Fortinet FortiGate vs Sophos UTM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Apr 3, 2022

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos UTM based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: For the most part, Fortinet FortiGate reviewers and Sophos UTM reviewers agreed that deployment of both solutions was quick and easy.
  • Features: Fortinet FortiGate users felt there were excellent features, including great stability and an excellent firewall and VPN solution. However, there were quite a few mixed reviews when it came to the interface, with many feeling it was overly complex, and there were many complaints on the reporting feature.

    Sophos UTM reviewers felt the solution had excellent ransomware protection and was an overall great security solution, but it didn’t do a great job at covering mobile devices.
  • Pricing: Whereas users of Fortinet FortiGate felt that the software was costly, especially since each feature needed a separate license, users of Sophos UTM felt the software was relatively reasonably priced.
  • Service and Support: Fortinet FortiGate users mentioned that the software needed better and quicker support. Sophos UTM users said the support team is knowledgeable, but the response time was very slow.
  • ROI: Both Fortinet FortiGate reviewers and Sophos UTM reviewers mentioned seeing an ROI.

Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos UTM had a similar user rating regarding ease of deployment, service and support, and ROI. If pricing is a factor, Sophos UTM is a more cost-effective solution based on user reviews. In terms of features, Fortinet FortiGate users felt the interface was complex, and the reporting feature needed improvements. In contrast, Sophos UTM users felt the solution needed to do a better job at covering mobile devices.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos UTM Report (Updated: March 2024).
763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
Answer: In my opinion and as a result of years of experience: - Both are great firewalls with excellent performance and a useful integration witch Active directory and LDAP - Fortinet is easier to manage and have a nice way to configure routes but some times have throughput troubles as an example: in 2 years we need to make around 4 reboots in a 3 firewall deploy - Sophos has a lot of nice firewall features (i mean without a license), some features like routes and VPN use to be a little difficult to configure but we never need to reboot any FW.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access.""It has improved our organization with control data.""FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features.""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.""Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it.""There are great templates, so you don't have to customize them if you don't want to. You do have the option to custom create some folders and some reports, however, with what is there, you don't really need to go through extra effort, as they already give you a lot of predefined views of reports and so forth.""Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E.""The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."

More Fortinet FortiGate Pros →

"It meets our compliance needs in an elastic computer environment.""Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement.""We've found the technical support to be helpful.""The most valuable feature is ransomware protection.""This is a very stable product.""The solution is stable.""It has allowed us to design a bespoke cloud space for our clients, while still having an excellent level of protection.""Advanced protection (Sophos Sandstorm) - Protects against crypto viruses in real-time."

More Sophos UTM Pros →

Cons
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution.""The command line is complicated, and the interface could be better.""Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation.""The visibility of the network can be better. The GUI can be improved for better visibility of the network flow. Other solutions have better GUI in terms of network visibility.""There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated.""With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic.""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.""The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"The UI can be cumbersome and, sometimes, features are not where you think they should be.""The memory and processing were problematic. The interface could be better.""Sophos UTM could be simplified, and they can improve on the many other features, like SD-WAN and load balancing. Sophos UTM is missing a few features that their competitors have. For example, if you have multiple branches you would like to connect, the load balancing features aren't available on multilink. If we create a VPM for multiple LAN links, we cannot load balance the traffic.""They could reduce the price.""The reporting system needs to allow for customizations because many reports do not include details that we expect.""Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement.""The pricing is an issue.""Last year, Sophos had some major internal management changes that negatively impacted their support."

