McAfee Safe Connect VPN Review : Is it a Safe VPN ?

Being one of the most prominent cybersecurity companies, McAfee stands behind some great products for online security. Most notably, the company is known for developing an antivirus solution that’s still used by millions of people. Not long ago, McAfee expanded its already-rich roster of cybersecurity products thanks to one important addition – Safe Connect VPN. Safe Connect VPN is one of the newest cybersecurity apps that promises to safeguard your online activity and secure every WiFi connection.

Furthermore, the company claims to protect 600M+ devices, keep your browsing private, and allow for unlimited data protection, which makes this option attractive. As always, this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review will put all these claims to the test in a comprehensive and in-depth analysis.

I will test McAfee Safe Connect in terms of device compatibility, speeds, streaming capabilities, security, privacy, and everything else to determine its overall quality. As you can see by the title of this McAfee Secure Connect VPN review for 2024, I wasn’t very satisfied with this VPN.

Despite having a few notable qualities, the provider will most likely disappoint you even if you’re less demanding. However, I recommend staying along for the ride to see what exactly I think of it and why it’s maybe better to avoid it to avoid wasting time and money.

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The 3 best alternatives to McAfee Safe Connect VPN:

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McAfee VPN User Experience & Device Support

I’m not too happy to tell you that I’ll start this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review on a bad note. What could go wrong, you may ask? Well, the provider disappointed me immediately, as soon as I went on its website and checked its device support.

Many of you know that you can install a VPN on a router, Apple TV, Fire TV Stick, and other platforms with no problems. In fact, I use ExpressVPN even on my PS5 for gaming. However, McAfee VPN pulls back on one of the most important aspects, which is device compatibility.

For example, its All-in-One protection works flawlessly on a variety of systems, while the McAfee Safe Connect VPN works only on these platforms:

• Windows
• Chrome OS
• Android
• iOS

Do you notice something missing? It’s macOS. Quite frankly, I’m blown away that the provider has no support for macOS or even Linux. This means that users who focus on productivity and use MacBooks, for example, won’t be able to secure their connection on these devices. Is this your case? Then take the time to read our Mac VPN comparison or our list of the best VPNs compatible with Linux.

Even worse is the fact that each license covers 5 devices. I know, 5 simultaneous connections aren’t small by any means but you have no option of extending them even if you want to pay more.

Desktop and Mobile Apps

A company like McAfee that turns around millions of dollars a month should be able to provide a decent user experience. Right? Well, that might be the case but I’m not sure how demanding you are. I’m using McAfee Safe Connect on Windows and I can tell you that its app looks and feels outdated.

If you take a look at the screenshot above, you’ll see this blank world map that serves no purpose. You have the button that says “Start Protection” as well, and by clicking on it, McAfee initiates the VPN connection. Mind you, the connection times are a bit longer than expected as well.

This means that the app isn’t responsive compared to the likes of ExpressVPN or CyberGhost. To open the server list, you need to click on the menu in the top-right corner of the screen. Clicking once on the country you want opens up a prompt that asks you if you want to connect.

Simply confirm and you’re good to go. On the left, the Gear icon is the only one worth mentioning. This is the Settings menu where you can find various features that we’ll talk about later in this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review.

Other options in the app include your stats where you can see the amount of protected bandwidth, the FAQ section, and some information related to your app version. I also wanted to download this VPN on my iPhone and see how it works.

The app is fairly similar, albeit, I think it’s a bit more streamlined than the Windows app. Overall, the experience isn’t great and you’ll find many better VPN apps that come from cheaper and more reliable providers. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and CyberGhost, to name a few.

TV Apps

McAfee VPN works on Android and that’s good news for users with an Android TV. This means you can go on Google Play, find the app, and download it to your TV if you have a TV with a “clean” Android. TVs with some derivatives based on Android might not be able to detect McAfee VPN on Google Play.

In this case, you can sideload the app and still enjoy it. As said, its TV support is subpar and you won’t find support for Amazon Fire TV Stick, Kodi, Apple TV, and other streaming-oriented platforms. Even its Android TV app isn’t particularly useful.

