We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: The main difference between these two products is the scalability. While Azure Firewall users say the scalability could be improved, users of Sophos XG are satisfied with the solution’s capability to scale. Azure users also mention that the interface and the reporting, logging, and monitoring features all need improvement.
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."
"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."
"We are using the FortiGate 100D series. VPN, firewall, anti-malware, OTM, and intrusion prevention are useful features."
"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications."
"Azure Firewall's feature that I have found most valuable is its scalability."
"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."
"The solution should be capable of self-scaling, which is one of the features we like about it."
"The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform."
"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."
"One of the best features is that it natively integrates with Azure Services and tools. When you have a third-party offering, that is not the case. But Azure Firewall provides a comprehensive and seamless security solution for your Azure resources."
"Great security and connectivity."
"I can easily configure it."
"It is feature-rich, I like the server authentication, and the reports are good."
"The user interface is very good."
"Great interface and in-built help is very intuitive."
"The most valuable is the synchronized security between Sophos XG and Sophos endpoint because it provides a lot of visibility about unknown applications. The endpoint shares the information of unknown applications, and you can learn about those applications and create policies to allow or block those applications."
"We can configure rules with the user, traffic, etc., making it a very versatile solution for our network."
"Dashboard is easy to use and the reporting offers a lot of detail."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the flexibility of it, it's pretty versatile."
"It is easy to implement."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"Backup can be improved."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."
"It claims it does DLP, but the degree and level of controls are very basic."
"I think that the infrastructure for the VPN could be improved. The way that it is bundled also made it difficult to use and sell as it is too expensive."
"There is room for further integration of AI into the system."
"We find it's different implementing it region-to-region. It might help if it was universal across all regions."
"Azure has new versions including a premium firewall. But I would like to see them not put the premium features on Azure Firewall Premium alone because it is quite expensive."
"The interface could be improved, it's not very user friendly."
"It would be nice to be able to create groupings for servers and offer groups of IP addresses."
"The solution should incorporate features similar to competitors like split tunneling."
"This solution is not mature when it comes to handling perimeter traffic like internet browsing."
"Azure should be able to work better as a balancer also, instead of just being a firewall. It should have a wider mandate."
"The logging side of it could definitely be better. Some of the logging lacks, and the information that they provide you, especially in the spam filtering section, could be better."
"I used to work with Fortinet, and sometimes I see that the SD-WAN feature could be better because it's much easier in Fortinet."
"Some of the firewall rules are complicated for us to understand, they should be simplified."
"The main problem with Sophos XG today is that it doesn't have a feature where you actually know the quality of an international link, which would allow us to we know if the link is operational or not. We need more information. It's losing packets on the network. It's high latency. So, we need more information to know if the link is really bad or really good, and today, we will only know if it's working and this just isn't enough."
"The interface of Sophos XG could be improved. I would prefer the Sophos XG to have an interface for the technician who is setting it up similar to the Sophos SG. I felt the Sophos SG user interface was superior. however, in terms of the functionality of the product, Sophos XG is in many ways more powerful than the Sophos SG. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the end result. For someone who has used both, I preferred the old interface to the new one."
"In the product, the area revolving around SD-WAN has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"It could offer a DNS Filter for blocking botnet networks."
"Technical support can be slow to respond, which is something that should be improved."
Azure Firewall is ranked 21st in Firewalls with 33 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and Zscaler Cloud Firewall, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX. See our Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG report.
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