Azure Firewall Manager vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center comparison

Microsoft and Cisco are both solutions in the Firewall Security Management category. Microsoft is ranked #10 with an average rating of 9.3, while Cisco is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.9. Microsoft holds a 2.5% mindshare in Firewall Security Management, compared to Cisco’s 1.6% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Azure Firewall Manager

Read 9 Azure Firewall Manager reviews

852 Views
503 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...

Read 28 Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center reviews

527 Views
527 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Azure Firewall Manager

Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Azure Firewall Manager and Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center are competing products in the network security landscape. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center emerges as the superior product due to its advanced features and comprehensive management capabilities, which users find worth the investment, despite Azure Firewall Manager showing competitive pricing and support satisfaction.

Features: Azure Firewall Manager provides seamless integration with Azure services, central management capabilities, and enhanced security policies. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center offers strong analytics, advanced threat protection, and extensive policy control, making it suitable for complex network environments.

Room for Improvement: Azure Firewall Manager could improve with more robust analytics, enhanced threat detection, and expanded policy control features. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center can benefit from more competitive pricing, simplified deployment options, and integration flexibility with non-Cisco products.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Azure Firewall Manager provides cloud-native deployment optimized for quick setup and effective management within Azure. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center offers an intricate on-premises or cloud-based deployment model with detailed documentation and robust customer service, beneficial for troubleshooting complex issues.

Pricing and ROI: Azure Firewall Manager is cost-effective with a flexible pricing model, offering good ROI through integration within Azure. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center involves a higher initial cost but justifies this with substantial long-term ROI due to its comprehensive features and robust security infrastructure.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Azure Firewall Manager

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

10th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

4.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Microsoft Security Suite (26th)

Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Azure Firewall Manager is 2.5%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 1.6%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewall Security Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center	1.6%
Azure Firewall Manager	2.5%
Other	95.9%

Firewall Security Management

Featured Reviews

Sikkander Batcha

DevOps Engineer at CloudIQ

Has managed traffic effectively but lacks visibility and advanced control features

Azure Firewall is typically behind other vendor firewalls because we don't see what kind of traffic is traveling through it. That is one drawback. The main drawback is that we need log support from Azure Firewall, which can be quite costly. There is no login feature in Azure Firewall because only the IAM feature is available in the Azure site; we manage it only through the Azure portal, not through any other portal. Other vendors, such as Palo Alto, provide GUI or CLI interfaces to manage their firewalls, whereas we only manage Azure Firewall through the Azure portal. In the future, I would like to see additional features in Azure Firewall Manager to make it more competitive, such as technologies like App-ID and User-ID that Palo Alto has. Azure Firewall currently only allows traffic based on layer four and sometimes layer seven, so they need to improve in those areas compared to other vendors.

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Yonas Abebe

Senior Network and Security Engineer at Symbol Technologies PLC

Great dashboard with extensive visibility and good support

I expect more integration with AI. I expect Cisco to be easier for users in India, especially for junior users. For a junior one, it may somehow be complex, especially when configuring something. I remember version 6.4 had an integration with Eddie, allowing me to define a policy according to my users, however, the latest version, lacks this integration. The logging of FMC should be improved as it does not offer real-time solutions like DazaSodo.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The best feature of Azure Firewall Manager is that it is easy to maintain and configure."

"Azure Firewall Manager centralizes network security management with a hub and spoke architecture."

"We are utilizing Azure Entra ID for group labeling, so Active Directory, or now it is Entra ID, securing our application for everyone who accesses it, and Azure Firewall Manager is definitely securing our projects and all its features are fine."

"The most valuable feature of Azure Firewall Manager is the testing and configuration."

"It is easy to install and does not require any plugins for your browser."

"From a traffic management perspective, it's a good firewall because it's automatically scalable based on the traffic availability."

More Azure Firewall Manager pros

"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The applied policy inside the firewall is good."

"The most valuable aspects are the antivirus and URL filtering."

"The solution has a great UI and a policy deployment mechanism, and all the configuration is easily manageable for the firewalls."

"The tool's deployment is not complex."

"The technical support team is responsive and supportive."

"The platform's most valuable feature has been its centralized management capability, which allows us to monitor and control multiple devices from one location."

