We performed a comparison between Check Point NGFW and McAfee StoneGate [EOL] based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls."It is very flexible to use."
"Using this product makes the VPN seamless and almost invisible to me in the sense that I don't have to think about it."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"The most valuable feature is the policy routing and application control."
"The user interface is relatively easy. The devices are easy to deploy and figure out when you have experience with other security appliances."
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"The initial setup was very straightforward. You can customize it and change it as you need."
"Remote access with a secure workspace provides a clear separation between the client and corporate network."
"I like the SmartEvent feature. When we see a threat, SmartEvent can create a rule for that. SmartEvent works with the SmartCenter to block a threat attack with a block monitor. The SmartCenter has the management for all the firewalls and data centers in a single dashboard."
"It offers a range of models to enhance network security and it can be customized to secure endpoint client machines or user devices by deploying features like malware detection, antivirus, and mail security blades."
"If there is a critical issue observed, the Check Point support team can create a custom package that we can deploy on the gateway to mitigate critical issues/bug fixes."
"The product is flexible."
"The QoS blade is very good for controlling traffic such as Windows patches, mail traffic and other stuff."
"The documentation is simple to understand and is easily available."
"It works well with a highly-active cluster."
"We did not have issues with scalabiliy."
"Price, of course, can always be more competitive or better."
"The solution is very expensive."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."
"I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"Lately, Check Point seems to be pushing new products too early."
"Although Check Point provides annual updates to the Gaia platform, integration with other OEMs is difficult."
"SmartEvent Settings and Policy GUI, and the rest of external apps should be improved."
"It could be more stable and scalable. Check Point price and support could be better."
"The software licensing model is too complicated with all the various tiers of SKUs (i.e. per software blade). They need to simplify this for easier purchasing and renewing."
"The pricing could be better."
"The only thing which I think should be improved is that training should be increased. In my position I also interview potential employees and I haven't found many people in the market, nowadays, who are familiar with the Check Point firewall. They are more familiar with Palo Alto and Cisco ASA and they are more comfortable with them."
"Without any training, it is very hard to administrate the whole Check Point NGFW."
"After some experience with the solution, we had to do some redesign, but generally, we were happy with the product."
Earn 20 points
Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 275 reviews while McAfee StoneGate [EOL] doesn't meet the minimum requirements to be ranked in Firewalls. Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8, while McAfee StoneGate [EOL] is rated 7.0. The top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of McAfee StoneGate [EOL] writes "The HA cluster had issues during deployment, but the solution gives us better application control than with our previous solution". Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Azure Firewall, whereas McAfee StoneGate [EOL] is most compared with .
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