Sophos Home Free Antivirus vs Panda Free Antivirus 2016

Purshu_Pro

Level 29
Verified
Honorary Member
Aug 3, 2013
1,879
I have to say that I haven't tried Sophos until now. But my opinion about Panda goes like this.
  • Resource Usage (eg: CPU, RAM)►Panda is efficient in both of them, but during scans it may use more CPU resources
  • Real World System Impact►Quiet Low
  • User Friendliness► 5/5
  • User Interface► 5/5
  • Level of Protection and Features (eg: Antivirus , Firewall, Behavior Blocker)►4/5
  • Overall Winner► Since i haven't tried Sophos I cannot give verdict for the best between the two.

Thankyou And Happy New Year.:)
 

ifacedown

Level 18
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Panda only causes web connection lapses, I don't know, but even not installing the toolbar and only using Panda Free causes problems on my wifi connection. Other than that, I would definitely choose Panda, because Sophos as I have tried before has no quarantine and choosing to disinfect malware was a pain.
 

Hangtooth

Level 5
Verified
Dec 5, 2015
202
Tried Sophos for a few days and really liked what I saw. Detection rates are quite good too. It was the lack of control over blocked websites and the heavy handed way it dealt with files that turned me off. Sure you can add websites and files to exceptions, but you have to log in through a web interface to do so.

Good product build quality and solid product. I went back to Avira Pro though.

Never tried Panda, sorry.
 
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JakeXPMan

Level 17
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
Oct 20, 2014
804
Panda-man here but I haven't tried Sophos... but Panda went very smooth to install and remove, and detected well, with light on resourses like Avast :)

I currently use Avira and Windows Defender on my 2 computers.
 
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jamescv7

Level 85
Verified
Honorary Member
Mar 15, 2011
13,070
In terms of maturity of product established then Panda Free AV has an edge especially of integration of cloud functionality way back before until mix up within traditional signatures.

Sophos has a good performance at all however their product must take time to develop as they are newly entry for home usage especially their free version.
 
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valvaris

Level 6
Verified
Well-known
Jul 26, 2015
263
Ive tried allot and by accident came by Sophos Home...

To let you know my config.: Emsisoft IS + Malwarebytes + Adguard Premium + Zemana AM

The Sophos Home edition I have on my VMware installation with Windows 7 and it is quite great. :D

Now why switch from Emsisoft to Sophos?! In one part I actually dont know, the other is 10 Free installs with Updates. A central console with Webfiltering options quite a cool idea for parents that want to restrict Internet access or prevent malware coming from specific sites...

To be honest in terms of reputation ill go for Sophos. ;)

Received a Ping that I have to lay out facts when replying why I like a product more then the another -> The fact was a central console for multiple Installations of the Anti-Virus product of Sophos Home Edition and Webfiltering options for every device it has been installed on.
 
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kaddy

Level 2
Verified
Jan 23, 2016
60
My vote goes to Sophos Home, i like it more than Panda which give me several BSOD , and url-filter doesn't work most of the time...
Sophos i tried for about 3 days and love it , very good webprotection , high detection rate, almost no False P ,but its a little heavy on Ram, maybe when there is an update i will try this one again.
Panda is good, Sophos is equally good, (As an enterprise product) i haven't tested SH personally But it seems like a decent product or would be, when i read their blog, and they have excellent resources on new threats, and attacks. Panda, i have personally used. Like any cloud AV, internet is going to affect your software negatively If it goes laggy. I have this problem with norton, but Panda never throws false Positives for me. Norton does, if the Antivirus loses internet connectivity it flags things as ws.reputation. combine this with its annoying difficulty to find quarantined files, it is potentially more harmful than good. Norton is good, and i would say the same issues may potentially, to a lesser or more significant degree, affect your Speed of your OS, and Whether files are falsely flagged. Sophos is reputable to me. Panda works. Is really a matter of personal preference, or if you need the Parental controls or would like to use the website blacklisting capability. Norton was relevant because of the comparison of cloud AV technologies. From my personal perspective, Something that fully relies on it, I know panda is completely or was completely cloud based originally, If I remember right... Please correct me if that is wrong... Can be a twoedged sword. it is auto updated, and once it is synced, it will stay synced, and you do not have to mess with it much. It is a Set and leave it AV. When your internet goes down, if it functions like Norton, it could potentially throw FP, which can potentially be more dangerous than actual malware, depending on what is falsely flagged as malicious. If it has a setting for notify and ask what to do when malware is detected, i would turn it on for a precautionary measure.
 

ifacedown

Level 18
Verified
Jan 31, 2014
888
Panda is good, Sophos is equally good, (As an enterprise product) i haven't tested SH personally But it seems like a decent product or would be, when i read their blog, and they have excellent resources on new threats, and attacks. Panda, i have personally used. Like any cloud AV, internet is going to affect your software negatively If it goes laggy. I have this problem with norton, but Panda never throws false Positives for me. Norton does, if the Antivirus loses internet connectivity it flags things as ws.reputation. combine this with its annoying difficulty to find quarantined files, it is potentially more harmful than good. Norton is good, and i would say the same issues may potentially, to a lesser or more significant degree, affect your Speed of your OS, and Whether files are falsely flagged. Sophos is reputable to me. Panda works. Is really a matter of personal preference, or if you need the Parental controls or would like to use the website blacklisting capability. Norton was relevant because of the comparison of cloud AV technologies. From my personal perspective, Something that fully relies on it, I know panda is completely or was completely cloud based originally, If I remember right... Please correct me if that is wrong... Can be a twoedged sword. it is auto updated, and once it is synced, it will stay synced, and you do not have to mess with it much. It is a Set and leave it AV. When your internet goes down, if it functions like Norton, it could potentially throw FP, which can potentially be more dangerous than actual malware, depending on what is falsely flagged as malicious. If it has a setting for notify and ask what to do when malware is detected, i would turn it on for a precautionary measure.
Thanks.

But please use paragraphs.
 
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Kuttz

Level 13
Verified
Top Poster
Well-known
May 9, 2015
625
Obviously Sophos Home Free.

From my personnel experience Sophos Home is better than all free anti virus softwares available right now. It has behavioral protection, high detection rates, pretty strong web block, light on system, and doesn't sell your date to 3rd party companies for ad revenues and wont shows any kinds of ads every now and then-totally silent. Sophos boasts their free anti virus software uses their commercial grade anti virus engine and features which is not bad ;)

The entire software behaves more like a paid anti virus soft than free. Sophos do not seemed to have any reservations to some PUPs. Sophos removes PUPs found inside with some free softwares on the fly during installation. Such an event happened when I downloaded and tried to install free DVD burner app BurnAware free, which included OpenCandy PUP payload within the app and Sophos removed the PUP swiftly during the installation time itself just like I seen with NOD 32 removal style. The AV keeps you protected while you were browsing the web where some malicious diversions get blocked automatically. I have attached the Sophos detection log here for readers convenience.

To some people managing the Sophos anti virus through its web portal may find inconvenient other than that its a flawless free antivirus software available at the moment. Currently I am running Sophos Home Free + Comodo Firewall with Auto sandbox enabled, HIPS off and It works solid :cool:

Capture.PNG
 
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