More Sophos UTM Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
  • "These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."
  • "Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
  • "Work through partners for the best pricing."
  • "The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
  • "Easy to understand licensing requirements."
  • "​We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW.​"
  • "The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The licensing model is very straightforward, it's a bit pricey, but for what you get, it's well worth it."
  • "If you can afford it, go for a small Check Point, as it is easier to manage."
  • "Unless you are in the United States, or you have to use Sophos, you can't contact Sophos directly. You have to use a third-party ​company, and they all have different ways of how they explain their licensing."
  • "Go to a vendor and let them assess your needs so you can get a right-sized device."
  • "Sophos offers free training when selling their products from within the partner portal.​"
  • "I would recommend to follow Sophos’ sizing guidelines for choosing which license and model to use. Sophos has their own way of going about this and supplies partners with all the information required. If you follow their documentation and guidelines, there should be zero questions about licensing and sizing."
  • "For under 50 users, MSP licensing is profitable."
  • "​In the case of a software/virtual appliance subscription, you pay by protecting user/IP addresses. You can do this to as much hardware resources as you like.​​"
  • More Sophos UTM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Sajjad Ahmad
    Alessandro Turchi - PeerSpot reviewerAlessandro Turchi
    User

    I would have no doubt in recommending Fortinet. I do not know the Sophos UTM product specifically but in general, in companies, we have had unpleasant experiences with Sophos with customers. They typically declare performance values ​​that are overestimated in the field.

    Narendra Singh - PeerSpot reviewerNarendra Singh
    Real User

    We replaced Fortinet with Sophos as our public-facing UTM in 2017 & since then the ride has been extremely rough. I would not recommend Sophos for any mission-critical environment.

    Mohsinoddin Mohammed - PeerSpot reviewerMohsinoddin Mohammed
    Real User

    Fortinet is easy to manage and it include secure SDWAN as well including many features with easy to configure.

    Manjil Bhetwal - PeerSpot reviewerManjil Bhetwal
    Real User

    Both firewalls are easy to deploy. But the issue you will encounter when performing troubleshooting. You will not get flexibility in troubleshooting through Cli in Sophos whereas, in FortiGate, we have much more control. Besides if you are deploying a firewall on a large scale where visibility, control, performance as well as the flexibility is important it is better to go with Fortinet rather than Sophos.

    Richard Benfatto - PeerSpot reviewerRichard Benfatto
    User

    I would also like to elaborate on the reporting part in FortiCloud. There is no need to pay any extras. Every box connects to ForticCoud service, and if you want reports to be greater than 7 days (meaning to be kept longer than that in their memory system) then you have to pay. In the meantime, by default Forticloud will send daily emails with reports and once a week you will get 4 to 5 reports, with lots of granular information. These reports are all in PDF with color graphics. In reality, I would be happy to send you some of the reports as in words typed herein would be more than a book. The FortiGate appliance also comes with 10 endpoint security (Forticlient) licences. So you can put this endpoint protection software to servers or clients. It also has a two-factor authentication license included. With these boxes, you can also create VDOM (Virtual Domains, totally separate).

    They can afford that as the hardware, as I mentioned before (ASIC) has the power to do that. In 3 years I have had 1 spam message entering my mail server, is that telling you something??? In my first reply, I did tell you that where I work now they purchase Sophos. Well, when the antivirus is set the CPU gets up to 90%. My Fortigate CPU is 0% and peaks during attacks. And I have had quite a few. They were attempting to break into the mail server. More than 2 million attempts in less than 2 hours. Have a look at NSS Labs site. FortiGate is a Rolls Royce, you cannot compare.

    Here in Australia, where I work now, the decision was to go with Sophos, ONLY ON PRICE. Yes, great brains. Now they regret that big time. FortiGate is a much more powerful device, especially when it comes to being able to handle the traffic. Most of the models handle throughput via ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) which is nothing more and less than a customer semiconductor. So, this is handled via hardware. It may be initially more difficult to implement. Now, what does "difficult" mean? To me when there is an unknown, difficult comes up till you learn. So if you make a decision on price and because "it is the easiest" to install.

