Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Juniper Session Smart Router

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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

Check Point Cloud Firewall ...

Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.3

Number of Reviews

241

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (8th), Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) (1st), Vulnerability Management (5th), Cloud and Data Center Security (3rd), Container Security (7th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (5th), WAN Edge (3rd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (4th), Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) (5th), Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) (5th), Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (4th), Compliance Management (5th)

Juniper Session Smart Router

Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

6th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Routers (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is 3.3%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)	3.3%
Juniper Session Smart Router	2.1%
Other	94.6%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

reviewer2875401

Network Engineer at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

Unified security policies have protected our hybrid network with deep, user-based controls

The main limitations of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) are not in Check Point itself but in the cloud platforms on which it is deployed. Because not all clouds have L2 infrastructure, you cannot build a unified clustering system everywhere. As a result, the problem usually is not with Check Point, but with the cloud. The main problem with Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is that it uses a separate thick client instead of a browser. A browser-based SmartConsole exists, but it still has a number of limitations, while the thick client, the so-called SmartConsole, often works unstably, freezes, and has to be restarted. I do not recommend using Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) as a VPN hub for site-to-site VPN because it is inconvenient to monitor the state of its tunnels, especially visually. It does not have a convenient snap-in and everything can be checked only via the console, which is very inconvenient. Check Point is not the most universal solution as a device that provides routing and administration capabilities in addition to security. It is an excellent firewall, but it has a number of limitations in terms of routing and in creating VPN sessions, especially in terms of displaying their states.

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Esther Sultaana

Storage Consultant Storage at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Secure healthcare connectivity has protected patient data and supports reliable telemedicine

Everything can be improved. It could improve its security stack with malware detection, particularly in healthcare because of ransomware. Now you have IoT vulnerabilities, so something like advanced malware detection or threat analysis would help. This is something I worked with around 2016 to 2017. Perhaps they have added those features, but I know they didn't have it then. Some security profiles for specific medical devices would be helpful. Sandboxing would be good. Dedicated telemedicine routing profiles would be beneficial because we have a lot of telemedicine going on. Real-time sessions for clinicians may need pre-built templates for EHR and EMR. I think those would be good if they're not already there. I don't know what the latest router has, but I know they didn't have those features then. There can always be improvements because technology is constantly advancing. It is a very solid router, and that is one of many industries that could utilize it. Healthcare is one such industry, and if it works for healthcare, then that is a major plus for that router.

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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 solution assures protection on cloud and ensures the workload is protected in the same manner when deployed on-premises."

"These powerful capabilities position it and allow us to increase cloud security elastically while keeping up with the dynamic requirements of our business."

"It is more straightforward for me to create firewall routes instead of using the traditional board tools in Oracle OCI, which are complex for creating firewall rules. Instead, I use the firewall of Check Point, and it is very easy for me."

"It's a very strong solution for cloud security posture management and very effective for large and mid-size environments."

"All these benefits and features that Check Point CloudGuard Intelligence offers have helped us to achieve a security posture in our cloud environments, being safer and more efficient, enhancing a state-of-the-art level of security at the end of the day or year."

"The solution has been quite stable."

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

"Another benefit is that Dome9 provides a unified security solution across all major public clouds."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) pros

"Overall, it is very solid."

"I can share specific numbers; we achieved a 30 to 60% WAN cost reduction by reducing MPLS usage."

"The best feature is the easiest way to deploy configuration and also back up them, and also to roll back quickly if there's an incident."

"Juniper Session Smart Router's real-time analytics and visibility features are easily accessible."

"Because we are talking directly to engineers in the US, the support is usually the best you can possibly get."

"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."

"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."

"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."

More Juniper Session Smart Router pros

Cons

"Today, we are trying to look more into encrypted traffic."

"The price of this solution should be reduced so that it is more affordable to scale - specifically for features like Intelligence Pro."

"At the cost level, the solution is somewhat expensive."

"Currently, worldwide, there are many companies of all sizes that do not understand the value that their data has, but even with all existing clouds, they also do not understand what the shared responsibility model is. They only assume that by having a cloud, the provider must ensure safety, when the truth is that the providers only secure their sites. Everything we do in the cloud and how we configure it is actually our responsibility."

"The business and product development team should introduce a high-end feedback collection mechanism and analyze the customer requirements constructively."

"In the past year, I noticed that the challenging part, especially in the cloud, is upgrading to the next release of the firewall. Unlike on-premise upgrades, it's not as simple in the cloud. You need to recreate the machine, which makes the process more complex."

"The costs are really high if you want the entire capabilities of the platform."

"What I would like for future updates would be faster updates to apply, and perhaps a greater presence in the local language for the regions of Latin America."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) cons

"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."

"I found some weaknesses on their hardware. They are sometimes breaking very often."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in several areas such as the steep learning curve because the session-based model is different from traditional networking."

"Juniper Session Smart Router should have a more user-friendly graphical interface because the user interface is complex, and some upgrade operations are sometimes difficult."

"A key area for improvement in Juniper Session Smart Router is its security stack, which is not as robust as Fortinet."

"Everything can be improved. It could improve its security stack with malware detection, particularly in healthcare because of ransomware."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could improve its documentation to become more competitive. It has very little documentation, and you have to rely mainly so much on support to do something, which I feel should not be that way."

"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."

More Juniper Session Smart Router cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"CloudGuard is fairly priced."

"We explored both pay-as-you-go and build-your-own-licensing models, and found both to be competitive."