As you’ll see in this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review, it’s not great for streaming, making it pretty much useless, except if you’re browsing the web on your TV and you need some protection. But hey, I don’t trust you on that one – you surely aren’t using your TV for browsing!

Gaming Apps

Gamers and those alike are surely going to be interested in playing multiplayer titles with a Virtual Private Network. This will grant them additional DDoS/swatting protection coupled with the ability to avoid bandwidth throttling and preserve their privacy.

That is possible only on Windows, iOS, and Android since McAfee Safe Connect works with no gaming consoles. PS5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo users will have to skip this service, unfortunately. Alternatives to McAfee VPN will include the three aforementioned providers.

I recommend ExpressVPN first and foremost but you can utilize CyberGhost and NordVPN as well. They support gaming consoles through routers and offer Smart DNS which lets you bypass the complex VPN setup that is sometimes required on consoles.

Router Support

Lastly, people may want to know how to use a VPN like McAfee Safe Connect on a router. It’s impossible – don’t bother with it. After confirming it with customer support, I found that it won’t work on routers and there’s no way to protect your home network using McAfee VPN.

My recommendation, therefore, is to check out the three providers I discussed a few times. They support a boatload of routers and firmware, allowing you to secure your network and gain protection on each device connected to it. McAfee is a disappointment in its purest form right from the get-go.

Is McAfee VPN Safe & Secure? All Security Features Examined!

With its poor app compatibility out of the way, I think it’s time to get to more serious topics, such as the security and privacy of McAfee Safe Connect. Security is rated according to the security features you get within the app, so let’s see how feature-rich this provider is.

By the way, don’t hesitate to find out more about the safest VPNs in 2024 in one of my previous articles.

Bank-Grade Encryption

When you visit its official site, McAfee is extremely secretive about its features and won’t reveal anything in particular. This, at least, applies to its Safe Connect VPN. However, by chatting with the support team, I found that the provider packs 256-bit AES encryption.

As always, I’ll mention that this is the best encryption currently available, so at least in this regard, we shouldn’t have any security concerns. 256-bit encryption is used by banks and the military worldwide, and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for us, users who play far less important roles.

Safe Reconnect

McAfee VPN offers one feature called Safe Reconnect. To a newcomer, it may seem unclear at first, but I’ll rename it for you – it’s a kill switch. McAfee loves using these euphemisms and playing with words, making sure it confuses you in the process.

If you don’t know what is a kill switch, I talked more about that in one of my guides. Essentially, if the VPN disconnects, it’ll shut down all traffic to prevent your IP address from leaking to the public eye. It’s a useful feature for preserving your privacy and preventing anyone from getting in your tracks.

For better or for worse, it works really well in McAfee VPN, and with a few connection issues I had during the review, it sprung into action immediately and shut down my internet effortlessly. It looks like it’s working properly, so I have no issues with it.

Catapult Hydra Protocol

McAfee is secretive about the VPN protocols it uses, which I always find infuriating. How can you hide such vital information from your loyal user base? In any case, I found that the provider uses a protocol called Catapult Hydra.

If that sounds familiar, that’s because the company behind this protocol is AnchorFree, which is now known as Pango. Pango owns Hotspot Shield and Kaspersky VPN uses its servers, so both of these providers have Catapult Hydra in their rosters of protocols.

What is Catapult Hydra? It’s a protocol based on OpenVPN with a TLS standard, which, unlike UDP and TCP standards, helps bypass firewall restrictions and focuses more on performance. We’ll see if that’s the case later in this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review for 2024.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN IP and DNS Leak Test

Sadly, that’s everything the provider has to offer security-wise. You won’t find split tunneling, Double VPN, specialty servers, or anything else that would make it special and recognizable. The good news, however, is that despite its inferiority, the provider still isn’t showing signs of leaking.

I tested it while being connected to the US server. In doing so, I visited the website called ipleak.net only to see that my IP/DNS addresses were well-protected and hidden from the prying eyes of my ISP, hackers, or anyone else.