    I would not touch Sophos. Simple as that.

    it_user1136043 - PeerSpot reviewerit_user1136043 (IT Manager at alfascan)
    Real User

    Sophos UTM is better by far. but it is more expensive

    Nawaaz Toonah - PeerSpot reviewerNawaaz Toonah
    Reseller

    Done many installations of both Sophos and FortiGate, Sophos is the easiest to install and best in terms of features.
    Reporting is free in Sophos while we need an extra subscription for FortiGate. Deep packet inspection, intrusion prevention advanced threat protection, web filtering, app control and email protection are key features of Sophos. Browsing is made safe with phishing protection and new functionality of ransomware protection. Sophos support is brilliant and community website from Sophos answers to all your questions and ease deployment.

    Ronald Rosenbaum - PeerSpot reviewerRonald Rosenbaum
    Real User

    I can’t really comment on FortiGate. We’ve been working with Sophos for years and like it’s integration with their endpoint.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use Fortinet too.… more »
    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I would… more »
    Top Answer:The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW. They can not be compared with each other because the price, license, firewall… more »
    Top Answer:The most valuable features of the solution are application filtering and web filtering.
    Top Answer:Sophos UTM is a reasonably priced product. I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
    Ranking
    2nd
    out of 59 in Firewalls
    Views
    126,666
    Comparisons
    92,626
    Reviews
    64
    Average Words per Review
    574
    Rating
    8.4
    Views
    3,848
    Comparisons
    2,577
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    389
    Rating
    8.1
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    Astaro
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

    Sophos UTM is a unified threat management platform designed to protect your businesses from known and emerging malware including viruses, rootkits and spyware. The solution provides a complete network security package with everything your organization needs in a single modular appliance.

    Sophos UTM Features

    Sophos UTM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Web and Email Filtering
    • General Management
    • Network Protection
    • Network Routing and Services
    • Advanced Threat Protection
    • Authentication
    • Email Encryption and DLP
    • Web Policy
    • End-User Portal
    • VPN IPsec Client, VPN SSL Client, and Clientless VPN
    • Web Application Firewall Protection
    • UTM Endpoint Protection and Management
    • SEC Endpoint Integration
    • Logging and Reporting

    Sophos UTM Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Sophos UTM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple point solutions
    • Intuitive interface to help you quickly create policies to control security risks
    • Provides clear, detailed reports to give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection
    • Complete control to block, allow, shape and prioritize applications
    • Two-factor authentication with one-time password (OTP)
    • Integrated wireless controller
    • Allows you to connect remote offices with easy VPN and Wi-Fi

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Sophos UTM solution.

    PeerSpot user Dana B., Network Administrator at a manufacturing company, says “The web and email filtering are the two biggest and most valuable aspects of the solution for us. The solution overall has just been a good, cost-effective solution for us. The solution offers a lot of functionality. The solution scales well. We've found the technical support to be helpful. The stability and performance are quite good.”

    A Technical Director at a security firm mentions, "Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."

    Marek M., Senior Network Engineer at a computer software company, comments, “Sophos UTM is the simplest of these products to set up. If you follow the instructions using the wizard, which is just a few steps, then you will have a firewall to protect you and your customer.”

    A Software Sales Manager at a tech services company explains, “The overall visibility of the console is what I find most valuable, plus it's very user-friendly. It can be integrated with other solutions such as SOAR, SIEM, etc., even when you have an existing firewall. I really like that the console can be integrated. You'll see everything on the same window, and the single window feature of the machine is so good. These are the features I really like.”

    James D., IT Manager at Manual Workers Union, states, “The fact that it's on the cloud means we don't have to administer it on our network or deal with a physical machine, which saves us money. The solution has many great features. From the console, we can start different scannings on different machines. We enjoy the centralized reporting part of it. The initial setup is simple. We enjoy its general stability. The solution can scale. So far, the solution has been problem-free.”

    Sample Customers
    1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya
    One Housing Group
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Government8%
    Educational Organization6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business58%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise21%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business36%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise45%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos UTM
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    763,955 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 67 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 29 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Meraki MX, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos UTM report.

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    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.