McAfee vs. Avast – Battle of The Beasts

While a VPN can protect you from prying eyes, how do you make sure that your computer doesn’t get taken over by enterprising hackers with nothing better to do with their time? With the advent of threatening ransomware and more dangerous malware, your antivirus matters more than ever.

In today’s guide, we’re going to explore the differences between McAfee and Avast so that you can select the best antivirus to protect your device.

McAfee

Specifications

Low performance impact
Used by large corporations
Relatively affordable
30-day guarantee

Overview

McAfee Total Protection is characterized by being compatible with a wide range of devices so that it can act as your one-stop-shop for internet security. For example, along with working on your PC, McAfee will work on Macs, Androids, and even iPhones, ensuring that there are no weaknesses in your defense grid.

You can also purchase the bundle that suits you best, since McAfee Total Protection is available for one device, five devices, or even ten devices. As you’d expect the larger bundles offer an integrated discount, so if you have a family that you want to keep protected, the ten device deal is a steal!

Keep in mind that all of the bundles come included with the same level of protection as well as a wide range of utilities that can improve your experience on the internet. For example, the McAfee Total Protection package features a firewall with both inbound and outbound protection.

This will ensure that your computer and other devices can’t get infected directly through your local network. You may be wondering how a virus would make it onto your home network and you’d be surprised to learn that many recent and advanced malware attacks essentially hijack your home network to infect every device in your house.

The package also comes bundled with a Vulnerability Scanner that will allow you to figure out where an attack is most likely to come from. For example, the Vulnerability Scanner may point out a program that hasn’t been recently updated and which presents a security risk to the rest of your device.

The McAfee suite even features a file encryption tool that you can use to protect files that you don’t want to fall into the wrong hands. Anyone who tries to access these files will need to be authenticated before the utility will decrypt them and make them fully accessible.

McAfee even comes packaged with a TrueKey Identity Manager, which is essentially a password utility that allows you to keep track of all of your passwords in one secure spot. There is even a network manager utility that will actively examine your connection to ensure that you don’t end up getting infected through the local network.

The included file shredder allows you to delete sensitive files without a trace to ensure that they can’t end up getting recovered by someone with nefarious motives. There are even parental controls included with McAfee so that you can put this on a child’s computer and ensure that they don’t end up visiting compromising sites by accident.

Both the Individual/Couples and Family plans come with Identity Theft Protection Essentials, and if you want even more comprehensive protection from ID theft, you can opt for the Ultimate plan. This plan will work on unlimited devices and it features Identity Theft Protection PLUS.

Overall, McAfee is the best choice of anti-virus if you have a wide range of different devices at home and you want to ensure that they’re all protected. This is why we’ll usually recommend McAfee for larger families in which some of the children may have Macs or a variety of different mobile devices.

Avast

Specifications

Examines wi-fi security weaknesses
Blocks fake sites
Automatically updates your apps
Shred files

Overview

The biggest difference between Avast and McAfee is that Avast has separate products for Mac and PC. If you have a mixed-device household, you’ll unfortunately have to purchase two separate versions of Avast, which is not quite as affordable or budget-friendly as McAfee’s model.

The features offered in Avast are more dependent on the version of the software that you opt for than with McAfee, which has a pretty uniform feature list. For example, Avast Free Antivirus is fully free but it only comes with basic functionality like the ability to block viruses as well as scanning your wi-fi network’s security.

By opting for the premium Avast Internet Security package, you’ll gain additional features like the ability to detect fake sites. This will ensure that you don’t end up entering your credit card info on a site that’s phishing for information by masquerading as a popular ecommerce platform.

You’ll also be able to run apps that you don’t know if you can trust in Sandbox mode so that they won’t end up harming your computer if they turn out to be malicious. If you learn that the app isn’t dangerous, you’ll be able to run it on your PC without any trouble by taking it out of Sandbox mode.

A relatively new feature is the ability to protect your sensitive files from ransomware, and you’ll even be able to block phishing and spam emails directly through Avast Internet Security.

If you want to take things a step further, you can opt for Avast Premier. Added features include the ability to shred your files and make them entirely unrecoverable. You’ll also be able to stop people from spying on you through your webcam and automatically update your apps so that they don’t start presenting a security risk.

Finally, you can opt for Avast Ultimate, which allows you to clean up your computer by removing hidden files. Avast Ultimate even comes included with its very own VPN, known as Avast SecureLine. While this may not compete with Surfshark or ProtonVPN, it will still keep you relatively secure while you browse.

Finally, it also features Avast Passwords Premium, which will let you know when your passwords have been compromised in data leaks.

Keep in mind that these are the versions of Avast for PC. If you’re on Mac, the only versions that you’ll have access to will be the Free and Premium versions. Avast Free on Mac comes with all of the same features as the Free variant on PC. Mac’s Avast Premium features additional wi-fi intruder alerts as well as ransomware protection.

Conclusion

PinpointVPN’s top choice between these two competing antivirus providers is McAfee.

As you can see, McAfee’s pricing model is a lot more straightforward and they essentially offer more bang for your buck than Avast’s antivirus. Whereas Avast needs to be purchased separately for different types of devices, you’ll be able to use McAfee on any device in your household as long as your subscription supports the number of devices that you have.

Another issue is that Avast locks many of its most useful features behind the more expensive subscriptions. Basic features like file shredding are only available through Avast’s more expensive plans whereas you’ll get them from McAfee right away.