Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SonicWall NSv comparison

Barracuda Networks and SonicWall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.0, while SonicWall is ranked #39 with an average rating of 7.8. Barracuda Networks holds a 0.5% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to SonicWall’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall and SonicWall NSv compete in the firewall solutions category. SonicWall NSv has an edge due to its comprehensive features and high performance, despite higher costs and complexity.

Features: Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has strong SD-WAN capabilities, diverse integration options, and advanced threat protection. SonicWall NSv excels in virtual firewall features, scalability, and high performance in cloud environments.

Room for Improvement:Barracuda could enhance reporting capabilities, refine its configuration process, and improve user interface design. SonicWall NSv needs better documentation, a simpler setup procedure, and clearer pricing structure transparency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers easy deployment and strong customer service, ensuring a reliable setup. In contrast, SonicWall NSv presents a more complex deployment process with varied customer service experiences.

Pricing and ROI: Barracuda CloudGen Firewall features competitive setup costs and satisfactory ROI, attracting cost-conscious buyers. SonicWall NSv, despite higher initial investments, delivers a high ROI due to its advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. SonicWall NSv Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. SonicWall NSv

September 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 October 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.4%, up from 19.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 0.5%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	20.4%
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall	0.5%
SonicWall NSv	0.2%
Other	78.9%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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RobertSmith15

Product Manager - Cyber Security at M247 Ltd Miami

Ensures data security with advanced intrusion prevention and 24/7 monitoring

I rate the initial setup as ten out of ten. It is straightforward to set up a CloudGen file, taking a couple of hours. Once we have the configuration agreed with the customer, the setup and onboarding are completed within a few hours. We receive the box from Barracuda or from our stores, pre-stage it into our network for initial configuration and Soak testing to ensure functionality. The customer can install it at their location, or we do it on their behalf. We run the firewall in simulation mode to observe traffic and ensure service transition is effective. After confirming functionality with the customer, we transition to a live service.

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Sileesh Sivadasan

Director at Infosec Infra

Helps small businesses expand branches more easily

The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I want to talk to a customer executive, they ask many trivial questions. Even if I explain that I am asking for a Dell partner, they still ask specific questions, and they will explain many unnecessary questions.

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

"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."

"Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"We have a redundant setup for failover, however, it has not had to fail over ever and we have not had a capacity issue."

"The main reason why I purchased the particular unit was that it had good reviews and what other people were saying as far as its completeness and its leading capabilities in terms of endpoint security was very good."

"I'm looking forward to FortiGate's dashboard features, insights, application oversight, and monitoring, which could help us significantly."

"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."

"Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate."

"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The encryption and the security standards are valuable."

"If you have multiple offices, all inter-connected via the internet, you want a single management console through which you can manage all you firewalls. In that case Barracuda could be a good option."

"The most valuable features of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall include antivirus protection, anti-DDoS, and IPS."

"If an employee tries to get or move a file that is not permitted to them - for example if he wants to copy it to a USB - he will not have the right to do that, because Barracuda manages who has the right to copy, and what you copy to a USB. The USB is encrypted with a specific code from Barracuda and will only be decrypted into any other laptop in the company if they allow it to see it."

"Since implementing the Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we've seen significant benefits, particularly in stopping a lot of unnecessary or dangerous emails. One key feature we value is the ability to train the solution with emails categorized as threats, giving it a learning capacity."

"The ability to be deployed and supported remotely is valuable."

"TINA (Transport Independent Network Architecture) VPN features - Allows automatic VPN configuration with little or no input from the tech. Drag and drop lines between Barracuda units and the VPN is built automatically."

"Ability to manage multiple firewalls."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pros

"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."

"I would rate the overall product a nine out of ten."

"Out of ten, I would rate the solution at an eight."

"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."

"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."

"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."

"We are very impressed with it."

"The product helps improve our security."

More SonicWall NSv pros

Cons

"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."

"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."

"They have recently acquired a CNAP solution which should be integrated into FortiGate boxes natively for protection at any application layer. Since Fortinet FortiGate has Layer 7 protection, they should integrate that as soon as they can for threat detection and network detection."

"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."

"I believe there is room for improvement in machine learning and AI in Fortinet FortiGate."

"The advanced models are expensive."

"The system can slow down when inspections are carried out."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"A rule for email announcements, when configured hits occur, would be a great improvement for a more efficient experience."

"Command line could be more user friendly."

