McAfee VS F-Secure

Mid-priced Windows Antivirus products retail at about 60$ to 100$ per year. They usually include additional features such as parental controls and password managers, so they are capable to protect the entire family. So if you are looking for reliable entire family protection with other privacy and security features, check out this article. McAfee Internet Security or F-Secure Internet Security? 

McAfee Total Protection

McAfee Total Protection is developed by McAfee Inc. McAfee is an American cybersecurity company founded in 1987. The company operates the market almost over 30 years already and provides home users and businesses Internet security software and antivirus products and services.^[1]

McAfee Total Protection provides premium antivirus, identity and privacy features for PCs, Macs, and handsets in one subscription. The subscription starts at $69.95 for one device without an offer. The package for 10 devices is $129.95

Antivirus Protection

McAfee applies same malware detection and protection techniques to all its products. Firstly, the company uses a traditional signature matching engine in order to detect already known exploits. The database is updated several times per day in order to detect even the newest virus or other malware. Then heuristic monitoring searches for suspicious behaviors in order to detect previously unseen, zero-day malware. All suspicious files and icons are analyzed in McAfee’s Threat Center. 

In addition, McAfee Total Protection also secures your browsing. It includes Web Advisor browser extensions for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. Web Advisor provides users with information on websites’ security. 

According to AV-TEST McAfee has very improved in its’ malware protection and in the most recent test it blocked all the malware samples without any false positives. The antivirus protection much improved since McAfee started to use new malware detection engine. 

Extra features

McAfee Total Protection offers protection up to ten devices and also comes with separated licenses for Android devices, Macs, and iOS handsets. The package includes security, privacy and optimization features and tools such as browser extensions, vulnerability scanner, password manager, parental controls anti-spam and anti-phishing systems and more. 

System-performance impact and scans

Even though McAfee improved its antivirus protection, all these defenses use a big amount of system resources. During the full scan, the computer performances can slow down up to 60 %. Even though the result is not the worse in the market, the system-performance impact is very heavy. When it comes to scans itself, they are quite quick. 

User Interface

In comparison to older versions of the software, McAfee Internet Security 2018 has much lighter and brighter interface. It cannot be resized or run full screen, but it can be moved around. It is also easy to navigate since all the main features appear in the main window. 

McAfee Total Protection 2018 demonstrated a very decent antivirus detection and removal results. It also has a great set of features and offers unlimited licensing. However, the heavy loads during scans noticeably slow down the performances. 

F-Secure Internet Security 2018

F Secure Internet Security package is developed by a cybersecurity and privacy company based in Finland. The company was founded over 25 years ago and today has offices in 20 countries. F-Secure focuses on antivirus, password management, endpoint security and other digital security-related products and services.^[2]

F-Secure offers home users four versions of Windows security software: F-Secure Anti-Virus, F-Secure Internet Security, F-Secure SAFE, and S-Secure Total Security and Privacy. 

F-Secure Internet Security retails at $49.99 which is notably cheaper than McAfee Internet Security, but only protects one to three PCs.

Antivirus protection 

F-Secure applies the same antivirus protection to all its Windows users. The defenses start at malware-signature matching that looks for known viruses and malware, then, the heuristic monitoring looks for suspicious behavior in order to detect zero-day malware. Anything suspicious is sent to F-Secure’s cloud-based servers for further analysis. 

However, when it comes to malware detection, it offers very good rates, even though delivers many false positives. 

Features 

F-Secure Internet Security lacks many features that McAfee provides. It does not provide backup software or online storage, no anti-theft features. It includes Parental Controls, browser extensions, and anti-spam features.

System-performance impact and scans

The scans are pretty fast, but the system-performance impact is very heavy. It slows down the computer by 51% during a full scan. It is slightly better than McAfee but still heavy. During a quick scan, the situation is a bit better – 43% impact. 

User Interface

Just like McAfee’s, F-Secure’s interface cannot be resized, played full screen, but it can be moved around. The interface itself looks very fresh and bright. 

F-Secure Internet Security has a very good virus and other malware detection and removal rates. However, just like McAfee Internet Security, the package has a heavy system-performance impact. F-Secure Internet Security is also cheaper than other midrange antivirus products, but only protects up to three PCs and does not include any bundled platforms.

To Summarize

Both, McAfee Total Protection and F-Secure Internet Security provide a very good malware detection and removal rates and a relatively heavy system-performance impact. However, when it comes to additional features, McAfee Total Protection offers a decent set of additional security tools and features, while F-Secure has only a sparse feature set. In this case, we would say that McAfee Total Protection would a better choice, even though it cost more, it protects more devices and includes licenses for Android, iOS, and Mac devices.