Sophos vs. Norton Antivirus Review

In the competitive world of antivirus software, few companies are as well-known by both corporate and home computer users as Norton. Norton Antivirus is one of the top-selling antivirus software solutions. Sophos, a company known for its corporate antivirus protection, is a relative newcomer to the market.

Both Norton and Sophos charge for the corporate versions of their antivirus software, but Norton’s price, which is around $30 on average for an annual contract, is significantly lower. Sophos averages around $80 for an annual contract, but it does offer some features that Norton does not.

In terms of availability, both Norton and Sophos can be downloaded so there is no need for disks. Norton downloads and installs very quickly, taking about 10 minutes on average. Sophos offers a free trial of their software, but after entering your information, you'll receive an email with a unique username and password that you must use to complete the download. You can reach the download page from a link in that email. The download and installation process for Sophos takes much longer – as much as 30 minutes. Norton does not require any form of restart after installation, but Sophos requires you to logoff when installation is complete.

Both Norton and Sophos can be set to run scans in the background, but when scanning, both seem to slow other software down significantly. Other than the slowness, Sophos does not seem to interfere with the regular operation of software or internet surfing, while Norton sometimes has problems working with other software, which can be annoying.

Norton and Sophos both offer a Mac version that makes both Norton and Sophos an excellent choice for antivirus protection since many companies now use both systems. Sophos also offers a different version for Windows 7 and Windows XP, so you need to be sure you choose the correct option when downloading the software.

As far as protection is concerned, when comparing Norton Antivirus vs. Sophos, Norton has a reputation for being one of the premier antivirus software applications available. It is ranked highly by many software-testing companies as being able to protect computers against many forms of malware, including adware and malicious script. Sophos has a good rating from the same software-testing companies, and its lower ranking may be because it is new on the market compared to Norton. Both Norton and Sophos provide excellent antivirus protection to both corporate and home users.

The user interface for the two antivirus software systems, however, is significantly different. Norton has a simple, clearly marked dashboard that makes it easy for even beginning computer users to understand. Sophos has a much more complicated dashboard and seems to be designed for more advanced users. Considering that the software is designed to be used for antivirus protection at the corporate level, the user interface seems to be written for a member of an IT department rather than a general user.

Sophos offers email notifications and more administrative controls for their software than Norton does. This is a benefit to small companies that do not have the staff to monitor antivirus software on a daily basis, and for large companies that might miss warnings because they don't have time to dig through pages of logs to find them.

Overall, both Norton and Sophos provide excellent antivirus protection and use similar methods for protecting computers against malware. Both offer a PC and Mac version of their software, and both are available by download. However, choosing which antivirus program is better might depend on how you use your computer. Although Norton is far less expensive, corporate users may find that the additional cost of using Sophos for their antivirus protection is worthwhile because of Sophos additional features, including email notifications and more administrative control.

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