Microsoft Defender (previously called Windows Defender) and McAfee are device security solutions designed to protect devices from viruses, malware, and security threats. Simply put, they are antivirus solutions.
As the name implies, Microsoft Defender helps users protect their devices against potential risks. It is a strong choice for Windows PC users looking for free, built-in protection with minimal setup.
Conversely, McAfee is great if you want to monitor privacy and personal data extensively. In fact, it is one of the most popular antivirus solutions. Per 6sense, McAfee Cloud Security makes up 12.47% of the worldwide antivirus market share.
We evaluated both software tools and compared their pricing and key features to help you decide which fits your organization better.
Featured PartnersFeatured Partners: Antivirus Software
eSecurity Planet may receive a commission from merchants for referrals from this website
Microsoft Defender vs McAfee at a Glance
The following table covers Microsoft Defender and McAfee’s similarities and differences, specifically pricing plans, features, and operating system support.
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Price | Free (included in Windows OS), with no hidden costs | • McAfee Basic: $29.99 (1 device) • McAfee Essential: $39.99 (5 devices) • McAfee+ Premium: $49.99 (unlimited) • McAfee+ Advanced: $89.99 (unlimited) • McAfee Ultimate: $199.99 (unlimited) |
| Supported Operating Systems | Windows 10, Windows 11 | Windows, Mac, Android, iOS |
| Number of Devices Supported | Single Windows installation support | 1-unlimited (depending on plan) |
| Ransomware Protection | Yes | Yes |
| VPN Feature or Add-On | No | Yes |
| Identity Theft Monitoring | No | Yes |
| Visit Microsoft Defender | Visit McAfee |
By comparing the two, we found that McAfee is the better overall solution, with plenty of device and identity security features. It also has customer training videos and multiple support channels. However, Microsoft Defender is still a solid choice, especially if you’re working on a tight budget.
Microsoft Defender Overview
Better for its free plan and ease of use
Overall Rating: 3.8/5
- Pricing: 5/5
- Core features: 3.5/5
- Advanced features: 2.5/5
- Ease of use and admin: 4.3/5
- Customer support: 3/5
Microsoft Defender is a free comprehensive security solution that is integrated into Windows. Since it’s built into Windows, it can only work on one system.
Aside from the antivirus feature, it offers features like a Windows firewall, smart app control, device health, family options, browser control, and robust security settings. It supports Windows OS only.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Free | Limited advanced features |
| Integration with windows | No VPN feature |
| Automatic updates | Only supports Windows |
Key Features
- Real-time threat protection: Microsoft Defender actively monitors your system for viruses, malware, and other threats.
- Parental controls: Ideal for families, Microsoft Defender’s family safety features allow parents to monitor and limit screen time, app usage, and access to inappropriate content for children.
- SmartScreen filter: Designed to keep you safe online. The SmartScreen blocks access to malicious websites. It warns you about phishing attempts. Plus, it stops unsafe downloads in Microsoft Edge and other supported apps.
- Firewall and network protection: Microsoft Defender’s built-in firewall actively monitors private and public network traffic, preventing unauthorized connections.
McAfee Overview
Better for Privacy & Data Cleanup Features
Overall Rating: 4.4/5
- Pricing: 4.7/5
- Core features: 4/5
- Advanced features: 4.3/5
- Ease of use and admin: 2.9/5
- Customer support: 4.4/5
McAfee Total Protection is a set of five consumer security plans, including antivirus, web protection, and safety scores.
McAfee’s most basic plan consists of a VPN and text scam detection — features that Microsoft Defender lacks.
McAfee benefits organizations wanting features like social media privacy, personal data monitoring, and scans of old internet accounts. It helps consumers manage their data privacy and remove information that doesn’t need to be exposed.
Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Even smaller plans include plenty of features | No training videos for new users |
| Credit and identity protection are available | Ransomware protection seems limited |
| Unlimited devices in the advanced plan | No parental controls in Total Protection |
Key Features
- McAfee Protection Score: Total Protection gives you an overall cybersecurity safety score and recommendations to improve your cyber health.
- Social Privacy Manager: It helps you quickly adjust your privacy settings on social media based on your frequency of use.
- Bank transaction monitoring: This feature alerts customers if suspicious activity is found in their accounts.
- Credit monitoring: Users receive monthly credit score updates and monitoring through one credit bureau, as well as temporary security freezes as needed.
- Data cleanup: It searches for your information on data broker sites to help you request removal from the sites.
Best Value: McAfee
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Plan | Microsoft Defender: $0 | McAfee Basic: $29.99 |
| Mid-Range Plans | No mid-range plan | • McAfee Essential: $39.99 • McAfee+ Premium: $49.99 |
| Highest-Priced Plans | Higher-priced plans don’t exist. | • McAfee+ Advanced: $89.99 • McAfee Ultimate: $199.99 |
| Free Trial | Unlimited | 30 days |
Winner: Based on the free plan, Microsoft Defender triumphs. While Microsoft Defender is free, it lacks several advanced security features available in McAfee, such as identity theft protection, full-service VPN, and comprehensive personal data cleanup. For this reason, McAfee offers a more robust and comprehensive security solution.
