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."Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"It's great for capturing the traffic and troubleshooting it."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."
"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"It's an easy solution to set up."
"Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It's user-friendly and quite easy to configure. It's easy to communicate with the Sophos support team."
"In this solution, the most valuable feature is that it's a security device. Maintaining security is very valuable for us. The other feature that we did not find in other products is that it works well with thin client environments."
"The scalability of Sophos XGS is very good."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS for me are XGS IPS, SD-WAN, VPN setup, email protection, and integration with endpoint security."
"There are good KCL rules and policies as well as NATing rules."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS are a set of functionalities that are quite commendable, they call it synchronized security, where all the solutions share defense lines with each other."
"The main reason we went with it was the security protocols. They were more robust on this device."
"Intrusion Prevention is my primary focus so that's what I find most useful. The why is straightforward: It's to prevent intrusion."
"WebBlocker has the best URL category database ever."
"The set up was quite straightforward and we handled it in-house. It took a few hours to deploy the product."
"It's very easy to use, especially compared to similar products. A lot more users use the WatchGuard appliance now than use the SonicWall appliance because of the ease of usability."
"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."
"We experienced that WatchGuard is easy to setup regarding VPN compared to other firewalls of other brands."
"From my experience with their customer service team, I would say that they seem quite knowledgeable and fairly quick to respond."
"Fortinet could improve the windows opener or the virtual IP solutions for opening windows. The virtual IP settings need improvement as firewalls are trending in new development directions."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"The reports are very basic."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"When it comes to different interfaces there is some speed issue that can be improved in Sophos XGS."
"Areas for improvement in Sophos XGS include better balance when handling high availability configurations, smoother firmware upgrades without the need for turning off devices, and simplified configuration after firmware updates."
"They should customers who are facing issues with their product reviews; they found bots in it. If they can do their proper research and use the user analysis and testing, that would greatly help the clients."
"In my view, Sophos operates effectively in a reactive mode, focusing on static detection and forwarding traffic. However, Fortinet takes a more proactive approach, blocking both connection and route connections. While Sophos forwards any connection in both inbound and outbound traffic, I believe this is a positive aspect, especially in a country with various sizing considerations. This is my perspective, emphasizing the significance of Sophos XGS in software work."
"Sophos XGS's response to zero-day attacks could be improved."
"The solution could improve inspection processes and troubleshooting for VPNs because this area is very weak."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"The SD-WAN feature isn't very good. It's there, but it doesn't work properly."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
"Make WatchGuard Firebox capable of integrating with third-party vendors like FireMon, Splunk, Tenable, etc."
"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."
"I would like to see the devices made more flexible by adding modules to increase the ports that we can use."
"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."
"The data loss protection works well, but it could be easier to configure. The complexity of data loss protection makes it a more difficult feature to fully leverage. Better integration with third-party, two-factor authentication would be advantageous."
"The UI and web view aren't nice."
"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."
Sophos XGS is ranked 17th 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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