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Subgerente de Tecnologías de la Información at ETAPA EP
Real User
Good VPN and access control features, and it's stable,
Pros and Cons
  • "The configuration is one of the best features of this product."
  • "The only reasons we are looking at other solutions are price and integration."

What is our primary use case?

We use Check Point for VPN access for all employees, as a rule. We also used it as a filter, a firewall, and it's the front line of our access to the Internet.

It has VPN access for our employees and it controls access, barring intrusion for non-authorized access.

What is most valuable?

The URL filter is activated to filter access to our employees. We use filtering for VPN access.

The configuration is one of the best features of this product.

When this product was purchased approximately 12 years ago it was the top of the line.

The product has been working very well.

I don't have any issues with the software of this solution. It works as is expected.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see more integration with other infrastructures. We are considering Cisco because it is more integrated, and the network limits of the solution are better.

Recently, we experience a problem with the hardware because it was too old, it was blocked. The hardware failed, but the software did not. With older hardware, it is a problem because our network is growing every year. The solution is not at maximum performance. 

It does not have the performance that we require. The network is not the same as it was 12 years ago. There are several logs.

We are looking for a cheaper product that is more integrated than our Cisco Network appliance.

It may also need to support other types of architecture.

The only reasons we are looking at other solutions are price and integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

Check Point was installed in the company approximately 12 years ago.

Buyer's Guide
Check Point NGFW
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Check Point NGFW. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
859,687 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are a company with 1,200 employees, and approximately 700 are using this solution.

How was the initial setup?

We have five HP Servers, and we have a cluster in different geographic locations. 

Check Point has been installed in an HP-certified server. It is not an appliance, it is an HP Server.

We have one or two professionals who work on the platform.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is not a cheap solution, which is why we are looking for another one.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are currently evaluating new firewall solutions because the Check Point that we have was installed approximately 12 years ago, and wanted to change to a next-generation firewall.

What other advice do I have?

The HP Server works fine without any maintenance, but it needs to be taken care of. We did not, which caused a disk to fail. We have one or maybe two that are working. I don't have any complaints about the HP Server. It was sized for that network load at that time.

I would rate Check Point a ten out of ten. It works as expected.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1613238 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Real User
Great mobile access with good security and excellent stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The AntiSpam/Mail blade was also one of the main reasons we went with this product since we hosted our email server locally. This was an extra layer of protection on top of the existing solution."
  • "It would be ideal to manage everything from one central place."

What is our primary use case?

It's our main firewall and the first line of protection from the outside! We use it to interconnect our remote locations (that use different vendors and equipment) and let the employees work remotely.

We're a small site with 300 users and this equipment is more than enough for us. We use almost all the blades and the equipment has run smoothly for years.

This NGFW monitors all the traffic outside of the main network, prevents malicious activities, and lets us easily manage network policies to shape our connections.

How has it helped my organization?

Stability and security are the best way to describe this solution. The attacks from the outside still exist, but now we're better protected. We can view everything that goes in and out of our network with all the information in one place. The drill-down is very helpful and easy to use. Currently, we can troubleshoot connection problems live and solve them in a couple of minutes. This is an improvement on the 1-2 hours with the old solution.

In 4 years we've only had one problem with the equipment (due to a malfunctioning UPS). That corrupted the boot of the equipment, but was easily solved with an fsck.

What is most valuable?

We basically use almost all the blades, since the IPS, Threat Emulation, Spam, etc., are essential for our work. However, currently, Mobile Access is the most valuable. The stability of the solution and the security it gives when working remotely is great. It lets our employees work from everywhere, anytime!

The AntiSpam/Mail blade was also one of the main reasons we went with this product since we hosted our email server locally. This was an extra layer of protection on top of the existing solution.

Threat and Application control are also very important to us.

What needs improvement?

I do prefer to manage everything from only one point of entry/one application. Some things can only be configured from the smart console and others from the smart dashboard. This is the only handicap in this solution. It would be ideal to manage everything from one central place.

Instead of using a windows application to manage the equipment, it would be better to use a web app to configure the solution from a browser.  I know that it's not as powerful (you can't do everything from there), but then we could manage the solution and troubleshoot from any device.

It's faster to see the event logs on a webpage than it is to see them in the smart console.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for 4 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. It's also the main reason I love the solution.

