We performed a comparison between SonicWall NSA and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Sophos XG’s single pane of glass makes it easy for users to manage the entire solution from anywhere. The solution is very light, stable, and provides excellent real-time control. Many users have experienced stability issues with SonicWall NSa. They feel it can be a bit buggy, resulting in occasional freeze-ups and downtime. The solution does not scale easily.
"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"Fortinet has a very good solution for Secure SD-WAN. One very good feature is that they have robust and simple FortiOS through which they provide all solutions. That's their strength. There's not much complexity involved with the Secure SD-WAN solution of Fortinet as compared to Cisco's solution, which has a lot of flexibility but complexity also comes with that flexibility."
"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"Fortinet FortiGate's reliability is valuable."
"It can expand easily."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"It is useful for protecting and segregating the internal networks from the internet. Most of our customers also use the FortiGate client to connect to their offices by using the VPN client, and of course, they usually activate the antivirus, deep inspection, and intrusion prevention services. They are also using it for web filtering and implementing various policies dealing with forwardings, NAT, etc."
"We like the features, but the main thing is from a commercial and cost perspective it is very good."
"SonicWall NSA is easy to deploy, easy to maintain, and easy to configure."
"Setup is easy. Anyone with basic firewall experience can do it."
"The stability is better than other products."
"SonicWall has all the usual functions, like LAN configurations, security features, word filters, etc., but it also has the CFS agent, which isn't available in any other firewall. Reporting port support is also there."
"Easy to setup and implement"
"The product is working okay. The product is working feature-wise."
"It allows us to block applications, i.e., websites by application type category. It is far more capable than content filtering alone."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XG are the ease of management and good out-of-the-box reporting."
"Most of the features Sophos XG has are valuable. However, if I have two different ISP, I'm able to create an automatic switch between the two ISPs. I can do the same thing for the cloud as well. If I have two subnets coming from the cloud, I'm able to create a type of switch between both of them where if there is traffic on one and has the traffic drop, I'm able to switch to the other ISP without any problems. It's a normal feature and I get to enjoy the ability to switch between services with no issues."
"As a security solution, it's a very good security solution."
"I have found the solution easy to use and fully integrated."
"I recommend the solution due to its ease of use and pricing."
"The product’s most valuable feature is the user management system."
"Sophos XG Firewall is very usable, very easy to install, and very user friendly."
"Sophos XG protects our network from advanced threats."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"The pricing could always be better."
"This product could be improved with Active directory integration and better handling in IPsec and GRE Tunnels."
"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 still get phishing emails that manage to come through from time to time."
"SonicWall NSa's reporting could be improved."
"The content filter needs to be improved."
"We also need to increase the throughput because the other devices are slower. The throughput will become slow. Since we're using VoIP, it tends to affect the voice quality. Even if you're using a quality service, it tends to decrease."
"The web interface administration of SonicWall NSa could be improved. Compared to Sophos and FortiGate, making rules is easier with those systems."
"The cost could be lower. There could also be more flexibility for smaller companies."
"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."
"Sophos XG could improve by making the remote access and VPN better."
"It is complicated to get the reports if you are not experienced with Sophos."
"I am using the Azure Active Directory in my company and it was complicated to integrate this solution with Azure."
"The UI needs improvement because it can be a little weird at times."
"I would like to see in future releases a tool to scan for malicious packets and give the location of where they are coming from."
"In the product, the area revolving around SD-WAN has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
"I'd like the dashboard to be improved. It could be a bit more customizable."
"Integration with Active Directory is not reliable."
SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ and Untangle NG Firewall. See our SonicWall NSa vs. Sophos XG report.
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