For basic identity needs, McAfee Essential or Premium should be sufficient.
But if you want more, McAfee+ Advanced adds identity theft coverage, credit card transaction monitoring, and credit score updates. McAfee Ultimate has the largest feature bundle, but most users will find that Advanced covers their needs.
Better Core Features: McAfee
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Antivirus | Yes | Yes |
| Anti-Ransomware | Yes | Yes |
| Web Browsing Protection | Yes | Yes |
| Dark Web Monitoring | No | Yes |
| Data Cleanup | No | Yes |
| Parental Controls | Yes | No |
| Webcam Threat Detection | No | No |
| Text Scam Detection | No | Yes |
Winner: McAfee wins this comparison easily. Microsoft Defender doesn’t offer advanced features. It tries to provide features like anti-ransomware, anti-spyware, and parental controls, but that still keeps it behind.
McAfee’s key features include antivirus, web browsing protection, and dark web monitoring. Other highlighted features are data cleanup, which sends requests to online services to take down your personal information, and text scam detection.
Better for Advanced Features: McAfee
| | |
|---|---|---|
| VPN | No | Yes |
| Password Manager | No | Yes |
| Privacy Management | No | Social Privacy Manager |
| Identity Theft Monitoring | No, only available in Microsoft 365 | Yes |
| Anti-Spyware | Yes | No |
| Security Assessments | Unclear | No |
Winner: Again, you’ll see that McAfee offers more advanced antivirus abilities when compared to Microsoft Defender.
However, some of these features could be present in Microsoft 365 security subscription packages, which we will review later in this guide.
Microsoft Defender only features core features like account protection, virus and threat detection, device security, family options, firewall, and network security.
McAfee offers a broader array of advanced features. For example, Defender does not have a privacy management feature, but McAfee does.
Its Social Privacy Manager is a particularly good option for customers who use social media frequently and want to protect their online presence. We recommend this for freelancers who work with social channels. McAfee also doesn’t offer spyware detection, but Defender does.
Better for Ease of Use & Administration: McAfee
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Supported Computer Operating Systems | Windows 10 and 11 | Windows and macOS |
| Supported Mobile Operating Systems | None | iOS and Android |
| Number of Devices | Only 1 device | Unlimited |
| Documentation | Yes | Limited |
| Training Videos | Yes | No |
Winner: McAfee wins for its dynamic integration with other operating systems besides Windows and its support for more devices. Despite Defender’s excellent documentation and training videos, it still falls short.
However, you can easily find Microsoft Defender on your Windows PC. All you have to do is search for it in the start menu of your Windows computer.
McAfee can be installed on Windows and Mac computers as well as iOS and Android phones.
Its Advanced and Ultimate plans support unlimited devices for a single user, especially for freelancers using many devices.
Better for Customer Support: McAfee
| | |
|---|---|---|
| Phone | No | Yes |
| No | No | |
| Live Chat | No | Yes |
| 24/7 Support | No | Yes |
| Community Forum / Support Center | Yes | Yes, but check for outages |
Winner: McAfee wins this with three full-support channels. Microsoft Defender falls short in the gap with only community forum support.
Microsoft Defender offers two main options: the “discover” help function and “community” help. The community center wins because you get to ask questions in the community or interact with Windows insiders. However, Microsoft 365 subscribers have more premium access to customer support.
McAfee’s main support channels are phone and live chat. Both are available 24/7. While McAfee doesn’t appear to offer email support, phone and live chat tend to be faster channels and more helpful in outages or emergencies.
McAfee does have an online support community. Still, it’s currently being taken down for improvements without a clear end date, so consider whether an active forum is important to you.
What is Microsoft 365? A Review of Advanced Microsoft Defender
It’s important to note that there are two Microsoft antivirus solutions. The first solution is Microsoft Defender, the built-in version, while Microsoft 365 is the advanced premium package.
In hindsight, this guide focuses on comparing Microsoft Defender and McAfee. However, there is a gap in information for users searching for the differences between both packages.
For example, this question:
Compared with Microsoft Defender free plan, which only supports Windows OS, Microsoft 365 protects your Android, iPhone, and Mac devices and Windows OS.
So, if you need protection for multiple devices, Microsoft 365 Defender is your best bet.
Additionally, it provides more advanced features like identity theft monitoring, dark web monitoring, advanced ransomware protection, and customer support.
Here’s a brief review of Microsoft 365:
| |
|---|---|
| Pricing Plans | • Microsoft Defender for Endpoint: $5.20/user/month • Microsoft Defender for Office: $5/user/month • Microsoft Defender for Identity: $3/user/month • Microsoft 365 Personal: $99.99/year (5 devices) • Microsoft 365 Family: $129.99/year ( Anti Phishing protection for up to 6 people, up to 5 devices) |
| Supported Computer Operating Systems | Windows, iOS, Android, Mac, Web portal |
| Customer Support | Self-service, Direct support via phone, online tickets, dedicated TAMs. |
| Advanced Features | Identity theft monitoring, compliance and reporting, attack simulation and training, advanced endpoint protection, computer and phone protection. |
| Free Trial | A 1-month free trial is available |
| Ease of Use | It is easy to use. |
Who Shouldn’t Use Microsoft Defender Or McAfee?