During this time i never had to manually restart the equipment because of connectivity problems or because of CPU/memory degradation performance. Sometimes these values get high, but i never lose Throughtput, the equipment continues to run smoothly. We used to restart our older firewall at least 2 times per month.

In the beginning, because we use the spam blade, the memory usage was always high, and the administration was a little bit slow. But Checkpoint provided us an extra memory upgrade and after that we never had administration problems. If we don't have internet connection it's allways the ISP, it was never because of the firewall.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Although I only have one unit, I know that it scales perfectly.

How are customer service and technical support?

We only had one problem with this equipment. That was because it couldn't boot properly due to disk corruption (malfunction UPS), however, searching the technical Check Point forums it was easy to find a solution to the problem at hand.

We managed to solve the problem without contacting customer service at all.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to have Zyxel products, but they were aging and couldn't let us connect at faster speeds.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy. It didn't take long to have it up and running.

The only concern for us was the remote sites - since it was different vendors. However, we had everything documented and prepared and due to that, it went flawlessly.

It was also easy to create access policies.

What about the implementation team?

The implementation was through a vendor, and the installation went really well. The consultant was Check Point certified and explained everything in detail.

Later on, we added new remote sites to the configuration (in-house) without any problem. We didn't need to check with the vendor.

What was our ROI?

It's not easy to calculate, however, given the stability and security of the solution, it's elevated. There are no bulletproof solutions. That said, now we can rest a bit more because our assets are more protected than they were a couple of years ago.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The setup cost, pricing, and licensing can be a bit expensive, but, I promise, it's completely worth the cost.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I evaluated Fortinet and Check Point.

What other advice do I have?

It simply works like a charm. The stability and trust in the vendor are also very important to us.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Check Point NGFW
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Check Point NGFW. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
859,687 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1602702 - PeerSpot reviewer
TitleManager - Datacenter IT at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Reliable with a great re-designed interface with excellent policy management
Pros and Cons
  • "I love the redesigned interface starting with R80 as well as the ability for multiple engineers to work on the policy simultaneously."
  • "Check Point solutions have always been more complex to deploy than their competitors."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use of the solution is as an enterprise perimeter firewall in our data centers. We also use software blades for IPS/IDS functions as well. We have a combination of enterprise-grade firewalls like the 15000 and16000 series as well as mid-size versions like the 5000 and 6000 series which are for specific segment isolation or other purposes. The software blades are running on HP servers. Management is done via 5150 appliances. 5000 and 6000 series appliances are primarily used for segment isolation while the larger appliances are used for perimeter security.

How has it helped my organization?

We have been using Check Point firewalls as our main security devices for many years and thus have a strong level of expertise within the organization on implementing various features. We love the reliability and strong feature set of the firewall appliances and software blades. Managing policies with v80 and above is also much more streamlined. Troubleshooting events via logs makes identifying issues straightforward. We have multiple engineers working on policies at the same time, so the newer versions help simplify this tasks for us.

What is most valuable?

I love the redesigned interface starting with R80 as well as the ability for multiple engineers to work on the policy simultaneously. Policy management is simplified and the virtualization options help us to plan for future deployments in a much easier way. While we haven't tried out all the features available - like Sandblast, AntiBot, URL filtering, etc. - the fact that these are available to use is definitely a plus. We were able to use the IPS features, negating the deployment of an expensive standalone IPS solution.

What needs improvement?

Check Point solutions have always been more complex to deploy than their competitors. There may be multiple scenarios where we may need to engage support, however, the customer support is very good. There are certain features that are only possible from the command line (e.g. packet captures) and it would be good to integrate everything into the GUI to reduce the learning curve for newer engineers. Finally, it can be a costlier solution - especially for the smaller firewalls as compared to the competition. It would be beneficial to have more training options or documentation as well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for over 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is extremely stable. There have been a few software bugs that have caused some unwanted glitches but these were fixed with updates.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If the product is sized correctly in terms of appliances, then it is easy to scale. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The support is excellent and knowledgeable. The service offered sets them apart from the competition.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used Juniper SSG firewalls in the past and moved to Check Point due to the learning curve on the new JunOS deployments with the SRX firewalls.

How was the initial setup?

The setup required some planning and was slightly complex. The process requires good expertise on the product before deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We had an in-house team for deployment with active support from Check Point.

