When it comes to internet security solutions, there are plenty of options on the market. Sophos Home is one of the most discussed, so we’ve conducted a Sophos Home Review to check if it is as good as people say.
Sophos is a huge brand in the antivirus world, with stellar antivirus and security suite solutions at affordable prices. With a free trial, money-back guarantee, and remote management options, read on to find out more about Sophos Home and all it has to offer.
What Makes Sophos Home Stand Out?
Many consider Sophos Home the best antivirus for a PC. It’s not only affordable and user-friendly, but it also has remarkable remote management features. It can secure many connections and comes with adequate parental control features for keeping younger users safe.
Pros
- Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS
- Parental web filtering
- Encrypts keyboard data
- Remote security management
- User-friendly interface
Cons
- Few independent testing lab results
- No VPN
- No password manager
What Is Sophos Home?
Headquartered in Oxford, UK, the company is a global leader in next-generation cybersecurity. It protects consumers in over 150 countries and over 500,000 businesses from cyber threats.
You should try Sophos Home, as it is a multi-computer antivirus program with web filtering software, built-in monitoring, and a simple scan at a very affordable price. The company sells its services and products globally via managed service providers and reseller partners, making it available worldwide.
Sophos Pricing Plans
While competing services tend to offer more subscription options with a varying degree of features and add-ons, Sophos Home has just two products to choose from. The first provides simple protection for three separate systems completely free, and the second protects up to ten systems with a one-year, two-year, and three-year payment option.
Sophos Free Option vs. Sophos Home Premium Review
In our expert opinion, while the Sophos Free option isn’t as great at detecting phishing frauds, it successfully identifies malware and blocks it.
On top of that, the product’s remote management console makes it an excellent choice for managing security for friends, family, and yourself, absolutely free.
Given the many more additional features and the low Sophos antivirus price, we highly recommend investing in the paid, Premium version.
What we liked the most is that before paying for Premium, you can first try it for free and see whether you like it. You can get a 30-day free trial of all Premium services and another 30-day money-back guarantee once you make your subscription purchase.
Sophos will automatically downgrade you to the Sophos Home Free plan if you don’t upgrade after the free 30-day trial period has ended.
The Premium service offers three payment plans:
- One-year subscription plan—$59.99
- Two-year subscription plan—$99.99
- Three-year subscription plan—$139.99
Sophos paid plans are a great investment because they cost almost half of what similar antivirus providers charge for their flagship products. It’s clear as day that this product is aimed at antivirus users prioritizing cost and simplicity over having every protection and privacy option imaginable.
Sophos Antivirus Review: Features
Sophos Home has simple essential features and a straightforward design, making it excellent for non-technical users. Its advanced settings and remote management also make it great for experienced users.
When testing it, we noticed that even though Sophos has a desktop app, the features are mainly managed through an online dashboard accessed through a web browser. Don’t worry, though; both the online dashboard and desktop app are easy to use.
On the downside, Sophos Home doesn’t offer many independent testing lab results, while the highest-rated antivirus programs do.
If you’re not ready to commit to a subscription, the free service can be used as a free trial. It allows you to take advantage of all the features of the pay service for 30 days and functions with the following minimal services after that:
- web protection
- real-time antivirus
- parental website filtering
- remote management
Apart from the features mentioned above, Sophos Home Premium also offers:
- malware scan and clean
- ransomware protection
- privacy protection
- AI threat detection
- premium support
- advanced web security
Still, the Premium option doesn’t include many additional features, like secure cloud storage, a VPN, device optimization tools, or a password manager.
Malware Scanner
This scanner is straightforward to use, and we like that you can schedule a scan.
In order to check the efficacy of this product, we uploaded many malware samples (ransomware, rootkits, viruses, spyware, and trojans) for our Sophos Home review. We were highly impressed with the malware scanner’s capabilities, as it detected close to 98% of the samples.
The Premium subscription uses AI to track program activities and detect suspicious behavior in installed software. It can detect malicious code and advanced threats using these innovative tools.
To check the real-time anti-malware engine using AI, we reloaded the samples on a computer and launched them one by one. Our Sophos antivirus review confirms that the anti-malware engine instantly identifies and blocks all malware programs.
On the negative side, the scanner lacks a quick or custom scan option.
Web Protection
Sophos offers a basic web defense layer that seeks to protect you from potentially harmful websites. As a result, Sophos Home will block dangerous websites that have been identified as containing malware.
Importantly, this function is enabled by default and should only be turned off for testing or setup purposes.
When looking for the best windows antivirus, this feature is crucial. During our testing, we were pleased to discover that Sophos successfully blocked all harmful URLs—both malware and phishing sites.
Remote Management
Sophos allows you to remotely manage the settings of the program. Meaning that if your friends or family are on your subscription, you can help them out from wherever you are.
The Sophos online dashboard’s remote management function allows you to handle the program’s security features on one or more devices from your PC or Mac. This is maybe one of the most impressive Sophos features since it’s not something you usually see with other home antivirus software.
