We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Zscaler Cloud Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"You can create multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs), which are treated as separate firewall instances."
"The feature I like most is the SD-WAN. It allows you to manage more than one ISP at the same time. And there is a high-availability mode, so if one of your ISPs is down, you still have a backup."
"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"The solution's dashboard is fine, and in terms of support, Cisco is better than other OEMs in the market."
"Easy to deploy in a working environment between servers and users."
"The TAC is always very helpful. We pay for Tier 1 support, so we get whatever we need from them. They always give us a solution. If they can't give us an answer that day, they get back to us within at least 24 hours with a solution or fix. I have never had a problem with the TAC. I would rate them as 10 out of 10."
"It is a very stable product. I've not had any issues with it. It is a super product, and I won't need to change it anytime soon."
"The feature I find most valuable is the Cisco VPN Interconnection."
"The most valuable feature we have found to be the VPN because we use it often."
"Cisco ASA is very strong."
"With Cisco, there are a lot of features such as the network map. Cisco builds the whole network map of the machines you have behind your firewall and gives you insight into the vulnerabilities and attributes that the host has. Checkpoint and Fortinet don't have that functionality directly on the firewall."
"It provides in-depth visibility into your network, ensuring that traffic flowing into your organization, be it from offices or individual users, is effectively filtered and secured through multiple layers of protection."
"The solution offers good sandboxing."
"Once you have Zscaler running you have access to configure it however you want."
"Zscaler Cloud Firewall understands the applications in the current generation and adapts to the present generation cloud applications."
"I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The visibility and log availability offered are highly valued for troubleshooting purposes, and this is a key factor driving customer interest in the firewall module."
"The solution is scalable."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"The user interface for the Firepower management console is a little bit different from traditional Cisco management tools. If you look at products we already use, like Cisco Prime or other products that are cloud-based, they have a more modern user interface for managing the products. For Firepower, the user interface is not very user-friendly. It's a little bit confusing sometimes."
"Its user interface is good, but it could be better. Currently, you have to know what to do before you can manage a device. If you don't know what to do, you can mess things up. There are some devices that are easier, such as FortiGate. The user interface of FortiGate is more intuitive. It is very easy to log in and configure things."
"I would like to see them add more next-generation features so that you don't need a lot of appliances to do just one task. It should be a single solution."
"I needed to be well-versed with all the command lines for Cisco ASA in order to fully utilize it. I missed this info and wasted some operational costs."
"It lacks management. For me, it still doesn't have a proper management tool or GUI for configuration, logging, and visualization. Its management is not that easy. It is also not very flexible and easy to configure. They used to have a product called CSM, but it is no longer being developed. FortiGate is better than this solution in terms of GUI, flexibility, and user-friendliness."
"I don't have any specific improvements to recommend. However, when you compare the throughput of a Cisco firewall to the competitors, especially Fortinet, what you find is that Cisco has lagged a little bit behind in terms of firewall throughput, especially for the price that you pay for that throughput."
"They could improve by having more skilled, high-level engineers that are available around the clock. I know that's an easy thing to say and a hard thing to do."
"When you make any changes, irrespective of whether they are big or small, Firepower takes too much time. It is very time-consuming. Even for small changes, you have to wait for 60 seconds or maybe more, which is not good. Similarly, when you have many IPS rules and policies, it slows down, and there is an impact on its performance."
"Because it's on cloud, it doesn't allow application of extra settings."
"Certain criteria need to be met if you want to scale this solution."
"Data Leak Prevention is only for web filtering and there is no protection for email."
"Its technical support services could be better."
"Pricing is a challenge."
"They do not provide a few components that are fundamental to differentiate the products"
"When it comes to customer support, there is room for improvement in Zscaler's service."
"The issue right now is probably that Zscaler is not providing web browser isolation. Another solution, Menlo, offers this. For one customer, we had to send traffic to Menlo to do the isolation for us. It was requested by the customer so that they could integrate any iframe. Zscaler needs to add this type of feature in their next release."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is ranked 24th in Firewalls with 15 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Zscaler Cloud Firewall writes "A highly stable and comprehensive cloud security and access solution". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Zscaler Cloud Firewall is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, OPNsense, Check Point NGFW and Sophos XG. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall report.
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