Hey everyone, welcome back to the channel. As you may have guessed,
today's video is all about comparing three of the best antivirus programs in the world
right now and seeing how well they stack up against one another. You can find links to
all of these AVs in the description below, be sure to check them out for discounts.
But for the purposes of this comparison, I’ll be comparing Bitdefender, McAfee,
and Norton based on five key categories. They are
Features Security
Performance and Ease-of-Use
Pricing AV-Test Results
At the end of each category, I’m going to rank each of them in order
of awesomeness. You’ll see a table like this at the end of each section:
Whichever AV comes in first the most consistently gets our gold seal of approval.
Before we continue, consider giving this video a thumbs up if you like
what you see - you can also subscribe for fabulous content from yours truly.
With that out of the way, let's not waste any more time and dive in, starting with features
All three of the security suites we'll be covering are top-of-their-class, but as you'll soon find
out, there's quite a large discrepancy in the number of useful features each program offers.
Let's start with the basics. All three programs offer robust anti-malware and anti-ransomware
protocols and will safeguard your device from potentially unwanted programs. And,
well, it'd be weird if they didn't, right?
However, each program has several unique features, all of which add an additional
layer of protection to your device. That being said, some of them are more useful than others.
For example, all three programs offer you a VPN to keep your browsing activity private. However,
only Bitdefender's VPN gives you unlimited traffic. Norton's gives
you a daily cap limit of 200 Mb, while McAfee caps you at 500 Mb per month.
As someone who is perpetually online, this just won't do.
Additionally, Bitdefender also provides you with a dedicated SafePay browser, which you
can use when you do online banking or shopping. Both it and Norton also provide microphone and
webcam protection, preventing hackers and other cyber ne'er-do-wells from accessing
and monitoring your device remotely. Norton… doesn't offer you any webcam and mic protection.
Norton also gives you parental controls so that you can keep
your kids safe while they're browsing. Junior! What are you doing over there?
Nothing!
Anyway, the point is that while these programs provide you with the
same basic protection against all sorts of cybersecurity threats, only Bitdefender and
Norton go the extra mile to deliver a robust package. McAfee falls short, unfortunately.
This category is close, but Bitdefender just gives you a little more bang for
your buck than Norton. McAfee lags behind in this stretch of the race.
Bitdefender takes first place, Norton second and McAfee trails just behind in third place.
Now let's take a look at security
Alright, we've already mentioned that all three programs offer you top-notch cybersecurity,
but we've yet to examine exactly how effective each one is. After all, the point of any antivirus
program is to defend, but it's no use paying for one when another will serve you even better.
All three programs offer real-time protection, one of the most important
security features an AV program can have. As the name suggests, it scans your device in real-time,
identifying and dealing with threats as they appear. I'm pleased that Norton,
McAfee, and Bitdefender all have incredibly effective real-time protection protocols.
Each program is more than capable of zapping threats within milliseconds of their appearance.
However, it should be noted that Bitdefender is also connected to the Global Protective Network,
meaning it has access to a massive malware database that is constantly updated.
Quick-scanning is another important AV feature, but here's where each program begins to differ.
Against the Malware Protection Test - run by AV-comparatives - McAfee only managed
a score of 99.82%. Bitdefender, on the other hand, scored 99.98%.
However, Norton beat both of them and scored an
unprecedented 100%. I wish Jr could also manage such good test results.
Of course, it should also be noted that Norton also had more false alarms than the other two,
but honestly, it's better to be safe than sorry,
and I'd rather have an overly aggressive AV program than a more passive one. As such,
Norton wins this round, Bitdefender comes in second and McAfee trails behind in third place.
So far, it’s not looking good for McAfee. But let’s not write them off just yet.
Now, onto…Ease-of-Use and Performance
Performance is another key aspect of any antivirus
program. You can't have an AV that tanks your CPU and memory usage.
Fortunately, the performance quality of all three of the AVs we’re comparing is
well-documented online. However, it’s important to remember that
these statistics are likely to vary from one user to another due to technical differences.
For starters, Bitdefender only took around 100 minutes to scan…
Oh, that's right - about 4 million different files.
McAfee, on the other hand, took twice as long and only scanned about a quarter of the number of
files. McAfee has also shown to be more intensive during this process. Norton sits between these
two, completing a full scan almost as quickly as Bitdefender without scanning as many files.