"The biggest issue that I have with this solution is that it is not super intuitive. Once you know what to do, things make sense, but you can't just open the program and start doing things. It would be great if there was a little bit more guided usage inside the program."

"There is room for improvement in performance and the support language. The support they're providing right now is from a different country, and in our country, there are people—network admins and IT heads—who don't speak English properly. So Barracuda needs to provide support agents who speak additional languages, such as Bangla."

"The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others."

"The features are a bit limited compared to other vendors."

"If you have another brand of VPN where you have to put an SSL VPN between two devices, Barracuda doesn't support that at a certain point. You can't actually build the VPN between Barracuda and a different device of a different brand."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall cons

"The price is a significant factor."

"Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details. At present, they do not provide detailed reports compared to other products."

"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."

"There are limitations to bandwidth management."

"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."

"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."

"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."

"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."

More SonicWall NSv cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet FortiGate IPS is cheaper than other solutions like Cisco or Check Point."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."

"Easy to understand licensing requirements."

"The price, in comparison to other products is very cheap."

"The pricing is very reasonable."

"The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."

"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 had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Pricing is good. Licensing is pretty much automatic if using Control Center."

"When the corporation purchases something, it follows a request-for-proposal process and the best price wins. So, I think Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is reasonably priced, though I’m not sure of the exact amount"

"The platform is inexpensive compared to other vendors."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. There is an upfront purchase price, and there is also an annual maintenance fee. There are no additional fees."

"The pricing is very cheap compared to Cisco ASA, which we used before, and compared to Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet. Barracuda has different solutions for different people. So for my SMB-level infrastructure, Barracuda has given me a proper solution that is half of the price of Palo Alto or Fortinet."

"My advice is to try and evaluate it (Barracuda offers a trial period of one month)."

"It would be nice if the pricing and licensing offered for less."

"Pricing and licensing are fine. It's worth the value because every four years, if I buy any other product, I have to replace my hardware. But with Barracuda I get a free hardware upgrade. Today I'm using Xbox. After four years I can take another Xbox or a Ybox."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and cost advice

"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."

"The tool is moderately priced."

"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."

"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."

"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."

"We are currently using the trial version."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

11%

Retailer

Government

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

26%

Educational Organization

Performing Arts

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

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 do you like most about Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

The encryption and the security standards are valuable.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

The license price of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is lower than others, and maintenance or support is included.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others. It is a bit complicated and could be ...

See all answers

What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?

The product helps improve our security.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?

I am somewhat satisfied with the price for SonicWall NSv, rating it as eight because, compared to other products, the...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?

Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details. At present, they do not prov...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

OPNsense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Competitors

SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 24% of the time

Azure Firewall vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 22% of the time

Stormshield Network Security vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 21% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 12% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 10% of the time

More SonicWall NSv Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

October 2025

Download Barracuda CloudGen Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

September 2025

Download SonicWall NSv product report

Also Known As

No data available

Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls

SonicWall Network Security Virtual

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a comprehensive network security solution that provides advanced protection for organizations of all sizes. It offers next-generation firewall capabilities, including application control, intrusion prevention, and web filtering.

With its integrated VPN functionality, it ensures secure remote access for employees. CloudGen Firewall also includes advanced threat intelligence, leveraging real-time updates to detect and block emerging threats. Its centralized management console simplifies administration and provides visibility into network traffic.

CloudGen Firewall can easily adapt to changing business needs based on its scalable architecture.

Barracuda Networks

SonicWall NSV is a software-based virtual firewall that provides additional security for customers with public-facing servers or services on Microsoft Azure. The AGSS Bundle is considered the most valuable feature, providing security services such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI.

Additionally, customization of firewall rules provides great value to customers, allowing them to lock things up in the way they desire. SonicWall NSV offers extensive security control options to protect customers' valuable information and assets.

SonicWall

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

ARZ, Bauer, CBCX Technologies, Diamant-groep, Eissmann Group Automotive, European Youth Olympics, Exalo Drilling, FineLine Technologies, Geocell, Grimaldi, Infront Sports & Media, Odlo, Schenker Deutschland AG, Tilak, Verbandsgeneinde Zell, Conservas El Cidacos S.A., Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management, Erwin Muller GmbH, Info-Tech: NGF is Champion, Schoellerbank, IZB Informatik-Zentrum, RHI AG, Berglandmilch, Antenne Bayern, Sanochemia

Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. SonicWall NSv

September 2025

Free Report: Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. SonicWall NSv

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