We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Sonicwall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, Sonicwall TZ seems to be the more desirable product because of its easy deployment, great set of features, and affordable price.
"Good load balancing feature."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."
"The payment function for applications is good."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"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 most valuable feature is the ease of configuration."
"We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."
"I am used to the ASA syntax, therefore it is quite easy to make up new rules. I have found that DNS doctoring rules are useful."
"I like the ASDM for the firewall because it is visual. With the command line, it is harder to visualize what is going on. A picture is worth a thousand words."
"Integration with all the other Cisco tools is valuable."
"The solution is pretty easy to deploy."
"Everything is all documented in the file or in the command line script that gets uploaded to the device. It gives us great visibility."
"I like the firewall features, Snort, and the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)."
"A stable and solid solution for protection from external threats and for VPN connections."
"The most important feature is the intensive way you can troubleshoot Cisco Firepower Firewalls. You can go to the bit level to see why traffic is not handled in the correct way, and the majority of the time it's a networking issue and not a firewall issue. You can solve any problem without Cisco TAC help, because you can go very deeply under the hood to find out how traffic is flowing and whether it is not flowing as expected. That is something I have never seen with other brands."
"SonicWall TZ is a very cost-effective solution that provides good security."
"The site-to-site VPN connections, content filtering, and in our current remote working situation, SSL VPN remote desktop connectivity are the most valuable features."
"SonicWall TZ is stable."
"The scalability of SonicWall TZ is good and easy to add users."
"The most valuable features have been content filtering, and the interface is easy to navigate and to use."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks for a four-digit code, which changes every 30 seconds."
"Most of the features are useful. It is easy to configure and easy to troubleshoot. I can see the utilization of different networks, and there are also App control features."
"The installation is straightforward and took approximately 30 minutes."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
"The performance and speed are aspects of the solution that could always be improved upon."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"Fortinet doesn't provide multiple virtual firewalls which would facilitate end users and customers."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"The ease of use could be improved."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"The graphical interface could be improved. From what I have seen, Fortinet, for example, has a nicer GUI."
"The application detection feature of this solution could be improved as well as its integration with other solutions."
"Multiple WAN connections: Even though you can implement more than one interface to outside connections, it is lacking on load balances, etc."
"Sometimes, it is not easy to troubleshoot. You need to know where to go. It took me quite awhile. It's like, "Okay, if it doesn't go smoothly here, then go find the documentation." Once you do it, it is not so bad. However, it is sometimes a steep learning curve on the troubleshooting part of it."
"In a future release, it would be ideal if they could offer an open interface to other security products so that we could easily connect to our own open industry standard."
"One issue with Firepower Management Center is deployment time. It takes seven to 10 minutes and that's a long time for deployment. In that amount of time, management or someone else can ask me to change something or to provide permissions, but during that time, doing so is not possible. It's a drawback with Cisco. Other vendors, like Palo Alto or Fortinet do not have this deployment time issue."
"MSSP oriented interface: I would like a single console which would allow me to manage settings creating consistency across all customers."
"The software was very buggy, to the point it had to be removed."
"Its reporting can be improved. Currently, we cannot directly get the user names. It only shows the IP, which makes it a bit confusing because we need to use the IP to find the user. If we could directly get the name of the user, it would be better."
"Support for SonicWall TZ needs improvement, particularly the time it takes before you're able to speak to a support person, e.g. you have to wait for at least 30 minutes on the phone."
"The reporting analytics could be improved, it is very unstable."
"The small business line has less PPS throughput."
"I would like to see lower antivirus pricing."
"The monitoring is a little bit confusing."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Azure Firewall, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and OPNsense. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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