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Cybersecurity · head to head

McAfee Total Protection vs Qualys VMDR

McAfee Total Protection logo

McAfee Total Protection

Cybersecurity

Award-winning antivirus trusted by millions

From
$29.99/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Qualys VMDR logo

Qualys VMDR

Cybersecurity

Cloud-delivered vulnerability management licensed per asset, using scanner appliances and a lightweight agent.

From
$3/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: McAfee Total Protection significant renewal price increase after first year (from $29.99 to $84.99/year); Qualys VMDR licensing is per asset and each capability is its own subscription, so patch management, endpoint detection, web application scanning, container security and policy compliance are separate line items, and the platform demonstrated in a proof of concept is rarely the platform in the quote.
  • They diverge on capability: McAfee Total Protection covers Real-time antivirus, Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which McAfee Total Protection and Qualys VMDR actually diverge.

Attributes where McAfee Total Protection and Qualys VMDR differ
AttributeMcAfee Total ProtectionQualys VMDR
Starting price$29.99/year$3/month
Pricing modelUnknownsubscription
PlatformsWindows, macOS, iOS, AndroidWeb, Cloud, Api
Founded19871999

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cybersecurity).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in McAfee Total Protection

  • Real-time antivirus
  • Firewall
  • Safe browsing
  • Password manager
  • Secure VPN
  • Identity monitoring
  • Protection Score
  • Parental controls

Only in Qualys VMDR

  • Cloud Agent
  • Scanner appliances
  • Authenticated scanning
  • TruRisk scoring
  • Asset inventory
  • Patch Management
  • Cloud connectors
  • Container sensor

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

McAfee Total Protection

  • Antivirusnot Qualys VMDR
  • Internet Securitynot Qualys VMDR
  • Identity Protectionnot Qualys VMDR

Qualys VMDR

  • A hybrid workforce where scheduled network scans miss most laptops and continuous agent-based assessment is the only way to get real coveragenot McAfee Total Protection
  • PCI DSS external scanning where an approved scanning vendor report is a contractual requirementnot McAfee Total Protection
  • An estate spanning datacentre, multiple public clouds and endpoints that needs one vulnerability view rather than three toolsnot McAfee Total Protection
  • Organisations replacing a manual patch-verification process with agent-reported evidence that a fix actually landednot McAfee Total Protection

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

McAfee Total Protection

  • Significant renewal price increase after first year (from $29.99 to $84.99/year)
  • Customer support responsiveness issues reported as reason for switching
  • Renewal billing can be aggressive with auto-renewal defaults

Qualys VMDR

  • Licensing is per asset and each capability is its own subscription, so patch management, endpoint detection, web application scanning, container security and policy compliance are separate line items, and the platform demonstrated in a proof of concept is rarely the platform in the quote.
  • Ephemeral cloud instances consume asset entitlement until they age out of inventory, so an autoscaling group that creates and destroys hosts hourly can burn licence capacity on machines that existed for minutes, and controlling that means tuning purge policies rather than tuning the cloud.
  • Authenticated scanning produces materially better results than unauthenticated, but it requires storing and rotating privileged credentials for every target platform, which is a security project in its own right, and teams that skip it receive reports full of unconfirmed potential findings that nobody trusts.
  • The console is a set of modules with separate interfaces, search syntaxes and report engines, so an analyst moving between vulnerability management, policy compliance and web application scanning learns each one, and cross-module reporting usually ends in a spreadsheet or a script against the API.
  • The tool surfaces findings far faster than any organisation can remediate them, and it does not solve the ownership problem: without an agreed prioritisation policy and a named owner in IT operations, a first scan producing tens of thousands of findings becomes a dashboard that everyone learns to ignore.

Pricing, plan by plan

McAfee Total Protection

$29.99/year
  • Basic$29.99/year
    • Antivirus
    • Firewall
    • 1 device
  • Plus$39.99/year
    • Antivirus
    • Firewall
    • 5 devices
  • Premium$49.99/year
    • Antivirus
    • Firewall
    • VPN
  • Advanced$74.99/year
    • Antivirus
    • Firewall
    • VPN

Qualys VMDR

$3/month
  • VMDR$3/month
    • Per asset
    • Vulnerability scanning
    • Detection
  • VMDR+$5/month
    • All VMDR features
    • Advanced analytics
    • Cloud integration
  • VMDR Complete$7/month
    • All VMDR+ features
    • Threat intel
    • Response automation

Which should you pick?

Choose McAfee Total Protection if

  • You need real-time antivirus.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
  • You also want firewall.
McAfee Total Protection review

Choose Qualys VMDR if

  • You need cloud agent.
  • You work on Web, Cloud, Api.
  • You also want scanner appliances.
Qualys VMDR review

Questions people ask

Is McAfee Total Protection or Qualys VMDR better?
Neither clearly leads. McAfee Total Protection starts at $29.99/year and Qualys VMDR at $3/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, McAfee Total Protection or Qualys VMDR?
McAfee Total Protection starts at $29.99/year and Qualys VMDR at $3/month.
Does McAfee Total Protection or Qualys VMDR run on more platforms?
McAfee Total Protection runs on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. Qualys VMDR runs on Web, Cloud, Api.
What is McAfee Total Protection best used for?
McAfee Total Protection is most often used for antivirus, internet security, identity protection. Of those, antivirus and internet security are not what Qualys VMDR is typically brought in for.
What can McAfee Total Protection do that Qualys VMDR cannot?
McAfee Total Protection covers Real-time antivirus, Firewall, Safe browsing, Password manager. Qualys VMDR covers Cloud Agent, Scanner appliances, Authenticated scanning, TruRisk scoring.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

McAfee Total Protection: How much does McAfee Total Protection cost?

McAfee Total Protection introductory pricing ranges from $29.99/year (Basic) to $74.99/year (Advanced), but renewal costs jump to $84.99/year after the first year.

Source
Qualys VMDR: Agent or scanner: which do I need?

Usually both. The agent covers endpoints and servers you control and gives continuous data; scanners cover devices you cannot install an agent on, such as network gear, printers and appliances, and provide the external perimeter view.

McAfee Total Protection: What is the trial period for McAfee Total Protection?

McAfee offers a 60-day money-back guarantee, allowing you to try the service risk-free for two months.

Source
Qualys VMDR: Does it patch as well as detect?

Yes, through the Patch Management module, which is a separate subscription using the same agent. Core VMDR detects and prioritises but does not deploy fixes.

McAfee Total Protection: How many devices can I protect with one McAfee Total Protection subscription?

Device coverage varies by plan: Basic covers 1 device, while other plans protect 5 to unlimited devices depending on the tier selected.

Source
Qualys VMDR: How are assets counted for licensing?

By the number of assets in inventory, which includes cloud instances and containers depending on the modules in use. Short-lived cloud assets count until they are purged, so purge settings directly affect what you consume.

McAfee Total Protection: Does McAfee Total Protection include VPN?

VPN is included in higher-tier McAfee plans if you opt for auto-renewal.

Source
Qualys VMDR: Can I keep the data in a specific region?

Yes. Qualys operates several regional platform instances and you choose which one your subscription lives on. Moving between them later is not trivial, so decide before onboarding.

Qualys VMDR: Does it scan web applications?

Web Application Scanning is a separate module licensed per application, not part of core VMDR, and it is a dynamic scanner with the usual limits around authenticated flows in single-page applications.

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