Sophos Home Review: Feature-Packed but is It Worth the Price?

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Sophos Home Review: 7.5 out of 10 ★

Sophos Home was designed to bring enterprise-grade security to your computer or phone. You can use their 30-day premium trial to test the service thoroughly on up to 10 devices. The software is fast, secure, and packed with top-notch tools.

Pros:

• High-end security (malware, ransomware, bots, and more)
• Identity and banking protection
• User-friendly software
• Quick and easy installation
• Up to 10 protected devices with one account
• Cloud-based dashboard for remote management

Cons:

• On the pricier side
• Tedious prompts during scans
• Parental controls are easily bypassed
• Customer support needs more work
• Subpar performance on Mac devices

If you want to check Sophos Home right away, you can visit their site by clicking the button below. Otherwise, keep reading to find out more about this security solution and if it’s the right fit for you.

Visit Sophos

Alternatively, read our full review below to learn all about Sophos Home’s features, security, pricing, and much more.

Sophos Home is a retail antivirus program born out of the company’s business-grade security solutions. Its main goal was to provide consumers with security features similar to those used by corporate giants.

Sophos Home is a relatively young product — the (now discontinued) free version just launched in December 2015, followed by Sophos Home Premium in February 2018. However, with a renewal rate of almost 90%, the Sophos virus removal tool deserves our full attention.

So, we’re testing Sophos Home Premium to see if it’s worth buying. Keep reading to find out all about its features, security, pricing, ease of use, and more.

Sophos Home Packages and Prices

Sophos offers only one version of its premium software. Take a look at its features in the table below:

Unlike Kaspersky or AVG, Sophos skips providing cheaper “basic” versions and provides only the equivalent of Kaspersky’s Total Security. So, if you’re looking for some basic protection to boost the built-in security of your OS, Sophos might not be the right tool for you.

The pricing of Sophos Home Premium goes as follows:

• 1 year: $44.99
• 2 years: $74.99
• 3 years: $104.99

Sophos accepts credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, AMEX, and JCB) and Paypal. If you don’t like the software for whatever reason, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee for all purchases.

However, we’d like to see some more packages aimed at non-enterprise users. Right now, Sophos feels like it’s missing some cheaper options that should be there.

If you need advanced protection and want to check Sophos Home right away, click the button below to visit their website.

NOTE ON SOPHOS HOME FREE: Sophos used to offer a completely free limited version of its software. However, they decided to discontinue this option at the end of 2021. They simply turned it into a free 30-day trial of the premium. Having said that, all users who activated Sophos Free before November 11, 2021, will retain their licenses with all the existing features. This included protection for up to three devices.

The Features of Sophos Home Premium

We activated the free Windows trial and tested Sophos Home Premium for this review. We’ve also done some testing on macOS to see how it differs from the Windows version. They’re both packed with various security and privacy features, which is to be expected given the price tag.

Sophos provides a simple client paired with a cloud-based operating center. In other words, you can access the settings only by logging in on the official website and accessing your personal dashboard.

We’ll take a look at the features presented on the site, and see which ones function as intended and which need more work.

Protection

Online security is the purpose of every antivirus program. And Sophos’s premium edition doesn’t disappoint in that regard.

The Protection tab on the dashboard includes the following sections:

• General: Real-time protection, malicious traffic detection, artificial intelligence (for enhanced scans), AMSI protection, and scheduled scans. Here, you can also exempt drives, files, and folders from protection. If you’re not tech-savvy, we don’t recommend changing anything in this tab.
• Exploits: Exploit mitigation, risk reduction, protected applications (you can make exceptions), dynamic shellcode protection (prevents system takeovers), AMSI registration protection, and CTF Guard
• Ransomware protection: Prevents ransomware from encrypting your files
• Web: Web protection (blocks sites infected with malware), download reputation (generates reputation scores for sites), and safe online banking (in-browser protection). You can also create exceptions for trusted sites in this tab.

Web filtering

We colloquially call this feature “parental control” or “parental content filter.” Its main purpose is to block websites unsuitable for younger audiences.