What was our ROI?

I don't have much detail on this.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Cisco ASA firewalls and Palo Alto devices as well as Juniper SRXs.

What other advice do I have?

Setup can be complex and it is very helpful to first plan the deployment before rushing into it. Use the support available to find out the best options to use.

We would love to have more training materials and/or courses available so that I can onboard engineers in a faster way.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Network security engineer at Fidelity Bank
Real User
Cisco dominated the African market until Check Point came along
Pros and Cons
  • "Check Point has a really cool GUI."
  • "The end-user VPN could be improved. It could benefit from some modification."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for permissions regarding access ports and services. We also use Check Point Remote Access VPN as an endpoint VPN. We use it for site-to-site configuration. 

All of the traffic that comes through our sites passes through our firewall. Basically, everyone, including our staff and clients, passes through our firewall. In other words, we have thousands of users using this solution.

How has it helped my organization?

The NGFW has helped our compliance to regulations authorities such as PCIDSS. It has has helped the bank create secure connections to vendors and third party service providers as well as remain stay protected from attacks and intrusion attempts.

What is most valuable?

The management of services, including forming access lists with the services we have, connecting servers to servers, permissions between servers and users — this is all great. In addition, Check Point has a really cool GUI.

What needs improvement?

The end-user VPN could be improved. It could benefit from some modification. 

The VPN timeout feature needs to be improved. When we try to connect to the VPN, it times out before we can even enter our user name and password. If you can't prove you are who you say you are within seven to ten seconds, it just kicks you out.

For how long have I used the solution?

1 year +

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Check Point has actually failed twice within the last year. The first failure was a disk failure. Check Point offers a software solution, they don't actually offer hardware. They will only provide you with the software and licenses. Because of this, when our disk failed, we had to wait for them to ship in some new hardware for us to fix the issue.

Aside from the disk failure issue, a month ago, our Check Point device froze. We don't exactly know what caused it to happen. It caused the entire organization to go down for about two to three hours until we found out that Check Point was not allowing anything to pass through. Our Check Point is clustered, so primarily it's supposed to have a failover feature. For some reason, the failover feature didn't work. When the primary gateway went down, it affected everyone.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We've not tried to expand Check Point. We have two sites. We have a primary site and a secondary site that is off-prem. For this reason, we planned big. We planned for a high amount of availability for our two sites. We use clusters of four gateways: two gateways are in one cluster, and another two gateways are in another cluster. If one goes down, it switches to the other. If the second goes down, it switches to the other DR site. We've got backups of everything. 

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very responsive. We have a vendor that acts as a buffer between us and Check Point. In our country, these companies all have a local vendor that pushes their product.

When we contacted our vendor, our vendor called Check Point and as they were talking, Check Point shipped the hard disk, to fix the issue I mentioned earlier. They just placed the order immediately, while we were still talking. We think that they knew that delivery was going to take about five days — it was actually very fast.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and deployment were straightforward. We deployed it with RADIUS servers;  it was not complex at all.

What about the implementation team?

From scratch to finish, deployment took about a month. It took this long because we had to convert all of our existing configurations from Cisco Firewall to Check Point. We had to get help from our vendor to do this. He had to manually convert each and every command from our existing Cisco device to Check Point — that took a while. This was the main reason that deployment took so much time.

The end-user VPN didn't take much time to deploy. Neither did the site-connecting with the VPN — that took a day or two to deploy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I think our licensing is on a yearly basis, but it could be every three years. Either way, it's not more than three years — that I am certain of.  

The pricing was actually what made us go for Check Point. Palo Alto was much more expensive. Check Point offers the same applications and features as Palo Alto for roughly a third of the price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Palo Alto, Cisco (which we were using), and we also evaluated Check Point — which we ended up with.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Check Point to others. We are still learning as we're just about a year into using it, but so far, the support and the solution in general has been good. I'd recommend Check Point, especially to users that are looking for an affordable solution. 

Check Point also has a great community. They have this community where users can go to share ideas. They also have great networks. 

