Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Sophos XGS comparison

Sponsored
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 15, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate provides cost-effective security, reducing operational costs and enhancing efficiency with quick ROI for enterprises.
Sentiment score
6.5
Check Point Harmony SASE users report fewer security incidents, cost savings, enhanced productivity, and reduced traditional VPN reliance.
Sentiment score
2.5
Sophos XGS offers valuable ransomware protection for small businesses, reducing operational costs despite higher licensing fees.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) blocked access to those URLs at the network level before users could click through.
We are saving 40% of our time, which is good.
The costs have increased with Sophos XGS in the last few years, with license prices going up by 30%, doubling from $2,500 to about $5,000, which is a big challenge for us.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.9
Fortinet FortiGate support varies, praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and regional inconsistencies in efficiency.
Sentiment score
7.2
Check Point Harmony SASE receives mixed to positive reviews for responsive support, though some users experienced delays in resolution.
Sentiment score
6.9
Sophos XGS customer service varies, praised for responsiveness but criticized for slow responses and expertise in initial support stages.
They offer very accurate solutions.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
I would rate support 10 out of 10.
After updating firmware, data utilization was visible for a few days before collapsing again.
Any issues are quickly addressed by their support team, which is not common among all OEM manufacturers.
The technical support of Sophos rates at 10.
The response time from Sophos technical support can be slow in most cases, which can be challenging.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable with ease of expansion, though hardware integration and sizing can pose challenges for users.
Sentiment score
8.2
Check Point Harmony SASE is scalable, cloud-based, and adaptable but faces some redundancy limitations compared to competitors.
Sentiment score
7.0
Sophos XGS is versatile for various environments, but some hardware limitations exist, suitable for small to medium enterprises.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
The cloud-native model ensures we are not tied to any specific location or hardware, which has been a great game changer in terms of agility.
The scalability of Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) is good, and I can add more users and devices easily as my organization grows.
I would rate it nine out of ten for scalability.
I can change what I want easily without interfering with other services or routines.
I would rate its scalability seven out of ten since modules can be added.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Fortinet FortiGate is favored for its stability and reliability, with some performance issues resolved through updates and sizing.
Sentiment score
7.8
Check Point Harmony SASE is stable with 99.9% uptime, despite rare glitches, earning high user reliability ratings.
Sentiment score
7.6
Sophos XGS is praised for stability and reliability, with high ratings despite occasional performance drops when capacity limits are exceeded.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
The solution is very stable.
Even the support team does not have a proper solution for this issue.
There are some lags and glitches with connectivity, so I would rate the stability as between seven or eight out of ten.
After the last improvement, I can say it is much more stable now.
It is rated at nine out of ten for stability and is very reliable.
Sophos XGS is stable now, and I would rate its stability as a ten out of ten.
When Sophos introduced firmware version twenty, there was a bug in DCC.
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate users seek improvements in stability, integration, scalability, cost, and advanced features like monitoring and zero-trust technology.
Check Point Harmony SASE could improve with SD-WAN, alerts, better UI, analytics, integration, support, and documentation enhancements.
Sophos XGS requires improved integration, scalability, and support, while addressing high costs and complex configurations for better user experience.
Investing in a solution that can accommodate such growth would be more cost-effective than repeatedly purchasing new hardware.
The constant daily revisions necessitate meticulous identification of the relevant documents to prevent the use of outdated information that could jeopardize our environment.
While Fortinet claims to offer a comprehensive network solution, it falls short in addressing computer application issues, particularly server security.
An example of when the support cycle took longer than expected was when I had a ticket open for nearly six to seven months regarding a simple issue.
A local data center in Turkey would enhance the product, as currently, our Internet traffic goes to another country, which is problematic for us.
One area for improvement is integration with third-party identity providers.
It would be beneficial if Sophos XGS offered an end-to-end solution with competitive pricing.
The DDNS features are essential for any organization, as it is better not to have a static IP address from an ISP.
After version 18.5, creating a NAT rule has become more complex, requiring the creation of a separate policy and an additional component.
 

