My micro review -
I took Sophos Home Free for a quick spin today and here is my take. The installer is big and takes time (with my 18 mbps service), otherwise it's a trouble-free process. It's fairly lightweight when browsing normally and it has decent network protection. It lacks the machine learning module of the premium version and its full scans are really slow which spike CPU significantly - 30% on my machine. There are no other scan options. It doesn't invade your privacy and it's free. Paired with another software like VoodooShield or OS Armor it makes a good free setup. It's definitely better than the early free version but I just couldn't justify keeping it in place of Windows Defender.
Good review!
I agree that Sophos has done some great work on the current version. They've improved on the overall system performance as well as it's impact on loading web pages. It definitely has a slow full scan very similar to WD, but most people don't run full scans on a daily basis, so it won't be too much of an issue IMO. What I like most about SH/SHP is exactly like you said, it's simple, it works, it's not in your face with ad's and such, it's basically a very no nonsense just works in the background AV, very similar to WD. I agree that with the improvements to WD, Sophos Home doesn't offer much more than WD IMO, but if WD doesn't work out for you, or you don't like using it, SH with OSA is a very good/solid setup for someone looking for a free config.
SHP does had some more features that make it a very solid option as well. Pair it up with OSA, VS, or the like and you have a very strong setup IMO.
It is ok now. The old verision during normal consume 300 mb
They have definitely improved on this front for sure. I think SHP consumes a bt more due to the M/L and HMPA features, but the overall system impact and it's impact on web browsing has improved quite a bit from version 1.