We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall 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."Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
"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 CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"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."
"It's very easy to configure."
"Our security improved from being able to put in rules and close off unwanted traffic."
"Cisco's engineer helped us with a lot of scripting to see what existed. Previously, we didn't have a proper policy. In fact, we didn't have any policy because we didn't have any firewall for the data center, so generating a policy was a big challenge. Cisco's engineer helped us to do some scripting and find out what kind of policy we can have and organize those policies. That was nice."
"VPN load balancing has been particularly essential for my connections to integrate via multiple time zones."
"Stability is perfect. I haven't had any problems."
"The ASA 55-x range is a solid and reliable firewall. It secures the traffic for normal purposes."
"The technical support is excellent. I would rate it as 10 out of 10. When there has been an issue, we have had a good response from them."
"There are some hiccups here and there, but compared to the technical support from other vendors, I have had the best experience with Cisco's technical support. I would rate them at nine out of ten."
"It is a very stable product. I've not had any issues with it. It is a super product, and I won't need to change it anytime soon."
"If only a Layer 4 FW is needed, this is a good solution."
"The DPI-SSL is the solution's most valuable aspect. It's handy."
"The most valuable feature is the sandbox."
"We can do the hosting and security all under one box. The UTM is a good feature."
"Support is usually good when it comes to helping with issues."
"With the deployment of the SonicWall NSA solution, we never suffered a problem due to invasion or contamination of any kind."
"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."
"Easy to scale solution that provides advanced threat protection. Their technical support is very good, very knowledgeable, and easy to reach."
"It is a brilliant product. It is a Unified Threat Management (UTM) system. It has got about 11 security services that take care of your perimeter security. It takes care of any kind of cyber threats that could come in. It takes care of creating VPNs between two SonicWalls instantly and very easily. It has got spyware in it as well as a firewall. It has also got a gateway antivirus and an application firewall that can block things from outside."
"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"I need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it."
"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"With regards to stability, we had a critical bug come out during our evaluation... not good."
"Antivirus features must be integrated for end user security."
"I think that the solution can be improved with the integration of application-centric infrastructure. It could be used to have better solutions in one box."
"We use the FTD management platform for the boxes. The GUI that manages multiple Firepower boxes could be improved so that the user experience is better."
"The virtual firewalls don't work very well with Cisco AnyConnect."
"In terms of next-generation capabilities, Cisco is a little behind, and it is way behind the market leaders."
"If Cisco could stop rebranding, combine all the CLIs/GUIs, and give a consistent experience, this would be great."
"Security must be increased when a new user connects over the LAN and an alarm must be generated."
"The stability is not there. The features are there, but they are not stable. They need to improve on this product because I feel that they have launched this product without much R&D."
"In terms of improvement, features like App Control do not work properly"
"I'd like to see integration with Microsoft 365 for authentication."
"Vendor support needs improvement. The frequency of time and support should be increased."
"The problem primarily with SonicWall is it's a Unix box. And it's all software, all the activities, blocking, censoring, everything has to happen in the software. If you start hitting the box with a lot of sessions it slows down and that's not what I expect from a firewall."
"We have security as a service, and they make recommendations about adding to the denylist and other things. That part could be more accessible and more user-friendly. I'd like to see SonicWall add a user-friendly interface where our internal team can drag and drop everything."
"The cloud services may be in need of some improvement."
"Overall, Im satisfied with SonicWall NSa, but it would be better if they could add a small terminal to each device. This would help me deal with certain issues by running a small bot onto any PC."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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 NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Huawei NGFW, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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