McAfee Antivirus 1 PC | 1 YR

The entry-level option, and we will say so plainly

This is McAfee’s basic antivirus: real-time scanning, ransomware protection, and a web filter that warns you off dangerous sites. One PC, one year.

No VPN. No password manager. No identity monitoring. If you want those, they live in McAfee Total Protection, not here.

Who this is actually for

Someone with one Windows machine who wants paid protection without spending much, and who is not going to use a VPN even if it comes in the box.

At $14.99 for the year it costs roughly a dollar and a quarter a month. That is the price point where buying genuine protection stops being a decision you have to think about.

Free antivirus or this

Windows already includes Defender, which has become decent. The honest comparison is this: Defender covers the basics, and a paid product adds stronger ransomware handling and a better web filter against cloned login pages.

Whether that is worth fifteen dollars depends on what the machine does. Family computer for schoolwork and browsing, probably not. Machine you use for mobile money, client files or your business accounts, yes. We go through it properly in our article on free versus paid antivirus.

A note if you are on Windows 10

Microsoft no longer patches it. No antivirus replaces security updates, and any seller telling you otherwise is selling you comfort rather than protection. See our article on the subject.

Paying without a credit card

McAfee’s own store wants a Visa or Mastercard. Here the payment goes through the mobile wallet you already use, straight from your phone.

We accept MTN MoMo, Orange Money, Airtel Money, Moov Money, Wave, M-Pesa, Telecel Cash, AT Money, Free Money, Vodacom, Tigo and Halotel, depending on where you are. Fourteen countries are covered, and PayPal and card payments work everywhere else. Pick your country at checkout and you only see the wallets that work there, with the price in your local currency.

Common questions