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Sophos Review
The Bottom Line: Sophos offers advanced malware scanning and removal tools to clean malware, viruses, trojans, worms, keyloggers, rootkits, trackers, and spyware. Save 30% when you purchase via our link!
Security Features
One distinguishing feature of Sophos Home is its Remote Security Management. This means that you get the advantage of enterprise-level protection without paying the hefty price. How? It allows you to view and manage security for several devices from a single console. So if you’re the self-proclaimed IT expert in the family, you can offer to handle everyone’s computer security even if you don’t live in the same house, or the same continent for that matter. Remote Security is available for the free version but you’re limited to 3 installations per subscription. Get up to 10 installations when you subscribe to the premium version.
Sophos Home Free edition also offers Real-Time Mac Antivirus which constantly protects your Mac from malware, worms, Trojans, bots, and PUA or potentially unwanted apps such as junkware.
Another useful feature that comes with the free version is Parental Website Filtering. This allows parents to regulate the content that their children can access online by filtering social networks, blogs, adult content, and other inappropriate sites.
Sophos Home also comes with a Privacy Protection feature to warn you if someone is trying to hack your computer’s webcam or mic. This is especially useful, after all, who wants hackers to spy them dancing around in their tighty whities? Getting the Sophos Home installed means you won’t have to put tape over your computer’s webcam like Mark Zuckerberg.
Additional Features
With its premium edition comes an Advanced Ransomware Security feature which can protect not just Windows PC but also Mac computers against malware infections. Yes, despite what the adoring Apple fanboys would have everyone believed, Mac is not completely invulnerable to viruses and ransomware. Sophos Advanced Ransomware Security can detect signs of ransomware-like behavior on your computer early on to prevent any malicious software from holding your computer hostage.
You also get access to Predictive AI Threat Detection which can detect and block both known and unknown malware before it executes and causes irreversible harm into your OS. In addition, the premium plan also includes Safe Online Banking that provides Keylogger Protection and a Safe Browsing environment so you can shop online without worrying about hackers or keylogging apps stealing your credit card information.
Ease of Use and Performance
Installing Sophos Home was very straightforward and the whole process took only about 2 to 3 minutes. You just need to supply your name and email address and follow the on-screen instructions. The main dashboard is also very minimalistic and extremely straightforward so tinkering around with the settings and configuring changes is fairly quick and easy. After installation, Sophos only utilized around 10% of the CPU so it has very minimal impact on system performance.
About the Company
Sophos Group PLC is a UK-based security and hardware company founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer in 1982. They started with producing antivirus and encryption products and now compete in both the endpoint and network markets. Today, Sophos has an impressive global operation, seuring networks of over a hundred million users and a hundred thousand businesses.
When it comes to choosing our antivirus or endpoint security solution, we can’t just rely on the vendor’s promises and our peer’s assessments and recommendations. After all, they can be biased and subjective. Therefore, it is important to take into account results from independent antivirus testing labs such as AV-Institute, SE Labs, AV-Comparatives, and MRG-Effitas.
Of the four major testing labs, Sophos was tested by SE Labs, MRG-Effitas, and AV-Test. SE Labs give five certification levels: AAA, A, A, B, and C. After hitting it with real-world malware attacks, Sophos Home came out on top with an AAA certification to rival Kaspersky, Avira, and a few others.
Sophos Home also fared well with a broad-spectrum test conducted by MRG-Effitas to determine its effectiveness in blocking malware samples. Along with Norton, Microsoft, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender’s free version of their antivirus, Sophos Home clinched a Level 1 certification.
AV-Test ranks antivirus software based on its protection ability, performance, and ease of use. Each category is equivalent to 6 points and Sophos managed to get a perfect score of 18 to earn its place among the top antiviruses in the market today.
Unfortunately, it didn’t do so well with the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization or AMTSO test, flunking 4 out of 6 tests conducted. It failed the test in phishing, potentially harmful apps, and compressed malware.
Customer Service
Sophos Home provides live chat and email support which is available from EST Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm. To reach out to their email support team, one simply has to access the support dashboard and click on the “submit a request” button to open a ticket. Access to live chat is located on a separate landing page but it’s a great way to get real-time assistance from the company’s agents.
Unfortunately, only subscribers to the premium edition get access to live chat and email support. The main support for users of the free version is the regular knowledge base which is basically an FAQ section where you can find helpful articles on downloading, installing, and running the antivirus.
Our Verdict: Decent protection and good value for money
The free version of Sophos Home offers enough protection for most home users including parental website filtering, web and real-time antivirus protection as well as remote management.
However, Sophos Home Premium is a better option for a big family as it allows simultaneous remote management for up to 10 devices. It gives the best value for money with its Enterprise-level offerings such as Ransomware Security, Exploit Mitigation, Predictive AI Threat Detection, Banking Protection, and more.
