Check Point NGFW Reviews

While the solution is good, we wish to have something that is a bit better, as the threats have evolved over time. We have been using Check Point for more than than eight years and are interested in a better solution. We entered a review site which ranks top security firewalls and saw that Palo Alto is ranked number one, followed by Fortinet, with Check Point in the lead. We noticed that Palo Alto was much more expensive than Fortinet, but wished to know which key features differentiated the two. 

Though we did not take issue with the price of Check Point NGFW, we felt that it was providing us with inadequate support here in Uganda. This is why we decided to switch solutions. I should note that I do not have a technical background and am responsible for procurement. 

The value we were getting for our money was an issue. I work for a bank for which security is very important, but we were not being assured of the appropriate support. The licensing fees we were paying did not equate with adequate local support. We had already had a bad experience with Check Point, so we did not bother with a quote from it and, instead, got one from several local companies that can support either Palo Alto or Fortinet. 

We do not feel that the local support given in Uganda is equitable with the pricing. 

While the pricing is okay, the local Ugandan support one gets is not commensurate with it. 

I rate Check Point NGFW as a six out of ten. 

My role is to do implementation and troubleshooting on the Check Point Firewall. We use this firewall for our organization's security by adding restrictions and security from viruses and other tech from the external Internet.

It is used in our internal company-wide network. It protects our company throughout the LAN network.

We have needed to install many third-party devices to provide major security to our organization. Because of Check Point and its many features, we do not require other third-party devices. We only require Check Point to provide the security.

It gives us centralized management for multiple firewalls. For example, if I want to push the same configuration to 10 firewalls, I can push it all at once with the help of the centralized management system.

It is easy to use because it supports Linux language in the CLI. This is a good for someone who already knows Linux language.

The company should increase the learning platform free of charge. For example, Palo Alto and Cisco ASA have very good platforms that are completely free. Almost everyone in this field has good product knowledge. Therefore, I would like more training and expertise to be available for Check Point NGFWs.

I would like the graphic user interface to be easier to use. For example, the NAT policy should be easier to use. Check Point's NAT policy is somewhat confused compared to other competitors.

I have been using it four years and four months.

It is a stable firewall that has new updates. The new updates are very impressive. There is also a good antivirus update which comes out very frequently and is completely stable.

The solution's scalability is good.

With our increasing business, we have given a proposal to increase the number of firewalls.

In my organization, there were five associate consultants included in the deployment process, including me.

The solution has very good, timely support. Most of the time, when we opened a case with their tech support, we have been in a panic situation because of the case's priority. However, the solution that we get is very straightforward and in very short amount of time.

My issues were resolved by the Check Point team or available on the Internet. So, all my problems were resolved.

I have used Palo Alto and Cisco ASA. When I used Check Point, I got to know that the CLI is based on Linux. I already know Linux, so it was very comfortable for me. Apart from that, it was the company's decision. They wanted to use this firewall.

The initial setup was straightforward because I have done training on Check Point. I didn't face any issue while implementing or while configuring it. I only faced a few issues, and they were resolved by the Check Point team.

It takes around nine to 12 months for the complete deployment of this solution. My deployment plan was a three-tier architecture, which is one of Check Point's features.

I deployed it myself with the help of one or two of my colleagues.

I am happy with the investment that we made on Check Point. The reason behind this: It has advanced features for protecting the environment.

I also evaluated Palo Alto and Cisco ASA.

Check Point pros:

• The CLI is very ease to use.
• It provides advanced security threat prevention.

Check Point cons:

• The graphical user interface should be easier to use.
• More training should be provided by Check Point. 

I would recommend this solution because it is a firewall that replaces many other devices. Money-wise, it is good. It also has many features. These can be utilized to protect your environment from outside threats.

You should have a couple of training and hands-on experiences before deploying the changes by yourself on the firewall. It has many features of which people are not knowledgeable so they usually utilize them.

