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

Check Point SandBlast Network vs Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Symantec Advanced Threat Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Check Point SandBlast Network is 5.1%, down from 5.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks WildFire is 12.0%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

GaneshKhutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides advanced threat prevention and utilizes geographic-based policies to mitigate attacks
Check Point offers three types of support: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. The level of support you receive should be based on the criticality of the issue, not solely on your client's support tier. While there are established support levels, I have experienced instances where the support provided was not categorized as Gold, Platinum, or Diamond but rather a standard support level. In such cases, the response times were slower, and getting support personnel on the call was more difficult.
AjayKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced cybersecurity with advanced sandboxing and effective in controlling DNS issues
Improvements are needed in the UI part. The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings. This information should be integrated with the Dashboard so that system admins can see what is happening. Furthermore, technical support needs a lot of improvement, particularly in terms of responsiveness and adhering to service level agreements.
TapabrataSamanta - PeerSpot reviewer
Reliable platform with effective integration capabilities
Our primary use case for the product is to provide advanced threat protection to our clients, primarily in the banking and financial sectors Symantec ATP has been beneficial in ensuring robust security for our clients. Its effectiveness in detecting and mitigating threats has improved customer…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Threat extraction can help us to remove malicious content from documents by converting them to PDF."
"Very few false positives are detected, which gives the confidence to raise flags when needed, ensuring the IT department is aware of threats and acting fast."
"One of its characteristics that we liked the most was its analysis and emulation of activities in the emails since it manages to review them and inspect them if they have an infected attachment."
"Check Point SandBlast is best in terms of the extraction function. Customers can get a clean firewall with extraction after I've cleaned and scanned it from Check Point. It's easy for users, too."
"Check Point SandBlast Network Solution provides signature-based as well as zero-day threat protection. Also sandboxing can be performed on an on-premise device, cloud as well as the combination of both. Threat emulation is done on multiple OS & verdict is provided."
"It has caught some harmful attachments and downloads."
"We didn't really have any IPS before. So, Check Point has improved our security posture. People get used to doing things certain ways, which might not be the best or most secure way, and they can't do that now, which just requires more education of the user base. With the endpoint client, we've started to use Check Point for remote access."
"The forensics reports and the ability to sandbox malware are its most valuable features."
"The cloud-based services are a nice feature."
"WildFire's application encryption is useful."
"​Installing this product as a datacenter firewall for segregation and segmentation, and also configuring policies between zones has improved my organization."
"Being an application-based firewall, this is one of the critical focus factors along with the threat prevention services it provides."
"It is stable and pretty much scalable."
"Stability is never a concern."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable feature is the improved security that it offers."
"Currently we have 800-plus nodes connected with this solution, without any issues. The solution is scalable."
"The product integrates well with our systems, and we have not encountered any problems."
"Technical support is very responsive. You just have to open a ticket. They respond in a timely manner. Their response is good. I'm satisfied."
"You don't have to buy a separate email security platform. You can enable that using their endpoint, and I like that. You don't have to have two agents running on the same box."
"The most valuable feature is Click-time URL protection."
"Symantec Endpoint Protection provides end-to-end protection. Along with antivirus protection, it has a lot of key areas, including intrusive prevention, firewall features, and application and device control."
"The great advantage in using this product is it creates multiple services."
"Endpoint to network protects the line."
 

