We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and Sophos XGS 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."Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"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."
"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 has a three-layer architecture, and it helps customers to deploy the solution quickly."
"It offers application-based policy enforcement. Palo Alto Networks firewalls help us recognize protocol anomalies, contrasting with other vendors that may require policies based on port numbers. With Palo Alto Networks, the port number isn't a constraint because their devices handle protocol traffic at Layer 7, allowing for accurate identification of protocol usage and port numbers. They can identify which protocol actually uses which port."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The solution is used for security and IoT security."
"The documentation is great."
"App-ID is a really good feature."
"Comprehensive logging is essential for monitoring and analysis purposes. For remote users, the firewall can be configured as a VPN concentrator, with VPN policies defined within the firewall settings."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"Setup was straightforward. One person is enough for deployment."
"All the features are valuable, in my opinion, but for us the most important features are the network security, application control, and web server protection. Sophos Sandstorm is another good feature off the top of my head."
"The solution is very user-friendly, and the GUI is so good that I don't have to use the CLI. This eliminates the need for typing; clicking allows me to get to what I'm looking for."
"The initial setup is very user-friendly because they have graphical user interface options and command line interface options. I would give the initial setup a rating of five out of five."
"We are happy and satisfied with all the features."
"The solution is cost-effective and easy to manage."
"The scalability of Sophos XGS is very good."
"It is a scalable solution."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"The renewal price and the availability could be improved."
"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."
"The initial setup is complex."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"There is room for improvement related to the logging and reporting aspect."
"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."
"The UI definitely needs work. In my opinion, the UI could be simpler and more user-friendly for the average user."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved because it is an expensive solution."
"The interface is complex."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive. We would like to see additional threat hunting features."
"With Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, I find that the support team takes a long time to resolve the issues that a user may face during the use of the product."
"The SD-WAN feature of Palo Alto Networks is not good compared to FortiGate."
"Pricing flexibility could be an aspect worth considering, as it has been a concern for some of our clients."
"Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet."
"Having previously worked with the Astaro Security Gateway platform (now called Sophos UTM), I can attest that the configuration and dashboard for this older platform was easier to manage than that of both Sophos XG and XGS. If it were up to me, I would prefer to go back to the older SG dashboard."
"Its pricing could be better."
"In Sophos, the user portal is not user-friendly."
"What could be improved in Sophos XGS is its connectivity with Azure AD. It's best if it could work directly without using any servers locally, or in the data center, and this functionality should be made available in this product."
"The VPN capability needs some improvement in Sophos XGS."
"The speed of report generation could be improved."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
"In my view, Sophos operates effectively in a reactive mode, focusing on static detection and forwarding traffic. However, Fortinet takes a more proactive approach, blocking both connection and route connections. While Sophos forwards any connection in both inbound and outbound traffic, I believe this is a positive aspect, especially in a country with various sizing considerations. This is my perspective, emphasizing the significance of Sophos XGS in software work."
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 62 reviews. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series writes "Offers trained customer support, stability and ease of use ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is most compared with OPNsense, SonicWall NSa, Sophos XG and Juniper SRX Series Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox and Meraki MX. See our Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs. Sophos XGS report.
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