McAfee Total Protection

What you get beyond the antivirus

Total Protection is McAfee’s mid-range licence. The scanning engine is the same one in the basic antivirus; what you are paying extra for is the VPN and the password manager.

The VPN has no data cap and can connect through servers in other countries. The password manager generates and stores credentials across your devices, which is the single most effective thing most people can do for their own security and the thing almost nobody does.

Why the password manager matters more than it sounds

Most accounts are not broken into. They are opened with a password that leaked from somewhere else and was reused.

If your email, your mobile money account and three online shops share one password, a breach at the weakest of them hands over all five. A password manager makes every password different without you having to remember any of them.

The identity features, honestly

McAfee advertises identity monitoring and credit protection prominently. Like Norton’s equivalent, it is built around American identity documents and credit bureaus.

From Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire or Kenya these features have almost nothing to work with. Buy this licence for the antivirus, the VPN and the password manager. Those three work everywhere.

Choosing your options

Sold by device count and duration, both chosen at checkout. A multi-device licence over several years is substantially cheaper per machine per month than renewing a single device annually, if you can cover the amount up front.

For a household where you also want parental controls, compare with McAfee+ Premium Family before deciding.

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