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. Cisco dominated the African market until Check Point came along. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
AGM Cyber Security CoE at Bata Group
Real User
Flexible, provides good visibility, and it's easy to manage with a centralized dashboard
Pros and Cons
  • "It creates granular security policies based on users or groups to identify, block or limit the usage of web applications."
  • "Although Check Point provides annual updates to the Gaia platform, integration with other OEMs is difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution for complete protection against advanced zero-day threats with Threat Emulation and Threat Extraction. We also use:

  • NSS Recommended IPS to proactively prevent intrusions
  • Antivirus to identify and block malware
  • Anti-bot to detect and prevent bot damage
  • Anti-Spam to protect an organization's messaging infrastructure
  • Application Control to prevent high-risk application use
  • URL Filtering to prevent access to websites hosting malware
  • Identity Awareness to define policies for user and groups
  • Unified Policy that covers all web, applications, users, and machines
  • Logging and Status for proactive data analysis

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has improved the organization with respect to the following:

  • Simple implementation and operation
  • Central dashboard for managing branch firewalls
  • Easy measurement of security effectiveness and value to the organization
  • Proactive protection with the help of many inbuilt blades
  • SandBlast Threat Emulation and Extraction provides us zero-day protection from known and unknown threats in real-time 
  • Great visibility on the number of threats being blocked at the dashboard
  • Helps to clean traffic, both egress and ingress
  • A simplified URL filtering option is available for users with detailed granularity to map user/departments with respect to specific access
  • It does deep packet inspection for checking HTTPS traffic. There is a shift towards more use of HTTPS, SSL, and TLS encryption to increase Internet security. At the same time, files delivered into the organization over SSL and TLS represent a stealthy attack vector that bypasses traditional security implementations. Check Point Threat Prevention looks inside encrypted SSL and TLS tunnels to detect threats, ensuring users remain in compliance with company policies while surfing the Internet and using corporate data
  • It helps in the identification of C&C via Anti-Bot
  • It provides geolocation restrictions that may be imposed via IPS
  • Excellent Application Control for the administrator to manage the access for users
  • Secure remote access is configured with mobile access connectivity for up to five users, using the Mobile Access Blade. This license provides secure remote access to corporate resources from a wide variety of devices including smartphones, tablets, PCs, Mac, and Linux

What is most valuable?

We are using the Check Point Next-Generation Firewall to maximize protection through unified management, monitoring, and reporting. It has the following features:-

  • Antivirus: This stops incoming malicious files at the gateway, before the user is affected, with real-time virus signatures and anomaly-based protections.
  • IPS: The IPS software blade further secures your network by inspecting packets. It offers full-featured IPS with geo-protections and is constantly updated with new defenses against emerging threats.
  • AntiBot: It detects bot-infected machines, prevents bot damage by blocking both cyber-criminals Command and Control center communications, and is continually updated.
  • Application Control: It creates granular security policies based on users or groups to identify, block or limit the usage of web applications.
  • URL Filtering: The network admin can block access to entire websites or just pages within, set enforcements by time allocation or bandwidth limitations, and maintain a list of accepted and unaccepted website URLs.
  • Identity Awareness: This feature provides granular visibility of users, groups, and machines, enabling unmatched application and access control through the creation of accurate, identity-based policies.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see the provision of an industry-wide and global benchmark scorecard on leading standards such as ISO 27001, SOX 404, etc., so as to provide assurance to the board, and confidence with the IT team, on where we are and how much to improve and strive for the best.

Although Check Point provides annual updates to the Gaia platform, integration with other OEMs is difficult. This integration would be helpful in providing a full security picture across the organization. I am looking forward to the go-ahead of R81 with MITRE framework adoption in the future.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the Check Point NGFW for the last four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a very stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is highly scalable on cloud and does provide customers with lot of flexibility while performing the sizing of the appliance.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical Support needs improvement, especially the L1 engineers.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to this solution, we were using GajShield. However, due to limited visibility and support, we opted for a technical refresh and upgrade of products.

How was the initial setup?

Yes initial setup was complex as migration of policies from one OEM to another is a challenge. however we meticulously planned and completed the implementation in phases.

What about the implementation team?

Yes we took help of the Certified Vendor. Vendor support was good.

What was our ROI?

We did not calculate our ROI; however, it provides good visibility to us.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Check Point is competitively priced; however, there is an additional charge for the Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) and it is easy to understand.

My advice is to negotiate upfront with a support contract of between three and five years.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Palo Alto, Barracuda, and Fortinet.

What other advice do I have?

