Secure Apps, a tool to apply missing security patches; App Boost, which aims to speed up the loading of common programs; Web Boost, to supercharge your browsing; and the My Home Network security scanner.

The integrated firewall remains, but it now leaves some tasks to the built-in Windows firewall, aiming to partner with it rather than replace it. The result is a firewall with very few settings and little visible presence.

Tracker Remover is in an odd position in that it’s been removed from the antivirus but not from the suite reviewed here. Despite the name, this feature is not related to blocking tracker components on web pages. Rather, it cleans up computer and browser items that a snoop could use to profile your behavior. In the system files realm, it can remove temporary files, clear Windows history, and eliminate broken shortcuts, among other things. You can let it clear cookies, cache, and history in all your browsers or make individual choices for Chrome, Edge, Internet Explorer, and Firefox. You get finer control by using the cleanup feature built into each browser, but Tracker Remover certainly makes it easy.

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Digital Security Scan

New since my last review, McAfee supplements its simple antivirus scan with a Digital Security Scan. No need to go looking for it; the suite will recommend this scan in the advice area on the home page.

The new scan starts with a quick scan for malware, along with a check to make sure you’ve got real-time antivirus protection enabled. This is followed by a simple performance scan. If it finds junk files or registry problems, you can quickly clean those up. A check for available memory came up unavailable every time, perhaps because my test PC is a virtual machine.

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That leaves the Advanced Issues Scan, which promises to minimize email spam and robocalls. I obediently filled in my name, address, and birth year and launched the scan. It quickly reported no data breach exposures, then more slowly ran a scan for exposure via data brokers. These brokers legally collect public information and use it to create personal profiles that they can then sell. The scan didn’t find my information at the data brokers it checked, probably because I’ve used quite a few similar services in the recent past.

No-Limits VPN Protection

A security suite protects your data on your devices, but when that data heads for the jungle of the internet, it's vulnerable. Running your connection through a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, secures the data while it’s in transit. The connection is encrypted between your device and the VPN server, so even if you've connected through a compromised Wi-Fi network, your data is safe. A VPN also serves to mask your IP address so nobody can track you or determine your location using that address.

When McAfee acquired TunnelBear in 2018, that acquisition came with the VPN server network of the popular TunnelBear VPN, a PCMag Editors' Choice pick for VPN protection. McAfee’s Safe Connect VPN, available as a separate application for $47.99 per year, is built on the same technology but without animated bears. For users of McAfee Total Protection, the Secure VPN component is fully integrated with the main suite, appearing in the features menu under Protect Yourself on the Web.

When you connect to a server using TunnelBear, an animated bear visibly tunnels to the location on the on-screen map. The more sedate Secure VPN simply reports when you’re connected, but the effect is the same. Your data travels in encrypted form to the server you've chosen, or rather, to the country you’ve chosen—you don’t get to choose a server or even a city. By observation, McAfee offers connections in 46 countries.

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Note that unlimited bandwidth is only available for those who have signed up to renew protection automatically each year. If you don’t accept auto-renewal, you get a measly 500MB per month of VPN bandwidth. There’s no harm in signing up for auto-renewal—you can always cancel when the pre-renewal email arrives.

Running all your internet activity through a VPN company's servers requires that you trust the company not to misuse your data. We look closely at the privacy policy for each VPN, hoping to see that they retain little or no information and have sensible policies in place to handle requests for information from law enforcement. In the past, we've admired TunnelBear's clear and appropriate policy. Secure VPN falls under McAfee's umbrella privacy policy, which is significantly more verbose and seems (to our non-legally trained minds) less focused on keeping customer data private.

Quite a few TunnelBear features didn't make it into Secure VPN. Among these are GhostBear, which disguises VPN traffic as HTML traffic for situations where VPN use is blocked, and Blocker, an advanced ad-blocking browser extension.

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One major choice on the Settings page involves when Secure VPN connects. By default, it waits for you to connect manually, but you can have it kick in automatically any time you're connected or any time you're using Wi-Fi. There's also an option to define trusted Wi-Fi networks where VPN protection isn't required. Enabling Safe Reconnect means McAfee cuts all communication if the VPN connection drops, restoring it when the VPN connection is up again. Many VPNs call this feature a kill switch.

Why would you not use VPN protection when it's available without bandwidth limits? The most likely reason is speed. When you connect through a VPN, your traffic necessarily travels farther and passes through more servers. The time from when your device sends a query to when it receives acknowledgment (called latency) tends to be longer, which can be a problem for gamers. More universally problematic is the fact that using a VPN can slow your downloading and uploading of data.