To make sure this is indeed the case, I wanted to use another site called browserleaks.com. In the screenshot below, you can see the results I achieved.

The provider showed the same results again, as I successfully concealed my IP and DNS addresses. It looks like DNS protection is here, after all, which I’m glad to see, as providers like Avast SecureLine VPN and NordVPN offer it in all subscription plans.

Does It Have a No-Logging Policy?

As many of you know, McAfee is a company from the United States. In fact, it’s located in the heart of the US in California, which only makes things worse for the provider. The US is a member of the 5 Eyes – a founding member, to be exact – so you can’t expect it to be very privacy-friendly.

The 5 Eyes alliance is a group of English-speaking countries known for global surveillance, data collection, and even data sharing. In short, these countries won’t respect your privacy, and in many cases, they’ll force VPN companies to share their connection data with the authorities.

We had such cases in the UK with HideMyAss and even IPVanish, a US-based service also shared connection logs with the authorities on one occasion. McAfee, therefore, has a poor privacy base to be even remotely safe to use.

Which Information Isn’t Stored?

If we take a look at its privacy policy, we can’t determine if it’s a no-logging policy. McAfee has no special privacy policy for its VPN, and because it’s VERY long, it’s very difficult to decipher it and see what the company really means.

For the information that isn’t stored, McAfee says that its servers don’t “look at or log any information that you send or receive on the internet“. This surely sounds vague and doesn’t mention anything in particular.

Do they monitor your IP address? DNS queries perhaps? Or do the things they said have to do only with your browsing activities? I’m not sure – and neither is the company, I can guarantee that.

Which Information Is Stored?

As for the stored information, McAfee VPN goes for your personal data, such as contact/payment info, and account login credentials. Then, before it mentioned the sentence I put in Bold above, it states that it stores all of the aforementioned data.

This includes your IP address, device ID, geo-location information, browsing history, details about your internet, mobile carrier – literally EVERYTHING. Allegedly, this information isn’t stored when you use a VPN but if I’m honest, I find it hard to believe.

The provider even works with third-party advertisers to display targeted ads and these companies might also collect your data. This is openly stated in the privacy policy. At first, McAfee uses this information for benign purposes, and while I believe there’s 1% truth in that, I think other reasons are hidden.

They use these bits of info to earn more money, steal your data, and make sure they meet the expectations of their third-party advertisers. Everything I said is, once again, stated in the privacy policy, as the provider admits to sharing your personal data with a variety of entities.

All of this, coupled with a vague privacy policy that’s annoyingly long makes dealing with McAfee VPN a dangerous game. If you want the best VPN for privacy, I can assure you this one isn’t THE one. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and CyberGhost are.

Their no-logging policies are independently audited and the companies are based in privacy-friendly jurisdictions, unlike this American service. In short, avoid it if you have privacy concerns.

McAfee VPN for Streaming: Popular Streaming Platforms TESTED

While not thinking about a job or doing your actual job, you just want to lift your feet on the furniture and enjoy some streaming using popular services. VPNs are here to make that possible if we’re talking about geo-blocked services that aren’t available in your country.

McAfee VPN evoked no high hopes in my pessimistic mind – pessimistic from doing this review. Still, I went ahead, connected to a few servers, and tried unblocking several popular streaming services. Much to my lack of surprise, the provider performed poorly.

No matter what I tried, and I couldn’t do much, McAfee Safe Connect always ended up being detected and blocked. Before you ask, I tested the majority of popular streaming services from the US, the UK, Canada, and even Japan, and with every single one of them, my experience was catastrophic.

Sure, McAfee VPN will unblock some TV channels in Canada and the UK, but these aren’t popular channels. As for the US TV channels, I found that the provider shows mixed results, although, in 90% of the cases, I experienced immediate detection and block as a result.

The sites that worked showed poor performance, on the other hand. We’re talking about long buffering periods, severe stuttering, and loading times that went on and on. You won’t be happy with what McAfee can do for you streaming-wise.