Seriously, 4 million?
Anyway, it’s clear that Bitdefender's scanning protocols are much more aggressive,
but they can severely impact your device's performance. On the other hand,
Norton's still scans many files but is less intensive. And McAfee… well…
But hey, at least McAfee has a nice interface! It's clean and simple,
and accessing all of the security options is easy. Bitdefender's and Norton's interfaces
can seem a little dated in comparison, but both are still fairly simple nonetheless.
All three programs have a dashboard that lets you know whether or not your device is safe.
Honestly, for this category, it's a toss-up between Norton and Bitdefender. (host cups
his hands and holds them up in front of him as if weighing the two on a scale). The former
isn't as aggressive in running a full scan - (the host holds up the Bitdefender hand) - but
it won't tank your machine like the other - (the host holds up Norton's hand). As such,
Norton wins this round again, but only by a hair.
Yikes. It’s really not looking good for McAfee.
Onto the next category…Pricing
AV suites usually offer several different packages to suit your particular needs.
Do you only need protection for one device? Then the basic package is probably for you.
Do you need protection for all the machines in your office? The premium package will be best.
All three programs offer a wide selection of different packages,
and all of them have a 30-day free trial for you to try out. Let's start with McAfee.
McAfee's entry-level offering - called McAfee Total Protection Basic - comes in at $34.99 for
its first year, while its premium package - dubbed McAfee Total Protection Premium - goes for $49.99.
The latter offers the most extensive list of features, but even then, some - like the VPN - can
be purchased separately. However, the basic version only offers protection for one device.
In contrast, Bitdefender's mid-tier package - coming in at $29.98 - offers protection for
up to three separate devices and comes with a more comprehensive list of features. A basic
Bitdefender subscription is also cheaper than McAfee's, at $24.99. The premium Bitdefender
package goes for $49.99 and guarantees protection for ten different devices.
Norton has the cheapest starting package of the three, coming in at $19.99,
but its premium version is the same price as the others and guarantees protection
for up to 5 devices. Both Norton and Bitdefender offer guarantees,
with Norton offering you a 60-day money-back guarantee and Bitdefender offering 30 days.
It should be noted that McAfee's list of features - however small
it may be in comparison to the other two - does not vary between packages.
Each package simply guarantees protection for more devices.
As with the previous category, this one is a bit of a toss-up between Norton and Bitdefender,
but I think the latter just about wins out here.
Poor McAfee. You can't catch a break, can you?
Finally, let's take a look at…AV-Test Results
I've already mentioned some of the truly staggering scores earned by Bitdefender
and Norton, but that's not to say that McAfee didn't fare well either. Again,
all three security programs are considered to be
top-of-their-class by both the general public and dedicated AV testing labs.
However, I think it bears repeating that only Norton came back with 100% scores
from AV-Comparatives, which puts it ahead of the other two. However, neither Bitdefender nor McAfee
returned any false positives - Norton, on the other hand, came back with several. For context,
a false alarm occurs when a safe file is flagged as unsafe - Norton retains its 100%
score despite this, due to it being the most thorough of all the programs we’ve mentioned.
I think it’s also worth mentioning that, over the past few years,
Norton is the only AV out of these three which has maintained a consistent score,
while both Bitdefender and McAfee have experienced a few dips.
Therefore, as far as the AV test results go, Norton wins this one again, with Bitdefender
in second place and McAfee in last. If you’d like to see the results for yourself,
you can find a link to each AV’s test scores in the description.
Let’s take one last look at our comparison chart:
So what should you do?
Norton is the clear winner in all of this, so let's give it a quick round of applause.
However,
if you can't get past Norton's aggressive protocols, I think
you'd be happier with Bitdefender. Of course, just because McAfee lost in this
video does not mean it’s a bad AV. It’s still one of the better ones out there,
and it’s definitely worth a look if you want to consider all of your options. But I digress.
That's all for now. Don't forget to like this video and leave a comment - I’m
always keen to hear your own thoughts and opinions on these topics. Also,
if you like what you’ve seen in this video, be sure to subscribe for more like this and
a whole lot more. Until then, I’ve been [hostname], and you’ve been amazing.