We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Sonicwall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, Sonicwall TZ seems to be the more desirable product because of its easy deployment, great set of features, and affordable price.
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"The flexibility and ease of configuration are the most valuable features."
"There are great templates, so you don't have to customize them if you don't want to. You do have the option to custom create some folders and some reports, however, with what is there, you don't really need to go through extra effort, as they already give you a lot of predefined views of reports and so forth."
"It is a safe product."
"FortiGate has a very strong unified threat management system."
"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is very user friendly. We are utilizing most of the features, like content filtering. The firewall is powerful."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."
"A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside."
"Cisco Secure Firewall made it easier so that more than one person can handle things. We are able to have a bigger team that can handle simple tasks and have a smaller team focus on the deep-dive needs."
"The feature I find most valuable is the Cisco VPN Interconnection."
"REST API offering with rich capabilities which makes the product very robust."
"The Packet Tracer is a really good tool. If someone calls because they're having problems, you can easily create fake traffic without having to do an extended packet capture. You can see, straight away, if there's a firewall rule allowing that traffic in the direction you're trying to troubleshoot."
"Stability is perfect. I haven't had any problems."
"This product is pretty stable."
"We can easily track unauthorized users and see where traffic is going."
"Filtering is the best feature."
"I like the firewall product, the security server, and the content filter."
"The most valuable features have been content filtering, and the interface is easy to navigate and to use."
"We like the central interface and we like the security features. Additionally, we use SonicWall with VPN connectivity and we have had no problems with SonicWall all these years."
"Access restriction and IP whitelisting are the most valuable features."
"We are able to block whatever we want to block by using this product. It provides all required security features, such as content filtering, VPN, in one box. Before switching to SonicWall, we had specified all required features."
"It lets me monitor in live time if someone is 'hogging' bandwidth."
"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."
"SonicWall TZ is a stable product."
"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"The user interface could be improved."
"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."
"The scalability could be better."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"MSSP oriented interface: I would like a single console which would allow me to manage settings creating consistency across all customers."
"The only drawback of the user interface is when it comes to policies. When you open it and click on the policies, you have to move manually left and right if you want to see the whole field within the cell. Checkpoint has a very detailed user interface."
"The only improvement that we could make is maybe [regarding] the roadmap, to have better visibility as to what we are targeting ahead in the next few quarters."
"This solution could be more granular and user-friendly."
"UTM features would be nice or some NextGen features."
"The change-deployment time can always be improved. Even at 50 seconds, it's longer than some of its competitors. I would challenge Cisco to continue to improve in that area."
"Security generally requires integration with many devices, and the management side of that process could be enhanced somewhat. It would help if there was a clear view of the integrations and what the easiest way to do them is."
"The scalability has room for improvement."
"The user support could be improved because you have to go outside to get that kind of support."
"In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say better load balancing and data filtering."
"I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"Pricing could be lowered slightly."
"The areas we would like to see improvement include more features available similar to the equivalent FortiGate appliance, e.g. SSL encryption and inspection. Two-factor authentication capability would be another additional feature that could be included in the next release."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
"It needs more robust self-help documentation along with examples and things to watch out for."
"You need to be a certificate holder to set it up and configure it. It's really important because it looks easy, but it is complex. You need to have the knowledge and experience. But this is normal for technical products. It's not a product for regular user. It's for technical people. You need to have skills."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Azure Firewall, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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