McAfee Safe Connect VPN Review 2026: Is It Safe to Use?

McAfee Safe Connect VPN is a basic but unimpressive add-on to McAfee’s powerful antivirus software. This VPN only has servers in 47 countries and offers no features beyond a kill switch and split tunneling. 

McAfee Safe Connect VPN can encrypt your connection and prevent data leaks. It has basic VPN functionality, which might be enough as an added perk of McAfee antivirus software but not enough as a premium VPN for speed, streaming, and other uses. 

We'll break down the pros and cons of McAfee Safe Connect VPN in this review and recommend the best VPNs you can pair with your antivirus.

At a glance

Price	Starts at $2.50/mo
Free version	Yes
Max # of connected devices	5
# of servers	Unlisted in 47 countries
VPN protocol	WireGuard, OpenVPN
Encryption	AES-256
No-logs policy	No logs
Headquarters	United States
Netflix access	Limited
Learn more	Get McAfee Safe Connect VPN

Star rating summary

We last tested McAfee Safe Connect VPN on Q4 2025.

Our experience

Our most recent testing of McAfee Safe Connect was decent, but it still gave us some trouble. We downloaded McAfee Total Protection on our Windows laptop and used the VPN in the antivirus program.

We've previously tested the McAfee Safe Connect standalone app, but this app will be retired in 2025. Moving forward, the only way to use McAfee's VPN is via McAfee's antivirus apps.

You can find the VPN by selecting My Protection and clicking Secure VPN under the Web category. All the VPN features and settings are available on this tab, so you won't need to navigate elsewhere.

Beyond that, there wasn't much to McAfee Safe Connect during our testing. It only had a moderate impact on our speeds and it passed all of our leak tests.

In the past, McAfee Safe Connect kept giving us errors and would never connect no matter how many times we tried to load the VPN. Luckily, we didn't have those issues this time.

If you’re getting McAfee Total Protection anyway, you might as well take advantage of the VPN. You’ll receive military-grade encryption, so it could be fine for low-risk situations like checking directions on public Wi-Fi or reading a news site in a cafe.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN prices and plans

McAfee Safe Connect VPN is only available with McAfee+ plans, so you'll have to pay anywhere from $2.50-$12.50/mo. It only offers annual plans, so there's no way to pay per month. 

Features	McAfee + Basic	McAfee + Premium	McAfee + Advanced	McAfee+ Ultimate
Price	$2.50/mo	Starts at $4.17/mo	Starts at $7.50/mo	Starts at $12.50/mo
VPN
Antivirus
Identity monitoring and alerts
Web protection
Financial account monitoring
Credit monitoring
Identity restoration support
McAfee Assist protection setup
Learn more	View plan	View plan	View plan	View plan

McAfee Safe Connect VPN features

As far as VPNs go, McAfee Safe Connect’s feature offering is fairly conservative. If you’re looking for a VPN with a lot of robust and interesting add-ons, this is likely not it. 

However, if you’re looking for a security bundle that includes a way to encrypt your traffic, this could be what you’re looking for in a VPN.

Server count and countries

• Unlisted in 47 countries

McAfee won’t give you an exact total on how many servers it offers, but it tells you that you can choose from 47 countries. When you connect to the VPN, the fastest VPN server is recommended. You can, however, use the drop-down menu to choose another location if you want to be specific.

You can't select servers at a city level with McAfee. There aren’t a ton of options, including no way to filter or search the server locations that are available.

What you can do, however, is use it to appear like you’re in a general location. This will suffice for geo-specific content, such as checking prices or viewing location-specific content in the country you’re visiting.

No-logs policy and headquarters

• McAfee Safe Connect VPN logs policy: Unclear
• McAfee Safe Connect VPN headquarters: United States

McAfee Safe Connect seems almost like an afterthought for the security giant. There’s a single line in the privacy policy stating, “Note that if you use our VPN services, our VPN servers do not look at or log any information that you send or receive on the internet.” 

