Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Check Point NGFW comparison

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27,863 views|17,209 comparisons
96% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Jul 11, 2023

We performed a comparison between Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Check Point NGFW based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

Features: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security provides essential features like VPN, IPS, URL filtering, and Applications Control. It emphasizes compliance, regulations, cloud security, and advanced threat prevention. Check Point NGFW is commended for its comprehensive security features, including URL filtering, intrusion prevention, identity and access management, and application control capabilities.

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security could benefit from enhancements in the support system, cluster creation on AWS, data protection visibility, DLP feature, user interface, and cost reduction. Check Point NGFW needs enhancements in integration, hardware performance, pricing, load balancing, technical support, reporting capabilities, UI design, VPN solutions, management, licensing model, and memory management.

Service and Support: The opinions on the customer service for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vary, with positive feedback on technical assistance and negative comments on delays in responses. Check Point NGFW has differing reviews, as some users appreciate the helpful and responsive support, while others consider it inferior to Cisco's support.

Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is considered to be straightforward and user-friendly, although some technical expertise and guidance may be needed. The setup for Check Point NGFW can range in difficulty, with opinions differing. Some users find it to be simple, while others perceive it as somewhat complex. Certain configurations and migrations may require expertise and experience.

Pricing: The cost of setting up Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is perceived as pricey by some while others find it justifiable and cost-effective. There are various discount models available for pricing flexibility. Check Point NGFW is generally considered to have a higher cost compared to other products. However, users believe that the enhanced security and reliability make the price worthwhile.

ROI: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security has demonstrated a significant return on investment, with estimated returns ranging from 80% to 85%. Check Point NGFW offers a favorable return on investment, particularly after comprehending the level of protection it provides.

Comparison Results: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is preferred over Check Point NGFW. Users found CloudGuard's initial setup to be easy, straightforward, and user-friendly. CloudGuard offers valuable features such as VPN, IPS, URL filtering, and an Applications Control Blade, which received high praise.

To learn more, read our detailed Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Check Point NGFW Report (Updated: March 2024).
767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is extremely reliable.""The product offers very good security.""The VPN is the most valuable feature.""The integration with Active Directory is one of the good features. Most of the customers are now looking for the Single Sign-on feature. So, being able to integrate Active Directory with the firewall is useful. It is also easy.""The solution can scale well.""This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI.""The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage.""We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."

More Fortinet FortiGate Pros →

"Additionally, the centralized reporting and management, accessible through a single pane of glass, offer consistency and efficiency across multi-cloud environments.""Moving into the cloud without having to change a lot of our internal processes and retrain staff is one of the biggest benefits of this solution.""It improves the availability of engineers to carry out projects.""It really is a pretty complete solution.""The most valuable feature for us is the scale set, which allows us to scale horizontally, vertically and dynamically depending on the traffic load.""The most valuable feature of this solution is that you can start off with a simple firewall and expand it to UTM.""It is a good-to-use tool that is also flexible.""The main benefit of the Check Point Virtual Systems solution is its ability to split up the hardware appliances that we have into several logical, virtual devices with separate traffic handling policies, as well as the switching and routing."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pros →

"Check Point has given us the ability to comply with regulations and with capacities in a way that we never could before.""I like the dashboard, redundancy, log analysis, threat prevention and ISP, and VPN.""The console or the single interface on the blades is most valuable.""There are also additional features, compared to a Layer 4 or Layer 3 firewall, such as AV signatures and devices, which are very helpful for securing the company's network.""The central management and logging are frankly one of the top selling points.""The centrally managed firewalls are great.""Check Point's rule management helped us simplify access control. At one point, we had more than 1,000 access control policies, and it was challenging to manage them all. We cut it down to 300 policies using Check Point's management features, and we are still working on reducing this further to achieve the best way to manage policies. Its logging and monitoring enable us to trace and investigate suspicious traffic.""The way in which a computer is immediately isolated if it starts behaving badly and I get a notification of an infected computer is also extremely nice and a great feature."

