We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Sonicwall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Of the two solutions, Sonicwall TZ seems to be the more desirable product because of its easy deployment, great set of features, and affordable price.
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"It's a user-friendly firewall. Most of the tasks are very simple. It's simple to configure and troubleshoot this firewall."
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"I like how we can achieve total integration."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"The feature set is fine and is rarely a problem."
"The technical support is excellent. I would rate it as 10 out of 10. When there has been an issue, we have had a good response from them."
"Once configured to suit your needs, these firewalls are rock solid appliances."
"I like the user interface because the navigation is very easy, straightforward on your left side pane you have all the sites that you need to browse. Unlike any other firewalls, it's pretty straightforward."
"For business purposes, it's a very detailed solution, which is it's greatest benefit, as you can get almost any piece of information you need from the solution. It allows for admins to be able to troubleshoot pretty easily."
"Basic firewalling is obviously the most valuable. In addition to that, secure access and remote access are also very useful for us."
"I like the ASDM for the firewall because it is visual. With the command line, it is harder to visualize what is going on. A picture is worth a thousand words."
"The firewall and policy side are easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks for a four-digit code, which changes every 30 seconds."
"We like the unified threat management for defense-in-depth. We can terminate our site-to-site and remote access VPNs with it."
"I've found the technical support to be helpful."
"Once it's configured properly, the solution is unbreakable."
"From our point of view, the most valuable feature was the ease of deployment."
"The stability is very nice."
"The feature we found most valuable in SonicWall TZ is that it is user-friendly for an administrator."
"The feature with SonicWall that I have found most valuable is that all the models have the same interface. We don't need to learn different interfaces in the smaller or bigger models."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"The solution lacks sufficient filtering."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"If I had any criticism that I would give FortiGate, it would be that they need to stop changing their logging format. Every time we do a firmware upgrade, it is a massive issue on the SIM. Parsers have to be rebuilt. Even the FortiGate guys came in and said that they don't play well in the sandbox."
"The dashboard can be improved."
"You shouldn't have to use the ASDM to help manage the client."
"Firepower's user experience should be a little bit better."
"We are Cisco partners, and when we recommend Cisco FirePower to customers, they always think that FirePower is bad. For a single installation of FirePower, if I have to write about 18 tickets to Cisco, it's a big problem. There was an issue was related to Azure. We had Active Directory in Azure. The clients had to connect to FirePower through Azure. We had a lot of group policies. After two group policies, we had to make groups in Azure, and they had to sign in and sign back. It was a triple-layer authentication, and there was a big problem, so we didn't use it."
"For what we use it for, it ends up being the perfect product for us, but it would help if they could expand it into some of the other areas and other use cases working with speeding up and the reliability of the pushes from the policy manager."
"It needs to provide the next-generation firewall features that other vendors provide, like data analytics, telemetry, and deep packet inspection."
"Usually, the customers are satisfied, but I am going to recommend that all clients upgrade to FirePOWER management. I want Cisco to improve the feature called anti-spam. We use a Cisco only email solution, that's why we need the anti-spam on email facility."
"The process of procuring modern-day technology within the DOD needs to improve."
"The stability could be a lot better."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say better load balancing and data filtering."
"Sometimes there is a glitch between the network connection. Last time, something happened on our IP phone, the SonicWall team did some updates to fix the issue. However, glitches happen very rarely. I did not experience any other types of problems."
"I would like the solution to build in more redundancy. I"
"SonicWall TZ can improve the UI application and when you create any net policies or any new policy, it will not sync or work properly."
"The quality of tech support can vary."
"The solution's antivirus checking could be improved so that we can have a deeper inspection of the packets."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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 SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Azure Firewall, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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