Setup Cost

Fortinet FortiGate offers various licensing models, balancing affordability and performance, though renewals can increase costs.
Check Point Harmony SASE offers clear pricing and flexibility, ideal for large enterprises but costly for small businesses.
Sophos XGS offers flexible pricing with competitive discounts, balancing cost-effectiveness and functionality compared to rivals like Fortinet and Palo Alto.
FortiGate is priced lower than Palo Alto.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It is about 20% cheaper.
Cost efficiency is a consideration, as SASE products are not the cheapest security products.
It is a bit expensive.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) is that it is a rental service, but I find it satisfactory.
The last instance I purchased was for three years, around $3,700 for SDG 125.
pricing is rated eight out of ten, indicating that it may be relatively expensive.
Sophos XGS is quite expensive, potentially a nine out of ten in terms of cost.
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust security features, user-friendly management, and scalability, making it a preferred choice for organizations.
Check Point Harmony SASE enhances security with Zero Trust Access, Secure Gateway, and ThreatCloud intelligence, optimizing remote work management.
Sophos XGS provides centralized management, strong security features, and scalability, ensuring efficient and cost-effective network control across industries.
In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable.
FortiGate has helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that might disrupt our client's production.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
The firewall management is the most valuable feature for me.
The Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) feature is a major highlight as it gives users seamless and secure access to internal resources without requiring a full-blown VPN, which improves both security and user experience.
The best key features of Harmony are stabilization, private access, and Internet access.
It's able to detect cloud applications like Zoom or Microsoft Teams and allows traffic shaping based on the application.
I find it much easier than others, like FortiGate, which is complicated in its installation, but Sophos XGS is really easy.
The threat detection capabilities are effective, especially against CNC and certain viruses not coming through emails.
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
373
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point Harmony SASE (f...
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (7th), Anti-Malware Tools (6th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (7th), ZTNA as a Service (4th), ZTNA (2nd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (6th)
Sophos XGS
Ranking in Firewalls
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.2%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) is 0.1%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XGS is 2.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Nasseer Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivers seamless and secure remote access while enhancing security posture
Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) offers strong features, but there are areas that could be improved. One area for improvement is integration with third-party identity providers. It works with standard SAML and SSO, but we would prefer deeper integrations with solutions such as Ping for more advanced identity-based policies. Additionally, a mobile-specific client or lightweight agent would be helpful for securing access from smartphones, especially in BYOD environments. We would appreciate more granular reporting and analytics, including better drill-down capabilities to investigate specific users or app activity. The logs are comprehensive, but filtering them can sometimes feel messy. The user interface on the management portal could be more intuitive, especially when managing multiple sites or remote offices. Some of the policy configuration steps are nested and could be streamlined.
Nassif  Kaleny - PeerSpot reviewer
Dynamic web and mail filtering contribute to improved security measures
The reporting system is very poor. I cannot trace any traffic to our site if it feels some threats. It just tells me that there is something during a certain time but does not provide information about the type of threats or how to get rid of them. This needs improvement.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
12%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What do you like most about Perimeter 81?
Even after restarting, it tries to quickly reestablish connection which is very helpful.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perimeter 81?
It's essential to consider the organization's specific requirements and budget. Here are some general recommendations...
What needs improvement with Perimeter 81?
In terms of improvement, Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed...
What do you like most about Sophos XGS?
The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos XGS?
I am satisfied with the price, rating it a nine. There are no extra expenses required after buying the product.
What needs improvement with Sophos XGS?
There is room for improvement in Sophos XGS, specifically in three areas: slowness, centralized synchronization, and ...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Check Point Quantum SASE
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Aqua Security, Cognito, Multipoint, Kustomer, Postman, Meredith
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs. Sophos XGS and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.