That’s good, but there isn’t much additional information provided. Even that line is a little unclear. If there are truly “no logs,” then just outright state, “We log nothing.”

Also, the Safe Connect website claims its VPN has been independently audited, but the provided link takes you to a TunnelBear webpage. Apparently, the McAfee VPN uses TunnelBear’s technology. 

So do the logs follow McAfee’s privacy policy or TunnelBear’s policy? It’s unclear, and we couldn’t get more answers from customer support either.

McAfee's headquarters are located in the U.S., which also gives us pause. The U.S. is part of the Five Eyes alliance, which is a grouping of countries that have entered into intelligence sharing agreements. That means McAfee VPN could be legally required to hand over your internet activity if requested. 

This, combined with the unclear logs policy, is concerning. 

Kill switch

Safe Connect is a fairly bare-bones product, but it does include a kill switch. McAfee markets this feature as “Safe Reconnect” rather than kill switch. 

It does the same thing: interrupting your internet connection in the event the VPN disconnects. This security feature is meant to keep your IP address safe if your VPN connection fails.

Split tunneling

Safe Connect VPN now offers split tunneling, but it can only be used with a couple of streaming services. Other VPNs allow you to list specific websites and apps you wish to be excluded from the VPN connection, but we're glad Safe Connect added this feature.

If you want to use a VPN for most of your online activities while using some sites or apps that block VPNs, you’ll want to get a VPN that offers split tunneling. It’s helpful to keep most of your activity private while still allowing you access to sites you want.

VPN protocols

While we found a support page that stated you can choose from a variety of VPN protocols, we were unable to find that option on the Windows app. The protocols listed are WireGuard and OpenVPN. 

After asking customer support, it was determined that you can only choose which protocol you want to use when using the Android or iOS app. The Windows version connects to WireGuard by default and you can't change it manually.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN test results

Considering we already had issues with connection, we weren’t optimistic about completing our tests with this VPN. Here's what happened for each feature we tested.

Speed tests

• Speed test results: McAfee Safe Connect dropped our download speeds by an average of 35%. 

When we test VPNs, we compare how the different servers available with the software differ in terms of impact on your internet speeds. Even the best VPNs will likely slow down your speeds a little.

We tested McAfee Safe Connect on a laptop running Windows 11 from a physical location in the U.S.  

	No VPN	US to US	US to CA	US to EU	US to AU
Download speed	481.09 Mbps	320.63 Mbps	338.22 Mbps	289.98 Mbps	301.67 Mbps
Upload speed	498.76 Mbps	123.59 Mbps	64.77 Mbps	56.06 Mbps	39.90 Mbps
Latency (ping)	16 ms	12 ms	48 ms	116 ms	244 ms
Download speed % difference	N/A	-33.35%	-29.70%	-39.72%	-37.29%
Upload speed % difference	N/A	-75.22%	-87.01%	-86.76%	-92.00%
Latency % difference	N/A	-25.00%	+200.00%	+625.00%	+1,425.00%

We started by connecting to McAfee Safe Connect's fastest location option. This server dropped our download speeds by 33%, which is expected from a VPN, although it did reduce our latency by 25%.

The rest of the servers dropped our download speeds by about 30% to 40%, which may seem steep but our actual speeds were still plenty usable and showed no impact on our browsing. 

On the other hand, the upload speeds were dropped significantly across the board, which could give you issues with video calls, file sharing, and live streaming. 

Netflix tests

• Netflix test results: McAfee Safe Connect unblocked only Netflix U.S. and Australia. 

One benefit of using VPNs is unblocking geo-restricted content on streaming services. Netflix is the most persistent about stopping the usage of VPNs, so we test every VPN we review with the service. 

	US to US	US to CA	US to EU	US to AU
Did it work with Netflix?

McAfee Safe Connect sometimes unblocks all the Netflix libraries we test, and sometimes it struggles. McAfee Connect started by unblocking Netflix U.S., which was a good start.

