We performed a comparison between Sophos XGS 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 solution is very user-friendly."
"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."
"We are a visual effects company, and there have been a number of high profile security issues in our industry. This has brought us to a higher standard of security, which our clients are very keen on these days."
"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."
"It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything."
"The integration with Active Directory is one of the good features. Most of the customers are now looking for the Single Sign-on feature. So, being able to integrate Active Directory with the firewall is useful. It is also easy."
"The product was easy for us to install."
"I like the Sophos UI. It interface has a more comfortable feel than the competitors."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use."
"Spam filtering is what I love most about XGS."
"The initial setup is very simple."
"There are good KCL rules and policies as well as NATing rules."
"The most valuable features in Sophos XGS are bandwidth management, content filtering, and WAN link management failover. If one internet activity or one link would fail, automatically it will switch over to another one."
"It's easy to use and user-friendly."
"The most valuable features are the VPN and web blocker security."
"It also provides us with layered security. It has onboard virus scanning features that allow it to scan before something gets to the host. It will also stop a person from going to a site that is known to be bad."
"The most valuable are the VPN and proxy features."
"The throughput is great. It's perfect. We have no issues whatsoever. The management features are very powerful..."
"Intrusion Prevention is my primary focus so that's what I find most useful. The why is straightforward: It's to prevent intrusion."
"The solution simplifies my business. Normally, for administration, we are using NetApp System Manager on Window since it's easy to create new policies. In a short amount of time, you can create new policies based on new requirements. For example, in the last few months, many requirements changed due to the coronavirus, adding the use of new services, like Office 365, and eLearning tools, like Zoom."
"There are no problems with the technical support. If a problem occurs it gets resolved immediately with our technical support partners."
"I like their management features a lot. Their System Manager server as well the System Manager software make managing them, and tracking changes, very easy and complete."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."
"The pricing could always be better."
"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"It should provide better visibility over the network and more information in the form of reports for the end users. Its installation should also be easier."
"The logging details need to be improved."
"Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"The application is a little slow; it takes five to ten seconds to respond to every click when configuring. If we need to do significant configuration, it can take a lot of time. This might be because we have a low-end machine, and it could be faster with a high-end one."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
"Sophos' technical support has degraded in the last couple of years. They seem to need to ask a lot of questions, even with simple problems, and take a long time to provide solutions."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"I recommend Sophos increase the user capacity of the firewall by 1.5 times. For example, say the firewall can accommodate 1,000 users now, then it should handle a load of 1,500 users."
"Sophos XGS could improve the automation system. It could be better if there was some level of automation, attacks automation, meaning if this happens, then it automatically executes a particular process."
"Sophos configurations are a bit complex."
"It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features."
"The usability could be better, but it is definitely manageable. If we have to go to a backup internet connection, that could be a little bit easier."
"An area for improvement is that when we use a web administration link, there is no security."
"Reporting is something you've got to set up separately. It's one of those things that you've got to put some time into. One of the options is to set up a local report server, which is what I did. It's not great. It's okay... Some of the stuff is a little complicated to get up and running. Once you do, it becomes very user-friendly and easy to work with, but I find there are some implementation headaches with some of their stuff."
"It's very hard to get information from their website, for exactly what I need to do. Sometimes I end up having to open a lot of support tickets... It's a navigational issue which makes it hard to find what I'm looking for and it's just so broad."
"WatchGuard Firebox could improve the speed of updates, such as new features or improvements. However, they are frequently improving the solution in many areas, such as geo-locations, definitions, and web blocking."
"Sometimes, the writing rules are a little confusing in how am I doing them."
"The solution needs to improve its accessibility."
"The level of support from WatchGuard is not as good."
Sophos XGS is ranked 18th in Firewalls with 62 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 79 reviews. Sophos XGS is rated 7.8, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Sophos UTM. See our Sophos XGS vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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