Best McAfee Alternatives for Small Business (November 2026)

Executive summary

For a small company replacing McAfee, Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security at $38.50 per endpoint per year is the closest like-for-like swap: antivirus for Windows, Mac and Linux machines in one console, bought online from 3 devices. The McAfee business line no longer exists under that name. McAfee Enterprise and FireEye were merged into Trellix in 2022, and Trellix's online store sells its small-business licence, Trellix Complete Endpoint Protection - Business, at $256.28 per device per year for 5 to 25 licences. That is more than any product we track: the highest list price in our rankings is SentinelOne Singularity Complete at $179.99 per seat per year. If you want EDR with the replacement, Microsoft Defender for Business includes it at $36.00 per user per year. If nobody in the company will watch for alerts, ThreatDown Elite includes 24/7 managed response at $99.00 per endpoint per year. Staying with the McAfee engine is still a defensible choice: Trellix Endpoint Security was Approved in AV-Comparatives' March to June 2026 business test with a 97.5% protection rate, but it also raised 10 false positives, more than any engine we track.

What happened to McAfee for business?

Three things, and a small company may be sitting on any of them.

1. The business products became Trellix. McAfee Enterprise and FireEye were combined into Trellix in 2022; AV-Comparatives tests the result as Trellix Endpoint Security (ENS) and notes that it runs the former McAfee engine. Trellix's end-of-life list shows MVISION Endpoint, the McAfee-era cloud endpoint product, reaching end of life on 7 April 2025. A McAfee-era business licence is now renewed, supported and priced by Trellix.
2. Trellix sells to small businesses from its own store. The Trellix Online Store lists one product for small businesses, Trellix Complete Endpoint Protection - Business, at $256.28 per device per year for 5 to 25 licences, $207.63 per device per year at 26 to 50 and $205.05 per device per year at 51 to 100, each a one-year subscription with a year of business software support. The band above 100 is cheaper again, and above 250 licences the store sends you to sales. The listing covers PCs, Macs, Linux systems, virtual machines and Windows tablets, with encryption and application containment, and it does not mention EDR; Trellix EDR is a separate product with no published price.
3. The McAfee brand still sells one business product, through Dell only. McAfee, the consumer company that kept the name, offers McAfee Business Protection "exclusively available on Dell PCs", in partnership with Dell. McAfee's page describes a security console, a Business Protection Score and automatic policy enforcement, and publishes no price. It is not among the products in AV-Comparatives' current business round.

Why do small businesses look for a McAfee alternative?

1. Price. At 5 to 25 licences Trellix charges $256.28 per device per year. Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security costs $38.50 per endpoint per year and Microsoft Defender for Business $36.00 per user per year, and both carry current results from the same labs.
2. An enterprise console. Trellix's endpoint page is written around ePolicy Orchestrator, its enterprise management console. The products in our rankings are run from cloud consoles built for an office without an administrator.
3. No EDR in the small-business licence. The store product is prevention, encryption and containment. A company that wants detection and response has to take Trellix EDR on a quote, or buy a product that includes it.
4. False positives. In AV-Comparatives' March to June 2026 business test Trellix raised 10 false positives, against 8 for CrowdStrike Falcon Go, the highest count among the engines we track, and 0 for Microsoft Defender for Business. In an office without IT support, every false alarm is a blocked file someone has to release.
5. Weight. Trellix's impact score in the same round was 37.1, under the lab's 40 limit but a long way from 3.7 for the lightest tracked engine, ESET PROTECT Core. The performance report sets out the full table.

Which McAfee alternative fits your situation?

How do the McAfee alternatives compare?

