We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and SonicWall NSa 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."This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."
"The pricing is great and very reasonable."
"It is useful for protecting and segregating the internal networks from the internet. Most of our customers also use the FortiGate client to connect to their offices by using the VPN client, and of course, they usually activate the antivirus, deep inspection, and intrusion prevention services. They are also using it for web filtering and implementing various policies dealing with forwardings, NAT, etc."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"This is an easy solution to deploy."
"The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to us."
"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."
"A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced, almost 90% faster compared to other solutions. This leads to quicker deployment and less downtime."
"The product's most valuable feature is web filtering."
"The documentation is great."
"It has its own logging system. You can go to monitoring and check the logs to see if a connection is getting blocked. You can use multiple types of logs to check if a file or a port is getting blocked or if there are any TCP resets from the source or destination. It's easy to troubleshoot with the monitoring and logging it provides."
"Palo Alto Networks firewalls offer single-mode panel processing with live scanning."
"It is scalable. But that depends on what model you are using."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the GUI pre-filtering and the ATP (advanced threat protection)."
"The features I found most valuable are email security and web filtering."
"The DPI-SSL is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's handy."
"It has excellent stability."
"With the deployment of the SonicWall NSA solution, we never suffered a problem due to invasion or contamination of any kind."
"Valuable features include a web filter, DHCP, and monitoring capabilities."
"It allows us to block applications, i.e., websites by application type category. It is far more capable than content filtering alone."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall NSa is the control aspect of the solution."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"The license renewal process, annual renewal price, and the web application firewall features should be improved."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"The cloud features can be improved."
"Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"The SD-WAN feature of Palo Alto Networks is not good compared to FortiGate."
"Compared to other vendors, the solution's community should be strong enough to solve the problems engineers face."
"There are constant updates for the operating system. It is a nice thing also, but it has its own disadvantages. Continuous updates are there. The users face issues like, how often do I need to update that? Within a period of five months, I'm updating it two or three times. It gives them a feeling that they are not confident about their product and have to update it so frequently."
"The UI definitely needs work. In my opinion, the UI could be simpler and more user-friendly for the average user."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should improve its price. It should also include a feature similar to Sophos' Security Heartbeat."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved because it is an expensive solution."
"As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers."
"I have found that the tool works well for me, but there are areas where security testing and protection could be improved, especially in virtual or cloud environments. However, in this project, once we deployed it, we haven't encountered any issues. The cost is currently manageable, but as we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older generation switches and routers. So, I'm looking for additional capabilities in these areas."
"It would help us a lot of SonicWall sent us more information about the latest updates and things that are changing."
"Having to deal with too many lower-level people in technical support means that it takes longer to resolve issues, so escalating support tickets should be faster."
"The product has a lot of bugs, actually. We are facing some issues with this product. The DPI SSL feature which is there, it is not working properly."
"The logging, reporting, and storage capacity size could improve in a future release."
"This product is unable to secure access to endpoints for our external employees."
"I would like to have a built-in vulnerability scanner in the firewall. It would be great to have such functionality. Its price could also be better. It would also be good to have a local warehouse. It doesn't get damaged a lot, but if a customer needs a replacement, currently, it has to come from Miami or Mexico, which can take a few days. It would be better if they have a local warehouse from where we can just pick replacements and quickly solve a client's needs in terms of replacing equipment. It would be great to have it locally instead of waiting for it from Mexico or the USA."
"The product likely isn't a good fit for a large organization."
"SonicWall does not support DynDNS, yet this is an important feature for smaller companies that do not have a static IP address."
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is rated 8.6, while SonicWall NSa 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 SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is most compared with OPNsense, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Netgate pfSense. See our Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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