At PCMag, we use the Ookla Speedtest tool to gauge the impact a VPN has on performance. We have a whole feature on how we test VPNs, so do read it for more on our methodology and the limits of our tests. Note that we haven’t yet put Safe Connect to the test, speed-wise, much less the integrated Secure VPN. (Editors' Note: Ookla is owned by PCMag's publisher, Ziff Davis.)

Secure VPN works on all four platforms, but not in precisely the same way. It uses the well-regarded WireGuard protocol on Windows and iOS, not on the other platforms. The Safe Reconnect feature I mentioned is specific to Windows and Android. A feature called App Level Protection matches what many other VPNs call split tunneling, but it’s available only on Android. Mac users don’t get any of these upscale features.

With the ever-growing interest in VPN usage, many security companies have started adding VPN protection to their security suites. Alas, in many cases, what you get is a severely feature-limited version. Typically, you get a skimpy allowance of bandwidth, and you must accept whatever server the VPN chooses for you. Bandwidth limits are all over the map. Avira Free Security gives users 500MB per month, as does the free version of TunnelBear. Bitdefender is more generous, allowing 200MB per day. And with the free Avast One Essential, you get 5GB per week. Kaspersky used to fall into this category, but now you get no-limits VPN protection starting at the Kaspersky Plus level.

Secure VPN doesn't have the advanced features and settings a VPN expert would likely want, but it's very easy to use, and it comes without the painful limitations imposed in some competing suites. It adds significant value to this security suite. As noted, Norton suites all include a no-limits VPN, too. And where McAfee limits you to five devices even at its top tier, Norton gives you five, 10, or unlimited devices, depending on the tier.

True Key Password Manager

Your McAfee Total Protection subscription also gets you premium access to the True Key password manager. In fact, you get five licenses for True Key, so five individuals in your household can each have their own personal password manager. And each of those users can install True Key on all their Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. Please read our review of True Key for the down-low on this program.

You’ll find a Password Manager menu item in the protection menu’s Protect Your Identity section. But that doesn’t mean this component lives within the suite. When you click that panel, it sends you to the web to initialize and configure True Key.

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Under Windows or macOS, True Key is a browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. It works in Edge on Windows, too, but not in Safari on the Mac. Yes, the features chart online shows Safari support, but trying to install it gets a “browser isn’t supported” error. The Android and iOS editions are apps, naturally. True Key looks and works as much the same as possible across all the platforms.

True Key syncs nicely across devices and supports an array of multifactor authentication options, including email verification, trusted device management, master password, fingerprint recognition, Windows Hello, and Apple Face ID. Alas, you can’t use a physical security key as one of your authentication factors. However, you can reset a lost master password using multiple other authentication factors. With almost all other password managers, losing your master password means you've lost all your data.

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True Key's multifactor authentication system works nicely, and it handles standard password manager functions, but it lacks advanced features found in the best competitors. There's no secure password sharing, password inheritance, or automated password updating. It doesn't even fill personal data into web forms, though it will save such things as addresses, credit card numbers, and SSNs. Getting it free as part of this suite is great; if you paid for five licenses individually, they'd cost $99.95 per year. But you can do better by choosing one of our Editors' Choice password managers.

Identity Protection Monitoring

The ID Protection component found in McAfee Total Protection scans both the Dark Web and the ordinary internet for signs your personal information has been exposed and helps you deal with the exposures it finds.

To start, you direct it to check your account email for data breaches. Before you can see its findings, you must verify you own the account by typing an emailed code. My McAfee contacts point out that information about breaches comes from their own research, not from widely available sites like HaveIBeenPwned. They estimate this gets notifications to users as much as 10 months faster. Once you’ve completed the initial email-checking step, you land at the Protection Center, which gives you advice to improve your protection score.

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To start, review any breaches found in that initial search. Clicking each gets you details and advice, though sometimes the details are sketchy. As you click to confirm you’ve dealt with each breach, your score goes up. The process is a bit slow, as there’s an animation for each score increase, and you must confirm every time if you don’t want McAfee to text you with notifications. In some cases, the protection system offers a link to change your password, which is handy. This is a good time to capture that password with True Key if it’s not already in your collection. Once you’ve worked through these, any new breaches will stand out.

