We compared Sophos XG and Sophos XGS based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
These include the need for more intuitive user-friendliness, clearer interface, enhanced stability, and improved alert management. Users suggested improvements such as easier navigation, better display of options, and more efficient alert handling. Some users also reported occasional performance issues and system crashes, indicating areas that can be refined for a more reliable user experience.
Features: Sophos XG is known for its advanced threat protection capabilities, seamless integration with security tools, and exceptional technical support, while Sophos XGS focuses on robust security measures, comprehensive network visibility, and efficient performance.
Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for Sophos XG product varies depending on user feedback. Customers have emphasized the overall cost of implementation, the initial investment required, and the licensing arrangements. On the other hand, feedback on Sophos XGS suggests that some users find the product competitively priced and of good value, but there are concerns about significant setup costs and complexities in licensing. Experiences with setup costs differ among users for both products., The Sophos XG product offers positive ROI with its effective protection and simplified network management. On the other hand, Sophos XGS provides a significant increase in ROI by improving security infrastructure and streamlining security operations.
Room for Improvement: Sophos XG has room for improvement in user-friendliness, interface clarity, and stability. Users desire more intuitive navigation, clearer options, and improved alert handling. Performance issues and system crashes are also a concern. Meanwhile, there are areas of opportunity for improvement in Sophos XGS according to user feedback.
Deployment and customer support: The reviews for Sophos XG and Sophos XGS show that the duration required for deployment, setup, and implementation phases varies among users. Some users reported longer deployment duration for XG compared to XGS, while others mentioned similar timeframes for both products. Context is important in understanding the differences., Users have reported positive experiences with the customer service and support provided by both Sophos XG and Sophos XGS. They appreciate the expertise, prompt responsiveness, and willingness to address concerns shown by both teams.
The summary above is based on 79 interviews we conducted recently with Sophos XG and Sophos XGS users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is good to use, and most importantly, the pricing. The customer especially likes the discount when they trade up or something like that."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is security. They are known for efficiency and are on the top of Gartner Quadrant reviews. Fortinet FortiGate has an easy-to-use platform with a good graphical interface. The configuration is simple and the solution provides an overall good layer of security."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"Some of the key features of the solution is that it has good reporting, you can receive many details from the connection, for example, clients and website information."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"With FortiClient, you can easily connect when you are home, check out what you want to do, and connect to your network when you are not at work. You can switch on servers and you can check what is wrong."
"The solution is very user friendly. The user interface in particular is quite nice."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"Everything is consolidated into a single box, offering comprehensive functionality, including Wi-Fi access and other features."
"I have found configuring the ports to be easier in Sophos XG compared to the other devices."
"Great reporting feature and great customer support."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XG are the ease of management and good out-of-the-box reporting."
"One feature of Sophos XG that I found incredibly beneficial for threat prevention is its endpoint protection."
"In my experience, the solution was easy to use, has lots of features, and is easy to configure."
"This solution does everything and anything a firewall can do."
"The most valuable feature is the central dashboard"
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The product was easy for us to install."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Setup was straightforward. One person is enough for deployment."
"The solution is stable."
"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."
"Sophos XGS's most valuable feature is content filtering."
"Sophos XGS's best features are its VPN and ATPR1 cert protection."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"For the standard end user, self-based training is necessary. When you get into the Sophos XG firewall and try to start creating NAT rules, it can be a little cumbersome for a novice. It's pretty easy once you know how to do it, but it will be hard for anybody who doesn't have experience."
"This solution could be improved with more effective bandwidth. I found that when I enable DDoS detection for our clients, bandwidth is reduced. If DDoS detection is disabled, the bandwidth will be high, but it isn't secure. We recommend that customers enable DDoS detection, but if they need high bandwidth, we recommend Palo Alto and FortiGate instead of Sophos."
"The product's technical support services could be better."
"When I call, I have to wait at least one to two hours to reach them."
"Sophos XG could improve by making the remote access and VPN better."
"Sophos needs improvements made to the console, such as host entry or defining rules directly from it."
"The reports could improve, they do not seem complete and more information could be added."
"In the product, the area revolving around SD-WAN has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"The configurations can be a bit complex."
"It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features."
"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."
"Sophos XGS needs improvement with the threshold values. Other solutions have the capacity to handle more users."
"There are issues with some designs being able to work on high availability."
"It would be nice to have features like the network access control (NAC) that Cisco has for Identity Services Engine. In the next release, I would also like to see an increase in the performance of the processing units."
"I do not get notifications regarding ISP downtime."
"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."
Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 62 reviews. Sophos XG is rated 8.2, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ, Sophos UTM and Meraki MX, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Sophos XG vs. Sophos XGS report.
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