We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks VM-Series 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."I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."
"Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."
"The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is easy to maintain...From a security point of view, I find Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to be a better product compared to the other solutions in the market."
"The most valuable feature is the CLI."
"Embedding it into my application development lifecycle prevents data loss and business disruption, allowing the adoption to operate at the speed of my AWS Cloud."
"The VM series has an advantage over the physical version because we are able to change the sources that the machine has, such as the amount of available RAM."
"It gives us the ease that we are secure. We have set up the proper things that help make our data safe."
"We use the product on our Azure network firewalls."
"It ensures that every interaction, pre and post-loan processing, undergoes a thorough inspection, leveraging VPN features and comprehensive security protocols."
"I like the UI. Most things are accessible from the user interface and it is quite user-friendly. With respect to both VM-based firewalls and physical firewalls, it's easy to create updates."
"What I like about the solution is the ease of use."
"Scaling out cannot be easier, as there are many migration paths."
"Configuration could not be made any easier."
"With over 150 firewalls in our portal, management and monitoring have never been easier."
"Sophos UTM is very user-friendly and has good integration with other solutions."
"The firewall itself is very strong and provides great security."
"It helps us with protection, with concurrent use of the VPN."
"The most valuable features of Sophos UTM are the ease of use, it is very user-friendly. You can understand what they implement in the new firmware, and it's easy to manage the firewalls."
"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"FortiLink is the interface on the firewall that allows you to extend switch management across all of your switches in the network. The problem with it is that you can't use multiple interfaces unless you set them up in a lag. Only then you can run them. So, it forces you to use a core type of switch to propagate that management out to the rest of the switches, and then it is running the case at 200. It leaves you with 18 ports on the firewall because it is also a layer-three router that could also be used as a switch, but as soon as you do that, you can't really use them. They could do a little bit more clean up in the way the stacking interface works. Some use cases and the documentation on the FortiLink checking interface are a little outdated. I can find stuff on version 5 or more, but it is hard to find information on some of the newer firmware. The biggest thing I would like to see is some improvement in the switch management feature. I would like to be able to relegate some of the ports, which are on the firewall itself, to act as a switch to take advantage of those ports. Some of these firewalls have clarity ports on them. If I can use those, it would mean that I need to buy two less switches, which saves time. I get why they don't, but I would still like to see it because it would save a little bit of space in the server rack."
"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"In the next release, I would like to see better integration of multi-factor authentication vendors."
"The user interface could use some improvement."
"The solution's licensing could be improved, and training should be included before installation."
"From time to time, they have released some content updates that have some issues, maybe twice a year."
"The utilization monitoring and GUI have room for improvement."
"The solution must improve Zero Trust integration and use cases."
"The only minor issue we've faced is with the app's ID configuration, which requires specific matching for application filtering."
"There are some delays that I have observed when my company communicates with Palo Alto's support engineers."
"The solution's technical support for India needs to be improved."
"Needs to improve the certificate management (ex. Let's Encrypt support)."
"Support for IKEv2 is needed in this solution."
"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."
"When we call support, we get put on hold for a long time."
"Sophos should improve its ability to check something like bandwidth consumption for users or something more real-time."
"I would like this solution to support ICAP. Also, they no longer support on-premises management, and are forcing clients to use centralized management via the cloud, which I don't agree with."
"The integration capabilities could be better."
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is ranked 10th in Firewalls with 53 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 110 reviews. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is rated 8.6, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series writes "Many features are optimized for troubleshooting real-time scenarios, saving a lot of time". 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 VM-Series is most compared with Azure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls 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 Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs. Sophos UTM report.
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