Sophos Home Premium allows you to block 28 different categories presented in three groups:

• General interest: Entertainment, fashion & beauty, gambling, games, religion, shopping, sports.
• Social networking & computing: Blogs & forums, chat, downloads, peer-to-peer, personals & dating, photo searches, ringtones/mobile phone downloads, streaming media, web-based email.
• Adult & potentially inappropriate: Adult/sexually explicit, alcohol & tobacco, criminal activity, hacking, illegal drugs, intimate apparel & swimwear, intolerance & hate, proxies & translators, sex education, tasteless & offensive, violence, weapons.

This is a rather simple parental control system that gets the job done for younger children. We configured it to block gaming sites, and it successfully did so.

However, if your tech-savvy teen wants to get around it, they will find a way. For example, they could install an obscure browser not supported by the service. We definitely recommend blocking the “Proxies & Translations” category to take anonymizing proxies out of their arsenal.

We would also like to see some default presets based on age. As it stands, Sophos Web Filter is a nice bonus feature but far from a serious content blocker.

Privacy

This section deals with the unwanted use of your webcam. The system will alert you every time it detects a third party or a website in control of your camera. This is a good option if you’re using a laptop with a webcam. On desktop computers, you can switch it off, unless your webcam is plugged in 24/7.

With the features of Sophos Home discussed, let’s see how well the antivirus program performs.

Security: How Well Does Sophos Home Protect Your PC?

All fancy features aside, the core question remains: “can Sophos Home get rid of malware or not? Are the scans quick or do you need three hours every time you want to check your device?”

In this section, we’ll go over the whole scanning experience with Sophos and see how well it deals with threats.

Virus and malware detection

When gauging the effectiveness of any antivirus product, we usually take a look at the test results by AV-Comparatives. Unfortunately, they still haven’t tested Sophos Home Premium.

However, we found test results for July to September 2021 by SE Labs, which is also a respectable independent antivirus tester.

Sophos Home Premium got a protection score of 95%, which was enough for an AAA rating (Norton Security got an AA, for example). Below, you can see how Sophos fared against other well-known providers.

Sophos performed well but not great. Eight threats got past it, including three that it recognized but was unable to stop. We’ll be sure to update this Sophos Home review as more test results become available.

Sophos Home scans

Before talking about our own scans, we have to differentiate between three scanning options:

• Quick scan: You can initiate it by clicking the “clean” button on your dashboard. Note that this is a cloud-based scan so you can’t check offline devices. If the device is offline, it’ll be scanned automatically when it comes back online.
• Regular scan: This is your old-school full-system scan. You can initiate it by pressing the “scan” button on your Sophos client.
• File scan: It allows you to check a specific file or folder by right-clicking it and choosing “Scan with Sophos Home.”

Scanning our Windows computer with Sophos was truly painful. It took us a bit under 15 minutes just for a quick scan. During the process, we got a pop-up on the scanned device for every malware or unwanted program detected by Sophos.

Then, we had to go to our dashboard and decide what we wanted to do with it (keep, ignore, or clean). This prompt stops the scan, so you can’t just start the cleaning and go about your day. You have to stay there and make decisions the whole time. Hopefully, Sophos will change this and provide users with a full report once the scan is finished.

The only indicator that a quick scan is running is this box that appears when you hover over the Sophos icon in your toolbar. On the dashboard, the detected items appear in the “history” tab.

Sophos performed its full scan in under 28 minutes. It went without any annoying prompts and unexpected stops. So, if you want to scan your device while doing something else, we recommend going with the full scan.

After the scan, you’ll receive a full in-client report with the appropriate action buttons next to the detected items.

Sophos Home’s additional security options

Apart from the essentials, the best virus scanners also incorporate a variety of extra options. These can range from firewalls and vulnerability scans to cloud backups and dark web monitoring.

Sophos Home Premium offers none of those. Instead, it provides free separate tools that we would much rather see incorporated in its antivirus program. These tools include:

• Sophos Firewall Home Edition
• Sophos Scan & Clean (a second-opinion scanner)
• Public Cloud Security via Cloud Optix
• HitmanPro (yet another Sophos virus removal tool)
• Intercept V for mobile (detects jailbreaking, encryption status, rooting, suspicious network activity, etc.)

At first glance, this looks like a pretty generous offer. We never scoff at free tools. However, if you want complete protection, you have to install four or five apps instead of having just one with the same utility.

So, Sophos Home doesn’t offer any substantial extra options, but its free tools make up for it to an extent.

