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McAfee Application Control vs ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

McAfee Application Control
Ranking in Application Control
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ThreatLocker Zero Trust End...
Ranking in Application Control
2nd
Average Rating
9.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (5th), Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (6th), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (6th), ZTNA (3rd), Ransomware Protection (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Control category, the mindshare of McAfee Application Control is 11.6%, down from 24.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform is 15.4%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Control
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer1437648 - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to configure, reliable, secure, and has good support
With some specific versions, we are experiencing some issues where the policy configuration has some problems with the parent and child processes. There have been problems with the relationship between the parent and child process, from time to time. I would like to see better reporting and alerting features in the future.
Johnathan Bodily - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures ransomware protection and reduces phishing chaos
The application control has been great so far, and while I am still exploring the network access controls, I unfortunately don't have access to one module I would love to have due to licensing restrictions. It's easy to use in regard to reducing attack surfaces. For me, it's a piece of cake. We can have something approved within 30 seconds, thanks to the mobile app. We haven't eliminated security solutions. We just add to it, and ThreatLocker has been a great addition. We also have Kaseya and ThreatLocker as a supplement to that. It's useful. They have overlap, and we look at the overlap as a good thing. It's helped your organization save on operational costs or expenses by ensuring that many fewer hours are spent dealing with ransomware nonsense. I cannot count the amount of hours that I personally have not had to put in to recovering an environment from a ransomware event. The last big one took us about three weeks to completely recover from. Since we've grouped ThreatLocker in, the management of that whole setup has gone down to just daily help desk tasks and general server maintenance instead of having the whole system on fire. There are probably thousands of hours of saved time between our teams. It's been great so far. ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform's ability to block access to unauthorized applications is great. It's my biggest protection, the blocked applications. In a lot of cases, you go to install something yourself that you need for management, and it comes in and says, nope. And then I have to log into the portal and approve it. I get our other guys saying, hey, why are you trying to approve something? Any of the tools that I'm using on a day-to-day basis that haven't been in the environment during the whole learning mode initially, I could go through and set extensions and all that. So, while it's a headache on that end, the amount of saved time I can't even count. It is a little frustrating on my end since I like to go as quickly as I possibly can, and it slows me down. However, that's a really good thing. Depending on the site, it can save a lot of time and cut down headaches. It's likely saved a week's worth of time. It's cut down the amount of sever help desk tickets. Those have become minimal.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This is a basic solution; the policy screen is okay, and it's easy to configure."
"We also like the Change Control. We can control how things get executed. It has signatures for different kinds of protocols."
"The interface is clean and well-organized, making it simple to navigate and find what we need."
"Overall, I would rate ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform a ten out of ten."
"ThreatLocker Protect has improved my organization greatly."
"The solution has made knowing and managing what is running on our clients' devices much easier for us. We know they cannot run what they are not supposed to run."
"A few years back, we had an attack on one of our biggest clients."
"The application management on any workstation with the solution is valuable. I find it valuable that it indicates whether the software is part of our pre-approved list, adding a nice layer of protection. It works great because people cannot just install or download any app from the web."
"ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform has helped us protect our environments and have more meaningful requests for access as well as meaningful logging for response."
"The biggest one that we focus on is the application control with ringfencing. That combination is very beneficial."
 

Cons

"I would like to see better reporting and alerting features in the future."
"The intrusion detection features should also be improved. It is a very good feature but it should be maximized."
"Scalability is challenging, not due to the platform. Scaling ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform usage requires dedicated resources for maintenance."
"The support could be quicker."
"ThreatLocker would benefit from incorporating an antivirus feature or comprehensive 24-hour log monitoring, a valuable enhancement for both business and enterprise-level users."
"There are some times when applications get submitted, the hashes don't really line up."
"It would be beneficial to have a tighter integration into PSA systems so that approvals can be done directly without having to leave the PSA."
"To become the best solution, some sort of integration or remote management, like remotely connecting, could be beneficial."
"If you have a thousand computers with ThreatLocker agents on them, when you approve or create a new policy saying that Adobe Reader that matches this hashtag and meets certain criteria is allowed to be installed, it applies at the top level or the organization level. It applies to every computer in the company. When you make that new policy and push it out and it goes out and updates all of the clients. Unfortunately, at this time, it does not look like they stagger the push-out."
"ThreatLocker University offers many good training modules, but more in-depth training for advanced platforms would be beneficial."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"ThreatLocker's pricing seems justifiable."
"I do not know about the licensing and price as it comes bundled from our MSP. However, it seems fairly reasonable for us, which is why we chose it."
"So far, it has been great. I have no complaints. Of course, everybody wishes it was cheaper."
"Considering what this product does, ThreatLocker is very well-priced, if not too nicely priced for the customer."
"I believe ThreatLocker's pricing model is fair and flexible, allowing account managers to offer customized deals based on our specific needs."
"We have not had any real issues with the pricing. As they have added more features, due to the way our contracts are structured with our customers, we have had to hold off on adopting the new features because they do add costs."
"I do not deal with pricing, but I assume it is cost-effective for us. We choose a solution based on functionality and affordability."
"The pricing is fair and there is no hard sell."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
10%
Computer Software Company
37%
Retailer
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
The interface is clean and well-organized, making it simple to navigate and find what we need.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
Pricing, setup costs, and licensing have been pretty accessible and manageable. It was not too expensive to get started, especially at a small scale for a smaller MSP. It is very accessible, easy t...
What needs improvement with ThreatLocker Allowlisting?
For the space that it's in, it's already there. I don't know of another product that compares to its level. Even recently, with the addition of the detect module is a very nice add-on to the packet...
 

Also Known As

McAfee Application, Change Control
Protect, Allowlisting, Network Control, Ringfencing
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Contec
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about McAfee Application Control vs. ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.