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Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs Hillstone E-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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

Forcepoint Next Generation ...
Ranking in Firewalls
26th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (10th), WAN Edge (11th)
Hillstone E-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
40th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (10th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (20th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is 1.0%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.8%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall1.0%
Hillstone E-Series0.8%
Other98.2%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Solution Consulting at Accops Systems Pvt Ltd
Unified security management has improved traffic control and simplified remote workforce access
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall does help in vulnerability identification and response by providing a single unified console through which I am able to monitor and manage infrastructure. The URL filtering capability of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall helps in blocking malicious sites. We have to take care of both known threats and unknown threats. The firewall takes care of known threats, and we protect ourselves from unknown threats such as malicious code and malware that we cannot create firewall rules for. With these routing capabilities and policies, only whitelisted things get processed or passed. The biggest advantages of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall, especially as a partner, service provider, and integrator, are that it is very easy to integrate these APIs with our solution, and most of the features I am getting in the clientless mode. Even with the client mode, it is easy to integrate with our client, allowing the customer to get a single client to address all the features of the firewall as well as the GTNA perspective. The flexibility of deployment, especially for the government and defense sectors, is that they want an on-premises solution, while the rest of the PSUs or enterprise segment are comfortable with the cloud offering, which is the SaaS offering and the way to go in the future.
TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Forcepoint is a complete package because it has network and systems applications. Other firewalls are only for the network."
"Overall, it is an excellent product, highly reliable, and among the top contenders; Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is well known."
"This solution is very reliable."
"Next Generation Firewall's best feature is that it can be managed on one platform."
"Forcepoint is my favorite enterprise firewall."
"The central security management center and the content management center are very good."
"I have found that Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is easy to use, highly secure, and the main VPN tunnel is created automatically which is a benefit."
"The most valuable feature is the console management."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"Five out of five ROI."
"If an organization is not looking for a web proxy, it's a very, very good product."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"With Hillstone, TCO and ROI are very good, it's an easy sale."
"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients secure connectivity from a remote location to their offices or their servers."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ransomware protection that the tool offers."
 

Cons

"We spent a lot of time and received help from different people, and it was still a failure in the end. We disposed of the product."
"Next Generation Firewall's configuration could be improved."
"The solution needs to build upon its network functionality. It needs to be a bit smarter."
"Sometimes Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is not really stable at all. It has many freezes for no reason, and local support needs to reboot it physically by unplugging the power cable and plugging it back in."
"They need to improve their alerts."
"While the policies are easy to read, the UI feels a bit dated and sometimes clunky on certain pages."
"Technical support is sometimes slow to respond, and it takes longer to resolve issues."
"They should provide more details on potential cyber threats."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"The room for improvement would be the SSL VPN license cost."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We would love to take other solution from Forcepoint, but unfortunately the price is too high. That's why we are not considering using Forcepoing for our proxy and DLB. They have a very good DLB, but the matter in the end is the cost."
"It is an affordable product. We purchase its yearly license."
"There is a need to make payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The product is not expensive."
"It could be cheaper like Fortinet."
"I believe the licensing fee is for one year, three years, and five years, or something like that. If you wants to increase the support level from a simpler level to platinum, I think that there's a cost. There are differences between every kind of support, but I don't know the numbers."
"Next Generation Firewall is moderately priced."
"The big advantage of this solution is that we can select the right model for our requirements, which is not too expensive."
"We have just a subscription for the cloud, and this license is great. The license is so good."
"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Construction Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
In terms of price, I would say Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is not expensive. It is very much comparable to other vendors, and pricing is not a problem, especially for the Asian market, with...
What needs improvement with Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
The negative side of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is that the ZTNA part is missing. For that, we have to integrate a third-party component with Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall to complet...
What is your primary use case for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
The major use cases for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall are in government turnkey projects where we require a lot of traffic coming from the public domain. That is why we are putting these fire...
What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. Wh...
What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?
I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features which are available in the firewall.
What advice do you have for others considering Hillstone E-Series?
Our company did not use the tool's micro-segmentation features. There were no issues while integrating the tool. I have not used any AI in the tool. I recommend the tool to others. I rate the tool ...
 

Also Known As

Forcepoint NGFW, Stonesoft Next Generation Firewall, McAfee Network Security Platform, Intel Security Network Security Platform
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO
Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs. Hillstone E-Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,948 professionals have used our research since 2012.