Azure Firewall vs Sophos XG comparison

Microsoft and Sophos are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Microsoft is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.1, while Sophos is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.3. Microsoft holds a 2.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sophos’s 11.5% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Sophos XG and Azure Firewall are both contenders in the cybersecurity space, geared towards providing robust security solutions. Sophos XG may have the upper hand with its deep on-site security features and customizable policies, while Azure Firewall shines in seamless cloud integration and scalability.

Features: Sophos XG offers comprehensive web and application filtering, customizable reporting, and email protection with encryption. It provides impressive anti-malware capabilities using dual engines and supports synchronized security for seamless endpoint protection. Azure Firewall excels with its seamless Azure service integration, high availability features requiring no extra configuration, and scalable threat intelligence, although it lacks the granular filtering capabilities provided by Sophos XG.

Room for Improvement:Sophos XG could improve in areas like cloud service integration, intuitive configuration tools, and enhancements to email security and VPN capabilities. The technical documentation is sometimes disorganized, and the reporting functionalities need improvement. Azure Firewall could benefit from more user-friendly configurations, a broader range of security features, and better application filtering and advanced threat intelligence, especially for larger enterprises.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sophos XG is valued for its strong on-premises presence, offering internal network control and visibility. However, its technical support is often criticized for slow response times and communication issues. Azure Firewall, being a native cloud solution, provides smooth integration with Azure infrastructures, making deployment flexible and scalable. However, its direct technical assistance may not be as immediate compared to on-prem solutions.

Pricing and ROI: Sophos XG is often seen as cost-effective for small to medium businesses, offering robust features at competitive prices, especially with bundled licensing options. Azure Firewall is considered premium-priced, though its costs can be justified by its seamless cloud integration and lower total cost of ownership for enterprises invested heavily in Azure services. The pay-as-you-go model aids expense management, but extensive data usage can make it expensive for some users.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG

April 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

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 Sophos XG is 11.5%, up from 9.2% 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.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Mohamad Charara

Head of IT at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

Security features improve protection while integration and resource management require enhancements

Sophos XG ( /products/sophos-xg-reviews ) is not easy to navigate and to use, and the integration capabilities are lacking. It cannot integrate properly with solutions like Darktrace ( /products/darktrace-reviews ). The VPN client on mobiles, especially Android phones, has issues. It is resource-greedy, causing performance problems even on new computers. Improvements are needed in resource management and integration with other security solutions.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."

"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."

"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."

"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."

"Offers good security and filtering."

"The features I find most useful in Fortinet FortiGate are its simplicity of utilization, which is very important, and its provision of interfaces to see the alerts and other things."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I find the solution to be very stable, and would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of stability."

"We secure the entry point to the virtual data center with the firewall."

"The solution can autoscale."

"The firewall policy control, URL content control, and antivirus are all the most valuable aspects. Threat prevention is as well quite good."

"Microsoft's technical support is very good. They're quite knowledgable and responsive."

"We use the solution for application and server deployment."

"I like its order management feature. It doesn't have the kind of threat intelligence that Palo Alto has, but the order management makes it much simpler to know the difference."

"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."

More Azure Firewall pros

"The solution has very good security features, is easy to use for administrators and users, and has informative reports."

"I rate Sophos support 10 out of 10. When my device was freezing, I contacted them, and sent me a replacement. It only took a couple of days for Sophos to ship the device to Kenya. I didn't have a redundant device, so it was urgent."

"We get good usage out of the features. It has enabled us to gain popularity. It has great features."

"One of the most valuable features is the VPN."

"Over the past two years, during the COVID pandemic, the VPN has helped us a lot."

"The two most valuable feature of Sophos XG is, one the option to filter according to different applications and two, the integration with the Active Directory."

"I particularly like the visibility it provides into network traffic, allowing us to identify and address issues efficiently."

"SD-WAN features should be added."

More Sophos XG pros

Cons

"The pricing could be reduced or include the first year warranty."

"The ease of use could be improved."

"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."

"The cloud features can be improved."

"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."

"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."

"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve if it had a cloud-managed solution."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"I would like the premium and standard features to be available on the basic package. Additionally, it lacks some functionalities when compared to competitors like Check Point and Fortinet, such as WAF or load balancing."

"One thing that would help engineers adopt it better is the documentation."

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

"An Azure firewall is not a real firewall."

"It's a little heavy compared to a FortiGate or other firewalls."

"Currently, it only supports IP addresses, so you have to be specific about the IPs that are in your environment."

