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Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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 Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (25th), WAN Edge (11th)
Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Routers (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is 2.4%, up from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 2.1%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Juniper Session Smart Router2.1%
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall2.4%
Other95.5%
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
MANAGER SOLUTION CONSULTING at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
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.
Vinitha Kundawad - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Implementation Engineer at Cisco
Session-based routing has transformed branch failover and now optimizes application paths
Juniper Session Smart Router is a very good cloud integration router, with very strong application visibility, and WAN path optimization is also present. It has very good simplified branch connectivity, particularly strong automation and API support, and better SaaS performance. Session-based routing instead of tunnel-heavy architecture is one of the best features. Session-based routing and API support in Juniper Session Smart Router have helped me in my work. It helps in session-based routing changes from route-based packets only on destination IP to application session awareness. This can help with a better application experience, and voice or video traffic automatically takes the best WAN path based on latency, jitter, and packet loss. Faster failover occurs; instead of waiting for routing protocol convergence, sessions can dynamically move to healthier links. Additionally, there is improved SaaS performance. In terms of APIs, I have had a very good experience integrating it with automation platforms like Terraform and Ansible. It has reduced manual errors, and my team has been using the API to automate deployment and dozens of other tasks with branch SSR devices. Another feature I can think of regarding Juniper Session Smart Router is that there is no traditional overlay tunnel overhead in many scenarios, which is one of the best features. Dynamic path selection based on latency and jitter makes this one of the standout features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The security management center is one of the best parts of the product."
"We find the product to be stable and reliable in terms of performance."
"Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall's IPS feature has four operational modes, including IPS, Layer 2 and Layer 3 Firewalls, and the IPS mode offers many controls, profiles, and signatures for inspecting traffic while allowing for applying firewall rules followed by IPS engine inspection so that many decisions including blocking and controlling traffic actions are possible."
"The most valuable feature is the console management."
"It is a scalable solution."
"This solution is very reliable."
"It is stable and scalable. In addition, their support is great. When you ask them for something, they provide support, and if required, they also involve the R&D team to help you to resolve the issues in your configuration."
"When it comes to the detection rate of the IP, it is the most powerful solution for detection-ready tests, like evasion techniques etc."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
"I can share specific numbers; we achieved a 30 to 60% WAN cost reduction by reducing MPLS usage."
"The best feature is the easiest way to deploy configuration and also back up them, and also to roll back quickly if there's an incident."
"The biggest advantage of Juniper Session Smart Router that really stands out is its reliability and performance."
"Because we are talking directly to engineers in the US, the support is usually the best you can possibly get."
"The solution is especially Session's smart, application-aware, AI-based."
"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."
"Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization because we have multi-cloud solutions that are extremely useful for our M365, Teams communication, Zoom communication, SAP applications, and Oracle-based applications."
 

Cons

"My team is looking for more throughput and better integration with our security framework."
"They should have a GUI on the product itself, not a separate management tool to be used on the management server or on a server to be used to manage the file. It should be all in one device. The device should be controlled through its own GUI. They also have to improve the learning center and the documents as the documents don't really help."
"Next Generation Firewall's configuration could be improved."
"The centralized management console of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is something we have been struggling with because everybody has their own approach, but most customers have mixed solutions."
"The support from Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is not good, their response is not quick, we have had to wait a while."
"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."
"We feel the product's technical support could be better, as this relates to the solution itself, to the installation of the product, and to having a proper understanding of the case."
"Their support should be faster. We have received complaints that they are not responding fast, which is not good for the vendor and us."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in terms of software performance."
"I found some weaknesses on their hardware. They are sometimes breaking very often."
"A key area for improvement in Juniper Session Smart Router is its security stack, which is not as robust as Fortinet."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks. What we are missing there are wizards. For example, I have two applications, and I want one application to be prioritized against the other. In such a case, a wizard for assigning policies to a service without configuring each step by hand would be very helpful. There should be an overhaul of the GUI of the conductor. The functionality they have got in the Mist portal should be baked into the conductor itself. It would be really great, but as we all know, that won't happen."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in several areas such as the steep learning curve because the session-based model is different from traditional networking."
"Regarding improvement, we still need to see what it can do."
"One area for improvement that I have observed is related to the VPN, where I frequently notice VPN flaps or disconnections between Juniper Session Smart Router and the SD-WAN hub device in the data center, which should be addressed to prevent users from experiencing any downtime."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost is fair, but it could be improved."
"The big advantage of this solution is that we can select the right model for our requirements, which is not too expensive."
"The pricing should be more competitive against other vendors in the market."
"We have found the price could be reduced. It is a little expensive."
"It is an affordable product. We purchase its yearly license."
"It is expensive."
"There is a need to make payments towards the licensing charges attached to the product. The product is not expensive."
"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."
"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
 

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 Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
 

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 is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?
Pricing for Juniper Session Smart Router is premium but is usually justified for enterprises needing advanced WAN optimization and application-aware routing. Some challenges arise from initial lice...
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
When collecting reviews, we also ask about disadvantages. There is nothing in Juniper Session Smart Router that I dislike, and I cannot identify anything they need to improve.
What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router is used by our clients for specific purposes in their operations. As someone involved with the product for more than 10 years, I have significant experience with it. Th...
 

Also Known As

Forcepoint NGFW, Stonesoft Next Generation Firewall, McAfee Network Security Platform, Intel Security Network Security Platform
128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
Revation Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs. Juniper Session Smart Router and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.