With time, technology is getting better. Check Point is one of these examples. They have changed their products completely from the old R80 version, where their UI and CLI were much different. 

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

Check Point leading industry provides a complete solution that is required to perimeter security along with deep packet inspection for network traffic.

Check Point not only acts as a traditional firewall but it provides you with complete security for users who work from home. Work from home users observed that Check Point gives 100 % functionality without any trouble.

It offers centralized management to customers where they have an IT member so there Check Point management can work properly. It is available in a smaller range to higher. Customers can get it at an affordable price. 

As we vendor, we deployed the Check Point firewall in many organizations and they are renewing its license as they trust the product and support.

Whatever feature they want is possible with Check Point and 80.20 later versions are coming in, that feature set was previously not available. Customers are satisfied. 

No other firewall provides a feature set in log monitoring and threat detection blades.

Apart from it having very good features, I personally like the vulnerability assistance via report management which detects host and network vulnerability.

Most customers need reports which define how many users are infected, how many viruses and malware there is, botnet traffic firewall deteted all this type of information. Check Point is in a very easy and understandable format based on logs history.

Sometimes the stability related application, URL filtering, and troubleshooting issues take longer than expected. I observed some feature set that is very easy to add from the deployment team but Check Point needs a longer procedure so customers relating those features with Check Point firewall and Palo Alto.

Heavy load causes a higher CPU peek which causes us to need to reboot the device. Malicious activity database corrupts the directory or path and restoring it take a lot of time .

We receive performance but sometimes there are stability-caused issues. 

I have been using Check Point for three years. 

Check Point can defend Palo Alto if they work on stability.

Tech support is very helpful and provides the right solution.

We went from Sophos to Check Point.

The initial setup was simple.

We are only vendors.

The pricing is really negotiable based on other competitor solutions.

We use the tool as a data center firewall. Some of our customers use it as a perimeter firewall. We are only using the security gateway.

The product is flexible. I like the product’s performance and throughput.

The cost of add-on features is too high.

I have been using the solution for five to six years.

The tool is stable. We haven’t faced any issues after configuring and putting it in production.

We have roughly 7000 appliances. The tool is scalable. I like the scalability of the solution. We have 10 to 20 customers.

The technical support is good.

Positive

The initial setup is easy.

The pricing is moderate. The license cost is good. However, some features like VPN are costly.

We use the solution for our clients. My recommendation depends upon the requirements. I do not recommend the product for an SMB. I recommend it for enterprises. It has good performance and throughput. Overall, I rate the solution a seven or eight out of ten.

Primarily, we implement the solution at a couple of sites around the world and have created five site VPNs across it. We are running a pretty decent policy to make sure internally our infrastructure is secure.

The product offers excellent security. How open they are with new risks and new vulnerabilities is very helpful in the task of keeping our company safe from malicious attacks.

Newer versions are much more stable.

The UI could use some improvement. It's not as clean or seamless as it could be. 

It's my understanding that the initial setup is a bit complex. There's a bit of a learning curve if you're trying to set it up for the first time and you aren't familiar with the product.

Older versions were a bit unstable. 

We've been using the solution for six or seven years so far. It's been a while. 

While this version seems to be quite stable, Check Point, in previous versions, had a lot of issues when we used to do firmware updates.

We have 200 people on the solution currently. 

I also have experience with Fortinet. I don't have too much, however. It's still very new to me, and therefore it's hard to compare the two solutions. 

While I didn't directly participate in the implementation, from the people that participated, I've heard that it's complicated if you don't know the product very well.

We hired a company to do the implementation. I don't remember the dynamics of the team. The last time it was set up, there were two people on the implementation team. 

While we don't have a direct relationship with the company, we do have business relationships with both Fortinet and Checkpoint partners.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten.

Our customers primarily buy the solution to protect the network from malware at the perimeter of the Network. The next-gen firewalls help the customer to have an application-level control of the traffic.