Your next step is to add more personal information for monitoring. You can add:

• 10 email addresses
• 10 phone numbers
• 1 Social Security number
• 2 passports
• 2 driver's licenses
• 2 tax IDs
• 1 date of birth
• 2 health IDs
• 10 usernames
• 10 credit and debit cards
• 10 bank accounts

For each email address, McAfee requires that you enter an emailed verification code. Likewise, you verify each phone number with a texted code. If you fill in the maximum in every category, you’ll have McAfee monitoring 60 distinct pieces of PII (personally identifiable information) for you.

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Each time you add a new item, you’re likely to get some new breach warnings. As with email breaches, it’s wise to take care of these right away, even if all you do is click to mark the warning as addressed. My contacts at McAfee pointed out that the ID protection system has been revamped to offer comforting messaging, not scare tactics. Phrases like “Now you’re better prepared,” “Well done!” and “We’ve got your back” are everywhere, along with pictures of friendly people.

Once you get through the initial setup, the Protection Center dashboard focuses on your protection score, which it displays on a scale from 0 to 1,000. McAfee’s designers hope users will be inspired to raise that score by doing things to improve their privacy and identity protection. To that end, the dashboard page displays a list of useful actions below the score. For starters, if the scan found any exposed personal information, you can gain points by dealing with the problem. If an email password was breached, for example, you can either change it or let the system know you already took care of the problem.

I did find this to be a slow process because, after each update, McAfee played a short animation about raising my score. It then displayed a page with “Well done!” or a similar message and then asked permission to send breach notifications by text. After each breach I addressed, I had to click back to the list of items pending attention. In addition, more than half the breach warnings had no associated website, meaning there was no way to change the password.

I saw a gradual increase in my protection score as I worked through the system’s advice. The score increase animation did include a note that points are pending and may not show up right away. Indeed, when I checked back after not using the system for a while, I found my score had gone up significantly.

Tracking breached personal information is useful, but that’s as far as this suite goes in the identity protection realm. If you want full-scale identity theft protection and remediation, you must upgrade to the Advanced or Ultimate tier of the McAfee+ suite.

Minimal Impact on Performance

If your security suite puts such a drag on system performance that you turn it off, that's not effective security. Fortunately, the days of resource-hog suites are long in the past. I still evaluate performance impact using a few simple tests. I time certain common activities before and after installing the suite and average multiple runs to come up with a percentage reflecting the impact on performance.

For one test, I run a script that launches at startup and checks CPU usage once per second. When 10 seconds pass with CPU usage at 5% or lower, I consider the PC ready for use. Subtracting the start of the boot process (as reported by Windows) yields the length of time required to boot the system. After adding McAfee to a previously suite-free system, I found the boot time came in faster; there was no slowdown at all.

One of my tests times a script that moves and copies a mixed collection of files between drives. That script ran 6% slower under McAfee’s scrutiny. Another test times a similar script that zips and unzips that same collection repeatedly. I observed no measurable slowdown with the second script. McAfee's average impact of 2% puts it among the suites with the lightest touch, though a few have done even better. Topping that group are Avira and Webroot Internet Security Complete, which didn't have any measurable impact on performance, and ESET Internet Security, whose minimal impact averaged out to zero.

McAfee Total Protection for macOS Devices

I've written a full and separate review of McAfee Total Protection for Mac; I'll refer you to that for details. It's not truly a different product. Assuming you go for more than a one-device subscription, you can also protect Windows, Android, iOS, and ChromeOS devices, as well as Macs. You don’t get as many security features on the Mac, though, and it hasn’t had the user interface makeover that the Windows and mobile editions enjoyed.

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The Mac installer process adds the WebAdvisor extension to Safari. You can add the extension to Chrome and Firefox, just as you do on Windows. Tested under Chrome, WebAdvisor managed 100% protection against phishing attacks, precisely matching the performance of the Windows edition. McAfee has no current scores for Mac-specific malware protection from the independent testing labs, though. For a full evaluation, please read my review.

The Android Protection Experience

It’s easy to add a mobile device to your McAfee subscription. Just click the Protect More Devices panel in the Windows edition’s main window. You’ll get a list of all the devices currently connected to your McAfee subscription, along with a QR code. Snap that code with your Android device, and you’re on the way to installing McAfee. You can also choose to send a link via email or SMS, but the QR code makes things easy. As with all Android security solutions, McAfee requires a passel of permissions, but it helpfully leads you through granting everything necessary.