With Kaspersky VPN, Catapult Hydra showed amazing performance for streaming. In this McAfee VPN review, for whatever reason, this protocol isn’t helping the provider and it shows disappointingly bad streaming results – such a shame.

Speed Tests: Here’s How Fast McAfee VPN Really Is

This McAfee Safe Connect VPN test for 2024 will also tell you how fast this provider is. Judging from my streaming experience with it, I asked myself if the VPN was going to impact my internet connection that much when doing anything else.

With that question in mind, I decided to conduct several tests to grace myself – and you – with a proper answer. First of all, I live in Europe and my internet speeds aren’t blazing-fast, although they’re more than decent for my needs.

The screenshot above shows you how fast my internet is without a Virtual Private Network. Now for this review, when using McAfee Safe Connect VPN, I tested the service for 3 days, 3 times a day only for the speed test. Keep in mind that I used 4 server locations in countries like the UK, the US, Australia, and Japan.

I then compiled the best results and wrote them down. Also, I didn’t change the protocol because McAfee VPN doesn’t allow you to do that, so the results you see are with the plug-and-play principle of turning on the VPN and letting it do its job.

UK:

US:

Australia:

Japan:

As I suspected from the start, my performance eroded as soon as I touched any of the servers from McAfee VPN. Taking a look at the results, you can see big speed reductions, increases in ping, and overall poor performance.

Sure, the UK server isn’t that “scary” to look at but any server father from me hits my performance like an enraged bull. The Australian server, in particular, blasted my ping to 360+ milliseconds with download and upload speeds under 25 Mbps.

All in all, the performance is unsatisfactory, making it logical to recommend ExpressVPN – the fastest service available.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN and Gaming: Good or Bad Idea?

Gaming with a slow VPN is like running on your hands. Are you going to be fast? No. Are you going to trip a lot? Oh, and you’re even asking! I used McAfee VPN several times while playing games on my PC for this review.

I often play FPS games and I found that with this provider, my results are much worse due to the ping that’s constantly above 100 ms. This even applies to a server close to my country which raises my ping from the default sub-15 milliseconds to around 70-9 milliseconds.

Yes, it’s not a particularly big deal but when playing fast-paced games, every millisecond counts. People who want an Xbox VPN will ask if it’s good for Xbox Cloud Gaming or cloud gaming in general. It’s not. As you can expect, lag input is noticeable, and playing anything other than Chess Ultra is sluggish.

This isn’t a VPN for gaming and you shouldn’t even bother with it in this regard. Get ExpressVPN or CyberGhost instead.

Torrenting (P2P) with McAfee Safe Connect VPN

The general rule of thumb is that a good free VPN service for torrenting doesn’t exist. For one, free VPNs don’t allow for P2P traffic, and two, they come with limited bandwidth and slow speeds. McAfee is a premium provider – and not a cheap one at that – so it’s surely P2P-friendly.

I wish it was like that… I really do. However, in my review of McAfee Safe Connect VPN, I was baffled to see that it doesn’t support P2P traffic. I connected to the fastest server on the list, which took ages, and when I tried downloading Linux Mint, I saw this:

The download process couldn’t start because I allegedly had no seeds and peers, even though there were a few of them. Everything was at zero and the process didn’t want to budge no matter how long I waited. I then tried connecting to another server, in the US this time, but the result was the same.

Finally, I disconnected to see if it was a torrent issue, but after that, the download process started and in two minutes, Linux Mint was downloaded to my PC. In short, McAfee Safe Connect VPN is NOT P2P-friendly and you won’t be able to download torrents with it.

Is It Working in China & Other Censored Countries?

Bypassing censorship in China and circumventing firewall restrictions should be Catapult Hydra’s forte. Yet, with McAfee VPN, this protocol suffers from a severe case of anemia, with little to no blood pumping in its veins.

No, it’s not working in China and I found that out by sharing my subscription with a friend who lives in this country. He reported that the VPN simply wouldn’t connect to a server after what seemed like at least 50 attempts. It simply couldn’t bypass the Great Firewall.

