We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks PA-Series and Sophos XG 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."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."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"I really like the captive portal feature for our guest network. It has nice VLAN features in terms of separating our network. The anti-virus is also good."
"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."
"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"Palo Alto blocks the new threats better than other tools."
"Palo Alto Networks firewalls offer single-mode panel processing with live scanning."
"The cloud-based aspect helps significantly. It integrates seamlessly with other Palo products like Prisma Cloud, offers robust VPN protection, and it's all in one convenient package."
"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"It has its own logging system. You can go to monitoring and check the logs to see if a connection is getting blocked. You can use multiple types of logs to check if a file or a port is getting blocked or if there are any TCP resets from the source or destination. It's easy to troubleshoot with the monitoring and logging it provides."
"It offers application-based policy enforcement. Palo Alto Networks firewalls help us recognize protocol anomalies, contrasting with other vendors that may require policies based on port numbers. With Palo Alto Networks, the port number isn't a constraint because their devices handle protocol traffic at Layer 7, allowing for accurate identification of protocol usage and port numbers. They can identify which protocol actually uses which port."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The solution is used for security and IoT security."
"I like the fact that it can self remove malware and do updates on the cloud via Sophos Central."
"It is very user friendly and easy to manage from the administrative point of view. It is good, reliable, and easy to implement."
"All of the features are amazing, especially Sandstorm, which prevents bad traffic or downloaded files from reaching our customers' and partners' networks."
"The most useful aspect of the solution is the concept of integrated security."
"The solution was able to be integrated well with exciting hardware and software and in multiple business sectors."
"The solution's most valuable feature stems from its ability to protect our organization's web servers."
"The solution's technical support is good."
"The product is very easy to explore. It has a very good layout."
"The support we receive when we need to upgrade is not satisfactory and has room for improvement."
"The visibility of the network can be better. The GUI can be improved for better visibility of the network flow. Other solutions have better GUI in terms of network visibility."
"They've become quite expensive."
"There aren't really any negative aspects to discuss."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."
"The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"The support provided by the solution is not that good."
"There is room for improvement in streamlining this process for smoother transitions."
"The UI definitely needs work. In my opinion, the UI could be simpler and more user-friendly for the average user."
"As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers."
"The product's high prices are an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet."
"The technical support offered by Palo Alto is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The web interface is slow."
"When you are using it as a controller for the wireless access points, it doesn't perform well. It is not suitable for the public cloud. It is more suitable for enterprise data. It is not really the equipment for cloud data centers. I am looking for a data center firewall."
"I think that the main area for improvement is the quality assurance of the updates."
"Technical support is difficult to access."
"It is performing well. However, the only challenges that we are facing are the effectiveness with blocking the proxy and tuneling applications, aside from proxy and similar applications. So the application filter on the product is not really performing 100%. Every now and then there are some updates that are happening on such applications, and it takes time until it gets the appropriate updates and becomes capable of capturing such applications and blocking them. A new feature I would really like to see would be some sort of an enhanced application filter with greater efficiency when it comes to the applications that can bypass firewall policies. These applications are really a nightmare. Once they are on the network and not detected, or the appliance is not really successful in capturing them and unblocking them, the bandwidth gets wasted all the time."
"Its price should be improved. It should be cheaper."
"The time taken by Sophos XG's support team to respond to and resolve an issue is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The solution should have the ability to be up to date with the most recent threats."
"When I call, I have to wait at least one to two hours to reach them."
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is rated 8.6, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series writes "Offers trained customer support, stability and ease of use ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is most compared with OPNsense, SonicWall NSa, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX. See our Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs. Sophos XG report.
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