Parental Website Filtering
There are three filtered categories for sites: Social Networking & Computing, Adult & Inappropriate, and General Interest. Each of these lists includes numerous content sections that you can block, such as Drugs, Networking, Violence, and so on.
By default, all sections are activated, but you can turn them off with a single click. Our Sophos Home review for Mac or PC notes that this feature is only available on the most popular web browsers, like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge, Opera, and Safari.
We found that once the system is set up, trying to visit one of the categories mentioned above leads to a desktop notification and a web browser message informing you that the antivirus has blocked access to a particular site.
While other antivirus companies save parental controls for their most expensive products, Sophos includes web filtering in both of its editions.
Sophos Home Review: Customer Support
There are three options customer support offers:
- Knowledge base
- Live chat
When it comes to Sophos Home’s customer care, the distinction between the Premium version and the Free version is apparent. Namely, paid users have access to email and live chat services, while free users can only access a prewritten knowledge base.
While a lot of Sophos antivirus reviews criticize this, the silver lining is that the knowledge base is extensive and provides detailed answers about the features and many common questions.
You’ll also find several expert guides, such as manual malware removal and other topics there.
If you’re looking for direct help from the company’s agents, you’ll have to upgrade to the Premium edition. Yes, we’re talking about live email and live chat.
Unfortunately, there is no Sophos support number, which may be off-putting for those who prefer communicating through the phone.
The live chat available to Premium users is available from Monday to Friday, 8 am–8 pm EST. When testing this option, we could get in touch with a support team member in two minutes. Moreover, on the live chat, we always received a quick response.
Email support is available to Premium users, too. When we tested this option, we received a polite and informative answer within the same day.
Summary of Our Sophos Review
All in all, Sophos Home is an atypical Windows and Mac antivirus that prioritizes simplicity while providing a useful set of features. It’s a decent antivirus program with outstanding malware detection rates, advanced online protection, and additional features like remote management and basic parental controls.
Unfortunately, many functions are unavailable, including device optimization, a VPN, and a password manager. Yet, Sophos is very user-friendly, costs less than most competitors, and comes with a 30-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
In a nutshell, Sophos Home may be the answer if you’re looking for basic protection at a low price.
People Also Ask
The antivirus software from Sophos is safe to use. Our tests find it performs well in terms of security. The malware scanner’s detection capabilities are excellent, and the anti-malware engine quickly detects and prevents all malware programs.
At the same time, Premium lacks many crucial features, some of which include a VPN and identity theft monitoring of credit agencies, financial accounts, or dark web activity. These additional features are considered a fundamental step-up for most other antivirus software providers.
Overall, Sophos Home is a unique antivirus program that emphasizes simplicity while still offering a good set of features.
In particular, Sophos Home is a good antivirus program with strong malware detection rates, advanced online security, and additional features like remote management and simple parental controls. It’s suitable for both non-technical and skilled users.
Sophos anti-malware software comes with a free edition that features real-time antivirus protection, malicious URL security, remote management for up to three devices, and parental content filters.
The free version may not be great at detecting phishing scams, but it does an excellent job of identifying malware and blocking it.
While the free edition of Sophos provides real-time antivirus protection, it lacks key features such as advanced web protection, ransomware protection, and webcam protection. On top of that, there is no email support or live chat offered with the free version.
Both McAfee and Sophos have an easy signup process. McAfee provides features that Sophos Home does not, however, such as a file shredder, identity theft protection, and a password manager, to name a few. McAfee also offers phone and live chat help 24-hours a day, seven days a week, whereas Sophos does not.
In general, McAfee is a better option. Its mission is to make products secure and straightforward to use, as evidenced by its superb customer service system and interface. It offers a wide range of packages and products, providing you with more flexibility and options when selecting the correct product.
The malware scanner is one of the best Sophos Home features. The scanner is simple to use, but one evident downside is it lacks a quick or custom scan option. That being said, what it does offer is scan scheduling.
The malware scanner showed outstanding results in our tests. We were thrilled with the detection of cyber threats and malware and with the real-time anti-malware engine using AI. We checked all that by uploading malware samples, which were easily identified and blocked.
All in all, the Premium option is excellent in detecting malicious code and advanced threats by using innovative tools.
Sophos offers two free firewall options: Sophos UTM Home Edition and XG Firewall Home Edition. Sophos Firewall, combined with the technologies you are already using, provides a safe, reliable, and high-performance network security solution. It additionally offers excellent risk visibility, enterprise-grade protection, and adaptability to enhance the current and demanding distributed networks.
Sophos Home controls your programs, blocking the ones that appear malicious. It employs a host of protections, integrating AI, behavioral-based, and signature-based detections. In combination with artificial intelligence, behavior-based detection helps identify and eliminate new malware, while signature-based detection aids in locating and stopping known malware.
This Sophos Home review found that the company uses a worldwide database to stop users from visiting phishing sites. It scans website codes, protecting against compromised downloads and sites. It’s extremely easy to use, whether you are trying to protect your laptop or manage the security of other devices remotely.