In summary, this is an excellent product and featured consistently in Gartner for the last 10 years. They have good R&D and support services across the globe. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user1543578 - PeerSpot reviewer
Works at Johnson Controls, Inc.
Real User
Easy to manage and use, affordable, with support that is knowledgeable and helpful
Pros and Cons
  • "The uncomplicated configuration ensures that mistakes are avoided and rules are easily audited."
  • "The one thing I have been continually asking for is a more robust certification process including self-paced study material similar to Cisco's Security certification track."

What is our primary use case?

Our branch offices and customer sites require Internet access for the on-site staff and remote access capabilities for after-hours and remote support.

The Check Point firewalls allow us to provide site-to-site VPN, client VPN, web/app filtering, and IPS functionalities.

Client VPN is leveraged by site staff due to the majority of our sites requiring 24-hour support and also allows centralized teams to remotely assist with multiple sites globally.

We also use these at locations to provide security when our stand-alone network requires connectivity to the customer's network.

How has it helped my organization?

Check Point's solution is both affordable and easy to manage for the small business applications that we utilize them for. Due to the great pricing and support, we can afford to deploy the firewalls in a high-availability solution providing greater uptime and less worry. 

The price point of their equipment also means that we can often purchase a more robust solution compared to some competitors and Check Point's inclusion of more advanced features, such as IPS, by default, is a great selling point.

What is most valuable?

We greatly appreciate the ease of configuring firewall policy ACL rules and how the seamless integration with VPN users and user groups provides the ability to granularly restrict access. The uncomplicated configuration ensures that mistakes are avoided and rules are easily audited.

Having the ability to set an expiration date for remote access VPN users simplifies the process and increases security by ensuring that stale accounts and not forgotten.

In general, we find that CheckPoint offers a great balance between ease of use and configurability.

What needs improvement?

The one thing I have been continually asking for is a more robust certification process including self-paced study material similar to Cisco's Security certification track. Not everyone can afford the time and money to attend the official in-person classes offered by Check Point. Even if someone was not interested in fully pursuing a certification, offering certification guides is often a method that IT professionals follow in order to learn about a specific topic and keep for reference.

An area that I sometimes find lacking is the information provided by the system when performing troubleshooting issues such as site-to-site VPN tunnels. The logs provide general information regarding what is happening but often, it leaves you wanting additional details. This also ties back into the lack of training and knowledge required to utilize the more advanced features of the command line.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Check Point NGFW for more than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have never had a device or software failure in the more than five years that we have been using Check Point devices. To date, we are extremely happy with the performance.

How are customer service and technical support?

The few times that we required customer service, they have been extremely helpful and knowledgeable. I would rate them on par with the other top-tier companies.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously utilized Cisco firewalls but the cost structure of the hardware, licensing, and support became prohibitive. Check Point offered a more robust solution at an affordable price point.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was extremely quick and easy, and the deployment time for a new site is often under a day.  

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price point and licensing was the main factor in moving away from Cisco and migrating all of our sites to Check Point. They offered more features for a lower cost than competitors, and the licensing model was easy to understand.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated NGFWs from Cisco, Palo Alto, and Fortinet in addition to the Check Point.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Chief Information Security Officer at Abcl
Real User
Top 20
Good support, flexible, scales well, and provides centralized policy management
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides access to the Internet for corporate resources in a secure manner."
  • "The firewall throughput or performance reduces drastically after enabling each module/blade."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use is to protect the organization from any kind of attack. It is able to isolate, secure, and control every device on the network at all times. Solutions should have the ability to block infected devices from accessing corporate data and assets.

It provides access to the Internet for corporate resources in a secure manner. Our resources are used to host applications and services that are accessible to end-users over the Internet.

It is used to provide required/limited access for third parties who want to connect to our corporate network. Access is granted based on application type and should be independent of port or protocol.

It provides next-generation protection including IPS/Web Filtering/SSL decryption and more. 

It offers centralized policy management capabilities for all firewalls.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution was able to provide access to our internet-based resources using our application/FQDN.

The license offers different modules for NGTP and SNBT. It provides multiple functionality or blades, which can be enabled on the firewall depending upon organizational requirements.

