McAfee VPN Vs. NordVPN

Have you noticed the trend of digital security companies throwing VPNs into their plans? Take McAfee, for example, a company famous for its antivirus software. McAfee includes its VPN in all its McAfee+ plans and sells it as a standalone product. But can this product compete with the likes of the best VPNs, such as NordVPN?

To find out, we put the two head-to-head by testing them over several months. It didn’t take long for us to declare NordVPN the winner. You can use it on more devices, there are more servers to access, and it includes more privacy features like multihop and kill switches for all devices. We also have some concerns with McAfee’s privacy policy. Let’s take a closer look at them side-by-side, and you’ll see what we mean.

A Key Similarity

McAfee’s VPN has just one thing in common with NordVPN.

To be fair, that one thing is pretty important – how the VPN handles your encryption.

Both McAfee VPN and NordVPN utilize AES-256 encryption, which is the same encryption the U.S. military employs in all its communications. Now, we value our privacy, but we probably don’t have any secrets as sensitive as the U.S. military’s. If they trust AES-256, we can trust AES-256. NordVPN also offers ChaCha20 as an alternative for its connections. It’s almost as secure as AES-256, but it offers faster speeds.

Both VPNs also offer multiple encryption protocols. The first is OpenVPN, which we consider the gold standard for VPN security. The other option is WireGuard, which offers faster speeds without compromising security. We’re comfortable with either protocol, and both McAfee and NordVPN make it easy to switch between them based on our needs.

A Lot of Differences

This section will be a little longer as there are a lot of differences between McAfee VPN and NordVPN. To make it easier to follow, we’ve broken it down into sections. Let’s start with security features.

Security

As we said before, NordVPN and McAfee both utilize AES-256 encryption. Beyond that, they have little in common when it comes to security.

• Location: McAfee is headquartered in San Jose, California. Here’s why that matters for a VPN: The U.S. is a founding member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance. Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes are surveillance partnerships where member countries share intelligence data. This means if U.S. authorities serve McAfee with a warrant for your browsing data, the company must comply. NordVPN operates from Panama, which has strong privacy laws and no obligations to these surveillance alliances.
• Privacy policy: McAfee’s U.S. location might be less concerning if they had a crystal-clear no-logs policy. The company claims not to log web activity through its VPN, but this hasn’t been verified through independent audits like NordVPN’s have been.
• Multi-hop: NordVPN is always investing in new technology. That includes multi-hop. When you engage multi-hop, the company routes your internet connection through at least two separate servers. Each of those servers provides its own encryption, raising your security exponentially. Unfortunately, McAfee has not yet added a multi-hop option to its VPN.
• Obfuscation: This is another new technology that NordVPN uses. Obfuscated servers conceal the fact that you’re using a VPN at all. That can be useful in all sorts of situations, but it’s especially important for anyone using a VPN in a country where VPNs are illegal or subject to monitoring.
• Kill switch: A kill switch cuts off your internet connection if your VPN drops, ensuring your data never leaks. NordVPN offers kill switches across all platforms. McAfee only offers it on Windows, leaving Mac, iOS, and Android users vulnerable to accidental exposure.

Convenience

A VPN’s first job is to keep you safe and your data secure. Let’s face it, though: If your VPN offers some bonus features, you’re not going to turn them down. Here again, NordVPN gets the best of McAfee for the most part.

• Servers: NordVPN currently has over 8,00 servers across 118 countries. McAfee keeps their exact server count vague. They claim to have “thousands of servers” in 50 countries. When we asked for specifics, the customer support team couldn’t provide exact numbers.

• Streaming: McAfee struggled consistently and Netflix detected it immediately. We also couldn’t access region-locked content on Disney+ or Max. NordVPN’s obfuscated servers passed every test. Whether we wanted UK Netflix, Japanese anime on Crunchyroll, or live sports on ESPN+, NordVPN delivered without a hitch.
• Torrenting: McAfee does provide solid support for torrenting, including servers specifically devoted to peer-to-peer (P2P) connections. Of course, NordVPN does too. And because NordVPN offers more servers, it gives you more options wherever you may be in the globe. In fact, you’ll find NordVPN at the top of our list of best VPNs for torrenting.
• Split tunneling: Split tunneling lets you access the regular internet at the same time you’re using a VPN. That way you can assign sensitive tasks to the VPN and leave ordinary tasks like streaming music from Spotify unencrypted. Ultimately, split tunneling saves you bandwidth and results in faster speeds. McAfee does offer split tunneling for Android devices. If you use Windows, iOS, or Mac, though, you’re out of luck. On the other hand, NordVPN provides split tunneling across most operating systems.

Want a more complete sense of what these two VPNs offer? Check out our McAfee VPN review and our NordVPN review for lots more details.

Pricing

McAfee is definitely the budget-friendly option, but it comes with trade-offs.

McAfee also offers something NordVPN doesn’t: a free tier. Sure, it’s limited. You can only use one device at a time and you get 250 MB of data per day (about 7.5 GB monthly). That’s enough for checking email on public WiFi or light browsing. You won’t be able to stream a single HD movie though.

For paid plans, McAfee’s annual subscription runs $29.99 per year (or $2.49 monthly when billed annually). NordVPN’s comparable annual plan costs $68.85 ($4.59 per month). That’s more than double McAfee’s price.

Price Comparison

Of course, that price difference comes with a caveat as well. At present, McAfee offers a one-year subscription only. If you’re looking to sign up for a single month of service, you have to choose NordVPN. In addition, NordVPN offers a two-year subscription, and its cost is actually pretty close to McAfee’s annual rate.

Bottom Line

NordVPN remains our top-ranked VPN for good reason. Yes, you’ll pay more than McAfee’s budget pricing, but you’re getting what you pay for. McAfee VPN feels like an afterthought. We’re not fans of the lack of transparency about their logging practices or their U.S. headquarters. Their limited feature set across different platforms is also an issue.

If you’re on the fence, we recommend taking advantage of the trial periods. McAfee offers a limited free tier while NordVPN backs every plan with a 30-day money-back guarantee.