Microsoft Defender and McAfee are both strong antivirus options for consumers and freelancers. But they aren’t the best fit for all users, especially businesses.
Who Shouldn’t Use Microsoft Defender?
Consider other antivirus tools if you’re one of the following:
- Users looking for privacy management and VPN: Consider other antivirus or device protection products if you need VPN or tracking protection.
- Small or large businesses: While freelancers and contractors will benefit from Defender’s protection, it’s not designed for multiple users.
- Users looking for extra tight security: It was reported that Microsoft Defender missed a type of malware that hijacked a victim’s Google account in the Chrome browser and stole over $24,000 in cryptocurrency. Look elsewhere if you want hefty device security.
Who Shouldn’t Use McAfee?
Look at other options if you fall into one of these categories:
- High-level organizations: While McAfee offers business protection for five users, it’s marketed as being for Dell products and won’t support anything larger than a few employees.
- Users looking for walk-through videos: McAfee doesn’t offer much in the way of training videos, so users who need a visual walkthrough may have a little trouble.
- Those who want to avoid high renewal costs: While the initial pricing may be quite affordable, McAfee’s renewal fees are often much higher, making it a less cost-effective option in the long run.
Top 3 Alternatives to Microsoft Defender & McAfee
If neither Microsoft Defender nor McAfee is the right fit for you, check out one of the following solutions: Norton, Bitdefender, and Malwarebytes all offer comparable antivirus plans.
 |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | • Norton Antivirus Plus: $29.99 (1 device) • Norton 360 Standard: $39.99 (1 device) • Norton 360 Deluxe: $49.99 (5 devices) • Norton 360 with Life lock: $99.99 (10 devices) | • Individual: $59.99/year (5 devices) • Family: $84.99/year (25 devices) | • Individual: $4.17/month (2 devices) • Duo: $6.67/month (5 devices) • Family: $10.83/month (10 devices) |
| Ransomware Prevention | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| VPN | Yes | Yes | No |
| Identity Monitoring/Protection | Yes | Limited-data breach detection | No |
| Visit Norton | Visit Bitdefender | Visit Malwarebytes |
Norton
Norton Antivirus and Norton 360 are antivirus and security plans for consumers to protect up to 10 devices, including phones and tablets. Aside from antivirus, Norton offers ransomware and hacking protection, privacy monitoring, and a VPN. Its usability side supports Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS devices.
Bitdefender Total Security
Bitdefender Total Security is an anti-malware solution for individuals and families. Its features include ransomware protection, scam prevention, and cryptomining protection. Like Norton and McAfee, Bitdefender offers a VPN and a password manager through Total Security.
Malwarebytes Premium
Malwarebytes Premium is a device protection and scam prevention solution for individuals and families. It offers protection from viruses, ransomware, Trojans, and spyware, as well as scam protection from texts and phishing accounts.
Methodology
We used a product scoring rubric with five key categories to compare Microsoft Defender and McAfee. The five categories covered major criteria of antivirus solutions, and we weighted each based on importance.
Each category also had multiple subcriteria, like individual features, which received their own weighting. Our rubric examined Microsoft Defender and McAfee pricing plans, major AV features, advanced capabilities, overall usability, pricing plans, and customer support options.
Pricing – 20%
We reviewed Microsoft Defender and McAfee pricing plans, with more intent on McAfee’s pricing since the former is a free solution. We also scored McAfee based on the availability and length of a free product trial.
Core Features – 30%
We evaluated Microsoft Defender and McAfee based on their selection of consumer security features, including antivirus and ransomware prevention and additional options like dark web monitoring and VPN availability. We also looked at features like parental controls and data cleanups.
Advanced Features & Integrations – 15%
We considered advanced security features like anti-spyware, device assessments, and identity theft monitoring. Additionally, we scored Microsoft Defender and McAfee based on the availability of VPNs and password managers, which consumer antivirus software often provides.
Ease of Use & Administration – 20%
We evaluated administrative features, including the operating systems, customer support, and the number of devices each plan supports. Then, we considered whether training videos and product documentation were available.
Customer Support – 15%
We scored Microsoft Defender and McAfee based on the number of support channels they offered, including email, phone, community support, and live chat. Additionally, we reviewed the hours the support team was available and whether the vendors offered a customer forum or support center.
Bottom Line: Microsoft Defender vs McAfee
Microsoft Defender and McAfee are good antivirus solutions for consumers, particularly freelancers looking to secure multiple devices.
Microsoft Defender is great if you’re looking for a free plan or a basic solution. McAfee is an especially strong choice for individuals working in social media or consumers who want to protect their online presence better.
If your small business is looking for an antivirus solution, I’d recommend checking out these top business AV products for options more suitable for teams.
