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Check Point IPS vs Cisco Sourcefire SNORT comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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 IPS
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT
Ranking in Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) category, the mindshare of Check Point IPS is 3.3%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is 3.0%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Check Point IPS3.3%
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT3.0%
Other93.7%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

GR
Support at a security firm with 51-200 employees
Real-Time Blocking Improves Response and Reduces Manual Logs
The best feature in my experience with Check Point IPS is the real-time prevention because it uses thousands of preventive protections based on both known exploit signatures and behavioral analysis to detect and block threats before they reach vulnerable systems. I find the behavioral analysis feature of Check Point IPS to be a most valuable feature because it can detect sophisticated threats that do not match known signatures. For example, when I need to view anomaly detections, instead of relying solely on known attack patterns, Check Point IPS monitors network traffic for unusual behavior such as unexpected protocol use, abnormal data flows, or suspicious command sequences. Check Point IPS impacts my organization positively because it has had a strong positive impact by strengthening our network defense, reducing manual work, and improving our incident response times.
reviewer2772102 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Logging and customizable rules have helped improve threat monitoring and detection
The logging is mainly what I consider one of the best features with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. Being able to log and store it in a file allows you to push it to a centralized repository. The logging and reporting help improve incident response. You should always be logging threats, any sort of misconfiguration, and anything that could be an issue. It's important to at least log and monitor it. The basic rules provide a good baseline in assessing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT's ability in providing real-time analytics for threat detection, but as a professional, you should look to constantly modify that baseline. They provide extensive customizability so you can define your own rules. The customizability allows it to be adaptable in protecting against diverse network threats to the constant change.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The autonomous threat prevention is very easy to use. The APIs and SmartConsole tool also work well."
"If I could only keep one of my security solutions, it would be Check Point."
"The IPS has helped us to block many known and zero-day attacks on our network."
"The number of the IPS protections is amazing - after the latest update I see more than 11000 in the SmartConsole."
"Some of the features for views and visualization are already predefined as default files."
"Basically, it is easy to use and offers a wide variety of protections through all kinds of software, services, appliances, and IoT-Devices."
"The Check Point IPS module certainly is of great support in ensuring the security of every organization."
"Now that the Check Point Intrusion Prevention System has improved our environment, we feel that we are more protected in our network."
"The solution is stable."
"The tool's most valuable feature is threat detection, which is important because we have multiple layers not only in Cisco."
"The most valuable feature is reliability, and this solution is better than Check Point."
"I would recommend this solution; it's reliable and scalable, with easy installation and integration."
"The solution can be integrated with some network electors like Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco ISE, and Active Directory to provide the client with authentication certificates."
"If you compare it to other vendors, the technical support from Cisco is excellent."
"It simplifies the configuration process by offering pre-defined base configurations, including security and connectivity settings."
"Scalability is something that Cisco has always cared about."
 

Cons

"For a smaller organization or smaller environment, the cost for Check Point IPS is a little bit high, so that can be made more budgetary for small organizations."
"Enhancements are necessary for the proficiency of notifications in the event of a Social Security incident, whether through email or alternative channels such as SMS."
"Support is the biggest area for improvement."
"Sometimes we had false positives where packages that were legitimate for us were blocked and we had to unblock them through exceptions."
"Improvement suggestions include more attractive dashboards, enhanced visual analytics, and automated attack path correlation in SmartEvent to improve situational awareness."
"There is an issue with precision."
"The scalability of Check Point IPS is on point, while the customer support is sometimes a bit slow."
"It would be good to update the public documentation of Check Point so that we can generate improvements and best practices based on the documentation."
"A lot of Cisco equipment is very good, but in judging the model of this solution that we have, I feel that it is the worst."
"With the next release, I would like to see some PBR, so that you can do the configuration with the features."
"To be frank, the product is not really stable, although they're working on that. Whenever I go to the technical community with an issue, they will usually say that it is not there yet, but the technical team are working on it. The issues are not insolvable. I think they should just keep working on the product to make sure that the product can become very stable. The technical support is great. I appreciate that. We have a lot of communities supporting Firepower now, so you can find help for whatever issue you have."
"I did not experience any pain points that required improvement. Maybe a couple of false-positives, but that's about it."
"The price of this solution could be improved."
"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."
"If the price is brought down then everybody will be happy."
"The pricing needs to be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You can pay for Check Point IPS yearly, or you can go with a three-year license. There's no extra cost apart from the standard licensing fee."
"I think that the price of support is around $40,000 USD or $50,000 USD per year."
"The module has a considerable cost but you can save by purchasing a package with several modules instead of making a single purchase."
"It is a reasonably priced product."
"The tool's licensing model is good. The licensing costs are yearly. I rate it an eight out of ten."
"There is a license needed to use the Check Point IPS which is not expensive. However, the Check Point IPS device is expensive."
"The pricing for Check Point IPS is competitive and brings good value for the money."
"I give the price of the solution a five out of ten."
"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business51
Midsize Enterprise22
Large Enterprise22
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point IPS?
I have saved around two or three hours a week since I started using Check Point IPS. My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point IPS is great, and I have no problem with t...
What needs improvement with Check Point IPS?
Check Point IPS is working well for our organization. In the future, more automated and more AI-based intelligence could be fed into Check Point IPS, and that would be helpful for us.
What is your primary use case for Check Point IPS?
Check Point IPS is used as a security feature to prevent zero-day attacks and the execution of malicious files in our network. Check Point IPS is an Intrusion Prevention System that prevents malici...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
I have not had much experience with the community-driven rule set while utilizing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. I don't have experience with recognizing zero-day vulnerabilities, but based on my knowledg...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Endpoint protection is the main use case. The main aspect involves specifying different rules, and when network traffic hits these rules, it will try to block the traffic or at least log the traffi...
 

Also Known As

Check Point Intrusion Prevention System
Sourcefire SNORT
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Morton Salt, Medical Advocacy and Outreach, BH Telecom, Lightbeam Health Solutions, X by Orange, Cadence, Nihondentsu, Datastream Connexion, Good Sam, Omnyway, FIASA, Pacific Life, Banco del Pacifico, Control Southern, Xero, Centrify
CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point IPS vs. Cisco Sourcefire SNORT and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,563 professionals have used our research since 2012.