When using Kaspersky VPN, for instance, it at least showed some signs of working on a few occasions, while this provider showed none of them. If you live in China or plan your trip to this country, using a VPN while traveling would be a good idea.

VPNs that work in China include ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Surfshark, so check them out if that’s what you aim for.

Servers and Server Locations

When it comes to servers and server locations, McAfee is going to impress no one. Earlier in my McAfee Safe Connect VPN review, I pointed out that it has no specialty servers. This means there are no dedicated servers for streaming, let alone torrenting or Double VPN.

The provider claims to have around 2,000 servers in 40+ countries and that server fleet doesn’t sound too bad. However, for this price, we can say the server fleet isn’t very robust compared to CyberGhost with 11,500 servers in 100 countries.

McAfee Safe Connect also has average server distribution, with the majority of servers located across the US, Europe, and other “popular” locations. It does have servers in Japan, Argentina, Latvia, and a few other locations, which I appreciate.

However, keep in mind that these most likely aren’t 10 Gbps servers – more like 1 Gbps in terms of performance. Plus, they’re not capable of bypassing geo-blocks, which makes them useful only if you want to change your VPN location and conceal your IP for any other reasons.

Customer Support: How to Contact McAfee for Help?

If you happen to have any issues with McAfee VPN or any of its other products, having helpful customer support is always good. On its site, I found that the provider offers a plethora of useful articles, FAQs, how-to guides, and many other problem-solving solutions.

Among these solutions, you’ll find email and live chat support available 24/7. Live chat support is my “weapon” of choice as it’s the quickest way to get help. To be honest, its customer support isn’t the fastest I’ve used, and even in a live chat session, I often found myself waiting for answers.

I had an issue where McAfee took my money when I subscribed but it didn’t activate my subscription. I contacted the company through live chat and spent around 30 minutes arguing with the support team member that they took my money without giving me the service I wanted.

They refused to acknowledge the issue, saying that they couldn’t detect the payment. Strangely, the money got back to me in about 15 minutes after the chat and I don’t know what was the issue. Then, I asked a friend to subscribe for me and he didn’t have any problems.

Either way, the chat session with the support team member was unnecessarily unpleasant, and in the end, he didn’t manage to fix my issue, at least not directly. To put it simply, I’m not particularly satisfied in this regard but that’s just my experience which can be different from yours.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN Pricing: Is It Affordable?

As we approach the end of this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review, it’s a good time to talk about pricing and everything that comes with it. The great thing about this service is a simple pricing structure, which won’t confuse you even if you’re new in the world of VPNs.

Once you visit McAfee VPN’s page, you’ll see the same image shown in the screenshot. The best deal, as the company calls it, is the annual plan at $39.99. This isn’t the price you’ll pay each year but the welcoming price.

If you get this deal, you’ll pay $39.99 for the first year with a renewal price of $47.99 annually. If we convert it to a price per month, it’s around $4 monthly, which isn’t too expensive but also not too cheap. The Privacy + Security plan includes an antivirus for the same price, and then, there’s the most beefed-up Advanced plan.

McAfee allows you to get it for $89.99 a year – once again, not too expensive, not too affordable considering you’ll also get antivirus and a few other features. For the level of quality that McAfee Safe Connect VPN, however, I think this should be a free VPN, no exaggeration.

The provider’s alternatives are ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and NordVPN. And no – they’re not cheaper and whatnot but they’re priced similarly AND come with significantly better performance, making McAfee VPN not only obsolete but completely non-sensical.

Available Payment Methods

Even its payment methods are uninspiring. While ExpressVPN allows you to use Bitcoin to purchase a subscription, this provider offers just PayPal and credit cards. Thus, if you’re looking for a way to purchase a VPN with cryptocurrencies, you should be looking in another direction, not this one.

How to Get a Refund from McAfee Safe Connect VPN?

If you’re dissatisfied with McAfee Safe Connect VPN, you’ll most likely want to cancel your subscription and get a refund. Thankfully, at least, this is easy to do if you contact the support team and tell it about your decision.