More Check Point NGFW Pros →

Cons
"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost.""Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer.""A lack of integration between our data centers.""The command line is complicated, and the interface could be better.""The solution could be more user friendly.""The cloud management and automation capability could be improved.""The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work.""Technical support is good but the response time could be faster."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"Check Point support, beyond CloudGuard, does need some improvement.""Regarding CloudGuard Network Security's integration with various resources like application gateways and application-based security groups, there's room for exploring dynamic access in those areas. A significant concern is the upgrade process. Unlike an in-place upgrade, upgrading the tool in Azure requires deploying a new resource, which can be hectic and less reliable. We have to spend something new to have the tool's latest version.""The solution’s technical support, DNS security and training could be improved.""The complexity to deploy should be decreased.""Improvements needed include better integration with Azure features to match on-premises capabilities.""The product needs to improve technical support.""Check Point Virtual Systems is a complete solution, but pricing can be better.""Check Point has a history of moving fast with software release and upgrade cycles which are difficult to keep up with at times."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Cons →

"The upgrading process takes too much time.""The smart console is heavy.""Currently, some prices are very expensive.""The pricing for the Check Point products should be reconsidered - we found it to be quite expensive to purchase, and to maintain (the licenses and the support services need to be prolonged regularly).""The firewall throughput or performance reduces drastically after enabling each module/blade.""Until you have some experience, the installation and configuration are difficult.""The tool’s architecture could be improved a bit.""The complexity could be fixed. It's a bit complex to set up, for example."

More Check Point NGFW Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
  • "These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."
  • "Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
  • "Work through partners for the best pricing."
  • "The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."
  • "Easy to understand licensing requirements."
  • "​We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW.​"
  • "The cost is too high... They have to focus on more features with less cost for the customer. If you see the market, where it's going, there are a lot of players offering more features for less cost."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "On average, it is normally on the lower end, being less expensive than Palo Alto or Cisco."
  • "It is more expensive than other solutions and would be more competetive in the market if it came down in price."
  • "We pay approximately ‎€150,000 ($166,000 USD) per year."
  • "Licensing is simply by the number of hosts that you are looking to protect within your environment. It makes it much easier to ensure that you are covering your environment."
  • "There is flexibility in the different licensing models that are offered."
  • "The pricing is pretty high, not just for your capital, for what you have to pay upfront, but for what you pay for your annual software renewals as well, compared to a lot of other vendors. Check Point is near the top, as far as how much it's going to cost you."
  • "Pricing of CloudGuard is pretty fair when you have a single account. It's comparable with other cloud providers. But for our use case, it got really pricey when we had to deploy multiple CloudGuards on multiple accounts in different regions, because you can't have CloudGuard protecting multiple regions. That's the big thing."
  • "The pricing and licensing have been good. We just had to do a license increase for our portion of it. We had that done within a couple of days. Given the fact that it's purely a software-based license, it ends up being even quicker than doing it for an on-prem firewall."
  • More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I don't think the product's pricing is a good value. I feel it's very overpriced. I feel a lot of the features for a next gen firewall are there. But I feel it's overpriced, because of the stability issues. As far as support goes, I really can't speak to direct Check Point support, but the third-party was pretty terrible... As far as the licensing goes, it's pretty complex. If anybody was to purchase the Check Point product, definitely make sure they have an account rep come on site, and explain it line by line, what each thing is. It's not straightforward. It's very convoluted. There's no way you could just figure it out by looking at it."
  • "Check Point solutions are very expensive here. They're good, but they're expensive... Check Point is only useful for customers that have a big IT budget."
  • "The price is high in comparison to other solutions."
  • "We pay $5,000-$6,000 a year."
  • "Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration."
  • "Licensing issues may be confusing at times."
  • "It is quite an expensive product, although security is a top priority."
  • "This product is not cheap and there are additional costs that depend on what model or package that you buy."
  • More Check Point NGFW Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at… more »
    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite… more »
    Top Answer:The ease of administration with the cloud management extension and the cloud licensing model is valuable.
    Top Answer:We are using our BYOL. We are using our existing Check Point discounts to work with licensing. Overall, it is very… more »
    Top Answer:I have not dealt with it enough to find any pitfalls.
    Top Answer:I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such)… more »
    Top Answer:Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall… more »
    Top Answer:Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
    Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

    CloudGuard Network Security is a firewall solution that provides network security for cloud environments. It protects against cyber threats with multi-layered security for public, private, and hybrid clouds. 

    CloudGuard Network Security offers advanced threat prevention, firewall, VPN, and application security services, designed to secure cloud infrastructure, virtual networks, and cloud-based applications and workloads.

    CloudGuard Network Security Features

    CloudGuard Network Security has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Advanced threat prevention: The solution Includes anti-virus, anti-bot, and intrusion prevention to defend against known and unknown threats.
    • Firewall: It has a stateful inspection firewall and network address translation (NAT) to secure traffic flow between cloud resources and the internet.
    • VPN: CloudGuard Network Security offers secure and encrypted connectivity for remote users and between cloud resources.
    • Application security: It includes a web application firewall (WAF) and SSL inspection to secure web applications and protect against cyber attacks.
    • Cloud-native architecture: The solution is designed specifically for cloud environments and integrates with cloud-native services like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
    • Compliance and governance: It helps organizations comply with regulations such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR by providing detailed reporting and auditing capabilities.
    • Multi-layered security: CloudGuard Network Security provides a comprehensive security solution with multiple layers of defense for maximum protection.