Speed and System Load: How Efficient is Sophos Home?

As mentioned, Sophos Home Premium quick scan will take its sweet time checking your system. Having said that, we haven’t noticed any drastic performance drops on Windows. Mac was a whole different story, however.

As far as daily use is concerned, you’ll hardly know that Sophos is there. The real-time protection doesn’t impact the system resources much, which is always a big plus in our book.

The “long” scan took around 28 minutes for us, which mirrors the likes of Bitdefender. Oddly enough, at around 15 minutes, the quick scan loses its purpose.

Sophos Home’s processor usage

On Windows, Sophos Home’s real-time protection won’t leave a terrible mark on your CPU. In fact, you won’t even notice it. Our day-to-day CPU usage was between 1% and 2%. On Mac, however, we experienced a major slowdown paired with multiple crashes. After a crash, we couldn’t get it back up without a system restart.

During the scan on Windows, Sophos will hog around 30% of your CPU with some spikes approaching 40%. This goes for both quick and full scans. We couldn’t measure the CPU impact on Mac since our device slowed down to a crawl.

With all that in mind, Sophos is a pretty decent choice for Windows devices since many famous antivirus programs sit between 40% and 50% while scanning. We can’t recommend it to Mac users, though.

Privacy: How Does Sophos Home Handle Your Data?

The privacy policy of any given company is an essential document very few users remember to check. Here, your service provider tells you what data they collect and how they use it.

With that in mind, here’s the information recorded by Sophos Limited:

• The info you provide: Your name, postal address, telephone/mobile/fax number, email address, payment details, age, gender, username, and password
• Data collected automatically: IP address, device type, OS details, unique device ID numbers, browser type and language, geographic location, and other technical info
• “Incidental” personal data: Usernames, machine IDs, IP addresses, domain names, file names & paths, etc.
• Cookies and tracking technologies: Like all companies, Sophos uses cookies, Flash technologies, Web beacons, and pixel tags

We’re always uneasy with this type of data logging. If Sophos’ servers get hacked, your personal info can be used to mount all sorts of attacks against you. Their cloud storage breach immediately comes to mind. Furthermore, Sophos is obligated to hand over your data to the government when asked to do so. Let’s not forget that Sophos is located in the UK, which is a Five Eyes country.

Unlike VPNs, though, Sophos doesn’t have access to your entire online traffic. They can only monitor your interactions with their own website. (Speaking of VPNs, we recommend never going online without one. Top providers like ExpressVPN and NordVPN will keep you anonymous and protect you from the government, other service providers, and even your ISP.)

Sophos states that it uses all physical, administrative, technical, and organizational measures to keep your data safe. They don’t disclose what those measures are, though, and admit that “no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed as 100% safe.”

The company keeps your data for as long as they have legitimate business cause to do so. If you delete your account, your information will either be erased or anonymized and stored until deletion is possible.

Ease of Use: How User-Friendly is Sophos Home?

When you have as many features as Sophos, it’s very easy to create a convoluted maze of cryptic options and menus. Users (especially beginners) tend to get lost in that mess unless it’s all intuitively presented.

Below, you’ll see how Sophos handled this and whether or not their site, apps, and installation can be deemed as user-friendly. We’ll also talk about the quality of their customer support.

The Sophos website

The Sophos website looks clean and well-structured. Having said that, the homepage doesn’t offer too much information. The general FAQ is available through the “Support” button and you’ll have to consult it for everything you want to learn about the service.

The entire homepage feels like one of those marketing landers that glorify the service and bombard you with positive user experiences. When you do that, however, you don’t leave much space for info that’s actually useful.

In our opinion, Sophos has missed the opportunity to create an informational hub on its homepage. Instead, you’ll have to sift through endless FAQs hoping to stumble upon the info you need. The search bar makes things a bit better and you’ll definitely be coming back to it again and again.

We wouldn’t call this layout beginner-friendly, but tech-savvy users will have an easier time with this site.

The website is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese, which is always a huge plus. We also like the inclusion of the security blog. It features some pretty interesting articles that will keep you up-to-date with the latest cybersecurity developments.

How do I install Sophos Home?