The issues began once we swapped to the Canadian server. We refreshed our page and Netflix showed us the U.S. library again. No matter how many times we refreshed our page or swapped browsers, we never saw the Netflix Canada library. 

The same issue happened with the Netflix U.K. server. We assumed the tests were a bust, but McAfee Safe Connect could actually unblock Netflix Australia. 

McAfee Safe Connect had minimal issues once we opened a movie or show to stream. Just note that it's not the most reliable VPN for streaming. 

DNS leak test

• DNS leak test results: McAfee Safe Connect passed its DNS leak test.

Domain Name System (DNS) is the internet’s address book. It allows us to type in website addresses, and the computer uses DNS to translate that into internet language and guide us to the right website. 

Computers read each other’s IP addresses during this exchange, but Safe Connect kept ours hidden.

WebRTC leak test

• WebRTC leak test results: McAfee Safe Connect passed its WebRTC leak test.

If DNS is the address book, then WebRTC is the internet’s phone book. It’s the technology we use to make video and voice connections online. Whether you’re using Zoom or recording your voice sans video, you’re using this technology. 

McAfee Safe Connect also prevented WebRTC leaks in its most recent tests. 

Kill switch test

• Kill switch test results: McAfee Safe Connect passed its kill switch test. 

This is usually the part where we use IPleak.net to see if our real IP address shows up when switching servers with the kill switch on. Turning on this functionality has frozen the app in the past, so we didn't have high hopes.

But McAfee Safe Connect VPN kept our real IP address a secret. After switching from a server in Ireland to a server in Italy, there were no leaks. 

McAfee Safe Connect VPN compatibility

	Compatibility
Windows
macOS
Linux
Android
iOS
Routers
Browser extensions
Smart TVs

McAfee is compatible with Windows and all smartphones. It was previously compatible with macOS, but McAfee appears to have discontinued the macOS product.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN customer support

Support type	McAfee Safe Connect
Email or live chat
Phone	Yes — 1-866-622-3911
Online guides or forums

McAfee boasts 24/7 customer support, which is available through chat or phone. Thankfully it was relatively easy to get connected with an agent, and is accessible through their support page.

We connected to a live chat agent almost immediately at 1 PM Eastern Time on a Tuesday. Though the agent was nice and tried to help, our question seemed a bit more technical than what they're used to so it took a bit to clarify what we wanted and to get an answer.

If your question is related to more standard things, like issues connecting or billing questions, then this chat option is likely good enough.

Though McAfee has plenty of guides, they actually relate to everything McAfee and not just the VPN. This made it more difficult to find relevant answers and their search function wasn't the best we've seen.

McAfee Safe Connect user reviews

• Apple App Store rating: 3.6
• Google Play Store rating: 3.8
• Trustpilot rating: 1.3

McAfee Safe Connect has average ratings for iOS and Android. But the featured reviews on the Apple App Store discuss issues with McAfee's excessive data collection, slow speeds caused by the VPN, and subscription charges. On the Google Play Store, reviewers discuss excessive charges and struggles with the app staying connected. 

On the other hand, McAfee is labeled as bad on Trustpilot. Reviewers call out the overly complicated subscription process, annoying pop-ups on the app, and unhelpful customer service. 

Top alternatives

If you’re searching for a VPN provider with a lot of features and tight security, you may notice that Safe Connect doesn’t fit the bill. The options below are some of the best VPN services available, which include all the security features a VPN should offer:

Bottom line: Is McAfee Safe Connect VPN good?

Overall, McAfee Safe Connect is a basic VPN provider that can get the job done, but it’s lackluster. We appreciated that McAfee Safe Connect blocked all data leaks during our testing. But it has a limited feature set and struggles to unblock Netflix, among other issues.

If you’re looking for a strong and secure VPN service, we recommend NordVPN, Surfshark, and ExpressVPN, which can keep your IP address and online activity hidden. You’ll also likely notice faster speeds and better webpage loading times. VPN users are usually interested in online privacy and safe internet access, especially if their connection drops.

McAfee Safe Connect VPN FAQs