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I am surprised by the fact that there are hardly any reviews about high-quality antivirus programs for the Macintosh, despite the fact that only 5% to 10% of global users have personal computers that run on this operating system.
However, even that 5% to 10% is quite a lot, particularly when one considers the number of global PC users.
Keeping this in mind, I have decided to write this Sophos antivirus for Mac review. Anybody using computers knows pretty well about the popularity of Sophos, and consider its antivirus software amongst the leaders in the field.
Is Sophos A Good Antivirus for Mac?
This Sophos Mac review 2020 will also go a long way in addressing the queries of individuals who have doubts about this program.
After you read this review in depth, you will find it easier to recommend this antivirus program to others as solid protection for the Macintosh; thereby helping to answer the question “is Sophos good for Mac?” Read on to know more.
Free Download and Trial
You do not have to believe those naysayers to discover the power of Sophos, as the developers offer you the option to pay no money for Sophos antivirus Mac download.
Be ready for a surprise, as the company offers you a free 30 days trial for their “Sophos Home Premium” software. You only have to fill up their online form with your name, email address, and password to create an account with Sophos in order to download the premium version.
Once completed, you will receive a Sophos Mac download link on the email ID you provided. Click on that link to initiate the download process. Once downloaded, click on the installer to install Sophos Mac.
There is no need for you to worry if you do not purchase their program within this period, as the software reverts to the free version at the end of the trial period. We shall discuss the differences between the free and premium versions later in this Sophos for Mac review 2020.
I would like to point out at this juncture that no other antivirus developer offers a premium version of their program for free. Sophos is able to do so because they are confident about the capability of their program.
Statistics reveal that more than 95% of people who opted for the free Sophos Mac download, ended up purchasing it within a week, rather than waiting for the 30 days trial offer to end.
No doubt, some other vendors too offer free versions of their antivirus programs. However, most of them pale in comparison to the Sophos anti-virus for Mac home edition, as this program is rich with bonus features that you will not find in any other antivirus program for the Macintosh.
Amazing Features
The remote management feature from the home page of the vendor allows you to check your computer plus nine others linked to your account. This is an awesome feature when you want to manually perform certain tasks such as scanning your other Macintoshes when you are not at home.
Manage Security Remotely
You have to log into your account on the website of Sophos using the email and password you had used to register yourself prior to downloading the program.
Before I proceed further, let me point out that Sophos anti-virus Mac is much more than a vanilla antivirus tool. It contains all the goodies you would expect from a top grade antimalware tool.
Parental Control
The Sophos home edition Mac also contains powerful parental controls. Only two other antivirus programs for the Macintosh contain this feature; however, those programs do not have many other powerful modules and features for the Mac like Sophos has.
The extremely powerful and useful parental control of Sophos virus protection for Mac, apart from keeping track of every attempt from a linked Mac to an unapproved site, allows you, the administrator, to block individual linked computers from visiting entire categories of websites.
This awesome tool ensures that your kids or employees cannot visit sites you do not want them to.
You can also tweak the controls to allow unrestricted browsing on the connected Macintoshes… the difference being that that computer will note and inform you about the user's attempt to log on to a restricted site. This alone acts as a deterrent and prohibits others from visiting sites that they should not.
No Bundled Plugins?
Unlike the competitors, Sophos does not pack browser plugins that flag potentially dangerous sites. However, you can download these plugins for free from antivirus manufacturers such as Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and Avast.
What Sophos will do is that it will alert you that the website you are about to visit is dangerous. It will protect you from these sites that inject viruses through the browser.
Thus, you cannot ‘accidentally' visit malicious websites with this program.
Uses Less System Resources
I was very impressed with the low resource usage by the Sophos for Mac home while writing this review. I had previously tried some other antivirus programs in the past, and all of them ate a lot into my computer's resources and slowed it down significantly. This was not the case with Sophos. In fact, most users will not notice any difference in speed after installing Sophos.
The Interface
The interface windows of Sophos AV Mac allows you to check the status of your PC and permits you to perform scans on demand. However, the actual fun lies in the vendor's web interface.
The interface on the installed computer has an “exception” button. On the one hand, clicking on it displays the exemptions you have set for files, applications, and websites. On the other hand, you can visit the web interface or the cloud interface by clicking on the “Home Dashboard” on the main screen.
This permits you to conduct remote scans, set up exceptions, alter scanning preferences, and configure parental controls.
As you receive information about sites visited through the other computers, users of the same will be in for a shock when they next try to access a website that you have just blocked.
Many of you, reading this Sophos home for Mac review, might be seeking additional protection for your business. I would strongly suggest that you opt for this as it also includes the Sophos Endpoint Protection Mac, which offers all the features of the antivirus along with many advanced features such as malware protection, exploit protection, and more… ideal for small businesses and enterprises.
In short, this is simply why the company has coined its software as one with ‘Business-grade cybersecurity' that is ‘Now available for home users'.
I would like to point out in this Sophos antivirus Mac review 2020 that the home edition includes the endpoint protection.
What does this mean? It simply means that even though it is the Sophos home edition Mac, with endpoint protection included, you get the same protection that businesses and governments have worldwide.
So, are you looking for the Sophos Endpoint Mac? You'll also get it in the home edition. This gives you absolute protection against any type of malware, including the latest variants of the dreaded Cryptoware, to a level not available on any other antimalware tool available for the Macintosh.
You do not need to worry as the Sophos Mac OS X detects these dangerous bits of code once you perform a system scan, and asks you what to do with them. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you should perform a manual scan once a week to ensure that your computer is free of any types of malware.