Product	EDR	24/7 managed response	Ransomware rollback	macOS	Linux
Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security	Not offered	Not offered	Included	Included	Included
ESET PROTECT Core	Not offered	Not offered	Included	Included	Included
Microsoft Defender for Business	Included	Not offered	Not offered	Included	Add-on
CrowdStrike Falcon Go	Not offered	Not offered	Not offered	Included	Included
ThreatDown Elite	Included	Included	Included	Included	Included
ThreatDown Advanced	Included	Not offered	Included	Included	Included

Where the vendor publishes a price, the cost at 10, 25 and 100 seats:

Product	Per unit per month	10 seats / yr	25 seats / yr	100 seats / yr
Microsoft Defender for Business	$3.00 /user/mo	$360.00	$900.00	$3,600.00
Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security	$3.21 /endpoint/mo	$384.99	$854.99	$3,064.99
ESET PROTECT Core	$4.58 /endpoint/mo	$549.00	$1,167.50	Via sales (online up to 99)
CrowdStrike Falcon Go	$5.00 /endpoint/mo	$599.90	$1,499.75	$5,999.00
ThreatDown Advanced	$6.58 /endpoint/mo	$790.00	Via sales (online up to 20)	Via sales (online up to 20)
ThreatDown Elite	$8.25 /endpoint/mo	$990.00	Via sales (online up to 20)	Via sales (online up to 20)

Trellix is absent from both tables because it is not a tracked product; its store price is recorded in the Price Index instead. The Trellix store charges $2,562.80 a year for 10 devices, which is $256.28 per device per year. Lab results for the tracked products:

Product	AV-Test protection	AV-Comparatives protection	MITRE ATT&CK Evaluation
Bitdefender GravityZone Business Security	6.0/6 2025-12	99.8% 2026-H1	72.5% coverage 1 of 80 not evaluated 2024 Dated
ESET PROTECT Core	6.0/6 2025-12	98.8% 2026-H1	24.4% coverage 36 of 90 not evaluated 2025
Microsoft Defender for Business	6.0/6 2026-08	98.8% 2026-H1	83.8% coverage 2024 Dated
CrowdStrike Falcon Go	No public result	98.5% 2026-H1	98.9% coverage 2025
ThreatDown Advanced	No public result	No public result	23.7% coverage 2024 Dated

Is Trellix still a good product?

Yes, on protection. In AV-Comparatives' March to June 2026 business test, Trellix Endpoint Security 10.7 blocked 97.5% of real-world threats and was Approved, and its malware protection rate was also 97.5% with no false positives on business files; the lab noted an issue at the time of testing that caused some extra misses and was fixed before publication. The reservations are the 10 false positives in the real-world test, an impact score of 37.1 that sits close to the approval limit, and a price built for an enterprise buyer. The question for a small company is not whether Trellix protects, but whether it is worth paying several times the price of products with results in the same round.

What should you check before switching from McAfee?

1. Find out which McAfee you have. Consumer McAfee installed on business PCs, McAfee Business Protection bought with Dell machines, or a McAfee-era business licence now held with Trellix. The renewal date, the console and the removal steps differ for each.
2. Count Macs, Linux machines and servers. The alternatives license them differently, and the capability table above shows where each is included.
3. Remove the old agent completely. Use the vendor's own removal tool before installing the replacement; two endpoint agents on one machine fight each other.
4. Decide on EDR now. If you want it, pick a product that includes it rather than planning to add it later on a quote.
5. Trial on your slowest PC. If weight was the complaint, two weeks on the oldest laptop tells you more than any lab table.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology and caveats

Trellix's prices were read from the Trellix Online Store on 1 November 2026 with the store's currency set to US dollars, and the pricing chart is stored as evidence in the Price Index. Trellix's lab figures are quoted from AV-Comparatives' published report for the product it tested, Trellix Endpoint Security 10.7, which is not the same packaging as the store product. Each tracked product's price, capability states and lab results come from its Endpoint Index product page, every value sourced and dated. Prices are list prices per seat per year. The SMB Fit Score measures how well a product fits a small buyer; it is not a protection score.

Sources

1. Trellix. Trellix Online Store, Trellix Complete Endpoint Protection - Business, pricing chart in US dollars, checked 1 November 2026.
2. Trellix. Endpoint Security product page and Product End-of-Life Information, MVISION Endpoint entry, checked 1 November 2026.
3. McAfee. McAfee Business Protection, "Exclusively available on Dell PCs", checked 1 November 2026.
4. AV-Comparatives. Business Security Test 2026 (March to June), Trellix Endpoint Security 10.7 results and the note on the 2022 merger.
5. Endpoint Index. Product pages for each alternative named, with per-value sources. Latest price check: 2026-11-01.