Keep in mind that the provider has a 30-day money-back guarantee for all of its plans, so you have 30 days to fully test out the service and see what you think about it. We had no issues getting a refund from McAfee and the support team wasn’t too pushy when asking for reimbursement.

If they start giving you special deals, just stay persistent and tell them that you really want your money back. They’ll process the refund the same day, although, if you used a credit card as the payment method, it may take 3-5 business days to get the money back.

What We Don’t Like About McAfee Safe Connect VPN

Okay, so we’ve said pretty much everything you need to know in this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review. If you’re in a hurry and you want to know what we dislike about it, here’s your answer – nearly everything!

McAfee Safe Connect VPN is full of issues that plague the service from top to bottom. We don’t like its app compatibility, small number of simultaneous connections, severe lack of security features, and glaring privacy issues that a premium VPN shouldn’t have.

Another thing I dislike is that the provider stores a substantial amount of logs and its vague privacy policy makes things much worse. In addition, McAfee VPN isn’t functional for streaming, but at least you can check our article about the top streaming VPNs and get one for yourself.

Speaking of streaming, the provider’s overall performance is far from decent. It’s very slow and on top of that, it’s not P2P-friendly, so you can’t use it to download torrents. Even worse is the fact that it doesn’t work in China, despite offering the well-known Catapult Hydra protocol.

How Do Other People Rate McAfee VPN?

Remember that McAfee VPN offers applications for mobile devices as well. Knowing this information, we wanted to see what other people online think about it, so we checked some of the reviews from Google Play and Apple Store.

Android users on Google Play gave this provider an average rating of 4 stars. It’s surely not great, as many people complain about the app freezing up and being non-functional. Furthermore, we’ve seen complaints about random disconnects, slow speeds, and poor streaming capabilities.

Some people praise its ease of use but the most recent reviews are littered with complaints about these instabilities that make McAfee VPN one of the less-reliable providers.

On the Apple Store, iOS users gave the provider a rating of 3.7 stars. Much like me, some users complained about payment issues and getting charged twice for the same product. Other users talk about the app turning off, long connection times, and slow speeds – similar things that we’ve seen on Google Play.

Very few reviewers actually praise McAfee Safe Connect VPN on the Apple Store, which I found interesting. The only positive opinions I saw have to do with customer support. Even 5-star reviews are complaining about the service, which looks kinda strange if you ask me.

Conclusion: It’s THAT Bad, Don’t Bother With It

I’d like to end this McAfee Safe Connect VPN review for 2024 on a good note. However, that is impossible when I know just how bad, dull, and unfinished this provider feels. I remember using it a year or two ago and it remained the same, with no improvements over the initial formula.

That alone should tell you how much McAfee values this product and how dedicated it is to making it better. There’s clearly no dedication from the team and since the provider lacks in pretty much every aspect, recommending it would be foolish.

The service does offer apps for Windows, iOS, and Android but it lacks support for macOS and Linux. Yes, it’s secure and doesn’t leak your IP or DNS addresses but it has no advanced security features. On top of that, it’s a US company with intrusive logging practices, so it’s a no-go for privacy.

McAfee VPN trips over all possible obstacles, and while it has a somewhat decent server fleet, it’s in vain because it’s not functional for streaming and torrenting. Coupled with instabilities on iOS/Android devices, inability to work in China, and no P2P capabilities, this provider is the definition of disappointment.

Now, you might be wondering about the alternatives. If you’ve read this McAfee VPN test carefully, you noticed that I mentioned ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, and NordVPN. ExpressVPN is the best service you can get and I recommend it in favor of any other provider – even this one.

However, if you’d like a cheaper option, I advise checking CyberGhost and NordVPN too. While not better than ExpressVPN, they’re very close, which means they wipe the floor with McAfee Safe Connect VPN. Besides, our site allows you to get special deals and discounts on these services.

As a result, you can get top-quality providers like these, save money, and enjoy numerous features you won’t find in McAfee Safe Connect.