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Check Point NGFW vs SonicWall NSSP comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
330
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point NGFW
Ranking in Firewalls
5th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
310
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
SonicWall NSSP
Ranking in Firewalls
39th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 Check Point NGFW is 3.0%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSSP is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Manikandan Kannan - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined management through dual-interface configuration capabilities with excellent support
We use Check Point NGFW for security purposes. Our clients use it for security reasons, as mentioned during the call The most valuable feature is the availability of two consoles. In the normal GA login, I can create interfaces and configure interface IPs, while in the SmartConsole, I manage the…
Lenin Christopher - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced security with advanced threat protection and superior support
We serve as an integrator for SonicWall, deploying this solution for customers in the media and entertainment, banking, and finance sectors. We use SonicWall to protect their environments against digital attacks SonicWall has helped us deliver security solutions effectively, particularly in…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment."
"It performs very well."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."
"This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"The Threat Management feature makes it very easy to detect the vulnerabilities and other factors. We can make new policy according to it. Policy creation is very simple in Check Point. Because the logs are very good in Check Point Firewall, this reduces our work with the reports that we are getting from the Threat Management. It is very convenient for us to use the reports to make new policies for security and other things."
"The IPS protection is the most useful feature that I found from Check Point."
"The Network Address Translation (NAT) will always be a valuable feature as it allows me to turn my private cloud to the public at the click of a button and have secure control over the accessible servers/applications."
"The most valuable feature is the Stateful Inspection, which was developed by Check Point."
"The online documentation is complete and easy to read and understand."
"Check Point NGFW provides a bunch of different products or Blades, as they call it in Check Point. The firewall engine is what we use the most but we also use the IPS IDS and Anti-Bot features. The solution provides many features."
"Provides very good performance."
"We can also run policies with two or more people simultaneously without problems or the risk of developing the wrong policy."
"The product's most valuable features are simplicity and comprehensive protection capabilities, including load balancing, IPS, antivirus, and web filtering."
"SonicWall NSSP is stable and scalable too."
"The VPN functionality is really good. Overall, the whole device is very easy to manage. The software that comes with it is also good."
"SonicWall has helped us deliver security solutions effectively, particularly in threat prevention and content filtering."
"The solution's pricing is good."
"It has been delivering results efficiently. Its configurations and updates have been easy. It is also user-friendly."
"I like the filtering feature, which provides easy access. The SSL certification feature is also nice. The solution enhanced our security posture."
 

Cons

"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats. Fortinet FortiGate is able to ensure these threats do not enter, but we would prefer to see more proactive alerting mechanisms come out."
"The platform's interface could improve."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."
"When it comes to Check Point's small business gateway series, there might be a need for hardware upgrades, as configuring them can sometimes be a bit challenging."
"The upgrade is something we would like to be improved in the future as the frequency of hotfixes is too much, and by the time we finish the one round, we already have the new version released and are required to upgrade."
"Hopefully, in the future, these will be much more plug-and-play and orchestrated from a single administration console."
"During my initial level implementation of check Point NGFW, I faced issues troubleshooting. The problem was with its command line."
"While not being cheap, their pricing models are competitive. In the pricing structure, however, they need improvement."
"One of the biggest disappointments is the GUI."
"The firewall throughput or performance reduces drastically after enabling each module/blade."
"In terms of new features, maybe it would help if we could start to manage all the stuff in the cloud and not in the on-prem servers. The management side could also be faster when you install policies. But other than that, I'm satisfied."
"The solution's stability and scalability also need improvement."
"The user interface, the GUI, could be improved."
"Its reporting functions can be improved. It has decent reporting, but you got to pay a lot more money for it. That's where it begins to fall apart. It comes with minimal zero reporting unless you buy some extra modules. With those extra modules, you can get all the data, but it takes a while to put together what you need for your customer. It is for technical people, but there is no executive summary of the reporting."
"The platform could benefit from an improved marketing strategy."
"The EDR and XDR capabilities of SonicWall need to be improved."
"No security product is foolproof against hackers, intruders, and other such things. As a security product, they have to keep pace in terms of protection from new hackers and intruders."
"The product needs improvement for phishing emails."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price for the device and software is high. However, the solution is of good quality and has a lot of features."
"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."
"Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."
"It's a very full-featured and it's priced well solution."
"The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device."
"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."
"The price is high compared to some of the other solutions."
"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."
"This product is not cheap and there are additional costs that depend on what model or package that you buy."
"I think that the pricing is different for every organization."
"Pricing is a little high compared to competitive firewalls, but it is easy to go through the licensing steps."
"Palo Alto is somehow not as good as Check Point, budget-wise and performance-wise. Palo Alto is more costly than Check Point."
"Check Point NGFW is a little expensive."
"The vendor has a very flexible licensing approach."
"The pricing and licensing are pretty steep. They know that they are good, so they are pricey."
"Licensing issues may be confusing at times."
"The pricing is cheap, and that's where, you know, the some of the organization goes for the SonicWall."
"For SonicWall NSSP high availability, active/passive, you need to buy one license, and so you get much more value for money."
"The setup costs and licensing are reasonable, and the solution provides good value for its features."
"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"You got to buy some VPN licenses, and there might be a $40 to $50 one-time license fee per current user. There are different layers. They have several different levels of event security software and depending on the model, it seems to come out to be $1 to $2 a day. So, if you bought a three-year license, it is going to be anywhere from $900 to $1800 depending on the bundle and model that you buy."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
55%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
3%
No data available
 

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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSSP?
SonicWall is a rather expensive solution with a rating of eight out of ten regarding its pricing. Despite being expen...
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSSP?
The EDR and XDR capabilities of SonicWall need to be improved. When compared to a brand like SentinelOne, SonicWall s...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
SonicWall Network Security Services Platform
 

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
Control Southern, Optimal Media
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. SonicWall NSSP and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.