McAfee Safe Connect VPN

We’re seeing a trend of antivirus companies offering VPN services, and why not? VPNs come handy in protecting your privacy, which also helps keep you safe online from hackers, spyware, and other dangers that could put your data and devices at risk.

One of the brands that offer antivirus and VPN bundles is McAfee. And while you can buy just the VPN, we strongly recommend you do what we did to test McAfee by going with the antivirus and VPN bundle because it costs the same as the VPN-only plan. That’s right; you can actually buy more products and not spend a penny extra. That, and more McAfee VPN pricing insights, is what we’ll discuss on this page.

Free vs. paid plan

How Much Does McAfee Safe Connect VPN Cost

How much does McAfee’s Safe Connect VPN cost? None at all if you’re willing to limit your use. You can activate the free VPN and use up to 500 MB of data per month. That is very limited, which is why it didn’t make our list of the best free VPNs. For reference, 500 MB is how much you’d normally use to stream a 30-minute show on Netflix in Standard Quality. Read our page on VPN data consumption for more details.

If you want unlimited data, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan. However, you can only sign up for annual plans that cover up to five devices. Need more devices? You’ll need multiple subscriptions. That’s why it didn’t make our list of the best cheap VPNs even though subscriptions start at just $29.99 per year (roughly $2.50 per month).

In any case, here’s McAfee’s pricing for their three main VPN plans:

The prices shown on McAfee’s website are introductory rates for your first year only. After that initial period, costs jump significantly with auto-renewal enabled. Take the Essential bundle, for example. It only costs $39.99 for the first year, $10 more than the Basic plan. After that, it jumps up to $119.99, a full $30 more per year than the Basic plan. Always check those renewal rates before committing!

VPN and Antivirus Bundle Pricing

As we said, we already tested out the McAfee antivirus in our McAfee antivirus review and covered its cost in our McAfee antivirus pricing page. That being said, some of their antivirus plans include a VPN, so if you’re interested in getting both, it makes sense to hit two birds with one proverbial stone. But, since McAfee has so many products, there’s actually more than one way to skin a cat, not to mix animal metaphors or anything.

All-in-one protection

>> Worth a Read: McAfee Antivirus Alternatives

One of the best reasons to choose All-In-One Protection Premium or Advanced over the standalone VPN is unlimited device coverage. If you’re protecting your whole family’s devices, five connections probably won’t be enough, so the unlimited VPN access makes these plans particularly valuable. Plus, the All-In-One plans pack in several useful extras:

• Device optimization: Especially if you’re using your VPN for gaming purposes, then you need a device that isn’t bogged down with the million things you’ve downloaded or the 17 tabs you constantly have open on Chrome. This device optimizer will help you to minimize lag and increase your download and upload speeds while using as little data as possible along the way.
• Identity theft protection: While we haven’t actually tested out McAfee’s identity theft protection software, it seems to be pretty comprehensive in terms of monitoring your credit and financial areas and providing identity theft insurance. Want to learn more about how to choose an identity theft protection service in general? Read our identity theft protection guide.
• Parental controls: Need to block inappropriate content, track your child’s location, or set healthy screen time limits? McAfee’s Safe Family parental controls let you do all that and more, giving you peace of mind about your kids’ online activities.
• Password manager: Remember the days of forgetting passwords, resetting them, and immediately forgetting them again? McAfee’s True Key password manager ends that cycle by storing all your login credentials in an encrypted vault. It syncs seamlessly across your Android, iOS, PC, and macOS devices.

• Safe web browsing: McAfee’s WebAdvisor (included with higher-tier plans but also available free separately) acts as your digital bodyguard while browsing. It blocks malicious and phishing sites before you click them and alerts you if you’re about to download something sketchy.

LiveSafe

Another way to bundle McAfee’s VPN with other security tools is through LiveSafe, which covers unlimited devices for $39.99 in the first year. There’s a catch though – the VPN is only included if you enable auto-renewal, meaning you’re committing to at least two years upfront for a total of $79.98. Here’s what LiveSafe includes:

• Anti-spam for email
• Antivirus software

• App Boost
• Encrypted file store
• Free customer support over chat, phone or online
• Identity theft protection (with auto-renewal only)
• Password manager
• PC Optimization
• QuickClean
• Safe Family parental controls
• Shredder to delete sensitive files
• Vulnerability scanner
• Web Advisor
• Web Boost

For just $10 more than the standalone VPN in the first year, LiveSafe gives you VPN protection for unlimited devices instead of just one. It also includes a comprehensive suite of security tools. That’s hard to beat value if you need protection for multiple devices.

What We Liked

Our McAfee VPN review has all of the details about our testing, but here’s a summary of what we liked the most.

• Kill switch on Windows: Sure, we wish the VPN had kill switches on all of their apps, including Android and iOS. Still, McAfee could be a good VPN for Windows users.

• Torrenting access: With over 200 billion visits to torrenting sites per year, having a VPN that supports torrenting is a necessity for many.1 McAfee Safe Connect lets you torrent privately with your VPN connection active.
• Split tunneling on Android: Again, we wish all of the McAfee apps came with split tunneling, but if you need a VPN for Android or even a VPN for business usage, we recommend taking advantage of split tunneling.
• Netflix access (sometimes): Netflix has a classic love-hate relationship with VPNs, but not so much with the love. The reason? Because VPNs let people access Netflix (and other streaming services, for that matter), on other country’s servers, opening up a whole new world of entertainment. But while McAfee could work with Netflix, it’s not guaranteed, so you should try it yourself with the free version. In the meantime, check out some other options in the best VPNs for Netflix.
• 256-bit encryption: Being such a strong player in the digital security market, we weren’t surprised that McAfee encrypted our web activity with AES-256, the standard used by the U.S military and banks alike.
• Dynamic IP addresses: As McAfee gave us a brand new IP address everytime we connected, tracing us online would have been as hard as finding a needle in an endless haystack.
• Free version: Sure, it only works on one device with a monthly data limit of 500 MB, but hey — free’s free!

• Money-back guarantee: With 30 days to change our minds and get a full refund, there was little to no risk to putting down a card for the McAfee VPN (if you sign up annually, that is).

Cancelling McAfee

Let’s talk about that money-back guarantee in more detail. If you’re an individual (not a business user) with an annual subscription, you can request a full refund within 30 days of your purchase. Even better, after an auto-renewal of your subscription, you can request a full refund within 60 days. However, for some reason, customers in the Netherlands aren’t eligible for this guarantee.

In Sum

We think McAfee Safe Connect VPN offers solid value, whether you buy it standalone or bundled with other security tools. At around $2.50 per month for the first year, it’s an affordable VPN option. With McAfee’s established reputation in cybersecurity, you can trust that Safe Connect delivers reliable protection.

That said, pairing it with other McAfee products yields more benefits than buying it individually. The VPN is basically a freebie of any All-In-One Protection plan, so not only will you be securing your online privacy, you’ll also be improving your overall digital security.