McAfee on Android feels more like an experience than an app. It offers a steady series of recommendations for getting your security configured and working. Each time you make progress, your protection score rises, and you get a congratulatory pop-up with stylized fireworks. Early on, you’ll run a scan, configure Safe Browsing, and enable the VPN. You’ll also scan your Wi-Fi network’s security and optionally add it to the trusted list. And as you go, your Protection Score steadily increases.

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Once you’re past the initial onboarding, you’ll find that the app has three icons at the bottom: Home, Notifications, and Settings. Scrolling the window down a bit puts the Security Center fully in view. The center contains six pastel panels for Antivirus Scan, Safe Browsing, Secure VPN, Wi-Fi Scan, Identity Monitoring, and Protect More Devices. A double-sized panel devoted to your Protection Score completes the Security Center.

Android Lab Testing Results

The testers at AV-Test Institute award Android security apps up to six points each for effective protection, small performance impact, and low false positives. McAfee took the full 18 points in the latest tests, but then, so did all tested security systems except for Google Play Protect.

Reports from AV-Comparatives list the percentage of Android malware thwarted. This lab’s latest report didn’t include McAfee. Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, and Trend Micro scored 100%.

In the past, the testing team at MRG-Effitas reported separately on early detection and on detection at the time of installation. With the latest test, there’s a small change. The report’s details indicate percentages for detection during download, detection before installation, and detection after installation. But the only significant figure is the total percentage missed. If it’s less than 1%, the antivirus passes. Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, and Norton didn’t miss anything. As for McAfee, it doesn’t appear in this newest test.

McAfee did earn a perfect score in its one recent test, but Avast, AVG, and Bitdefender managed a trifecta, perfect scores in all three tests. Avira missed the trifecta by a hundredth of a percentage point. If you want an Android antivirus backed by hard testing scores, look to these three.

Absences Include Anti-Theft

If you haven’t looked at McAfee’s Android protection for a few years, you may find yourself looking for features that just aren’t included anymore. Chief among these is the anti-theft component. McAfee’s developers reasoned that with Android providing such effective built-in tools for finding a lost device, there just wasn’t a need to duplicate that effort. That does mean you’re in charge of setting up the built-in protection; don’t forget!

Among the features that have vanished are App Lock, which lets you put sensitive apps behind a secondary PIN; Guest Mode, which hides all apps except those you specify (handy for amusing a kid); Storage Cleaner, which gains you storage space by deleting junk files and other unnecessary files; Memory Booster, to free up memory allocated to idle apps; an App Privacy report warning you about any apps that seem to access an undue amount of personal information; and a Battery Booster that takes control of screen brightness and sleep timeouts to save battery.

Antivirus Scan

With all those features gone, you may wonder what’s left. Front and center is the Antivirus Scan. Out of the box, this component runs a daily background scan to protect you from all kinds of malware. Note that it needs to be connected to both power and Wi-Fi to run that scan, which defaults to happening at midnight.

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You can also launch a scan manually at any time. By default, McAfee only scans new files, meaning files that weren’t present during its previous scan. I’d suggest turning off that option and scanning all files because even then, the scan takes less than a minute. Not surprisingly, the scan found no malware on my test Pixel 6.

Secure VPN

VPN protection is integrated right into McAfee’s Android security app, just as it is on Windows and macOS. Just a tap connects you with the fastest available server. Once you’re connected, nobody, not even the owner of the Wi-Fi network you’re using, can snoop on your web traffic. In addition, sites you visit can’t deduce your location based on your IP address because you seem to have the IP address of the VPN server.

You can optionally use the VPN to actively spoof your location, perhaps to access location-locked content. Just cut the current connection and pull up the list of 48 available countries. Some VPN apps let you choose specific cities and even specific servers. With McAfee, you just choose the country, even if it’s the entire US.

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By default, the VPN only kicks in when you’re connected to an unsecured Wi-Fi network. You can change it to run all the time or to only run when you explicitly turn it on.

Despite its simple appearance, McAfee’s VPN has some advanced features. It uses the up-and-coming WireGuard protocol on Windows and iOS, and it supports macOS. The Android edition gets split tunneling, which it refers to by the more understandable name App Level Protection. Using this feature, you can run apps that need security through the VPN while letting lag-sensitive apps like video streamers connect directly.

When a mobile device switches between Wi-Fi connections or cell towers, the VPN must reconnect. There’s a faint chance some data might go through in the clear before the connection is secured again. Just turn on the Safe Reconnect kill switch, and McAfee will suppress all web traffic until the VPN is back on the job.

