Start and govern a Sophos Fusion trial

A Sophos Fusion (formerly Sophos Central) trial is more than a registration form: it is a time-limited tenant and product operation. Before starting, define the owner, business email address, target tenant, products under test, pilot devices and end decision. This prevents an accidental second tenant or uncontrolled parallel protection on production systems.

Quick process: First decide between the existing and a new tenant. Then activate only the required products, complete activation and MFA, connect documented pilot objects, and verify the licence, expiry date and test goals. Before day 30, purchase, extend or clean up completely.

Choose an existing or new tenant

Existing tenant: If the organisation already uses Sophos Fusion, check My Products > Free Trials for the required product. This retains users, roles, device inventory and audit context. According to Sophos, a product with an active licence can’t also be started as a trial.

New tenant: Use this for a first evaluation or a deliberately isolated lab. Activation selects the Central Admin Portal region where Sophos stores the data, and not all products are available in every region. Agree the region with the owner and privacy stakeholders before activation.

Using another email address isn’t a sound way to bypass restrictions in an existing tenant. If the correct organisation is uncertain, establish the account and tenant context in the Sophos portals overview first.

Prepare the trial

Record before registration:

• the accountable owner and a deputy;
• an individual business email address and reachable corporate mailbox;
• existing or new tenant and, for a new tenant, the approved data region;
• no more than two or three concrete test goals and only the products they require;
• pilot users, devices, test domains or mailboxes, and permitted test data;
• start date, expected expiry, decision date, and contact for purchase or extension;
• rollback for agents, connectors, DNS or mail changes, test accounts and data.

Current Sophos documentation states that trials run for 30 days. Multiple product trials can run concurrently and start on different dates unless their features overlap. A trial account is also limited to 1,000 objects per object type, such as users, groups, shared mailboxes, public folders and devices.

Register and activate a new trial

Use this step only for a new Sophos Fusion account. In an existing tenant, use My Products > Free Trials > Start Trial instead.

1. Open the Sophos Fusion free-trial page documented by Sophos and follow the registration options currently shown. Sophos controls this external page, so its labels and route may vary.
2. Wait for confirmation and find the welcome message from do-not-reply@central.sophos.com in the corporate mailbox. Check spam and quarantine too.
3. Open Create Password in the message you requested, set the password, select the agreed Central Admin Portal region, accept the legal agreements and select Activate Account.
4. On the second sign-in, enroll the required TOTP authenticator app. Then register an independent second MFA method, preferably a passkey. See Securely manage a Sophos ID account.
5. Record tenant name, region, owner and displayed trial licences before distributing software or connecting an external service.

If the welcome message is missing, Sophos says not to create another account. Check spam, quarantine and the entered address, then use Sophos Fusion account activation or support.

Test only relevant products

In an existing tenant, select Start Trial for the required product under My Products > Free Trials. Sophos starts the trial licence automatically and then shows it on Licensing. Don’t activate every available product pre-emptively: different start dates preserve a full evaluation window and keep ownership understandable.

Define measurable acceptance criteria before installation, such as successful deployment to five pilot devices, visibility of expected alerts or a tested mail flow. Perform a functional and negative test after each change. Activate and check Sophos Fusion licences covers the licence view and expiry checks.

Prevent production overlap

Run the trial first in a pilot group, isolated lab or with explicitly approved test objects. Inventory existing security products, policies, connectors and rollback steps before changes to agents, mail, DNS, identity or firewalls. Sophos excludes concurrent trials whose features overlap; don’t force technically possible parallel installations without documented compatibility.

Don’t disable production protection merely for a comparison. Changes affecting mail routing, DNS, endpoint protection or identities need a maintenance window, monitoring and rollback. Expand only after a successful pilot and an approved target architecture.

Plan expiry, conversion and cleanup

Under Profile icon > Licensing, trial licences have a C prefix in License # and a date in Expires. Sophos also displays expiry banners, including a purchase warning three days before expiry. Set the internal decision date earlier.

• Convert: Engage the partner or account manager in time, then verify the product, quantity and expiry date after the paid licence is activated.
• Extend: Extensions go through the Sophos Partner or account team; don’t assume one as contingency time.
• Stop: After expiry, buy the product or stop using its software or features. Remove agents, connectors, test policies, mail or DNS changes and test accounts according to the rollback plan, then verify the resulting state.
• Results and data: Retain only agreed reports, configurations and measurements. Export options are product-specific; a trial doesn’t guarantee a complete configuration or data export. Define retention and deletion before uploading test data.

After expiry, you must wait 30 days before starting another trial of the same product. Request an extension through the normal route instead.

Validate and troubleshoot

A successful start shows the right tenant and region, exactly the intended trial products and expiry dates under Licensing, two working admin MFA methods, and only documented pilot objects.

Trial absent: Check whether the product already has an active licence or a trial ended less than 30 days ago. Then verify the role, tenant and My Products > Free Trials.

Activation email absent: Check the exact address, spam, quarantine and sender do-not-reply@central.sophos.com. Don’t register another tenant. Escalate with company and registration details if it remains missing.

Wrong region or tenant: Don’t connect production systems. Record the registration, invitation and displayed organisation, then clarify with the partner or Sophos Support; don’t “correct” the region through another uncontrolled registration.

Product conflicts with existing protection: Halt rollout, restore the pilot object to its confirmed initial state using the rollback plan, and continue only after a documented compatibility decision.