"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."

"Licensing is simply by the number of hosts that you are looking to protect within your environment. It makes it much easier to ensure that you are covering your environment."

"Although I am not in sales and cannot comment extensively on pricing, it is known that Check Point’s licensing can be complex. However, it is a similar experience to other gateways and not particularly unique for cloud protection."

"The price of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is very high compared to other solutions, such as Fortinet FortiMail. For the over 2,000 mailboxes we use with the solution it is very expensive."

"The license for CloudGuard Posture Management is about $80 a year, and it's based on your cloud footprint, not the number of users. So you could have a million users, and it doesn't matter."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) pricing and cost advice

"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."

"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

15%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

20%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	132
Midsize Enterprise	55
Large Enterprise	138

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

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

Since we use a unified standard for using policies and modules in Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security), we can clearly plan which modules we need to activate on a parti...

What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

What is your primary use case for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is the main manager that provides network security in different forms in my organization. The primary task that Check Point solves ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?

I personally did not do the pricing. I imagine it was okay because the company did purchase it. In a lot of instances, particularly as it pertains to healthcare, they don't want to spend too much. ...

What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?

I think the current Juniper focuses more on switching rather than routing, which is a weak point in the product. Currently, I and my customers have not utilized the Session Awareness feature of Jun...

What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?

I have been running my own company and working with Juniper Session Smart Router for almost 10 to 12 years because Larsen & Toubro is my client who will use Juniper devices for switching and fi...

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

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Product Reports

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Download Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) product report

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) report

Juniper Session Smart Router

Download Juniper Session Smart Router product report

Also Known As

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

128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series

Overview

Check Point Cloud Firewall, previously known as CloudGuard Network Security, provides advanced threat prevention, centralized management, and VPN capabilities, enabling robust cloud security across various platforms including Azure and AWS.

Check Point Cloud Firewall delivers seamless cloud integration with advanced automated threat prevention and centralized management to enhance security posture. It offers auto-scaling for dynamic environments and a comprehensive policy enforcement framework in hybrid settings. The unified interface streamlines administration across cloud infrastructures, ensuring consistent protection and reducing risk.

What important features does it offer?

Advanced Threat Prevention: Safeguards against sophisticated threats.
Centralized Management: Simplifies control for cloud infrastructures.
Auto-scaling: Adapts to changing workloads seamlessly.
VPN Capabilities: Enables secure connections across environments.
Integration with Azure and AWS: Ensures compatibility with leading cloud services.
Visibility Tools: Enhanced monitoring and management for security enforcement.

What benefits can users expect?

Enhanced Security: Comprehensive threat management reduces risk.
Operational Efficiency: Automation capabilities streamline processes.
Cost Management: Efficient resource usage with auto-scaling reduces expenses.
Integration Flexibility: Adapts easily into existing cloud platforms.
Simplified Administration: Unified management reduces complexity.

In manufacturing and conglomerate sectors, Check Point Cloud Firewall is utilized for protecting cloud environments and implementing network segmentation. It supports secure cloud migration on AWS, Azure, and GCP, ensuring compliance, perimeter defense, and traffic inspection, facilitating sophisticated threat prevention strategies.

Check Point Software Technologies

Juniper Session Smart Router offers real-time analytics, zero-trust segmentation, and simple deployment, providing efficient and secure connections. Its tunnel-free secure vector routing sets it apart in the SD-WAN market, enhancing scalability with Mist Cloud integration and application-aware AI operations.

Juniper Session Smart Router is recognized for improving network management through its blend of edge-to-cloud stack capabilities, application-aware AI, and seamless integration with Mist Cloud. Users leverage its zero-trust segmentation, bandwidth-efficient SDR channel, and unique no-tunnel secure vector routing to streamline SD-WAN deployments and ensure optimal connectivity across global branches. Its strengths include rapid configuration rollback, clear visibility, and application-aware operations, offering detailed insight into network performance. The dynamic full-stack operations ensure enhanced scalability and management of complex network environments, meeting the diverse needs of telecom and ISP networks by providing smooth session failovers and bandwidth savings.

What are the key features of Juniper Session Smart Router?

Real-Time Analytics: Provides detailed insights into network performance with AI-driven operations.
Zero-Trust Segmentation: Ensures secure, efficient connections through stringent segmentation.
SDR Channel: Delivers secure connections with enhanced bandwidth efficiency.
Tunnel-Free Secure Vector Routing: Unique in the SD-WAN market, offering efficient, secure pathways without tunnels.
Integration with Mist Cloud: Enhances scalability and network management through seamless cloud operations.

What are the benefits and ROI for businesses using Juniper Session Smart Router?

Enhanced Scalability: Supports growing network demands with a comprehensive edge-to-cloud stack.
Operational Efficiency: Streamlined deployments and rapid rollback capabilities simplify complex operations.
Cost Management: Offers bandwidth savings and effective resource use for optimal financial efficiency.
Application Awareness: Manages diverse SLAs with AI-powered operations for improved application performance.
Network Visibility: Provides detailed insights and monitoring for proactive network management.

Juniper Session Smart Router finds applications mainly in managing BNG and streamlining operations across branches. It supports inter-location connectivity and bandwidth bundling, addressing diverse application SLA requirements. Commonly utilized by telecom and ISP networks, it ensures efficient management of large-scale environments.

Juniper

Sample Customers

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance

Revation Systems

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Juniper Session Smart Router