"There are a number of things that need to be simplified, but it's mostly costs. It needs to be simplified because it's pretty expensive."

"This solution is not mature when it comes to handling perimeter traffic like internet browsing."

More Azure Firewall cons

"I would like to have remote access to clients using a static IP for a certain period of time."

"They should expand their DDoS feature. It's basic. They need to enhance it."

"The reports could improve, they do not seem complete and more information could be added."

"Better instructions should be provided as part of the technical support so that we can understand the functionalities. This will help us to troubleshoot faster."

"The product's user interface has certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"Support for this product is something that is really important, and it needs to improve."

"The solution’s reporting could be improved."

"Let's say I set up a rule to block users from accessing YouTube or Facebook. The rule will only block the HTTP traffic, which is non-secure traffic... The problem comes when you are trying to block, or allow, similar traffic that uses HTTPS. You have to create a certificate and import it into the users' web browsers, whatever they are using... The problem occurs when you're dealing with roaming users who use laptops and have to move between different sites that have different types of policies applied to them. You have to import all sorts of certificates from each site into their browser. Doing so will most probably conflict with something else that is totally irrelevant and cause a problem."

More Sophos XG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."

"Fortinet FortiGate as a less expensive solution than Palo Alto."

"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."

"Fortinet is reasonable in pricing and licensing. Overall, FortiGate is affordable. The licensing fee can be a little high, depending on the budget for your project."

"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Before choosing this solution, we evaluated others, and we found this to be the most cost-effective."

"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."

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

"Azure Firewall is quite an expensive product."

"It is expensive, especially with the premium functions. For one of the clients, it was very expensive. You have to use it more at an enterprise level, and there, it was not at an enterprise level. So, it was very costly, but security-wise, it was a very wise decision to use it that way."

"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."

"I rate the product pricing a five out of ten."

More Azure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"They have different options for the license."

"The solution is priced well."

"Its price should be better. Initially, the clients have to pay for the appliance. Then, they have to pay for the software that is installed on the appliance. Depending on whether they have a one-year, two-year, or three-year license, they just have to renew the license of the software after it expires. They don't have to renew the appliance license. So, they have to pay for the appliance only once, and after that, they just renew the software license. That's all."

"The product is more expensive than one of its competitors."

"The price is reasonable but it would be great if it was reduced to half the price."

"It is very expensive."

"The pricing was reasonable."

"Licensing fees are paid monthly."

More Sophos XG pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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

Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...

See all answers

What are the main differences in features between Sophos XG and FortiGate 80F?

Hi Arvind P , The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Fact...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sophos XG?

IPS works smoothly.

See all answers

Comparisons

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

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% 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

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Azure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

More Azure Firewall Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos XG

Compared 10% of the time

OPNsense vs Sophos XG

Compared 8% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Sophos XG

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sophos XG

Compared 5% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sophos XG

Compared 4% of the time

More Sophos XG Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

April 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall

April 2025

Download Azure Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XG

April 2025

Download Sophos XG product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

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

Sophos XG is a versatile network security solution that offers network protection, firewall management, VPN access, web filtering, and intrusion prevention, providing comprehensive security for businesses from small offices to large enterprises.

Sophos XG stands out for its Synchronized Security, easy setup, and robust templates. It manages VPN access, protects against threats, and handles load balancing and traffic monitoring. The cloud-based management, centralized dashboard, and detailed logging make it user-friendly and reliable. Integration of features like email protection, SD-WAN, and unified threat management ensures a broad spectrum of security needs are covered. However, it could benefit from improvements in network security, user portals, technical support, and more scalable SD-WAN features.

What are the key features of Sophos XG?

Synchronized Security: Orchestrates threat intelligence sharing between endpoints and firewall.
Unlimited SSL VPN Clients: Provides extensive VPN client support for secure remote access.
Cloud-Based Management: Facilitates remote administration with a cloud-hosted platform.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and blocks potential threats in real-time.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers a comprehensive view of network security status.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Easily adapts to growing business needs.
User-Friendliness: Simplified setup and intuitive management.
Effective Threat Protection: Provides robust security against a wide range of threats.
Comprehensive Reporting: Delivers detailed insights and analytics.
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive in pricing with flexible deployment options.

Sophos XG is implemented across industries such as healthcare, education, and finance to secure sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance. It aids in endpoint protection, application control, load balancing, and traffic monitoring essential for these industries. Enhancing network security, simplifying VPN setup, and integrating adaptive security features remain focal points for businesses.

Sophos

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

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG

April 2025

Free Report: Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

849,686 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG report.

See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.