We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and SonicWall NSa 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."We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"Customers are more inclined towards FortiGate because of application control, web filtering, and anti-spam features. The support from the FortiGate team is good, and price-wise, it is affordable."
"This product is definitely scalable."
"Stability is perfect. I haven't had any problems."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to block almost all of the ports."
"Valuable features include DMZ segmentation, and IDS and IPS."
"We find all of its features very useful. Its main features are policies and access lists. We use both of them, and we also use routing."
"It's a flexible solution."
"The most valuable features are the IPsec VPN and web filtering."
"Another benefit has been user integration. We try to integrate our policies so that we can create policies based on active users. We can create policies based on who is accessing a resource instead of just IP addresses and ports."
"The most valuable feature is the access control list (ACL)."
"Anti-Spam reduces unwanted mail on corporate exchange services."
"The functionality is the same whether it is on hardware or a virtual appliance. The interface is the same. It's nice that it's standardized."
"The product is simple to manage."
"It's very simple to use and the support is great."
"What I like best about SonicWall NSa is the security it offers compared to other solutions in the market. Its reduction rate is also better than others."
"It is a brilliant product. It is a Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. It has got about 11 security services that take care of your perimeter security. It takes care of any kind of cyber threats that could come in. It takes care of creating VPNs between two SonicWalls instantly and very easily. It has got spyware in it as well as a firewall. It has also got a gateway antivirus and an application firewall that can block things from outside."
"The stability is better than other products."
"The features I found most valuable are email security and web filtering."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."
"Fortinet doesn't provide multiple virtual firewalls which would facilitate end users and customers."
"They need to improve their technical support."
"For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial."
"They need faster serviceability and more security features."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"The license renewal process, annual renewal price, and the web application firewall features should be improved."
"On the VPN side, Firepower could be better. It needs more monitoring on VPNs. Right now, it's not that good. You can set up a VPN in Firepower, but you can't monitor it."
"One thing that Cisco could improve is the GUI. The graphic user interface should be more user-friendly."
"This is an older product and has reached end-of-life."
"When we first got it, we were doing individual configuring. Now, there is a way to manage from one location."
"The IPS and GUI are outdated."
"It would be great if some of the load times were faster."
"The content filtering on an application level is not as good as other solutions such as Palo Alto."
"They need to do an overhaul of the management console."
"I feel that the SSL VPN client software needs a lot of improvement."
"We also use the Sophos Firewall for web configuration, which we don't have in SonicWall. Only Sophos has those options. If SonicWall included that feature, that would be a benefit for us."
"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."
"It is very modular and with native resources which are much lower than its competitors."
"SonicWall NSa doesn't have a proxy. It also needs a quota management feature in specific scenarios where you must limit user bandwidth for a particular day."
"Needs a more detailed reporting feature."
"The product must enable integration with endpoint protection tools."
"The filter settings are confusing and overly complicated. The user interface can be improved."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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 NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Huawei NGFW, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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