"The solution is useful and powerful."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center pros

Cons

"The tool's security features need to improve. It needs also to include a monitoring system for logs. It is also complicated to find a query on the Azure firewall."

"Azure charges for many aspects including scaling, automated scaling deployment, and traffic management, which leads to higher costs."

"The configuration and settings require substantial time for learning, particularly for new users."

"There should be a simple one-click deployment for a firewall, rather than a set of setup instructions that include steps such as the DNS configuration, et cetera."

"For Azure Firewall Manager, the learning curve for new people is a bit challenging, but the integration should be more straightforward for configuring a centralized system."

"The cost is a significant concern because we are in a region where the dollar is not our default currency, and converting to dollars makes it very expensive."

"We could do only one-way NAT-ing, where the traffic comes from outside to internal, to Azure, which is fine. However, when we actually do NAT-ed traffic to hit the firewall, that way is not working."

"Azure charges for many aspects including scaling, automated scaling deployment, and traffic management, which leads to higher costs."

More Azure Firewall Manager cons

"Areas for improvement include pricing points and the range of products available at any given time."

"Some duplicated values and security standards are not working in some high-application protocols with Cisco's next-generation firewalls."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"I expect more integration with AI."

"Cisco Firepower has been effective in solving various problems, but it could be improved by making it simpler and more user-friendly like Fortinet."

"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center's logging functionality could be improved."

"The first version had a lot of bugs, but the recent versions have sorted them out."

"The IOS and the deploy option could be improved."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the solution is reasonable but it is reasonable for the features."

"The solution is certainly expensive in comparison with other cloud services."

"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has the best price on the market."

"When you are using a Cisco solution you know it will be expensive. Cisco makes you pay for everything individually. We pay for the licenses that we need."

"I use the free version of the product."

"One of the advantages of Cisco is its range of flexible licensing options."

"The price of the solution is expensive. We do not have to pay more than the standard licensing fees."

"The solution is expensive. We have a multi-license, and we pay extra for support."

"Technical support is an additional annual cost and is not included with the license."

"I rate the tool's pricing a four out of ten. The licensing costs are yearly."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

18%

Educational Organization

Retailer

Computer Software Company

13%

Healthcare Company

Retailer

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	7

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure Firewall Manager?

The most valuable feature of Azure Firewall Manager is the testing and configuration.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure Firewall Manager?

The pricing for Azure Firewall Manager is expensive. In our project, we have used both Palo Alto Firewall and Azure Firewall. Azure charges for many aspects including scaling, automated scaling dep...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Azure Firewall Manager?

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

The platform has significantly enhanced our organization's operations by providing secure communication channels between different office locations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

I find the pricing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to be very reasonable, as they offer the license for both virtual and hardware options. For the virtual option, they have minimum lice...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

So far, I find that everything related to Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is adequate. The only thing that was missing in the portfolio was SD-WAN, which I would like to use similar to Fort...

See all answers

Comparisons

FortiGate Cloud-Native Firewall (FortiGate CNF) vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 22% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 16% of the time

AlgoSec vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 14% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 11% of the time

FireMon Security Manager vs Azure Firewall Manager

Compared 9% of the time

More Azure Firewall Manager Competitors

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Compared 47% of the time

FireMon Security Manager vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Security Cloud Control vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Compared 18% of the time

AWS Firewall Manager vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Compared 16% of the time

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager

January 2026

Download Azure Firewall Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

January 2026

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center report

Download Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center product report

Overview

Azure Firewall Manager is a security management service that provides central security policy and route management for cloud-based security perimeters.

To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

Microsoft

The Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is the administrative nerve center for select Cisco security products running on multiple platforms. It provides unified management of Cisco Secure Firewalls with Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) software for port and protocol control, application control, IPS, URL filtering, and malware protection functions. Firewall Management Center is the centralized event and policy manager for:

● Cisco Secure Firewall with the Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) OS

● Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services

● Cisco Secure IPS (Firepower Next-Gen IPS / NGIPS)

● Cisco FirePOWER Threat Defense for ISR

● Cisco Malware Defense (AMP)

Cisco

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

December 2025

Free Report: Azure Firewall Manager vs. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

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