McAfee+ Premium

MSRP: $44.99

Review: Despite its solid offering, McAfee+ Premium for Mac’s lack of independent testing and a buggy setup experience left me doubting its commitment to Mac.

Pros

• Bargain prices for the first year
• Affordable unlimited device plans
• Includes a fast VPN and password manager
• Quick and friendly support

Cons

• Renewal fees could be much higher
• Lacks third-party testing
• Mac setup was buggy

If you’re looking for antivirus software for your Mac, you might be drawn to the pleasingly familiar name McAfee, a well-rated cybersecurity solution that recently added AI phishing detection to help protect you from convincing scams. While Apple includes some safeguards in macOS to help keep your data secure, third-party solutions often go further, bridging the platform divide to protect your Mac, iPhone, Windows PC, and Android devices with one subscription. McAfee is one of the best antivirus solutions for Windows, but Macs run macOS and use M-series processors that are quite different from PC chips. I reviewed McAfee on my MacBook Air to test how well it integrates and how much protection it provides.

Tiers and Pricing

McAfee for Mac has several price tiers and most include extra features. McAfee offers several price tiers for Mac owners, but its free antivirus app only works on Windows. However, prices start at a very affordable $30 per year and a 30-day free trial, so you can check that it suits your needs before committing. There are some great free antivirus apps for the Mac, so you can get by without paying if you only need the basics.

For example, an annual $36 McAfee Essential subscription supports up to five devices running macOS, iOS, Windows, and Android. The $45 McAfee+ Premium plan covers unlimited devices and adds an uncapped VPN, privacy monitoring, and social media alerts. McAfee+ Advanced ($80) and McAfee+ Ultimate ($200) include identity theft insurance, ransomware coverage, financial monitoring, and more. It’s important to note that these are prices for the first year and renewal rates could be significantly higher. McAfee family subscriptions cover two adults with parental controls to add free child accounts. The price is less than buying two personal plans, helping to reduce group costs considerably.

Design

McAfee+ Premium for Mac comes with the McAfee Total Protection app. I downloaded the DMG, opened the installer, and gave it the required permissions to protect my MacBook. The McAfee Total Protection app gave a brief overview of the features as it synced my account and checked for app updates. McAfee gave a tour of the app, showing the at-a-glance protection status, how to activate more features, and how to get help.

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