Azure Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security comparison

Microsoft and Check Point Software Technologies are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Microsoft is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.1, while Check Point Software Technologies is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6. Microsoft holds a 2.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Check Point Software Technologies’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Check Point Software Technologies users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Azure Firewall both offer robust cloud security solutions. Users are happier with the support and pricing of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security, but Azure Firewall is favored for its comprehensive features, with users feeling it is worth the price.

Features: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is praised for its threat prevention capabilities, scalability, and versatile integrations. Azure Firewall receives high marks for its seamless integration with Azure services, application and network traffic filtering, and system logging. Users appreciate the broad feature set of Azure Firewall more than those of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security.

Room for Improvement: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security users mention the need for a more intuitive management console and faster performance upgrades. Azure Firewall users suggest improvements in policy management and better documentation. Both products have areas needing enhancements, but specific feedback varies by user needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security deployment is often described as straightforward with strong customer service support. Azure Firewall deployment is seen as seamless for those within the Azure ecosystem, with supportive documentation and Azure technical support. The deployment processes are well-regarded for both, but Azure Firewall benefits from tighter integration within Azure for an easier setup.

Pricing and ROI: Users find Check Point CloudGuard Network Security to be competitively priced with a good return on investment attributed to its security features. Azure Firewall users view the product as cost-effective within the Azure environment, with ROI driven by integration and reduced administrative overhead. Pricing is competitive for both, but Azure Firewall is noted for being more cost-effective for users already within the Azure ecosystem.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

April 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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.4%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Firewall is 2.1%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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AnvarSadique

Information Technology Architect at GMS INC

Easy setup and effective traffic routing enhance security

In terms of improvements, I think the price could be a concern as Azure ( /products/microsoft-azure-reviews ) services are often more expensive compared to other firewalls. However, the functional aspects of Azure Firewall met our needs. While I found the interface not particularly user-friendly, this is a common issue across vendors.

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Martin Raška

Senior Security Engineer & Instructor at Arrow Electronics

Unification of security features strengthens network protection

The overall network security is good. It's big-picture, all in one bundle. It's valuable to have everything in one place instead of spreading across different products. Unified security management positively affects a company's security operations. They have one unified view of the security. I can connect multiple gateways to the management and have it in one place. I can have reporting and views in a single pane of glass on the consolidated platform. It's easy to use. The management is the best on the market. It's very easy to work with, read, understand, and navigate. It helps increase our customer's security posture. We can see in some cases CloudGuard improves our customers' posture overall.

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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

"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."

"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."

"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."

"The wireless control is helpful."

"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."

"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."

"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."

"All of the features of Fortinet FortiGate are useful and the security protection is good."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Performance and stability are the key features of this product."

"I can easily configure it."

"Among the most valuable features are the DDoS protection that protects your virtual machines, the threat intelligence, and traffic filtering."

"One of the best features is that it natively integrates with Azure Services and tools. When you have a third-party offering, that is not the case. But Azure Firewall provides a comprehensive and seamless security solution for your Azure resources."

"Azure's cost-effectiveness is its major advantage."

"It's helped us improve our security posture."

"The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform."

"The features of Azure Firewall that I find most valuable include DNS inspection, forward proxy, and security, particularly on the edge."

More Azure Firewall pros

"Advanced check prevention is a great feature that provides threat intelligence at speed."

"We are using gateways, and I appreciate the high-availability gateways they have. They stand out more than the competitors."

"The solution provides a centralized management console for easy administration and monitoring of security policies and events, making it easy for the security team."

"It gives us more confidence in secure cloud deployments."

"The most valuable feature is that we can use the same manager server that we use on our own Check Point firewalls. We integrated CloudGuard on that manager and we can use the same kind of protections that we use on the on-prem firewalls, like the IPS and antivirus policy. We can have the same kind of protection on the Cloud environment that we have on-premise."

"We have very good visibility or granularity regarding security."

"The router's anti-bot feature and network security for detecting malware and preventing its spread are critical components. Additionally, there are other features like antivirus, anti-malware, and a firewall. T"

"The number of options it gives for deployment or security is valuable. When it comes to security, it has a feature that is super awesome for zero-day-based attacks. Their IPS is also very capable. We tested other firewalls, and we understood that it is the best one in the market."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security pros

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."

"I need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it."

"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."

"Its price could be better."

"One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."

"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."