The features that I have found most valuable are its flexibility and user interface. This is already a well-established product in the market for quite a long time, more than 20 years. They've got a huge customer base.

In terms of what could be improved, I'd like granularity where you can have all the levels of policies that are defined. 

In additional feature that could be added to this solution in the future is micro-segmentation, like Palo Alto has on the firewall itself.

I began using Check Point Next Generation Firewall very recently, about four or five months ago.

We have an internal team for maintenance.

In terms of scalability, what we have seen is that it has a big deployment right now. So it all depends on what kind of environment the customer has. If he's already a Check Point user, it is easy for them, but if it is migrating from one platform to another, it is a little complex. One more thing is that the skillset availability required for Check Point is, in terms of implementation, a little less compared to others. The resources and the technical stuff are there for implementation. You find fewer people on Check Point compared to Sophos or Fortinet or any other platform.

The installation process, if it is a greenfield opportunity, is easy. If it is a migration from one platform to another, you need to have expertise on both the technologies. Let's say for example you're migrating from Fortinet to Check Point, or from Sophos to Check Point or Check Point to any other, you need to have expertise on the platform, even though you should have good experience in terms of migrating and technologies.

In my experience, Check Point provides both in-depth experience and cost-effectiveness compared to Palo Alto. So, Check Point is good for customers already using Check Point and Palo Alto is for anybody who wants to have the latest and most advanced features and has a good budget.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Check Point NGFW an 8.

We use this solution for perimeter security and data center security.

On the firewall side, the security efficacy is good. The interface for application filtering and application-based policies is also good. They have good roadmap on the cloud as well.

This solution requires management software that is sold separately; it's actually a different appliance altogether. For smaller customers or smaller environments, this becomes an added entity in the environment. Not to mention, they'll also have to invest a lot in the necessary management stations. If that came built-in, it would really benefit smaller businesses. 

The performance when you enable decryption could be improved. That's a CPU-intensive task. Many customers struggle if they try to implement decryption — it can really hamper the performance. It's probably something to do with the appliance or the hardware design. This needs to be examined further.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for roughly five years. 

This solution is quite stable. Performance-wise, I have seen customers using this solution for years without issue. 

There are different models available. Sizing can be done accordingly. They have a good range of versions available for small to large data centers. So, scalability is definitely there. 

As I am not an end-user, I haven't really had any contact with support. Still, none of my customers have had any complaints regarding support.

The initial setup was fairly easy. Still, compared to other vendors, the learning curve is a bit complex. 

Compared with Palo Alto and Cisco, the price of this solution is quite fair. Compared to Fortinet and other vendors, it's probably a little bit on the higher side. Really, it all depends on what you get at the end of the day.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of eight. 

I would definitely recommend this solution. It's a good platform for perimeter security. In an enterprise, you need good security. There's endpoint security, network security, and cloud security. Check Point's strongest point is network security; they still need to catch up on endpoint and cloud security. If you're interested in integrating all of these tools, then there are better products available. However, as far as network security is concerned, Check Point is really good.

We primarily use this product for cloud computing security. It is an integration platform for IPS and I also use it for performance monitoring.

I also coach classes on the use of this firewall, which is installed on my personal laptop.

This product is more secure than other firewalls, such as FortiGate.

The information stored in the logs is very descriptive and includes a lot of details.

The dynamic port features are better when compared to other firewalls.

This firewall is difficult to manage and use when you first begin using it. However, once you are used to it, the interface is comfortable and easy to use.

The Smart Control feature is hard to install.

In the future, I would like to see more features in the unified security management platform.

This is a reliable firewall.

Scalability is not an issue with Check Point.

Technical support from Check Point is good.

I have experience with other firewalls including FortiGate. Check Point is more secure, although it is more difficult to deploy and configure.

Until you have some experience, the installation and configuration are difficult.

The licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis and I am happy with the pricing.

Check Point is responsible for inventing several firewall security features.

In summary, this is a good product and I recommend it because it the most secure firewall on the market.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.