We performed a comparison between Barracuda CloudGen 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.
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"We are a visual effects company, and there have been a number of high profile security issues in our industry. This has brought us to a higher standard of security, which our clients are very keen on these days."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"We have been able to offer several services to customers in a single box."
"It's very easy to configure."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"The antivirus protection or malware protection has been great."
"Its stability and SD-WAN features are the most valuable."
"Single device, multiple functions - I do not need to purchase a web application firewall, a proxy server, a VPN device and so many others because these are all built in to this one device."
"Its ability to block incoming attacks is valuable. Its logging, traffic monitoring, and VPN capabilities are also valuable."
"The most valuable feature for us is the ability to offer firewall support to our clients."
"Their GPS possibilities and the security that it has, especially the SD-WAN functionality, is very good."
"Scalability is good; the company wants to be able to handle large customers."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, URL filtering, IPS, and virus scanning."
"We like the features, but the main thing is from a commercial and cost perspective it is very good."
"The technical support is very good."
"SonicWall has all the usual functions, like LAN configurations, security features, word filters, etc., but it also has the CFS agent, which isn't available in any other firewall. Reporting port support is also there."
"The DPI-SSL is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's handy."
"The product is simple to manage."
"SonicWall's sales support is much better than other vendors'."
"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."
"Anti-Spam reduces unwanted mail on corporate exchange services."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."
"The usability for the administrator's experience needs improvement. My system administrator has some questions about its overall connectivity and flexibility."
"It's a little bit complex in terms of handling. If you implement a change, there is a specific point where you have to commit it. It's not like you just push a button and it's always committed. If you don't know to check whether your commit command has been executed or not... that is something Barracuda needs to work on."
"The biggest issue that I have with this solution is that it is not super intuitive. Once you know what to do, things make sense, but you can't just open the program and start doing things. It would be great if there was a little bit more guided usage inside the program."
"The features are a bit limited compared to other vendors."
"I would like to see a more user-friendly dashboard and an easier interface."
"There is room for improvement in performance and the support language. The support they're providing right now is from a different country, and in our country, there are people—network admins and IT heads—who don't speak English properly. So Barracuda needs to provide support agents who speak additional languages, such as Bangla."
"When you do any commit, it locks your next access. If you are making a change to the device, from the security standpoint it's fine, but from the admin side it's not good. When you make changes, after each and every one it becomes locked."
"The technical manuals, at times, have images that don't match the actual screens and are not always as clear as they could be on the configuration."
"The web interface administration of SonicWall NSa could be improved. Compared to Sophos and FortiGate, making rules is easier with those systems."
"Port forwarding could use streamlining."
"I would like to see better integration."
"The features I would like to see improve are the dashboard and the UI."
"When it comes to security I think all of the features are currently open to improvement."
"Needs a more detailed reporting feature."
"It is not scalable. If your enterprise is growing hard then you have to buy another, bigger product. Maybe if you use it virtually it is more scalable."
"I'd like to see integration with Microsoft 365 for authentication."
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is ranked 25th in Firewalls with 35 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall writes "Feature-rich, robust, and easy to set up". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Azure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Netgate pfSense. See our Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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