We compared Sophos XG and Sophos XGS based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
These include the need for more intuitive user-friendliness, clearer interface, enhanced stability, and improved alert management. Users suggested improvements such as easier navigation, better display of options, and more efficient alert handling. Some users also reported occasional performance issues and system crashes, indicating areas that can be refined for a more reliable user experience.
Features: Sophos XG is known for its advanced threat protection capabilities, seamless integration with security tools, and exceptional technical support, while Sophos XGS focuses on robust security measures, comprehensive network visibility, and efficient performance.
Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for Sophos XG product varies depending on user feedback. Customers have emphasized the overall cost of implementation, the initial investment required, and the licensing arrangements. On the other hand, feedback on Sophos XGS suggests that some users find the product competitively priced and of good value, but there are concerns about significant setup costs and complexities in licensing. Experiences with setup costs differ among users for both products., The Sophos XG product offers positive ROI with its effective protection and simplified network management. On the other hand, Sophos XGS provides a significant increase in ROI by improving security infrastructure and streamlining security operations.
Room for Improvement: Sophos XG has room for improvement in user-friendliness, interface clarity, and stability. Users desire more intuitive navigation, clearer options, and improved alert handling. Performance issues and system crashes are also a concern. Meanwhile, there are areas of opportunity for improvement in Sophos XGS according to user feedback.
Deployment and customer support: The reviews for Sophos XG and Sophos XGS show that the duration required for deployment, setup, and implementation phases varies among users. Some users reported longer deployment duration for XG compared to XGS, while others mentioned similar timeframes for both products. Context is important in understanding the differences., Users have reported positive experiences with the customer service and support provided by both Sophos XG and Sophos XGS. They appreciate the expertise, prompt responsiveness, and willingness to address concerns shown by both teams.
The summary above is based on 79 interviews we conducted recently with Sophos XG and Sophos XGS users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"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."
"From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use."
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"The security features that they have are quite good. On top of that, their licensing model is quite nice where they don't charge you anything for the SD-WAN functionality for the firewall."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"The user authentication rules are very useful."
"There are many valuable features."
"I like their firewall and the intrusion detection feature"
"The most valuable features are the central management, the user VPN, and communications."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the flexibility of it, it's pretty versatile."
"The VPN features and its capabilities are great."
"We recommend Sophos XG as a priority as it is much more reliable and has efficient technical assistance."
"The solution has all the security features you would need for any type of environment."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The feature that I find most valuable is the synchronized security option where the endpoint talks to the firewall."
"Sophos XGS's most valuable feature is content filtering."
"It is very stable. I have not heard of any issue where clients would have to replace hardware. It's been really stable for a long while."
"The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic."
"There are good KCL rules and policies as well as NATing rules."
"The solution is scalable."
"It's easy to use, and the service is good. If anything goes wrong, their support system is very reliable."
"The pricing could always be better."
"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
"I would like to next release to be able to support on-premise deployment. The construction of the rules within the firewall could also use some improvement."
"It would be helpful if they had a set of standard templates because it would assist in the beginning, when you are just getting started."
"Sophos XG should improve on the GDPR features involving data protection and encryption. Security regarding data protection is important."
"The VPN device could be improved upon."
"The only issue that Sophos XG now needs to improve is the product's reporting capability."
"It would be beneficial if the platform provided more flexible support for a variety of devices."
"They made some changes to the firmware update sometime last year, which moved some of the policies from where they were before. Some of the policies, such as NAS policies, were separated, which made it a bit hard for people to trace the policies they had configured."
"On reports, they sometimes give a summary, but it lists different users as unknown. There are times that I really want to know which user or which IP is causing a problem."
"I rate Sophos' support five out of 10. It's sometimes difficult to contact them, and finding a solution is not easy."
"There are a lot of false-positive cases."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
"Compared to Fortinet, the cost is high."
"Sophos' technical support has degraded in the last couple of years. They seem to need to ask a lot of questions, even with simple problems, and take a long time to provide solutions."
"I do not get notifications regarding ISP downtime."
"Sophos XGS's response to zero-day attacks could be improved."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory."
Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 59 reviews. Sophos XG is rated 8.2, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX and Sophos UTM, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Sophos XG vs. Sophos XGS report.
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