One distinguishing feature of Sophos Home is its Remote Security Management. This means that you get the advantage of enterprise-level protection without paying the hefty price. How? It allows you to view and manage security for several devices from a single console. So if you’re the self-proclaimed IT expert in the family, you can offer to handle everyone’s computer security even if you don’t live in the same house, or the same continent for that matter. Remote Security is available for the free version but you’re limited to 3 installations per subscription. Get up to 10 installations when you subscribe to the premium version.
Sophos Home Free edition also offers Real-Time Mac Antivirus which constantly protects your Mac from malware, worms, Trojans, bots, and PUA or potentially unwanted apps such as junkware.
Another useful feature that comes with the free version is Parental Website Filtering. This allows parents to regulate the content that their children can access online by filtering social networks, blogs, adult content, and other inappropriate sites.
Sophos Home also comes with a Privacy Protection feature to warn you if someone is trying to hack your computer’s webcam or mic. This is especially useful, after all, who wants hackers to spy them dancing around in their tighty whities? Getting the Sophos Home installed means you won’t have to put tape over your computer’s webcam like Mark Zuckerberg.
Additional Features
With its premium edition comes an Advanced Ransomware Security feature which can protect not just Windows PC but also Mac computers against malware infections. Yes, despite what the adoring Apple fanboys would have everyone believed, Mac is not completely invulnerable to viruses and ransomware. Sophos Advanced Ransomware Security can detect signs of ransomware-like behavior on your computer early on to prevent any malicious software from holding your computer hostage.
You also get access to Predictive AI Threat Detection which can detect and block both known and unknown malware before it executes and causes irreversible harm into your OS. In addition, the premium plan also includes Safe Online Banking that provides Keylogger Protection and a Safe Browsing environment so you can shop online without worrying about hackers or keylogging apps stealing your credit card information.
Ease of Use and Performance
Installing Sophos Home was very straightforward and the whole process took only about 2 to 3 minutes. You just need to supply your name and email address and follow the on-screen instructions. The main dashboard is also very minimalistic and extremely straightforward so tinkering around with the settings and configuring changes is fairly quick and easy. After installation, Sophos only utilized around 10% of the CPU so it has very minimal impact on system performance.
About the Company
Sophos Group PLC is a UK-based security and hardware company founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer in 1982. They started with producing antivirus and encryption products and now compete in both the endpoint and network markets. Today, Sophos has an impressive global operation, seuring networks of over a hundred million users and a hundred thousand businesses.
When it comes to choosing our antivirus or endpoint security solution, we can’t just rely on the vendor’s promises and our peer’s assessments and recommendations. After all, they can be biased and subjective. Therefore, it is important to take into account results from independent antivirus testing labs such as AV-Institute, SE Labs, AV-Comparatives, and MRG-Effitas.
Of the four major testing labs, Sophos was tested by SE Labs, MRG-Effitas, and AV-Test. SE Labs give five certification levels: AAA, A, A, B, and C. After hitting it with real-world malware attacks, Sophos Home came out on top with an AAA certification to rival Kaspersky, Avira, and a few others.
Sophos Home also fared well with a broad-spectrum test conducted by MRG-Effitas to determine its effectiveness in blocking malware samples. Along with Norton, Microsoft, Kaspersky, and Bitdefender’s free version of their antivirus, Sophos Home clinched a Level 1 certification.
AV-Test ranks antivirus software based on its protection ability, performance, and ease of use. Each category is equivalent to 6 points and Sophos managed to get a perfect score of 18 to earn its place among the top antiviruses in the market today.
Unfortunately, it didn’t do so well with the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization or AMTSO test, flunking 4 out of 6 tests conducted. It failed the test in phishing, potentially harmful apps, and compressed malware.
Customer Service
Sophos Home provides live chat and email support which is available from EST Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm. To reach out to their email support team, one simply has to access the support dashboard and click on the “submit a request” button to open a ticket. Access to live chat is located on a separate landing page but it’s a great way to get real-time assistance from the company’s agents.
Unfortunately, only subscribers to the premium edition get access to live chat and email support. The main support for users of the free version is the regular knowledge base which is basically an FAQ section where you can find helpful articles on downloading, installing, and running the antivirus.
Our Verdict: Decent protection and good value for money
The free version of Sophos Home offers enough protection for most home users including parental website filtering, web and real-time antivirus protection as well as remote management.
However, Sophos Home Premium is a better option for a big family as it allows simultaneous remote management for up to 10 devices. It gives the best value for money with its Enterprise-level offerings such as Ransomware Security, Exploit Mitigation, Predictive AI Threat Detection, Banking Protection, and more.
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