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Citrix Gateway vs SonicWall Netextender comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

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

Citrix Gateway
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
Universal Access Gateways (1st), SSL VPN (2nd)
SonicWall Netextender
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
15th
Average Rating
6.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Citrix Gateway is 3.3%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Netextender is 3.7%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

VivekKumar10 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enables secure remote access and load balancing with enhanced protection features
I find Citrix Gateway valuable for its capabilities as a reverse proxy, providing security to applications exposed to the Internet. Key features include load balancing, dual-factor authentication, clientless VPN, and Web Application Firewall (WAF). The product effectively helps me protect the organization's network from potential threats, thereby securing our environment from hackers and ransomware attacks.
JayPrajapati - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows using a custom port for the VPN connection and provides very satisfactory customer support
In the past, customers wanted an application that could run directly upon starting the PC, automatically connecting to the firewall. We were not able to do it in NetExtender. This was something customers wanted, but we couldn't provide due to NetExtender's limitations. I feel NetExtender might have rolled out this feature. In future releases, introductions of AI features would be really helpful. For example, we faced a situation where a customer wanted to allow Office 365 access without any kind of internet, just through the local internet. Office 365 has multiple dynamic IPs and URLs that can be updated daily, making it difficult to allow. If there were an AI-based solution that could bring those URLs and new IP addresses to the firewall and add them to the rule, that would be very helpful. That is just one scenario; there are multiple things AI could help with.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is scalable."
"We can maintain our systems using the solution."
"Just creating that gateway to the storefront for Citrix is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us."
"Provides good performance and speed."
"We haven't received any complaints or performance issues so far."
"The solution is very stable. If I were to rate it out of ten, I would give stability a nine."
"The initial setup is simple. Normally with all setups, it's not very complicated. It really depends on the customer."
"It performs quite well."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"Employees can have access to the network from home."
"The best features of the SonicWall Netextender were its ease of use."
"The solution provides high availability."
"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."
"The product has two-factor authentication."
"One of the most valuable features of SonicWall Netextender is the integration of VPN accounts with Microsoft Identity Management, which enables us to enforce secure access through Microsoft Intune and conditional access policies. This helps ensure that only authorized individuals are able to access the VPN, rather than anyone with knowledge of a password."
"I found nothing of value in this solution."
 

Cons

"At this time it costs 35% more than other solutions."
"I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model."
"The initial connection could be faster. That handshake takes a few seconds sometimes. That could be better and improved upon."
"The initial setup could be made easier."
"Stability and security could be enhanced."
"The initial setup is very complex."
"We are currently looking at automation. It would be good if there is some way to automate it in a fast way. It should be easy to automate. It also has some security issues."
"It's extremely complicated and it's not intuitive. The solution requires a lot of training to get going on it."
"Sometimes you can get bounced around through the departments until you find the right one. Sometimes if you don't have the most current support contract or your license is out of date, they won't even talk to you."
"The only concern I do have is with the zero trust, and the solution is not coping with the newer technologies as much as it needs to do on that particular factor."
"There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender."
"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."
"SonicWall can be difficult for some people, but I don't find it difficult. Some companies provide a VPN client for free, but you have to pay for NetExtender."
"Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution."
"The UI could be a little better."
"The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe the pricing is comparable to SaaS"
"I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model."
"Pricing is very high if you do a comparison with what is available in the market."
"There is a need to make yearly payments for licensing purposes. Also, it is not an expensive one."
"Citrix is quite expensive."
"Usually with Citrix the issue is the pricing, especially for the African region. We believe it's really expensive."
"There are two or three different models, but you can actually have a CapEx where you purchase the unit outright and then there's a yearly maintenance cost on top for years two and three, and four, or you can actually do a subscription purchase through Citrix cloud and you pay on a monthly basis, or you can have a three-year subscription contract as well. I give the solution a six out of ten for its cost."
"It costs about 4,000 a year."
"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."
"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."
"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."
"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."
"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."
"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."
"The solution has a pretty good price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
7%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Citrix Gateway?
We can maintain our systems using the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Gateway?
I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model. It is seen as a premium product compared to competitors like F5, and ...
What needs improvement with Citrix Gateway?
In the past, I submitted some support tickets, and while the support did resolve the problems, the time taken was sometimes long. They can perhaps improve the time for solutions in the support tick...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Netextender?
Pricing is a simple thing. We have the key, and we need to enter it in the SonicWall official portal. That's all. Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, ...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?
I cannot think of specific areas that could be improved with the SonicWall Netextender. The main focus should be on continuous improvements to address any CVEs or vulnerabilities to ensure they're ...
 

Also Known As

Citrix NetScaler Unified Gateway
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aeronamic, Avianca, Bechtel Corporation, Betfair UK, Catholic University Leuven (K.U. Leuven), Centene Corporation, Cerner, Charityshare, City of High Point, Clark Builders
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix Gateway vs. SonicWall Netextender and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.