We performed a comparison between Sophos XGS and WatchGuard Firebox 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."Secure, user-friendly, stable, and scalable network security solution. Installation is straightforward."
"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."
"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"Setup was straightforward. One person is enough for deployment."
"The threat intelligence capabilities of the tool are good."
"The solution is cost-effective and easy to manage."
"Sophos XGS that's a good firewall. If you use the endpoint, then you have what Sophos calls synchronized security. That will mean that if one of the endpoints is affected, it will be automatically set in isolation."
"Sophos XGS is profound as a firewall and security product."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use."
"The solution offers more antimalware and antivirus feeds than others."
"I like the Sophos UI. It interface has a more comfortable feel than the competitors."
"HostWatch makes it so I can see, in real-time, activity in the event that there is something weird happening on the network. This simplifies my job."
"One of my favorite features is the Geolocation service, where you can actually block specific activity or IP addresses registered to certain countries. For example, I don't want any web traffic from Russia or North Korea. I may even lock down certain policies down to 'I only want U.S. IP addresses.' I find that very useful."
"It's hard to pick one feature over another. But if I had to pick one, the UTM would be the most valuable because of the notification. I get notified via email if there is any type of threat detection or alert, telling me something is wrong."
"The solution simplifies my business. Normally, for administration, we are using NetApp System Manager on Window since it's easy to create new policies. In a short amount of time, you can create new policies based on new requirements. For example, in the last few months, many requirements changed due to the coronavirus, adding the use of new services, like Office 365, and eLearning tools, like Zoom."
"I could still keep the data rates really high, up near the two gigahertz data speeds, without compromise on the security perimeters being acted simultaneously."
"The ports that I have assigned appear to be unattainable to outside 'mal-actors,' unless they have an address registered on the internet that this thing is expecting. That's a layer of security."
"Simple to move settings between WatchGuard boxes."
"It has everything we need in terms of functionality."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"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 logging details need to be improved."
"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."
"The command line is complicated, and the interface could be better."
"It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features."
"Its pricing could be better."
"The customer service response time can be improved."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"Sometimes, we haven't received proper support. They couldn't find the solutions that we required. One thing that we need is an NTP server facility. The Sophos XGS device does not have this capacity or this feature."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory."
"It would be good if we could do dual customization."
"In future releases, this solution could have more graphical elements on the dashboard to make it easier to understand."
"An area for improvement is that when we use a web administration link, there is no security."
"Last year, I had an issue with one of the Fireboxes going down. It was overheated, because my server room became overheated and this fried it."
"Websense is an application that monitors and filters internet traffic. Websense was derived from WatchGuard. But when you go to WatchGuard to actually implement that particular feature, you have to use some type of additional feature and you have to pay for it, unfortunately. I think it should be free or free in the WatchGuard box itself, as an option. It would be nice if they didn't charge us for that."
"The pricing could be improved. It is definitely one of the more expensive products."
"The solution needs to improve its accessibility."
"The VPN aspect of the WatchGuard Firebox is an area that could potentially benefit from improvement. We encountered difficulties while attempting to integrate Windows 11 laptops into the system, which resulted in unreliable connections. After some research, we discovered that this was primarily due to compatibility issues with Windows 11 and required a patch. However, it was still a challenge as it seemed that even when we tried to keep the laptops on Windows 10, they still exhibited the same issues as Windows 11 machines. Despite WatchGuard attributing the problem to Microsoft, we were eventually able to find a solution and all the machines are now functioning seamlessly."
"A 12-hour power outage... got our batteries."
"The next release should have better software and configuration systems that can also be used on Linux."
Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 60 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 79 reviews. Sophos XGS is rated 7.8, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Check Point NGFW. See our Sophos XGS vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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