    CloudGuard Network Security Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing CloudGuard Network Security. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Scalability and flexibility: The solution supports dynamic scaling and flexible deployment options to meet the changing needs of cloud environments.
    • Automated deployment and management: CloudGuard Network Security enables fast and efficient deployment and management of security services through a centralized, cloud-based management console.
    • Future-proof: Designed for the cloud and integrated with cloud-native services, CloudGuard Network Security helps organizations prepare for future cloud requirements and advancements.

    Reviews from Real Users

    CloudGuard Network Security is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it has good cloud security, is cost-effective, has no false positives, improves productivity, and much more.

    Bernard O., Technical Engineer at Harnssen Group Limited, says, "Check Point is one of the few solutions that pay attention to cloud security. Many others mostly focus on providing on-premises solutions."

    Another PeerSpot reviewer, Shrinkhala S., Senior Manager at Agriculture Skill Council of India appreciates the solution for many reasons: “There are no security lapses and 100% restriction of threat entrants in the system or server. It's a cost-effective solution with no false positive cases. The product helps in bringing productivity and enhanced customer experience for users.

    We have a happy workforce and more workforce retention and increased IT environment sustainability. There is 100% proactive detection of root causes and root sources. It is dynamic and agile, and its features and utilities continuously improve and evolve. It's the best-unified endpoint management solution for IT systems globally. The product is available for all kinds of business users.”

    "One of the main characteristics that CloudGuard Network Security has given us isgranularity and visibility,” explains Adriamcam, Consultant at ITQS.

    Check Point NGFW is a next generation firewall that enables safe usage of internet applications by blocking malicious applications and unblocking safe applications. Check Point NGFW, which uses deep packet inspection to identify and control applications, has features such as application and user control and integrated intrusion prevention (IPS), as well as more advanced malware prevention capabilities like sandboxing.

    Check Point NGFW includes 23 firewall models optimized for running all threat prevention technologies simultaneously, including full SSL traffic inspection, without compromising on security or performance.

    Benefits of Check Point's Next Generation Firewall

    • Robust security: Check Point NGFW delivers the best possible threat prevention with SandBlast Zero Day protection. The SandBlast protection agent constantly inspects passing network traffic for exploits and vulnerabilities. Suspicious files are then emulated in a virtual sandbox in order to detect and report malicious behavior.

    • Security at hyperscale: On-demand hyperscale threat prevention performance provides cloud level expansion and resiliency on premises.

    • Unified management: Check Point's SmartConsole makes it easy to manage and configure network security environments and policies. With the SmartConsole, users can manage all the firewall gateways and access logs and install databases from one location. Unified management control across the network increases the efficiency of security operations and reduces IT costs.
    • Continuous logging: Check Point NGFW’s Threat Management feature detects vulnerabilities and logs them. Using the logged data, users can easily create and implement efficient security policies.

    • Remote access: The remote access VPN provides a seamless connection for remote users.

    Check Point NGFW is suitable for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to larger enterprises.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Check Point NGFW stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its intrusion prevention feature as well as its centralized management, which makes it very easy to deploy firewall policies to many firewalls with one click.

    Shivani J., a network security administrator, writes, "Check Point has a lot of features. The ones I love are the antivirus, intrusion prevention, and data loss prevention."

    G., a network administrator at Secretaría de Finanzas de Aguascalientes, writes, “Within the organization, the inspection of packages has given us great help in detecting traffic that may be a threat to the institution. The configuration of policies has allowed us to maintain control of access and users for each institution that is incorporated into our headquarters.”

    Arun J., a senior network engineer, notes, “The nicest feature is the centralized management of multiple firewalls. With the centralized management, we can easily use and operate multiple firewalls as well as create a diagram of them.”

    Sample Customers
    1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya
    Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
    Control Southern, Optimal Media
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization20%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company15%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Security Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company14%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    Manufacturing Company6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization49%
    Computer Software Company8%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Comms Service Provider5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business35%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise44%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise59%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business32%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise49%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business14%
    Midsize Enterprise58%
    Large Enterprise28%
    Buyer's Guide
    Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Check Point NGFW
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Check Point NGFW and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    767,667 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is ranked 8th in Firewalls with 117 reviews while Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 275 reviews. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is rated 8.6, while Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security writes "The solution has good threat emulation, threat extraction, and reporting features". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is most compared with Azure Firewall, VMware NSX, Cisco Secure Firewall, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, whereas Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Azure Firewall. See our Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Check Point NGFW report.

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    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.