We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls 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."The solution is very user-friendly."
"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
"The WildFire reporting and Cortex XDR platform have huge infrastructures in the cloud that secures the network against threats. So, we have the potential on the system, specifically for users, where we take care of this since the user is the most dangerous. We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis, rather than a daily or weekly update like I used to with different AV vendors. These features can detect viruses and malware more quickly, which is super important."
"GlobalProtect and App-ID features are very good."
"The initial setup process is quite easy."
"You just need a web browser to manage it, unlike Cisco, which requires another management system."
"I like that it has high security."
"In my opinion, Palo Alto has consistently been one of the best firewalls for enterprise security."
"There are plenty of features available in this solution, such as attack blocker and spam blocker. Additionally, it is very robust and in-depth."
"One of the things I really like about it is that we have the same features and functions available on the entry-level device (PA-220), as do large corporations with much more costly appliances."
"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 Sophos XGS product is highly versatile and well-suited for various companies, including small, medium, and large enterprises. Its effectiveness lies in its inspection firewall capabilities, making it a commonly chosen option in our country due to its reasonable pricing. Sophos Firewall's support for VPN encryption and thorough inspection makes it a suitable choice for many companies, and I recommend it accordingly. At the moment, I can't propose any new features. The primary concern is the traffic stability, which needs improvement. Although the traffic stability is generally good, it has been noted that it can impact RAM and CPU, affecting workflow and inspection."
"Spam filtering is what I love most about XGS."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is the application control."
"It is scalable."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use."
"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good. I hope that their technical support will be better in the future."
"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."
"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."
"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."
"It needs to improve its ISP load balancing."
"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."
"The biggest thing that needs to be improved with them is their training. I took a training class for the 8.0 build, then I took it again for the 9.0 and 10 builds. They add new features every time that they do a new major release, but the training doesn't keep up. It is the same basic training that probably was with the 3.0 build, and they just change the screenshots. I would love to see them do some more work since they have all these bells and whistles, but we don't know how to use those features on a large scale."
"The cost has room for improvement."
"Personally, I feel that their dashboards for reporting and things like that need some improvement."
"I would like the option to be able to block the traffic from a specific country in a few clicks."
"The solution is very expensive. There are cheaper options on the market."
"Its software updates can be improved. It sometimes becomes very slow with the software updates for different features. It should have an External Dynamic List of data. The malicious IP is not frequently getting updated in Palo Alto, and this should be done."
"This solution cannot be implemented on-premises; it's only a cloud solution. The price is high as well."
"I would like to see more in terms of reporting tools and the threat analysis capabilities."
"The speed of report generation could be improved."
"In future releases, this solution could have more graphical elements on the dashboard to make it easier to understand."
"The application is a little slow; it takes five to ten seconds to respond to every click when configuring. If we need to do significant configuration, it can take a lot of time. This might be because we have a low-end machine, and it could be faster with a high-end one."
"Level one technical support is not good at all and needs to be improved."
"In version 18 of Sophos XGS, the log details are not very good. However, in version 19 they are more detailed. The Fortinet FortiGate has better detail overall compared to Sophos XGS. They provide updates to the solution frequently, but they do not fix the problems that exist."
"The price of Sophos XGS could improve, it is high."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"The support team are helpful when you eventually get hold of them which takes a long time. They can improve how quickly you get technical support."
More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Pricing and Cost Advice →
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 163 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 60 reviews. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls writes "We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is most compared with Check Point NGFW, Azure Firewall, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Sangfor NGAF, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox and Meraki MX. See our Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sophos XGS report.
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