Compare SonicWall NSA vs. Sophos UTM
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Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros | ||
"This solution has good security, and it's a good product. You can trust Cisco, and there's support as well, which is really good." "The greatest benefit for the organization is the confidence that we are secured." "Its ability to discover attacks is a valuable feature. All of the other features that have to do with security are good." "I haven't had any major problems so I haven't had to open a ticket with technical support." "The IPS (In-plane switching) is the most valuable feature." "I like the user interface because the navigation is very easy, straightforward on your left side pane you have all the sites that you need to browse. Unlike any other firewalls, it's pretty straightforward." "We have multiple secure internal networks linked with our plants. We are from a oil company, so we have multiple plant areas which need to have restricted network access. Therefore, we are using it for restricting access to the plant area." "The initial setup was completely straightforward." | "Our old firewall was running as HA (High Availability) on two different but identical rack mounted servers. Moving to SonicWall allowed the company to move to one unit, yet accommodate more connections because it had sixteen ports and handled fail-over better than the old firewall solution." "I really like the performance; there are no delays and no latency, which is a unique quality in firewalls nowadays." "With the deployment of the SonicWall NSA solution, we never suffered a problem due to invasion or contamination of any kind." "It allows us to block applications, i.e., websites by application type category. It is far more capable than content filtering alone." "Support has improved dramatically since their separation from Dell." "Setup is easy. Anyone with basic firewall experience can do it." "The most valuable features are that it is reasonably-priced and works well." "The most valuable feature is the Global Management System." | "The most valuable feature is the IPS. It also protects us from malware." "Sophos UTM has improved the porting section. It has improved security by seeing the gaps. For example, when you discover that an entry has been using a certain application, with Sophos UTM acting as a Layer 7 firewall, you can block the application, not the port." "The features that I've known to be most valuable are both the web security features as well as the web firewall capabilities. As a partner of Sophos firewall, we have some clients and they are using Sophos firewall UTM and we are using it as well." "Configuration troubleshooting is eased by the use of the color-coded, live firewall log." "It allows me to easily connect with more than forty-five remote sites and more than fifty remote users between IPsec and SSL VPN, applying the web filter and application filter to ensure a secure connection." "We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers." "I would recommend UTM over XG because it's easier to manage." "It is a very good product. The threat monitoring process is the most valuable feature." |
Cons | ||
"The phishing emails could be improved." "There may have been one or two incidences of malicious threats." "Some of the features, like the stability, need to be improved." "In the past though, colleagues have had issues during the upgrade process. The failover didn't work and production was down." "At times the product is sluggish and slow" "If I need to download AnyConnect in a rush, it will prompt me for my Cisco login account. Nobody wants to download a client to a firewall that they don't own." "Most of the time, when I try to run Java, it is not compatible with ASA's current operating systems." "We have to rely on Cisco ASDM to access the firewall interface. This needs improvement. Because we have a web-based interface, and it is a lot more user-friendly." | "I feel that the SSL VPN client software needs a lot of improvement." "The cloud services may be in need of some improvement." "This product is unable to secure access to endpoints for our external employees." "The anti-spam requires a specific Java version on the server side (do not update it, otherwise it will break)." "They are not ready for managed security services. Their Cloud GMS product is weak, barely out of beta (buggy)." "Do not even consider NetExtender - probably one of the most horrific, nightmare grade Java-based VPN clients. We have but all given up trying to make it work reliably." "I would like U.S.-based technical support." "Having to deal with too many lower-level people in technical support means that it takes longer to resolve issues, so escalating support tickets should be faster." | "The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing." "With Sophos UTM, there is a general rule in the firewall when the country blocking can block some countries from accessing your data. In the current version, you still need to add it by putting in the IP range. This feature would be helpful for administrators and it gives them the advantage to block stuff in less time." "The only time we face a problem or issues is when we place a ticket. We have found that response is very slow." "Support for IKEv2 is needed in this solution." "I would like to see the SD-WAN feature improved." "We would like to have unique viewable IDs for rules and in the packet filter logfile, for easier debugging of old log files." "It's stable, but the reaction time of the GUI is terrible." "Sophos should be more user-friendly, have more dashboards, and an easier implementation." |
Pricing and Cost Advice | ||
"Pricing is high, but it is essentially a corporate decision." "Licensing is expensive compared to other solutions." "The cost is a big factor for us. This is why we are using it only in our restricted area. They are very much higher than their competitors in the market." "We paid about $7,000 for the Cisco firewall, plus another small Cisco router and the lead switch. It was under the combined license. It's a final agreement." "Watch out for hidden licensing and incredibly high annual maintenance costs." "I bought a license for three years and it was really affordable." "With AnyConnect, it depends on your license. It depends on the number of concurrent users you want to connect." "This solution might be expensive, but it is economical in the long run." | "Considering the market, I believe that the price of this solution is great." "In our evaluation, we found that the costs of deploying the solution, and also purchasing the hardware and licenses, were very attractive." "Licensed features provide application control, content filtering, antivirus, and anti-malware all in a single appliance." "The CPUs are not able to compete with a similar price point to the Fortinet, WatchGuard, or Palo Alto product." "A firewall doing anti-spam might be a low cost solution, but it is not your best strategy." "You need their analyzer to properly generate reports. This is an expensive, licensed feature, with a complex application or appliance back-end." "If you want to connect more than five concurrent users by VPN then you have to pay an additional fee." "SonicWall is a one-time purchase and there is no renewal license." | "This solution is less expensive than FortiGate." "It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget." "We pay for the service on a yearly basis. The last time we paid was in June, for a year. At the time, it was about $20,000." "Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis." "It's reasonably priced." |