Wi-Fi Scan

It’s never a great idea to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot that doesn’t use encryption, but sometimes you don’t have a choice. McAfee’s Wi-Fi Scan warns if you do so and offers to switch on the VPN. You can also run a more complete on-demand scan at any time. If the quick scan rates the network squeaky clean, you can add it to your trusted networks with a tap.

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By default, this feature notifies you when you connect to a network, telling you that it’s safe or otherwise. You can set it to only notify you about unsafe networks. It also promises to notify you when your network is under attack, though I couldn’t find a way to exercise that feature. This component is a great partner for the VPN.

Safe Browsing

The panel for Safe Browsing says it lets you surf, shop, and socialize in your browser while being safe from risky sites. It uses VPN technology (but no VPN server) to check all the websites your device visits, blocking access to any that could be dangerous.

In testing, I initially thought it wasn't working. I could see the VPN indicator activate when I turned the feature on, but visiting pages verified as risky by WebAdvisor on the PC didn't cause any visible results. My McAfee contacts supplied a list of URLs known to trigger Safe Browsing, and indeed it worked.

The key here is that WebAdvisor is a browser extension with full access to the URL and page contents in the browser. Safe Browsing, by contrast, uses VPN technology. That means it can filter web traffic for any app, but it doesn't see anything except the domain of the URL. WebAdvisor is naturally more effective.

Very Different Android Protection

If your idea of Android security focuses on antivirus and anti-theft, you may not like McAfee’s style. Antivirus protection is present, but anti-theft is gone, along with quite a few other previous features. The bright spot is the easy, helpful, built-in VPN, with its support from the Wi-Fi Scan.

Total Protection for iOS Devices

With many cross-platform security suites, iOS gets short shrift. The same intrinsic security that makes coding iOS malware nearly impossible also puts roadblocks in the way of writing antivirus code. McAfee’s emphasis on protecting the user over simple device protection means that mobile security on iOS is remarkably similar to what you get on Android.

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As on Android, the top of the app’s display goes to Quick Actions, things like checking for data breaches and examining Wi-Fi security. As you accomplish these actions, they drop out of the list, and your protection score goes up. Just as on Android, the app celebrates each boost to your score with a small fireworks display. As on Android, the Security Center contains a large panel for your Protection Score and smaller panels representing Safe Browsing, Secure VPN, Wi-Fi Scan, Identity Monitoring, and Protect more devices. The only difference is that System Scan replaces Antivirus Scan.

System Scan doesn’t do all that much. It checks that your iOS version is up to date and checks the “overall health of your iOS operating system.” You’ll get zinged if you haven’t protected your device with a passcode. That’s about it.

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Wi-Fi scanning works just as it does on Android. Identity Monitoring actually takes place online, so there’s no difference whether you reach it from Android, iOS, or another platform. As on Android, many pages marked as risky by WebAdvisor didn't trigger a warning from Safe Browsing, but the known URLs supplied by McAfee set off its warning.

During iOS installation, McAfee strongly advises that you install WebAdvisor in Safari. Do it! In testing on other platforms, WebAdvisor did a great job detecting malicious and fraudulent websites. A quick sanity check suggests that it works the same on iOS devices.

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The integrated VPN looks and works very much like its Android equivalent, but there are a few differences. You don’t get the Android-only App Level Protection (McAfee’s name for its split tunneling feature) nor the Safe Reconnect kill switch. On the flip side, the iOS version gives you a choice of VPN protocol (OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard), something you don’t get on other platforms.

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In both mobile apps, actively tracking and improving your Protection Score is really the most important point. You get a notification, you respond appropriately, and you get rewarded with added points and a little celebration. Making mobile security fun may be more important to some than loading up on features that may not get used.

McAfee’s New Starting Point

McAfee Total Protection used to offer unlimited licenses for all the devices in your household, but not anymore. For unlimited licenses, you need to upgrade to McAfee+. With McAfee AntiVirus Plus no longer sold, Total Protection is the starting point for cross-platform McAfee security. The company has trimmed less-used features and now emphasizes getting you to use all its security features by promoting the Protection Score system. This user-centric mode will appeal to some. However, our Editors’ Choice entry-level suite remains Bitdefender Internet Security, which has a wealth of features and perfect antivirus lab scores. If you’re looking for a mega-suite with even more security built in, consider Bitdefender Total Security. In addition to a wealth of bonus features on Windows, it includes protection for macOS, iOS, and Android devices. Norton 360 Deluxe, our top pick for cross-platform multi-device suites, offers a no-limits VPN as well as 50GB of online storage for your backups.