McAfee Total Protection vs Symantec Critical System Protection

Likelihood to Recommend

I think McAfee is great to have whether it's for work or for personal use. While it has some drawbacks, I like the peace of mind of feeling safe when I'm browsing the web/email, especially when my computer has sensitive/confidential information, knowing that McAfee will immediately detect any threats. The UI is extremely easy to navigate, which makes it easy for users regardless of how tech-savvy they are.

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Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Symantec Critical System Protection (CSP) is very well suited for environments that do not change such as point of sale systems and critical servers. This product is spectacular at protecting end of life operating systems when supporting legacy software prevents upgrades. When security updates are no longer available, CSP will prevent exploits and other malware from taking advantage. This product is not well suited for systems that require a lot of changes. For one, it does not notify when a change has been blocked by CSP, causing some server administrators to waste many hours chasing a phantom technical problem when turning off CSP could have solved it right away. Also, profiling takes time so systems that constantly change would need hundreds of exceptions made.

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Jennifer Greulich, GSED, GSEC

Manager, IT Security & Compliance

Charlotte RusseRetail, 5001-10,000 employees

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Pros

Excellent protection of all internet connected assets on our VPN.
Constant updates of needed security patches that ensure our network and systems are protected from current and emerging/potential threats.
Prompt and reliable customer service that provides needed answers and expertise in a crisis.
Strategic whitepapers on emerging cyber threats and McAfee solutions to resolve them before they become a problem for my team or our clients.

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Samuel Boyle

Emergency Management Analyst

Chicago Department of Public HealthGovernment Administration, 51-200 employees

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Data Center Security 6.0 and higher allows you to easily build out policies to deploy to monitor/block what is required/needed.
The agent that is installed on the hosts has a small footprint in terms of CPU and memory usage.
The ability to customize it anyway you need to as well as utilize out of the box policies to monitor critical OS functionality.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

Price - Extremely high price tag for many of the solutions.

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Verified User

Consultant in Other

Computer & Network Security Company, 51-200 employees

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Tuning takes a very long time
Turning the product on or off can take time
When an action is prevented by CSP, there is no pop up or notification, making this a burden for server administrators

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Jennifer Greulich, GSED, GSEC

Manager, IT Security & Compliance

Charlotte RusseRetail, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

$0 1st year price (subsequent years)

McAfee Total Protection Editions & Modules

Edition

Individual	$29.99 ($79.99)¹
Multi-Device	$24.99²
Family	$29.99³

1st year price (subsequent years)
per year (2 year subscription, 5 devices)
per year (2 year subscription, 10 devices)

Additional Pricing Details

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General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

Symantec Critical System Protection Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

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Likelihood to Renew

McAfee Total Protection 10.0

Based on 1 answer

McAfee has consistently delivered on its stated goals of providing comprehensive protection for our networks and systems. Due to their excellent work and follow through I have been, and will continue to be a loyal customer.

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Samuel Boyle

Emergency Management Analyst

Chicago Department of Public HealthGovernment Administration, 51-200 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Symantec Critical System Protection 10.0

Based on 2 answers

They respond quickly and efficiently without the need to reiterate the actual issue. Their backline support is amazing and always there for us when it is needed. They explain the troubleshooting steps taken and what they did to help us resolve the issue just incase it creeps up again we have the information to correct it ourselves.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Alternatives Considered

I haven't used Norton for a while, but when I did use it I felt that it slowed down my computer and had constant pop-ups, which were both equally frustrating and annoying. It was also very difficult to remove from my computer.Malwarebytes is a great, straightforward program I've used for virus scanning. It's pretty bare bones but I think if you just want something to scan for viruses it gets the job done quickly and reliably.In my opinion McAfee offers similar benefits as Norton but its more intuitive and doesn't impact system performance.

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Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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We evaluated Bit 9 and you have more flexibility with the rule set and do not rely on the cloud to tell you what is approved and not approved. You build out the policies the way you need them to be and who better knows the environment that the people that work it daily.

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Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology

Retail Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Return on Investment

Blocks unsafe websites
Virus detection and removal
Protects sensitive data

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Verified User

Analyst in Finance and Accounting

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Great protection for unchanging systems
We have comfort that the protected systems are safe from intrusion
Excellent price

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Jennifer Greulich, GSED, GSEC

Manager, IT Security & Compliance

Charlotte RusseRetail, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

McAfee Total Protection vs Symantec Critical System Protection