Sophos AP6 Access Points become significantly cheaper
Sophos Access Points in the AP6 Series will receive a price reduction of almost 60% on April 8. The Central Subscriptions for the Access Points will also become 60-80% cheaper.
Difficult Start for the AP6 Access Points
Sophos is certainly not a manufacturer known primarily for its access points. Nevertheless, in the past there were always solid products with a fair price-performance ratio, which was sufficient for the majority of our customers.
The introduction of the Sophos AP6 Series with Wi-Fi 6 and the associated changes gave existing customers and us as a Sophos partner plenty to discuss.
A few months ago, Sophos belatedly launched the long-awaited AP6 Series, which supports the Wi-Fi 6 standard. Compared with the previous APX Series models, one thing stands out: a Central Subscription is now required to manage AP6 Access Points via the cloud – a clear change from the previous practice, where management for the APX Series was free or at least made available free of charge retrospectively.
The AP6 models were introduced at prices that were almost double, and for some models even more than double, those of their predecessors. On top of that came the cost of the required cloud subscription, which amounts to 10% of the price of the Access Point. This pricing made the new models unattractive for many of our existing customers, especially since management via a firewall is no longer possible and a Central license is required to manage multiple Access Points.
The prices for the AP6 Access Points were comparable with those of competitors, but the features and performance were not. (My opinion)
Wi-Fi 7
Only 6 months after the introduction of the AP6 Series with Wi-Fi 6, the Wi-Fi 7 standard was adopted, and some manufacturers already had devices on the market. This further called the attractiveness and longevity of the Sophos solutions into question.
In addition, Sophos has announced End-of-Life for the APX Series, even though the devices are still being sold. This has caused frustration among many existing customers and among us as partners, especially because the promised 5-year warranty cannot be honored in practice.
Sophos naturally mentions this in the Warranty Policies, but that does not change the fact that many users believe that if a product has a 5-year warranty, it can also be operated for 5 years without restrictions. (https://www.sophos.com/en-us/legal/hardware-warranty-policy)
Price Reductions as a Response to Criticism
In response, a significant price reduction for the Access Points and subscriptions has now been announced and will take effect on April 8, 2024. For some Access Point models, the reduction is almost 60%; for subscriptions, prices will fall by around 60%. These measures make Sophos Access Points much more attractive again.
Prices from April 2024
| Model | Old Price | New Price | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sophos AP6 420 | 610 | 260 | 57.38 % |
| Sophos AP6 420E | 765 | 499 | 34.77 % |
| Sophos AP6 840 | 1150 | 685 | 40.43 % |
| Sophos AP6 840E | 1300 | 999 | 23.15 % |
| Sophos AP6 420X Outdoor | 1150 | 899 | 21.83 % |
*The new prices apply from April 8, 2024
Questionable End of Life Strategy
Although the announced price reductions are a step in the right direction, criticism of how Sophos handles End-of-Life for its products remains. It shows that the time of purchase is crucial for the usable life of the hardware, because Sophos quickly declares products End of Sale after introducing new hardware, which is of course logical. But a very close End-of-Life date then follows. Past experience (APX, XG) has shown that this is not always set in stone, which does not necessarily make the situation any better.
We hope that Sophos takes this feedback seriously and pursues a more transparent and customer-friendly strategy for product lifecycles in the future.
We also naturally hope that we can look forward to new features for Sophos Central Wireless in the future, because development currently seems to have stagnated somewhat. On the one hand, features for the AP6 Access Point that existed in the APX Series are still missing. On the other hand, we still see range issues with the Access Points compared with the previous models, and roaming has not improved either.
