Sophos Home Free Discontinued

[SeriousHoax]

• Sophos has made a business decision to change its Sophos Home Free option to a 30-day free trial for Sophos Home Premium. After 30-days, the free trial license will end, and users may purchase Sophos Home Premium on a subscription basis
• Pricing for Sophos Home Premium is $59.99 (MSRP), currently available with a 25% first-year discount at $44.99 for a one-year subscription, for up to 10 PC and Mac devices; pricing may vary based on seasonal promotions
• All existing Sophos Home Free accounts (that switched to Free before November 11th 2021), worldwide will retain their Sophos Home Free license with all of the existing features, including protection for up to three PC and/or Mac devices
• Sophos is committed to providing consumers with ongoing premium-level cybersecurity features and updates, including ransomware and other malware protection, malware scans and clean-ups, privacy protection, real-time antivirus protection, parental web filtering, and much more
• With the cyberthreat landscape constantly changing and an increase in cybercrime-as-a-service, it is important that consumers have advanced cybersecurity solutions on their home devices

Read more here

 

[SeriousHoax]

First Bitdefender, now Sophos, next is probably Kaspersky

 

[oldschool]

But no loss with Sophos Free, as much as I liked them a few years ago. Heck, even TPCS loved them back then, at least their web filtering.

 

[Shadowra]

A bit of a shame, but Sophos Free was very limited...
Is the antivirus business model changing in the face of the rise of Microsoft Defender?

 

[Moonhorse]

I used it plenty of times, it was bit heavy and lacked phishing protection

Allthough their customer support was nice and helpful, i hope they dont discontinue their android antivirus .. as avast is probably only that is left to block malicious sites of free antivirus products(?)

 

[SeriousHoax]

But no loss with Sophos Free, as much as I liked them a few years ago. Heck, even TPCS loved them back then, at least their web filtering.

True. Though it wasn't a bad free AV, it wasn't very popular. Sophos isn't focused on home markets anyway. Version 3 improved in system impact but version 2 was very heavy, and the cloud console system was never liked by home users.

A bit of a shame, but Sophos Free was very limited...
Is the antivirus business model changing in the face of the rise of Microsoft Defender?

Yeah, I think Microsoft Defender is one of the main reasons. Many already predicted this before, even I shared the same thought here. Microsoft Defender is disrupting the home AV market as a whole.
9/10 people I know and see in real life don't use any third party AV.

 

[SeriousHoax]

as avast is probably only that is left to block malicious sites of free antivirus products(?)

Kaspersky Free is still there at the moment. Theoretically Microsoft Defender also have it with their "Network Protection" feature but quality wise NP is next to nothing.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Interesting development.
Like @SeriousHoax said, Bitdefender and Sophos Home Free are now gone.
What will Norton do with Avira/Avast/AVG?
Keep one or all free versions or stop them completely?
Is there still a Kaspersky Free next year?
Or will everybody that don't want to pay have to go to Microsoft Defender Antivirus?

 

[CyberTech]

#JusticeforFreeAV

 

[Shadowra]

Interesting development.
Like @SeriousHoax said, Bitdefender and Sophos Home Free are now gone.
What will Norton do with Avira/Avast/AVG?
Keep one or all free versions or stop them completely?
Is there still a Kaspersky Free next year?
Or will everybody that don't want to pay have to go to Microsoft Defender Antivirus?

Norton won't touch Avira
Avast and AVG on the other hand I have no information

The page that you are looking for is unavailable

support.norton.com

 

[SeriousHoax]

Norton won't touch Avira
Avast and AVG on the other hand I have no information

The page that you are looking for is unavailable

support.norton.com

This was said at the start of this year, but who knows if Norton will change things in the future. Maybe they won't, maybe they will, we don't know. Avira's user number is much lower and getting lower every year, I think.
On the other hand, Avast/AVG are the most popular free AV brands. PC users from all over the world I think knows about Avast Free AV. So Norton is unlikely to change the Avast Free AV model more than anything. Avast also tells that they have 435 million users. If it's true, then they have 5 times more users compared to Norton's 80 million. So for sure, at least Avast Free isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The rest is uncertain.
It's rumored that Norton also has a timed deal with Broadcom for the Symantec technology. So in a few years they might not be able to use Symantec's technology anymore in Norton products, and this is why they purchased 3 brands (4 if you count AVG) so far and will use their technologies in future Norton products.

 

[Arequire]

It's worth keeping in mind that AV vendors are for-profit businesses, and that practically all free AVs are just vehicles for pushing users towards their paid versions. So while it's nice that vendors offer free versions of their products in the first place, if those free versions aren't contributing enough to offset the cost of their development, it shouldn't be surprising if they end up getting axed.

Sucks I know, but it is what it is.

 

[show-Zi]

Since MS Defender has a certain level of evaluation and ability, I feel that the advantage of users actively introducing security software from other companies has disappeared.
I predict that all free versions will move to trial versions.

 

[Sorrento]

Been some big changes is the last couple of years even more so lately, the market esp. free must be contracting as more use the default Defender? What Norton choose to do with their acquisitions is anyone's guess, I doubt it will be good for the consumer?