We performed a comparison between SonicWall NSa 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: SonicWall TZ has an edge in this comparison. Unlike SonicWall NSa, its reviewers mention seeing an ROI.
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"It's very easy to configure."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"The product offers very good security."
"FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime."
"The technical support in our region is excellent."
"User-friendly and affordable security solution that's recommended for SMB customers. This solution has good technical support."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"Support has improved dramatically since their separation from Dell."
"Valuable features include a web filter, DHCP, and monitoring capabilities."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"SonicWall NSa's most valuable features are the ease of configuration and the GUI."
"It's very flexible and meets our customer's needs."
"Overall SonicWall NSa is a good solution for our use case."
"The product is simple to manage."
"For me, the most valuable feature of SonicWall NSa is the UTM."
"SonicWall TZ is very user-friendly and has network MAC binding. Additionally, the firewall works well."
"I have found the stability of this product to be excellent."
"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 most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks for a four-digit code, which changes every 30 seconds."
"They give good protection to my network and support it."
"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."
"The most valuable feature is the protection available, and then ease of use and flexibility."
"It is very stable with no issues. The firewall's been up for the past 35 days non-stop. It's performed great. It has performed as it should perform."
"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement."
"The scalability could be better."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"We have used other solutions such as pfSense and Linux native firewalls. I prefer SonicWall NSa but if you are going to use something for an enterprise you need another solution."
"This product is unable to secure access to endpoints for our external employees."
"SonicWall NSa has occasional bugs, particularly during upgrades, and that's an area for improvement."
"It is not scalable. If your enterprise is growing hard then you have to buy another, bigger product. Maybe if you use it virtually it is more scalable."
"The cloud services may be in need of some improvement."
"We're not particularly fond of the way it generally performs. We are finding ourselves rebooting often. There are freeze-ups and that kind of thing. The stability needs to improve exponentially."
"I'd like to see integration with Microsoft 365 for authentication."
"We still get phishing emails that manage to come through from time to time."
"The log sections could be done more clearly."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"The market seems to be going to a cloud-supported, new generation of firewall products. I think that's probably going to be important to us, the next time around."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
"From a support perspective, if we're talking tech support I think Silver Partners, Gold Partners, Platinum, whatever level, should have a different number to call. End users can call tech support over at SonicWall if they've paid for support as part of their AGSS or whatever services they bought. The end-user can call, or we can call, however, I don't want to be calling the same line that an end user's calling. I don't want the same response time. I need a different level of expertise."
"Sonic Analyzer could be improved. It's difficult to manage and not very intuitive."
"Although the pricing is good, it could always be lower. If we get to pay less, we're happier."
"We require centralized monitoring of the network features, which they have but they are not to the level that we require."
SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". SonicWall NSa is most compared with Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, WatchGuard Firebox and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our SonicWall NSa vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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Basically, the main difference is that the TZ series is intended for a Branch office since it has fewer ports and the speed is around 1 GB.
The NSA series has more processor power and more port where you can create subnets and zones (like DMZ). Also, it has ports with 10 Gb and a processor to support the demand.
I have read that an approximate number of users in the highest TZ series (TZ 670) is around 150 to 200 but that is just an estimate.
Hope this helps. You can get more details in SonicWall datasheets where you will find the speed, throughput and more technical specifications to select the one that fits your requirements.
In simple words,
TZ is for small businesses (less than 100, maximum 150 users).
TZ has fewer ports.
NSA is for medium and large enterprises: > 150 Users,
NSA has many ports to support large networks