"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The solution should incorporate features similar to competitors like split tunneling."

"An Azure firewall is not a real firewall."

"The product pricing could be more competitive."

"It would be nice to be able to create groupings for servers and offer groups of IP addresses."

"It has fewer features than you can get from other firewalls, like anti-spam and anti-phishing. Those kinds of things are not included. It only includes IDS and IDB."

"In my experience, Azure Firewall is quite expensive, with a high cost. I would rate its pricing a two out of ten."

"It needs a lot of improvement, especially on intruder detection. They are working hard on that."

"They can improve the pricing of Azure Firewall."

More Azure Firewall cons

"Better documentation would be welcome."

"In case the device is inaccessible due to some issue such as CPU or memory, there is no separate port or hardware partition provided for troubleshooting purposes."

"There is room for improvement in how it handles deployment itself, but I am not sure. It could be due to Azure's limitations, not Check Point's. Deploying a new firewall is quite bulky and not straightforward, especially in managing the resource group and networks. These issues seem to come more from the Azure part."

"The cost needs improvement as it is currently quite expensive."

"Despite using it for a long time, there are always new features. For example, just last week, I discovered a new feature that had been in the software for years yet it was not visible due to its placement behind multiple menus. Teaching sessions would be beneficial, yet it is our responsibility to learn, so we cannot entirely rely on Check Point."

"More support from our partners would be beneficial. A lot could be explained more."

"There is room for improvement in addressing bugs and support issues."

"The user interface can be improved."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The main reason we chose Fortinet FortiGate was that the price was better than the competition."

"While Fortinet FortiGate has a higher price point compared to Sophos XG, its user-friendly interface justifies the cost."

"Its price is reasonable. They have a clear pricing policy. It is not complicated by the number of VPN users at a time. We know what the price is. The yearly subscription for the security license is rather high, but it is all included for whatever number of users you have and the kind of functions you need."

"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."

"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten"

"For medium and enterprise organizations, FortiGate is more affordable."

"At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be."

"The cost of Fortinet FortiGate is competitive and not expensive compared to other enterprise- grade solutions. On average, the license cost per year is around seventy percent of the firewall's purchase price."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Azure Firewall is more expensive. If Microsoft can make Azure Firewall cheaper, I can see that all clients will think of using it. One client used FortiGate because it is much cheaper. Some clients ask me for Cisco, but in the cloud estimate, I found its cost is the same as Azure Firewall."

"The pricing of Azure Firewall is pay-as-you-go. Fortinet also has a pay-as-you-go model, but Azure's pricing is higher and, with FortiGate, you also have the license."

"The solution is cheaper than other brands. My company has an enterprise contract and we finally got a good price with Azure."

"Azure Firewall comes with Azure native services. We did not buy any kind of license for it. Whether you have a free subscription or a pay-as-you-go model, you can deploy the Azure Firewall service... The amount that you use will determine how much you pay."

"Azure Firewall is expensive."

"The total cost of ownership is much less than Palo Alto, Cisco, or any other brand."

"The licensing module is good."

"Azure Firewall is quite an expensive product."

More Azure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"The pricing and licensing have been good. We just had to do a license increase for our portion of it. We had that done within a couple of days. Given the fact that it's purely a software-based license, it ends up being even quicker than doing it for an on-prem firewall."

"It is more expensive than other solutions and would be more competetive in the market if it came down in price."

"CloudGuard Network Security is not too cheap."

"Pricing of CloudGuard is pretty fair when you have a single account. It's comparable with other cloud providers. But for our use case, it got really pricey when we had to deploy multiple CloudGuards on multiple accounts in different regions, because you can't have CloudGuard protecting multiple regions. That's the big thing."

"The cost is on the higher side, as it is based on workload, hence we need to decide which VPC or workload needs to be part of CloudGuard."

"The product is expensive but also valuable."

"Licensing is available on a monthly or yearly basis."

"It is fairly priced, but it can be a little expensive from time to time."

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

23%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...

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How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?

Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the...

