We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG had similar user ratings regarding ease of deployment, service and support, and ROI. In terms of features, each software has its pros and cons. Fortinet FortiGate offers some great features, but it is a little more complex and needs better reporting. Sophos XG provides a stable, complete firewall solution, but it fails to integrate well with other products, and the SD-WAN needs improvement. Sophos XG was the better option for pricing, as they offer flexible pricing based on region.
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The solution is very user friendly. The user interface in particular is quite nice."
"It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."
"The most valuable feature is the policy routing and application control."
"This solution does everything and anything a firewall can do."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the flexibility of it, it's pretty versatile."
"Definitely, its usability is very good, and it's a very robust firewall."
"The installation is easy. There is a wizard that can be used for a single connection making it simple and if you have multiple connections you can configure it manually."
"So far, I'm happy that they have recently added a firewall role, so I feel a little more comfortable with the security. The threat management is good."
"Sophos is easy to use."
"The firewall feature of Sophos XG has been the most effective for threat prevention."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"Sophos XG could improve by coming out with more innovative feature developments."
"SD-WAN can be improved."
"There have been some issues when upgrading. For some reason, parts of the configuration become unconfigured, I then have to reconfigure it. I should not need to keep reconfiguring it after upgrades."
"XG is at its end of life. People are moving to XGS."
"They need to improve the SD-WAN feature."
"I can't use the product's application control feature, making it a disadvantage of the solution where improvements are required."
"Support for this product is something that is really important, and it needs to improve."
"While it is possible to configure between two of the solution's devices in the same model, the high available usually fails."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Check Point NGFW and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG report.
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Go with Sophos XG or if you have tight budget and technical expertise then can move with pFsense.
Dear Sharif.
For 150 users any firewall will work perfectly. You can choose as per your convenience, availability, price, and better implementation partner in your region. Keep a bigger box at the central location and configure SD-WAN. SOPHOS has by default SD WAN. Make sure you have secure access to the cloud and all endpoints should have endpoint protection else only firewall will not help.
Most of the cloud service providers work on any-any rule because their responsibility is network uptime and availability. Security of your setup is your responsibility.
Manageability is better in Fortinet however features are better in SOPHOS. License bundle & ATP functions are are good in SOPHOS. Support response is good in SOPHOS but you will find less tickets in FORTINET once it is implemented as per your setup.
Overall both are good for your setup. You can choose as per convenience.
Hope this will help.. Greetings .. Ravi
In my opinion, the first point of strength is the support, and FortiGate is doing a great job in terms of support. It has numerous reference guides for configuration. The other advantage is ease of management in both the UI and CLI levels. You can use FortiGate modules to protect against web and virus attacks.
Hello Sharif,
I prefer FortiGate SDWAN Devices (FortiGate) even though we also deliver Sophos to our clients.
The decentralized FortiGate devices work as firewalls with an excellent security ecosystem. FortiGate and most other items work as Hardware units or on virtual machines.
As a Telco company we have a lot of companies working in different industries with various requirements. We can support them all with FortiGate.
Our customers prefer the security features, the stable ecosystem for life cycle management, for device/user/policy management, thread detection & prevention, intrusion prevention, sandboxing, ... the low operation effort to build a stable company network that supports the need of any customer size.
In our business, we also like that the architecture of a company network can be easily changed if the customer requirements change. From single-line sites to Data Centers with high availability and Cloud integration FortiGate can be used in any design.
The different security features that can be added by the license are powerful and integrated into the management dashboard. Updates of protection mechanisms against new threads happen automatically as soon as a new protection mechanism is available when new threads occur. The security team at Fortinet is excellent.
Greetings
Andre
Hi, XG is EOL the new series is XGS, both are excellent equipment but I prefer Fortigate, why ??? DHCP slection, leader SD-WAN, many IPSEC dynamics is possible on SOPHOS but is limit the are conflicts with many IP's dynamics you need to use DDNS, SSL tunnel for remote clients, VRF, advanced routing with OSPF and BGP ("as path"). Greetings