We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Sonicwall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, Sonicwall TZ seems to be the more desirable product because of its easy deployment, great set of features, and affordable price.
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"The solution is very, very easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the access control list (ACL)."
"It protects our network."
"The most valuable feature is stability."
"It makes it very easy to have delineated roles and responsibilities between network engineering and network security."
"The setup was straightforward. I was happy with the configuration and deployment of the solution, as it was quick."
"We are mostly using it for remote access, so the remote access feature is the most valuable, but all other features are also needed and required. It is also a very straightforward and reliable solution."
"Stability is perfect. I haven't had any problems."
"An eight because it's a good security solution. It's more mature than its competitors."
"The installation is straightforward and took approximately 30 minutes."
"No negative impression of the scalability."
"The site-to-site VPN connections, content filtering, and in our current remote working situation, SSL VPN remote desktop connectivity are the most valuable features."
"The solution's VPN is very good for stability and detecting threats."
"Offers the right amount of control without being incredibly convoluted and frustrating."
"The most valuable feature is the protection available, and then ease of use and flexibility."
"The feature we found most valuable in SonicWall TZ is that it is user-friendly for an administrator."
"The network security is great."
"The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion... My second concern is that, while they have Zero-day vulnerability and anti-malware features, the threat engine needs to be strengthened, its efficiency can be increased."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"The UI could be improved."
"Scalability is one of the disadvantages. When it comes to scalability, you have to actually change the box. If you want to upgrade it, you need to actually change the existing box and probably you take the system off to other sites."
"The solution's deployment is time-consuming, which should be minimized and made more user-friendly for us."
"I would like the ability to drill down into certain reports because currently, that cannot be done."
"One issue with Firepower Management Center is deployment time. It takes seven to 10 minutes and that's a long time for deployment. In that amount of time, management or someone else can ask me to change something or to provide permissions, but during that time, doing so is not possible. It's a drawback with Cisco. Other vendors, like Palo Alto or Fortinet do not have this deployment time issue."
"For the new line of FTDs, the performance could be improved. We sometimes have issues with the 41 series, depending what we activate. If we activate too many intrusion policies, it affects the CPU."
"When we're looking at full-stack visibility, it can be difficult to get the right information out of Firepower."
"The security features in the URL category need more improvement."
"The price can be better."
"One feature I would like to see, that Firepower doesn't have, is email security. Perhaps in the future, Cisco will integrate Cisco Umbrella with Firepower. I don't see why we should have to pay for two separate products when both could be integrated in one box."
"User interface could be improved."
"You need to be a certificate holder to set it up and configure it. It's really important because it looks easy, but it is complex. You need to have the knowledge and experience. But this is normal for technical products. It's not a product for regular user. It's for technical people. You need to have skills."
"The lack of support is having me look into other solutions to replace SonicWALL."
"The solution's pricing could be made cheaper."
"It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions."
"We require centralized monitoring of the network features, which they have but they are not to the level that we require."
"An additional feature that I would like to see is reporting that includes metrics to give me more information about the number of viruses that it has actually detected and interrupted."
"The log analyzer in SonicWall TZ is something that they need to improve upon."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Azure Firewall, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and OPNsense. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