This is no big deal, considering the blistering speed at which this program scans the hard disk drive of your computer.
On certain occasions, the program will request you to switch off the protection module when it detects that manual intervention is required to remove certain malware. Do not worry if your Macintosh reboots during this process, as it is natural.
Sophos Free Antivirus For Windows
Multiple Scans
Unlike other antivirus programs, Sophos does a thorough job of finding and cleaning malicious bits of code. Once it completes a scan cycle and removes viruses and other malware, it will scan your PC once again. Do not be surprised if you see this program detect additional pieces of malicious code.
Certain antiviruses and malware hide behind other viruses, making it difficult for an antivirus program to detect and remove them.
The multiple scan system integrated with Sophos virus removal tool mac ensures that it effortlessly removes the cloaked virus after removing the virus covering it… offering your computer foolproof security.
You Will Simply Love These Features
There are occasions when people accidentally visit malicious sites that inject viruses and malware via the browser. Sophos has incorporated a special feature that displays a large message, alerting you that the site you are about to visit is dangerous for your computer.
It further checks all the outbound links on sites you visit, and warns you if any of these links lead to potentially dangerous sites. This is a special feature I did not find on any other program of this class.
Most other AV software alert you after you have visited a website containing malicious content. Sophos alerts you even before you visit it, virtually doing away with the chances of you visiting such sites and getting your computer infected with the malware they contain.
A Word of Warning
Free Vs Premium
Remember, although the free version I am basically covering in this Sophos antivirus home edition review is good enough to detect and quarantine most threats, I strongly suggest that you opt for the paid version because that is where the goodies lie.
Remember, you get access to advanced features such as advanced ransomware shield, and mic & webcam protection with the free version. These features will stop working after 30 days from the date of installation.
Apart from this, the free version offers protection to three devices (although this is a Sophos antivirus for Mac home edition review, I would like to point out that you can also protect Windows-based computers by downloading and installing the Windows installer along with the Mac installer).
Pricing
The premium version costs only $60 and provides protection for 10 devices while the free version offers protection only for three devices. I would strongly suggest that you opt for the premium version which works out to just $6 per device per year and is the cheapest protection available.
Customer Support
Did I forget to mention that the premium version also entitles you to receive support via email and live chat, Monday to Friday, 8 am to 8 pm (ET)? This is extremely vital in case you are unable to remove a detected threat and require the help of experts.
As the proud owner of a costly Macbook, you should install Sophos Macbook, to protect your costly device against viruses and malware.
Firewall to Protect You Against Hackers
The Sophos firewall Mac boasts of a dual AV scanning engine that blocks viruses embedded in websites, in email attachments, and in file downloads too.
Sophos blocks these harmful pieces of code at the gateway before they can access your computer and attack it. This software is available for free and is an important part of your protection armory.
What Are You Waiting for?
Freeware Os X Software
Instead of waiting any longer, log on to the website of Sophos here, and receive the link for Sophos Home Mac download. You may need to fill up a short form by providing your first and last name, your email ID, along with a password.
Note down this password and keep it in a safe place, as you will require it to log onto their server for remote controlling additional devices.
You will receive a Sophos Antivirus for Mac home edition download link on the email address you provided. Click on that to download the installer, and start the installation process.
Alternatively, you also have the option to directly purchase a one/two year license of the Premium version by clicking on the “Buy Now” button. The 2-year license costs $90 while the 1-year license costs $60.
Complete the process by making the payment via their secure online payment gateway, then download and install Sophos antivirus Mac. You can now surf the net with peace of mind, knowing that your computer is being protected by the best available antivirus and antimalware for the Mac platform.
Sophos is a UK tech company offering two versions of their Mac security software. Macs are already well protected, but there are some extra features in the package worth taking a look at.
An unnecessary extra step
Sophos offer their proprietary antivirus software for Mac with ransom-ware protection and cloud-based configuration. You might not need it, though.
The latest antivirus software for Mac, from Sophos, comes in two flavors. They offer Sophos Home Free and Sophos Home Premium. Both versions get you real-time antivirus, parental controls, and their remote web-based management application. The paid version also gets ransom-ware security software and basic privacy tools. As en extra bonus there’s live, daytime chat and email access to their support team. You can also protect up to ten devices with the premium edition, as opposed to three with the free version.
To configure the software you access the controls through a web-app. This cloud-based system has several advantages. You can configure your system protection remotely. Also, updates to virus libraries and ransom-ware watchlists install on the interface without the need for a download.
Apple has a solid reputation for protecting their devices, and it’s debatable whether this product is necessary. All Mac OS X versions from 10.6.7 come with built-in malware detection. They update their database daily, so it’s difficult to see what advantages Sophos provides.
Manually Remove Sophos
Tests have shown that the virus detection is less than perfect. In one basic trial, it failed to recognise the EICAR file, an industry-standard virus test. This is worrying because the in-built Mac protection will pick this up every time on a standard directory scan.
Sophos Free Download For Mac
Where can you run this program?
Sophos runs on all Mac OS X from 10.11 onwards and all Windows from Win7 up.
Is there a better alternative?
Free Macbook Software Download
Yes. The Mac comes out of the box with most of the protection that this package offers. McAfee offers similar protection but at a higher cost per device. Whether it’s necessary is another matter altogether.
Our take
Sophos Antivirus free full. download For Mac
This is a well-priced product if you need to protect a large number of Macs. Apple technology is subject to viruses and malware attacks like other devices, but they are better equipped straight out of the factory, to deal with them.
Free Sophos Download For Mac Windows 10
Should you download it?
No. If you’re looking to expand on the protection on your Mac, you should consider looking elsewhere.
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