Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] vs Sophos UTM comparison

Check Point Software Technologies and Sophos are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 84% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] and Sophos UTM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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May 2026

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

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.

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William Cambronero

Consultant at ITQS

Great firewalls, VPN, and Intrusion prevention capabilities

Some features that could be improved are advanced threat protection, sandboxing, and vulnerability management. Another point is to improve the technical support provided by Check Point UTM-1. Although the company offers different standards, including basic and premium, by mail and by telephone, they present a very large deficiency in the time it takes to comply with the provisions of the SLA. Coordinating a meeting is complicated by the schedules. The documentation should also be improved by having it unified.

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Bashir Bashir

IT Manager at Vegol

Firewall management has become simpler and now provides real-time visibility and bandwidth control

The features I have found most valuable in Sophos UTM are that it is much easier to configure, I appreciate the reporting side of it, and the rules are very straightforward to work with. Sophos UTM's real-time insights into network health help my organization because I get real-time reports on what is happening on my network, what is trying to access me, the destination, and all that. I can then be reactive or proactive, and for zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier. The use of Sophos UTM's intuitive management console has impacted my security policy enforcement in that it is much easier to configure; I configure with information rather than with presumptions.

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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 strengths of Fortinet FortiGate include network security, VPN, site-to-site tunnels, client VPN solutions, two-factor authentication for VPN clients, and SD-WAN for branch level. We have implemented these solutions for various customers."

"The usage in general is pretty good."

"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."

"FortiGate has led to a reduction in our security budget."

"My advice for anybody who is implementing FortiGate that it is a great product and easy to use, but be careful which firmware you use."

"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."

"Fortinet FortiGate is both scalable and stable."

"The solution is used in my company since its management is very comfortable"

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The pricing is reasonable for the performance and support we are getting."

"The UTM platform has been the most valuable, as it's a great system with the possibility of having several plates implemented on the same appliance."

"Check Point is not cheap when compared to other solutions, but it provides high level security, and as an organization we are fully satisfied with this product."

"It has given us the ability to securely connect remote office sites to our Core Data Network over ISP DPLC Circuits."

"The most valuable feature for us was to implement negligent functionality, to direct functionality to viewer control and application control so we could disconnect, and at the same time, we installed checkpoints. We disconnected our proxy."

"The filtering was very good."

"When we were evaluating services, we knew we needed something robust and easy to implement with the old equipment and something that was safe."

"Since I have installed the solution everything is working very great."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] pros

"The stability of Sophos UTM is very good. The solution has been stable since Sophos took over Cyberoam which was the original company providing this solution."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the efficiency and mail filtering module."

"This is where Sophos vendor outclasses every other vendor."

"I like the web filtering options."

"They are all good, but most-used are Network Protection and Web Filtering."

"The solution is scalable."

"The packet filtering's great. You get out what you put into it. It works great as long as you know your security and configure everything adequately. If you just pop one in and it's not configured, then it's basically wide open. It kind of depends on the admin skill, but it's an excellent product."

"I did take a look at other open source solutions, but found the Sophos UTM, being the best professional free for Home UTM solutions, full blown, and updated daily, to be the best solution."

More Sophos UTM pros

Cons

"If anything, they can support a user a little bit better."

"FortiGate can only retain logs for 24 hours or 7 days. I'm not sure if it holds them for a longer period, such as for a month."

"We can't identify which users are causing challenges when we have issues."

"The learning curve is a bit higher."

"There are some cloud-based features that could be much more flexible than they currently are."

"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."

"There's always something new that can be added or fixed."

"I prefer Palo Alto over Fortinet FortiGate. Its IPS engine is not better than the Palo Alto version. The monitoring tool needs improvement, and the syslog configuration needs enhancement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Yes, about once a year we have a catastrophic failure. It's pretty random."

"I would like to see improvements in the report area. Some features should be integrated and not licensed separately."

"Specifically on the user experience, sometimes the set up of things, such as the VPN SSL, takes a lot of time to load and a lot of time to get up and running on every session."

"Memory and processing power: These devices are strictly for small business applications."

"I am not able to see a demo."

"Customer service is definitely degrading, according to me."

"What has been the issue of firewalls is they ask me for policies and content filtering application control and all these features that are now part of Harmony."

"Customer service is not their strong suite. It takes a lot of time until they fix anything, and it can be better to try and fix the issue without them."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] cons

"The technical support team’s response time could be improved."

"The updates come out agonizingly slowly. They just trickle out and when there's a problem with an update it takes a while to sort out."

"Sophos UTM could be simplified, and they can improve on the many other features, like SD-WAN and load balancing."