Other than stateful packet filtering with the NGTP license, it provides blades such as IPS/URL/VPN/Application Control/content awareness/Anti-Bot/Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam. With SNBT, it provides additional security using the SandBlast Threat Emulation and SandBlast Threat Extraction for Zero-day attacks in real-time.

Any file, before it reaches an endpoint, is executed in a virtual environment for analysis. Based on the verdict and configured policy, a decision will be made as to whether it should be delivered to the endpoint or not.

What is most valuable?

It provides the flexibility to use any module with the NGTP and SNBT license. Depending upon the requirements, the blades/module can be enabled on the firewall security gateway and it can be deployed easily.

In case SSL decryption or IPS need to be enabled on any security gateway, it is simple to do. We can go ahead and enable the module/blade and then create a policy, deploy it, and it will start to work.

It has a default five-user license for Mobile/SSL VPN, so the organization can check the solution any time or can even provide access to critical users on an as-needed basis, without getting the OEM involved, all on the same box.

For smaller organizations with the correct sizing of the appliance, they can use the full security solution on a single box. It will provide financial benefits along with reducing the cost of purchasing additional solutions or appliances. 

For example:

  • URL Filtering Module: It can replace the proxy solution for on-premises users with integration of application control and the Identity module. Active Directory access can be provided based on the User ID and the website or application.
  • SSL VPN or SSL decryptor, and more. 
  • Core assignment for each interface, which can be done using the CLI. If the administrator determines that a particular interface requires more compute, he can manually assign additional cores accordingly. This is done by enabling hyperthreading on the firewall. 
  • The policy can be copied from any security gateway and pasted onto another one.

What needs improvement?

This is a zone-based firewall, which differs from other firewall solutions available on the market. It changes the way the admin manages firewall policy. The administrator has to be careful while defining policy because it can lead to configuration errors, allowing unwanted access.

For example, if a user needs to access the internet on the HTTPS port, then the administrator has to create a policy as below, rather than using NAT for assigning the user's machine to a public IP.

Source: User machine
Destination: any
Port: HTTPS
Action: allow (for allowing the user's machine access)

This has to be done along with the below policy:

Source: User machine
Destination: Other Zone created on Firewall
Port: HTTPS
Action: block 

The two policies, together, mean that the user's machine will not be able to communicate with any other L3 Network created on the firewall.

The firewall throughput or performance reduces drastically after enabling each module/blade.

It does not provide for standalone configuration on the security gateway. Instead, you need to have a management server/smart console for managing it. This can be deployed on a dedicated server or can be deployed on the security gateway itself.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the Check Point NGFW for more than eight years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is very much stable and does not require frequent changes in architecture. The patch frequency is limited and it does not require frequent maintenance windows in terms of downtime.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This firewall is very much scalable. The introduction of Maestro has changed the concept of hyperscaling.  

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is excellent. The center is located in major cities in India along with the Check Point presales team.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not use another solution prior to this one. We have been using Check Point for a long time.

How was the initial setup?

During the initial setup, support is excellent. It is a well-known OEM and they have people ready to resolve any issue that should arise.

What about the implementation team?

Our in-house team deployed it with support from the OEM.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cost-wise, it cheaper than industry leaders such as Palo Alto. The licensing is straightforward; there are only three types of licenses that include NGFW, NGTP, and SNBT, so the organization can choose its license according to their requirements.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have evaluated solutions by Juniper, Cisco, and Palo Alto.

What other advice do I have?

Before implementing the security gateway, you need to be sure about the license and modules that you are going to enable. This includes determining the proper size, as it can affect throughput drastically after enabling each module. This is especially true for SSL decryption.

The architecture needs to be studied before finalizing, as the configuration is done remotely using the centralized smart console. All of the security gateways need to be connected to the management server for any policy configuration, and they should be available at all times.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Easy to control from the central management system, providing us time savings
Pros and Cons
  • "It is easy to control from the central management system. For example, if we have 10 firewalls, and we want to push that same configuration among them, we can use this solution's central management system to do that simultaneously. So, there is time saving in that way. The time savings does depend on the situation. For example, if I am running half an hour of work on each firewall, that will take around 300 minutes. However, if I do this work from the central management system, then it will only take 30 minutes to push the same configuration to those same 10 devices."
  • "While the logs are very good and easy to understand, when you want to download these customized logs, they don't have as many features compared to competitive firewalls."

