We performed a comparison between Check Point NGFW and Cisco Secure Firewall based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Check Point users are happier with its VPN and with its pricing. However, Cisco Secure users are happier with its service and support.
"SSL-VPN is very useful for us and has been very reliable."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
"Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
"Fortinet FortiGate has many valuable features, such as IDS, and intrusion detection. It has security features that are in part with the technologies that are available in the market."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
"The network security and cloud security are most valuable."
"We never had an outage of the appliances or the consoles. Stability is very strong. I never had a problem related to stability."
"I like the Next-Generation Firewall."
"Check Point's most useful feature is threat prevention and extraction. It was tough to manage seven firewalls and a perimeter solution for IPS, anti-malware, anti-bot, and sandboxing."
"It filters unwanted traffic."
"I love the redesigned interface starting with R80 as well as the ability for multiple engineers to work on the policy simultaneously."
"Check Point has given us the ability to comply with regulations and with capacities in a way that we never could before."
"On the firewall side, the security efficacy is good."
"The performance has been very good."
"The high-availability and remote VPN features are most valuable."
"Its ability to work with the traffic."
"We have been using a 5520 for seven years in our datacenter and we are satisfied by this version."
"The initial setup was not complex."
"The most valuable feature is that it's secure."
"Unfortunately in Cisco, only the hardware was good."
"It is scalable and stable."
"All the features except IPS are valuable. IPS is not a part of my job."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."
"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"I would like to see improvements in the support from Fortinet. Here in the Philippines, whenever we have problems with a Fortinet product, we mostly ask for support from distributors and resellers and not directly from Fortinet."
"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"I would like to see Check Point add more cloud management features and better integration with LAN software-defined networking."
"The training for Check Point Firewall should increase, including the number of Training Centers. For most new people in our organization, we have to provide them training from our end, as they are not trained in Check Point Firewalls. So, we have to do the training, from our point of view, to make our engineers able to use Check Point Firewalls. However, with other firewalls, they are already trained, so we are not require to provide them training. This could be improved by the Check Point Community."
"It would be nice to add more features to the WatchTower app to be able to perform certain administrative functions without the need for local access."
"The product could provide an easier user interface and management, by combining all functions (network and policy configuration) into one single application rather than split it into different applications."
"I would highlight the need for enhancements in technical support services."
"The source package is a bit more expensive than its competitors."
"We need east/west Check Point firewalls in order to do micro-segmentation."
"Sometimes we need to find a resolution by ourselves as the solution's knowledge base is not enough."
"For the new line of FTDs, the performance could be improved. We sometimes have issues with the 41 series, depending what we activate. If we activate too many intrusion policies, it affects the CPU."
"The solution has not had any layer upgrades. It does not have layer five and upwards, it only has up to layer four. This has caused some problems for us."
"The stability is not the best."
"I would like to see more configurable feature parity with Cisco ASA, which is the legacy product that Cisco is moving away from. When configuring remote access VPN, not all of the options are there. You have to download another tool, which means that the configuration takes a little bit longer with Cisco Secure Firewall. Though it's getting there, there are still some features lagging behind."
"The ASA has become a bit old and needs updating."
"MSSP oriented interface: I would like a single console which would allow me to manage settings creating consistency across all customers."
"We don't have any serious problems. The firewall models that we have are quite legacy, and they have slower performance. We are currently investigating the possibility of migrating to next-generation firewalls."
"The price and SD-WAN capabilities are the areas that need improvement."
Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 276 reviews while Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews. Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8, while Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Azure Firewall and OPNsense, whereas Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and OPNsense. See our Check Point NGFW vs. Cisco Secure Firewall report.
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