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."Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
"The security fabric is excellent."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"Palo Alto Networks firewalls offer single-mode panel processing with live scanning."
"It offers application-based policy enforcement. Palo Alto Networks firewalls help us recognize protocol anomalies, contrasting with other vendors that may require policies based on port numbers. With Palo Alto Networks, the port number isn't a constraint because their devices handle protocol traffic at Layer 7, allowing for accurate identification of protocol usage and port numbers. They can identify which protocol actually uses which port."
"It is stable when you set up something and put it into production. Once it works, you don't have other tasks or actions to perform."
"It offers a seamless transition from one option to another, making it exceptionally versatile and user-friendly in an enterprise setting."
"The documentation is great."
"The product's most valuable feature is web filtering."
"The solution provides good customer support."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"One of the main features is the built-in storage capacity."
"The most valuable features to us are the security services which is a critical factor in our deployment. Today we need to have all the security services enabled because firewalls are not enough."
"Content Filtering and sandboxing are valuable features."
"SonicWall NSa has a user-friendly firmware"
"Since SonicWall is a UTM, we have enabled all the features: antivirus, IPS, URL filtering, and content filtering. All of these features are working fine."
"The filtering is excellent."
"I really like the performance; there are no delays and no latency, which is a unique quality in firewalls nowadays."
"The most valuable feature is the Global Management System."
"Monitoring and reporting could be better."
"The solution's framework needs to be frequently updated in order to have a stable solution."
"The web-cache feature which was previously on the FortiGate device, but was deleted with the recent upgrade should be returned. It was a very valuable feature for us."
"The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."
"Lacks training for new features."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"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."
"Pricing flexibility could be an aspect worth considering, as it has been a concern for some of our clients."
"Palo Alto should integrate artificial intelligence for security purposes in the background for well-known threats and new risks coming to the market."
"The technical support offered by Palo Alto is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The product's high prices are an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The product must provide multiple threat detection features."
"With Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, I find that the support team takes a long time to resolve the issues that a user may face during the use of the product."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is complicated to configure compared to one of its competitors."
"A room for improvement in SonicWall NSa is the log server because it could be more user-friendly compared to Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks. My company has many rule sets up for review, so sometimes, my team needs to use Excel for filtering, but the UI cannot support the Excel function."
"It would help us a lot of SonicWall sent us more information about the latest updates and things that are changing."
"Needs a more detailed reporting feature."
"It would be useful to have an application firewall that prevents the outside world from seeing your private IPs. You don't need to publicize your private IPs to the outside world, and you can create a barrier, like a proxy server."
"The logging, reporting, and storage capacity size could improve in a future release."
"The dynamics needs to be improved. The solution is not very compatible compared to the market products."
"It is very modular and with native resources which are much lower than its competitors."
"The cost could be lower. There could also be more flexibility for smaller companies."
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 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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