Cons

"I would like for them to improve the visibility in the product."
"We have found a need for the application to be a bit more elastic, bringing it to SAS services and not IAS."
"At the support level, they could improve the attention times and have the resolution of cases happen a little faster."
"The Threat Emulation software blade significantly affects the performance of the NGFWs, we have a significant increase in the CPU and memory consumption."
"The initial setup was complex because of the lack of information from the consultant."
"The response times were slower, and getting support personnel on the call was more difficult."
"Sometimes, Check Point Sandblast requires more resources, which impacts network performance if it has been deployed with limited resources."
"In Check Point SandBlast, improvement has to be made with respect to the GUI."
"Any enhancements should likely be focused on the firewall appliance to further strengthen overall security capabilities, such as refining app and user identity features."
"The system uptime data is unavailable"
"There are some formats that the solution cannot support ."
"If Wi-Fi can be improved to offer real-time security profiling and updates, it can prevent traits unrelated to Wi-Fi."
"The solution can improve its traffic management."
"​They provide a medium level of technical support."
"The cyber security visibility and forensics features to receive more information about incidents could improve in Palo Alto Networks WildFire."
"I think it would be nice for Palo Alto to work without the connection to the cloud. It is 100% powerful when connected to the cloud. But, if you disconnect from the cloud, you only get 40-50% power."
"One area for improvement could be the pricing model."
"They could enhance the solution to work across all devices, including Android, iOS, and Mac, and make it more user-friendly."
"It's a strange situation where the infrastructure of the consumer or customer is behind some kind of firewall and they have always used some kind of customized proxy. In this situation, the ATP has a very tough time to pass the information to the cloud and back. To fix, it requires a more elaborate and complex configuration for that particular case."
"The cloud platform needs to have improvement in terms of the user interface and the different capabilities it has available. It needs to match the other leading next-gen EDR products that are available in the market. That's the reason why we are stepping away from Symantec. Their cloud environment is just generally lacking in comparison to others."
"The administration interface needs a lot of improvement. It should be UI based, and simple. They need to improve it. It's pretty much not that friendly compared to what we were using as Bitdefender before. It's okay but is improving, actually."
"The security features need to be improved."
"The support for new OSs and older OSs could be a little tighter. They need to be more upfront about what protection services they're going to provide on new OSs. I haven't seen the Windows 11 version out yet. It is either already released in Beta, or the Beta will be released soon. There could be a little bit more advanced updates on what they're doing to help protect Windows 11 environments. They can let us know in advance so that we know it is going to be protected. We can't roll out the new OS without putting end-point protection on it. So, they should tell us what is their support model for that, and what are they doing to protect Windows 11. They're not telling me, and that's a criticism. The same issue is applicable to all the other antivirus tools. It is not just Symantec; all of them have this problem."
"It should be able to collect information if the agent is disabled."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is not significantly high and it can be negotiated during any purchase of NGFW."
"The product's cost is high."
"I think the overall cost for introducing Check Point with SandBlast was reasonable and competitive in the market."
"The cost of Check Point SandBlast Network is annually, and there is only a standard license."
"We would like to try the Threat Extraction blade, but you need to buy a license. Check Point is expensive. I would like to buy things, but I would need the funding."
"Choosing the correct set of licenses is essential because, without the additional software blade licenses, the Check Point gateways are just a stateful firewall."
"The pricing is quite effective, not excessively high. On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the highest price, I rate the pricing a nine."
"We have seen ROI."
"The pricing is highly expensive."
"This is an expensive product and the market for Palo Alto in Poland could be much bigger if the pricing was comparable to Fortinet."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"The price of the Palo Alto Networks WildFire license is expensive. When it came time to renew the solution the price doubled."
"The price is fair and comparable to other solutions."
"Pricing could be improved."
"We pay between $3,000 and $4,000 CAD ($2,200 - $3,000 USD) per year to maintain this solution."
"The pricing and licensing option should be categorized for various countries such as for Bangladesh."
"Symantec Advanced Threat Protection's pricing is comparable."
"The price is quite expensive."
"Symantec Endpoint Protection has an average price."
"Pricing is good. It is nice to have a great product at a fair price."
"The pricing of this solution is inexpensive and affordable."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Government
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
59%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Computer Software Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point SandBlast Network?
The solution can detect and prevent attacks that may be encrypted.
What needs improvement with Check Point SandBlast Network?
Check Point SandBlast Network ( /products/check-point-sandblast-network-reviews ) can be improved by adding more inte...
How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one conside...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advan...
What do you like most about Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
Symantec Endpoint Protection provides end-to-end protection. Along with antivirus protection, it has a lot of key are...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
The price is quite expensive because a different entity has taken over the company.
What needs improvement with Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
One area for improvement could be the pricing model. Future releases could further enhance integration capabilities w...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edenred, State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), Edel AG, Laurenty, Conseil Départemental du Val de Marne, Koch Media
Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
ECI
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Fortinet and others in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.