We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The security features are about the best that I've seen anywhere."
"The most valuable feature is the policy routing and application control."
"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."
"Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."
"Its stability is the most valuable."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product."
"The most important features with FortiGate are the web filter and application controls. We can control our internet usage and use the web filter for application purposes."
"The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform."
"Microsoft's technical support is very good. They're quite knowledgable and responsive."
"All its features are good. That's why we recommend it."
"I think that one of the best features is definitely the premium version, along with the IDPs in terms of the intrusion detection and prevention system."
"The solution has many useful features. For example, the solution allows users to create virtual IP addresses."
"In terms of the reporting, it's beautiful. It integrates with Azure monitoring and with Azure policies. That piece is a big help. You can set governing policies and you can use the application firewall, as well as the Azure Firewall, to enforce those policies."
"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."
"We use the solution for application and server deployment."
"Easy to change the model if you need more performance, with good cohesion in the whole lineup of devices."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the FireWall features. The management side of WatchGuard is quite easy because it supports two ways to manage it - by the web and the other one they call WatchGuard systems manager. I used to be familiar with WSM only, but they improved their GUI in the web browser and now it is much easier to do it within the web browser."
"It provides us with Layer 2 and Layer 3 security."
"The solution has a useful traffic monitor."
"There are many fantastic features."
"After conducting several tests I found the antivirus is working very well. Additionally, they have a very interesting feature, DNS WatchGuard, which is checking DNS requests for phishing, among other things, and it has caught a lot of unwanted attempts and attacks."
"The set up was quite straightforward and we handled it in-house. It took a few hours to deploy the product."
"The main reason we went with it was the security protocols. They were more robust on this device."
"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"Application management can be improved."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"The pricing could be reduced or include the first year warranty."
"The solution is very expensive."
"I would like some automated custom reporting."
"It would be much easier if the on-premises, firewall rules, had some kind of export-import possibility in place, which is not the case right now."
"There are a number of things that need to be simplified, but it's mostly costs. It needs to be simplified because it's pretty expensive."
"Azure Firewall has limited visibility for IDPS, no TLS inspection, no app ID, no user ID, no content ID, no device ID. There is no antivirus or anti-spyware. Azure Firewall doesn't scan traffic for malware unless it triggers an IDPS signature. There is no sandbox or machine learning functionality, meaning we are not protected from Zero-day threats. There is no DNS security and limited web categories."
"An Azure firewall is not a real firewall."
"The product could be made more customizable."
"They can improve the pricing of Azure Firewall."
"We find it's different implementing it region-to-region. It might help if it was universal across all regions."
"The solution should incorporate features similar to competitors like split tunneling."
"I haven’t dug deeply into the reporting features yet or if they are working well. However, I have generated several reports and there was too much unnecessary information, in comparison with the reporting features in the Sophos firewall. Sophos' reporting is more readable and easier to configure."
"When working with WatchGuard, specifically in configuring Panda Security on the portal for the first time, it was challenging for me."
"Sometimes, the writing rules are a little confusing in how am I doing them."
"I don't think I can get a full-blown DNS client from it. I've been trying to have DNS services. It has forwarding, but I don't get the services of a full DNS client. My main difficulty with it is that I can't run a complete service. I need NTP. I need DNS. I need DHCP for my domain, but I only get forwarding. As far as I can tell, I don't get caching and the kinds of reporting and registration needed to host a DNS for a domain. I have to have a separate solution for that."
"A 12-hour power outage... got our batteries."
"The only downside is that it is missing an API, that you can use to easily collect information from it."
"The UI is not as user-friendly as the model that I had used before, which was from Check Point. The design of the Firebox UI is restricted and needs an experienced network guy to understand the format and settings."
"The VPN aspect of the WatchGuard Firebox is an area that could potentially benefit from improvement. We encountered difficulties while attempting to integrate Windows 11 laptops into the system, which resulted in unreliable connections. After some research, we discovered that this was primarily due to compatibility issues with Windows 11 and required a patch. However, it was still a challenge as it seemed that even when we tried to keep the laptops on Windows 10, they still exhibited the same issues as Windows 11 machines. Despite WatchGuard attributing the problem to Microsoft, we were eventually able to find a solution and all the machines are now functioning seamlessly."
Azure Firewall is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 33 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 79 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Azure Firewall writes "Easy to use and configure but could be more robust". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and Check Point NGFW, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense and SonicWall TZ. See our Azure Firewall vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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