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Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

See all answers

What do you like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

The tool's most valuable feature is its management console.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Pricing in Jamaica is a major issue, with users often citing it as a reason for not using Check Point.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

They could improve the documentation. The interface is fine for me since I have been using it for some time.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Azure Firewall

Compared 19% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Azure Firewall

Compared 16% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Azure Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Azure Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Firewall Manager vs Azure Firewall

Compared 2% of the time

More Azure Firewall Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 16% of the time

VMware NSX vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Check Point CloudGuard Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall

May 2025

Download Azure Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

May 2025

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security report

Download Check Point CloudGuard Network Security product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Azure Firewall is a user-friendly, intuitive, cloud-native firewall security solution that provides top-of-the-industry threat protection for all your Azure Virtual Network resources. Azure Firewall is constantly and thoroughly analyzing all traffic and data packets, making it a very valuable and secure fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. Azure Firewall allows users to create virtual IP addresses and provides for secure DDoS protection for the virtual machines on your network. It also provides fast and efficient east-west and north-south traffic security.

Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service built to protect your Azure Virtual Network resources. It is a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.

Azure Firewall has two significant offerings, Standard and Premium.

Azure Firewall Standard works directly with Microsoft Cyber Security and supplies excellent L3-L7 filtering and threat awareness. The proactive real-time threat awareness will quickly alert you and immediately deny all traffic to and from any known problematic or suspicious domains or IP addresses. Microsoft Cyber Security is updated continually to protect against all new and known potential threats at all times. To learn more about Azure Firewall Standard, click here.

Azure Firewall Premium provides everything the standard version does, and additionally adds extra levels of data encryption, network intrusion detection, extended URL filtering, and Web category filters. To learn more about the added features of Azure Firewall Premium, click here.

Key Benefits and Features of Azure Firewall:

High availability - You do not need load balancers with Azure Firewall; it's already built in and ready to go.
Self-scalability - Azure Firewall is intuitive and will auto-scale as needed based on traffic flow to be ready for peak traffic times.
Threat awareness - Using Microsoft Cyber Security to filter traffic, Azure Firewall will deny any known problematic threats to keep your network safe.
Additional IP addresses - You can securely add up to 250 public IP addresses with Azure Firewall
Improved web category filtering - You can set up specific protocols to allow or deny categories within websites that are deemed inappropriate for use within your network. You have the ability to organize categories based on a defined set of descriptions.

What our real users have to say:

Many PeerSpot users found Azure Firewall to be very user-friendly and easy to use. They liked that it offers seamless integration to the cloud and were especially pleased with the threat filtering options.

Regarding integration and threat intelligence, our users wrote:

“The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform.”

“The most valuable feature is threat intelligence. It is based on filtering and can identify multiple threats.”

“I think that one of the best features is definitely the premium version, along with the IDPs in terms of the intrusion detection and prevention system.”

Microsoft

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is designed to secure cloud assets, offering robust firewall capabilities and protection for both internal and external traffic across AWS, Azure, and on-premises environments.

Enterprises rely on Check Point CloudGuard Network Security for comprehensive network protection, threat prevention, and compliance enforcement. Supporting virtual machines and hybrid environments, it delivers advanced security measures including intrusion prevention and application control. Key functions include firewall security, network segmentation, and cloud environment protection, ensuring businesses maintain a secure and compliant IT infrastructure.

What are the most valuable features of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Flexible Architecture: Adaptable to diverse cloud and on-premises environments.
UTM Capabilities: Unified Threat Management delivering multi-layered security.
Advanced Threat Prevention: Includes IPS, application control, and anti-malware.
Auto-scaling: Automatically adjusts capacity based on traffic and demand.
Comprehensive Threat Prevention: Protects against known and unknown threats.
Ease of Use: Streamlined deployment and management processes.
Integration with Cloud Platforms: Seamlessly works with AWS, Azure, and other clouds.
Centralized Management: Single-pane-of-glass visibility and control.
User Identity Awareness: Enhances security policies based on user identities.
Zero-touch Deployment: Simplifies initial setup and deployment.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Email Protection: Shields email communications from threats.
Anti-malware: Guards against malicious software.
Single-pane-of-glass Visibility: Provides a unified view for better security management.
Scalability: Grows with the business needs.
Seamless Cloud Transition: Eases the move from on-premises to cloud environments.

In industries such as financial services, healthcare, retail, and education, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is implemented to safeguard sensitive data, ensure compliance, and protect critical infrastructure. Companies in these sectors benefit from its advanced threat prevention and flexible deployment options, meeting their stringent security requirements while enabling secure digital transformation.

Check Point Software Technologies

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Information Not Available

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

April 2025

Free Report: Azure Firewall vs. Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

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