What is our primary use case?

I work as an internal network team member. We protect the company environment from outside threats, outside viruses, and ransomware attacks. It is kind of an IT administrator job.

They are protecting internal security as well as giving us security from the outside world or public environment. 

How has it helped my organization?

It protects the environment. It gives advanced features to our company, like Antivirus, more granular security policies, and more control over the traffic, e.g., what we want to allow or deny to our environment. 

What is most valuable?

What I like about this firewall is it has a central management system. We can configure or monitor a number of firewalls at a time from the central management system. 

They have a logging system where we can have our logs visible. The logs are easy to view and understand. 

What needs improvement?

While the logs are very good and easy to understand, when you want to download these customized logs, they don't have as many features compared to competitive firewalls. 

Check Point has a very good Antivirus feature. However, compared to the competition in the market, it is lacking somewhere. In my last organization, I worked with Palo Alto Networks as well. I found that while they both have an antivirus feature, the Palo Alto antivirus feature is much better. Check Point should improve this feature. It is a good feature, but compared to Palo Alto, it lacks.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for the last three years, since 2017.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Check Point is already a very big name in the market. Our software updates, even the Antivirus updates, are very stable in the market. There are no problems with its stability.

Performing maintenance for a solution takes around 12 people. Maintenance is something that our team is capable of. Internally, we have had many training sessions on Check Point Firewall. Our seniors have managed that for us so we are capable of doing it. Most of our BAU is done by us.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is very easy. I haven't found anything that is the issue with the scalability of this firewall. If you have complete knowledge of it, the scalability is not tough.

How are customer service and technical support?

I used their assistance many times. The experience with them is sometimes very good. They give the best solution in a short amount of time. Two out of 10 times, I feel that they are only looking to close their tickets. They are keen to do that. My personal experience with the support is an eight out of 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We currently use Check Point and Cisco ASA. The purpose for the company is to increase the security. They were only using Cisco ASA Firewall, which is kind of a degrading firewall right now because it lacks many features, which are advanced in Check Point Firewall. With Cisco ASA, we need to purchase additional IPS hardware. But, for Check Point, we do not require that. Also, if we want the same configuration for multiple firewalls at a time, then Cisco ASA does not support that. We have to create the same policy in each firewall.

How was the initial setup?

We have our own on-premises firewalls, not cloud-based. The production time took around nine to 12 months' time. The setup was completed during this time.

We follow the three-tier architecture for this firewall, which is also recommended by Check Point. We have the central management device as well as the web console and firewall.

What about the implementation team?

For the deployment process, there were only four senior network engineers involved from our company.

What was our ROI?

It is easy to control from the central management system. For example, if we have 10 firewalls, and we want to push that same configuration among them, we can use this solution's central management system to do that simultaneously. So, there is time saving in that way. The time savings does depend on the situation. For example, if I am running half an hour of work on each firewall, that will take around 300 minutes. However, if I do this work from the central management system, then it will only take 30 minutes to push the same configuration to those same 10 devices.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

They sell it in one box. In that one box, they sell Antivirus and Threat Prevention. They have everything, so we are not required to purchase additional IPS hardware for it.

The cost of the pricing and licensing are okay. They are giving me a good product as far as I know. It is more expensive than Cisco, but cheaper than Palo Alto, which is fine. It has many good features, so it deserves a good price as well.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have experience with Palo Alto Networks Firewalls and Cisco ASA Firewall. Compared to these solutions, Check Point has a very good, understandable log viewer. It is easy to view and understand the logs, which helps a lot while doing troubleshooting or making new security policies for the organization. Also, it is very easy to create new security policy rules.

The Check Point Antivirus feature lacks in comparison to Palo Alto Networks. Also, compared to other competitive solutions, the training for Check Point available right now is very expensive as well as the certification is little expensive.

What other advice do I have?

Get properly trained. When I entered this organization, I struggled with this firewall. There are very few good quality training programs available in the market. Or, if it is available, then it is very expensive. So, I advise new people to get properly trained because it has many feature sets, and if they do not use them with the proper knowledge, then it could worsen their situation.

I am happy with the organization's progress, as they work hard on their product. It is a good lesson from a personal level: We should work hard and improve ourselves. 

I would rate this solution as a nine out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Check Point NGFW Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: June 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Check Point NGFW Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.