"The VPN could be better. We need a better VPN client for the customers."

"Very rare cases of appliance lost admin password or web-service hangs."

"The UI can be cumbersome and, sometimes, features are not where you think they should be."

"The price is an issue to consider for improvement."

"The technical support only communicates via email. I would prefer to communicate directly with someone."

More Sophos UTM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."

"Its price is affordable and lesser than Cisco. Cisco is expensive. In terms of licensing, there is only one issue. If a customer's license has expired a month ago and they do the renewal after one month, Fortinet renews the license from the start of the previous month. The activation of the product is done from the previous month, not from the date of renewal. The customers usually shout and complain that because they are paying today, the renewal should start from today. The support contract renewals or licensing should be renewed from the date of renewal, but Fortinet starts from the day it had expired. It is a loss for customers. They might have had some problems because of which they did not take the license one month before. Fortinet should work on this. Cisco doesn't do this. Cisco always starts from the day they apply for the license."

"Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support."

"FortiGate SWG is reasonably priced."

"It is less expensive than a Cisco solution."

"Fortinet FortiGate is cheaper than Palo Alto. It is about 20% cheaper."

"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"This cost is between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per year, so some other solutions are cheaper and the pricing should be improved."

"The pricing is too high."

"The problem with the Sophos is not the cost of the hardware but the cost of the modules, packages, and the subscription."

"It is necessary to pay for a licence to use the solution, but it is not very expensive."

"Although Sophos UTM is a good product, other products have more flexibility with their pricing. It is a very fine product, but when someone wants more relaxed pricing or more leverage in pricing, Sophos is more rigid."

"The appliance should be purchased and there is a fee for the license."

"Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."

"This product is free for home users. The more expensive products have better performance."

"The pricing for Sophos UTM is quite acceptable compared to other UTM vendors."

"The product pricing and licensing are higher, but they offer good value for the features and stability provided."

More Sophos UTM pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jan 3, 2016

Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate

I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Construction Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	370
Midsize Enterprise	138
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	75
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	27

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...

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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...

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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 ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?

The pricing for Sophos UTM is reasonable; I do not have an issue with it, though I was considering RED because I have...

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What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?

I would like to improve Sophos UTM in that there is software I use that goes deeper in the reporting on usage. There ...

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What is your primary use case for Sophos UTM?

Sophos UTM is the primary product I work with, specifically the firewalls. I mainly use the application control featu...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 1% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 43% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 14% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 10% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

More Sophos UTM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

June 2026

Download Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos UTM

May 2026

Download Sophos UTM product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Astaro

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Check Point UTM-1 delivers proven, best-in-class security ideal for use in industrial Ethernet and SCADA environments. Robust performance and central management provide unmatched value in a simple, all-in-one solution.

Check Point Software Technologies

Sophos UTM delivers comprehensive network security with features like firewall, intrusion prevention, and endpoint protection. Its user-friendly interface and scalable options make it ideal for businesses of varying sizes, ensuring seamless integration with AWS, cloud services, and other Sophos offerings.

With robust Advanced Threat Protection, Sophos UTM offers a holistic approach to security through its intuitive platform. It includes a centralized console for enhanced threat visibility, integrated web application firewall, and secure remote access via SSL VPN and RED device. Critiques focus on limited reporting capabilities, complex licensing, and requiring improvements in VPN and email protection, centralized management, and application control.

What are the key features of Sophos UTM?

Advanced Threat Protection: Protects against sophisticated attacks by integrating multiple security technologies.
Firewall and Web Protection: Provides core security measures with intrusion prevention and application control.
Integrated WAF: Shields applications from vulnerabilities, ensuring secure user interactions.
Scalable Deployment: Supports diverse setups from small businesses to large enterprises, including cloud integrations.

What benefits should users expect from Sophos UTM?

Unified Management: Simplifies security operations through a single management console for cohesive control.
Secure Remote Access: Extends network security to remote users without compromising protection quality.
Cost Efficiency: Offers scalable, cost-effective security solutions to adapt to growing business needs.

Sophos UTM sees implementations in industries needing strong perimeter protection and secure remote access, such as finance, healthcare, and education. It supports seamless network integration, ensuring businesses maintain compliance and safeguard their digital environments effectively.

Sophos

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

AccessIT Group Inc., Accuvant, Cadre Computer Resources Inc., Compuquip Technologies Inc, Dimension Data North America Inc., Forsythe Solutions Group, Gotham Technology Group LLC, GuidePoint Security LLC, Iovations, IPS

One Housing Group

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: May 2026.

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