The installation of Sophos Home was quick and effortless. The whole process takes only a few minutes. Installing Sophos on macOS requires an extra step since you’ll have to grant it access to your system with an admin password.

Below, we’ll guide you through the entire setup process, for both the free trial and the premium version.

Starting your free trial with Sophos Home

As a new user, you can either purchase Sophos Home right away or activate its 30-day free trial. We recommend going with the latter and testing the software before buying.

Here’s how to set up a free trial on your Windows computer:

1. Click “Free Trial” on the Sophos homepage.
2. Run the downloaded file to start the installer.
3. Click “Let’s Start” on the pop-up window.
4. Click “New User” to begin the installation.
5. Create an account with your chosen username and password.
6. Enter the verification code sent to your email.
7. Click “Restart” to reboot your computer and complete the process.

The installation of Sophos for Mac just adds the step to provide your administrator account password (not your chosen Sophos Home password).

Installing Sophos Home Premium

You can purchase the premium license any time during your free trial. Here’s how to do that:

1. Click the “Buy Premium” button in your Sophos Home client.
2. Select the duration of your subscription.
3. Provide your data and payment details.
4. Click “Continue” and finalize the purchase.

You can always check your subscription under the “Status” tab on your dashboard.

Is Sophos’ software easy to use?

Sophos Home’s client is extremely easy to use. Granted, it only allows you to initiate full scans, add devices, access your dashboard, and buy premium (if you already haven’t).

The dashboard is where the “meat” of this antivirus software lies. As mentioned, it provides a lot of different settings and options. However, they’re all pretty intuitive, and you should have no problem finding your way around.

All the options are easy to find and understand (no heavy tech lingo). Unlike its site, Sophos’ dashboard provides all the important info in one place without the need for extensive clicking.

So, once you get through the site, the rest of Sophos is quite beginner-friendly.

Customer Service: How Much Support Does Sophos Home Offer?

Sophos provides a number of customer service options for private users, including:

• Live chat: This service is available Mon-Fri 8 AM to 8 PM EST. In our experience, this option isn’t that great. You’ll wait a long time to get ahold of somebody and, even when you do, they’re not exceptionally forthcoming.
• On-site knowledge base: This includes general FAQs and pretty much anything else you can think of. The knowledgebase can be difficult to navigate, but it’ll answer all your questions and then some.
• AI-powered chatbot Sophia: This tool will basically save you some time sifting through the knowledge base. It can’t answer any case-specific questions unless they’re already covered in one of the on-site guides or FAQs.
• Twitter support: Sophos also has a Twitter support account where you can ask for help simply by mentioning them in your tweet. It’s a nifty way of building their presence on Twitter, but not many people seem to respond to this invitation.
• Support “forum”: Clicking on the “Sophos Home” within the forum just takes you to the knowledge base, which makes this option pretty useless for non-enterprise users.

Sophos offers decent customer support, but there’s definitely room for improvement. We would suggest 24/7 live chat and a restructuring of the knowledge base to make it easier to navigate. As it stands, you will get your answers eventually — but the process might take a while.

Sophos Home: Final Verdict

Sophos Home comes with a lot of interesting features and some powerful tech behind it. It offers good security, it’s pretty fast, and it won’t grind your devices to a halt. The apps are pretty easy to use; we would even call them beginner-friendly. We like the cloud-based dashboard and the whole remote management approach. The clients are easy to install, and you’ll enjoy the wealth of options that come with Sophos.

On the other hand, the site is pretty difficult to navigate once you scratch the marketing-oriented homepage. Sophos is a UK-based company that logs a ton of personal info, which is not that encouraging. Customer support also needs work.

Sophos has also discontinued its free version. They did this quite underhandedly, without alerting their users. Unless you count a notification in their “Help” section, which is almost impossible to find.

With all that in mind, our final score for Sophos Home Premium is 7.5, which is a pretty good final rating. We still can’t recommend this antivirus program to Mac users, though.

We got this score using the following values: security (weighting of 0.5), speed and system load (weighting of 0.2), privacy (weighting of 0.1), ease of use (weighting of 0.1), and customer service (weighting of 0.1). The results are as follows:

• Security score: 8
• Speed & System Load Score: 7.5
• Privacy Score: 6
• Ease of Use Score: 6
• Customer Service score: 8

Check out Sophos Home by clicking the button below.