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Questions from the Community | ||
Top Answer: Cisco FW for peace of mind Top Answer: They provide DDoS protection and multi-factor authentication. That is a good option as it enables work-from-home… more » Top Answer: In terms of costs, other solutions are more expensive than Cisco. Palo Alto is more expensive than Cisco. | Top Answer: Both have some unique features and per my experience with both the vendors, Sophos has more features, functionalities… more » | Top Answer: In my opinion and as a result of years of experience:
- Both are great firewalls with excellent performance and a… more » Top Answer: One other big difference is that pfSense is FreeBSD based while Sophos UTM is linux based. It is also worth having a… more » |
Popular Comparisons | ||
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Also Known As | ||
| Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Cisco ASA, Adaptive Security Appliance, ASA, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv | NSA 250M, NSA 2600, NSA 3600, NSA 4600, NSA 5600, Dell SonicWALL NSA | Astaro |
Learn | ||
| Cisco | SonicWall | Sophos |
Overview  | ||
Cisco ASA firewalls deliver enterprise-class firewall functionality with highly scalable and flexible VPN capabilities to meet diverse needs, from small/branch offices to high performance data centers and service providers. Available in a wide range of models, Cisco ASA can be deployed as a physical or virtual appliance. Flexible VPN capabilities include support for remote access, site-to-site, and clientless VPN. Also, select appliances support clustering for increased performance, VPN load balancing to optimize available resources, advanced high availability configurations, and more. Cisco ASAv is the virtualized version of the Cisco ASA firewall. Widely deployed in leading private and public clouds, Cisco ASAv is ideal for remote worker and multi-tenant environments. The solution scales up/down to meet performance requirements and high availability provides resilience. Also, Cisco ASAv can deliver micro-segmentation to protect east-west network traffic. Cisco firewalls provide consistent security policies, enforcement, and protection across all your environments. Unified management for Cisco ASA and FTD/NGFW physical and virtual firewalls is delivered by Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO), with cloud logging also available. And with Cisco SecureX included with every Cisco firewall, you gain a cloud-native platform experience that enables greater simplicity, visibility, and efficiency. Learn more about Cisco’s firewall solutions, including virtual appliances for public and private cloud. | Achieve a deeper level of security with the SonicWALL Network Security Appliance (NSA) Series of next-generation firewalls. NSA Series appliances integrate automated and dynamic security capabilities into a single platform, combining the patented, SonicWALL Reassembly Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) firewall engine with a powerful, massively scalable, multi-core architecture. Now you can block even the most sophisticated threats with an intrusion prevention system (IPS) featuring advanced anti-evasion capabilities, SSL decryption and inspection, and network-based malware protection that leverages the power of the cloud. | The global network of highly skilled researchers and analysts, protecting businesses from known and emerging malware - viruses, rootkits and spyware. |
Offer | ||
Learn more about Cisco ASA Firewall | Learn more about SonicWall NSA | Learn more about Sophos UTM |
Sample Customers | ||
| There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow. | Orange County Rescue Mission, First Source, Michaels & Taylor, Green Clinic Health System, Aspire Chiltern Skills and Enterprise Centre, UnitedStack, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, Celtic Manor Resort, Star Kay White, Air Works, Unimat Life, NHS Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support (YHCS), Hutt City Council, Mato Grosso do Sul, Nspyre | One Housing Group |
Top Industries | ||
Financial Services Firm17% Comms Service Provider14% Manufacturing Company10% Computer Software Company7% Comms Service Provider34% Computer Software Company22% Media Company5% Government5% | Manufacturing Company19% Educational Organization13% Non Tech Company6% Mining And Metals Company6% Comms Service Provider27% Computer Software Company19% Government5% Educational Organization5% | Manufacturing Company17% Comms Service Provider9% Financial Services Firm9% Healthcare Company9% Comms Service Provider37% Computer Software Company20% Media Company6% Government5% |
Company Size | ||
Small Business36% Midsize Enterprise25% Large Enterprise39% Small Business28% Midsize Enterprise21% Large Enterprise51% | Small Business69% Midsize Enterprise14% Large Enterprise17% | Small Business59% Midsize Enterprise24% Large Enterprise17% Small Business49% Midsize Enterprise38% Large Enterprise13% |
Find out what your peers are saying about SonicWall NSA vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
455,301 professionals have used our research since 2012.
SonicWall NSA is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 22 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 16 reviews. SonicWall NSA is rated 7.8, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSA writes "A rugged solution capable of defeating advanced threats". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "Has a solid state hard drive and can boot in less than sixty seconds". SonicWall NSA is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, Meraki MX, SonicWall TZ, WatchGuard Firebox and Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with pfSense, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos XG, OPNsense and Meraki MX. See our SonicWall NSA vs. Sophos UTM report.
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