We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Sophos UTM 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 wireless control is helpful."
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"Web filtering and two-factor authentication are great features."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"The most important features with FortiGate are the web filter and application controls. We can control our internet usage and use the web filter for application purposes."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"Initial setup is easy to configure."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"The GUI is simple and the solution is straightforward."
"The solution is scalable"
"Palo Alto offers better Layer 7 protection than competing solutions by Cisco and Fortinet. I also like the VPN client more. The interface is simple, so administrators can deploy and configure it much faster than other firewalls"
"The user ID, Wildfire, UI, and management configuration are all great features."
"With App-ID, we can identify exact traffic. Even if someone tries to fool the firewall with a different port number, or with the correct port number, Palo Alto is able to identify what kind of traffic it is."
"The most valuable features include the different security zones and the ability to identify applications not only by port numbers but by the applications themselves... And with the single-pass architecture, it provides a good trade-off between security and network performance. It provides good security and good network throughput."
"Prisma Access is the most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls enable efficient application search, viewing, and configuration access across various services for different user groups within our company."
"It's a stable solution."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is reporting, it is flexible. I can monitor the end user's devices, even when they are not on my network. It has good drill-down capabilities."
"With over 150 firewalls in our portal, management and monitoring have never been easier."
"It works well without any maintenance. So far, it has worked pretty well regardless of the traffic."
"We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers."
"The most valuable feature is that it is easy to administer."
"The solution is easy to handle and configure."
"Advanced protection (Sophos Sandstorm) - Protects against crypto viruses in real-time."
"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."
"The performance and speed are aspects of the solution that could always be improved upon."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"Technical support can be faster at responding."
"I would like to see it provide us with intelligent information from the data that it captures, within the same cost."
"The only problem that I see with the Palo Alto NGFW being an all-in-one appliance is that because of the different features that are being put into a single appliance, the OS tends to be beefier. Over the eight years, we have seen that the number of features or analyses being put into the appliance itself has a tendency to slow down the appliance, especially at the time of bootup. So, any time we are doing maintenance work, the time required for the appliance to boot up and be fully functional again is significantly longer than eight years ago. They could find a way to make this all-in-one appliance faster."
"Based on the features that I have seen so far, I do not see any room for improvement, but they can improve their CLI documentation. I haven't really seen much when it comes to CLI documentation."
"The customer-facing side needs to be improved in terms of the engagement and involvement of support staff."
"Palo Alto needs to improve their training. They do not invest in their partners. I have been a partner for seven years, and it is very expensive for me to certify my engineers."
"Technical support is an area that could be improved."
"Palo Alto is like Microsoft. It has varied features, but it's too technical. A lot of the features could be simplified. The procedure, process, features, and usability could be more simple."
"Anti-phishing functionality should be improved."
"The initial setup was straightforward. The full deployment takes approximately two days which could be simplified to reduce the time. The major part of the process is the configuration and the policy setup."
"In Sophos UTM there is always a problem with the routing tables. If you want to see the routing table, you have to use the UI. You can't do it via a web browser. The routing table is better in Fortinet."
"The reporting system needs to allow for customizations because many reports do not include details that we expect."
"There needs to be some improvement in the IPsec VPN. There is implementation only support. I have version one. I'd be most interested in having IP version two from the protocol."
"It is a little too CPU resource intensive, so we would like to see improvements there."
"When we call support, we get put on hold for a long time."
"I don't really have any notes for improvements."
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Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 162 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 110 reviews. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is rated 8.6, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls writes "We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is most compared with Check Point NGFW, Azure Firewall, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Juniper SRX Series Firewall, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sophos UTM report.
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