We performed a comparison between Stormshield Network Security and WatchGuard Firebox based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"The UTM feature is quite good. FortiAP is easy to deploy because both Fortigate and FortiAP are under the same brand. Otherwise, you need to do more work on the configuration."
"I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud."
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the SD-WAN and their IP4 policy."
"SSL-VPN is very useful for us and has been very reliable."
"Its user interface is good, and it is always working fine."
"The most valuable features are the IPS, the firewall function, and the price."
"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."
"Our organization's main concern is stability, and this is a stable solution."
"A very robust product."
"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."
"The scalability of the solution is good."
"Easily manageable in a variety of environments."
"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."
"They've done a lot of work with their SD-WAN, which we do use, to have our old internet service with our new internet service. If anything goes down on a particular interface, I can have different rules applied. Most of my users don't even know when our primary internet goes down anymore... I don't have to be here to do anything to switch it to our backup internet or to switch it back."
"It saves us time in the respect that we now have the template built for it so we can get in and get it done. We've had much less problem supporting Voice over IP technologies from different companies. Because our client base has grown over the years, we're probably saving 20 to 30 man-hours a month now that we've got this on a good stable level."
"The solution has increased productivity with our outside salespeople being able to connect into their computers and use those remotely."
"Firebox's best feature is the access portal."
"Easy to change the model if you need more performance, with good cohesion in the whole lineup of devices."
"Regarding the reporting, I was in the Dimension server earlier today. It's very powerful. I like it. And the management features are easy to use. I like the fact that I can open up the System Manager client or I can just do it through the web if I'm making a quick change."
"The most valuable feature is the GUI, especially the real-time bandwidth usage report. Also, its integration with WiFi access points is nice."
"The policy monitoring and allowing different traffic flows are the most useful features for us; regulating which traffic comes in and out."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."
"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"This solution has a big problem with web filtering and it needs to be improved."
"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."
"Not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."
"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."
"The SD card could be more secure."
"The product must improve its pricing."
"Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."
"The biggest issue was their support department was not able to help us, then everything stops. This is a no-go area for me."
"In terms of the reporting and management features — and this isn't necessarily a WatchGuard issue, this seems to be more of an industry-wide issue — you get reports, but a lot of times you don't know what you're looking at. You're so overwhelmed with the data. You're getting a lot of stuff that doesn't matter, so it takes time to parse through it, to actually get what you want to know."
"The usability could be better, but it is definitely manageable. If we have to go to a backup internet connection, that could be a little bit easier."
"The UI is not as user-friendly as the model that I had used before, which was from Check Point. The design of the Firebox UI is restricted and needs an experienced network guy to understand the format and settings."
"There is room for improvement on the education side, regarding what does what, rather than just throwing it at a person and assuming they know everything about it. A lot of times, you have to call WatchGuard support to get the solution that will work, rather than their just having it published so that you can fix the problem on your own."
"This is a great product and offers great protection but they don't hear the customers' needs. They don't make improvements as per the customers' requests."
"Cloud-based central administration of all devices from one point would be nice"
"The solution can improve by adding a feature to tag a MAC address of a computer system in the policy and more IP configuration settings."
"There's always room for improvement, especially if the threats are getting more sophisticated and the IT department cannot sufficiently meet this kind of sophistication with their own knowledge and experience. Knowing that this solution can get up to the level of addressing a lot of these threats is something that everybody wishes for. If we look at the dark web and the lawful web, they are two opposites, and if these two good and bad collide in the world of the internet, you want the best possible product—especially if you cannot get to that point of knowledge. I am just an individual and end user, with limited knowledge of usage. That's why I say there's always room for improvement, from their side and also from mine, because by knowing exactly what they can achieve and the knowledge that they can get on an everyday basis, and the portion that is understandable to me, it's an improvement for them as well."
Stormshield Network Security is ranked 9th in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 16 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 3rd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 78 reviews. Stormshield Network Security is rated 7.8, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Stormshield Network Security writes "Handles monitoring, collection, analysis, and reporting of data in our HQ and branches". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Stormshield Network Security is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XG, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Stormshield Network Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
See our list of best Unified Threat Management (UTM) vendors and best Firewalls vendors.
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