Fortinet FortiGate vs Sophos UTM vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

Fortinet and Sophos are both solutions in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category. Fortinet is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.5, while Sophos is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.6. Fortinet holds a 35.1% mindshare in UTMU, compared to Sophos’s 7.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Fortinet users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

Fortinet FortiGate

Read 574 Fortinet FortiGate reviews

72,802 Views
16,016 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Sophos UTM

Read 115 Sophos UTM reviews

6,762 Views
2,637 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Stormshield Network Security

Read 17 Stormshield Network Security reviews

2,734 Views
1,258 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Fortinet FortiGate

Sophos UTM

Stormshield Network Security

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos UTM, and Stormshield Network Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Check Point Software Technologies, WatchGuard and others in Unified Threat Management (UTM).

To learn more, read our detailed Unified Threat Management (UTM) Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 35.1%, down from 39.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos UTM is 7.7%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stormshield Network Security is 3.7%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	35.1%
Sophos UTM	7.7%
Stormshield Network Security	3.7%
Other	53.49999999999999%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Samaila Yusuf

Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP

Network protection strengthens through effective threat management features and secure access control

The zero-day protection and firewall rules are some of the most effective features for threat management. I can set the rules and features, and also use IPsec to connect all my on-premises servers and link them to Sophos UTM so that they are protected even when in the cloud. Additionally, I use it to control access into the building through a captive portal integrated across all the PCs we have, ensuring secure access only for authenticated users.

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Benjamin

Network Engineer at ACS2I

The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats

The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include everything about networking, such as routing and VPNs."

"The detection is great."

"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."

"Fortinet FortiGate has helped me reduce Mean Time To Respond, or MTTR, and helped my organization consolidate all of the tools in one application."

"The security features are valuable, particularly the ransomware attack protection features. Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."

"This product is definitely scalable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The isolation of infected machines is a big feature. Also, the ability to detect external sources that change files on a file server is really big."

"Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement."

"The implementation with the AWS environment was good."

"Sophos UTM has a good user interface and granular security controls."

"Our systems are silent, secure, and we don't have many problems with security policy enforcement."

"The cost of the solution is very reasonable."

"Sophos UTM is very user-friendly and has good integration with other solutions."

"The initial setup has been fine."

More Sophos UTM pros

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."

"Easily manageable in a variety of environments."

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"The most valuable features are the IPS, the firewall function, and the price."

"I like how you can configure the rules. There is the task for the rules and a task for the network configuration. It also provides SMD filtering, and it can be integrated with the active directory for the users, their mission, and the VPN configuration. We are here in Sudan, and Stormshield didn't work in Sudan for more than a decade. Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain. I am just working with the firewall solution, and we don't have any other solutions like endpoint solutions or something like that."

"The scalability of the solution is good."

"Ease of use is the best feature of the product."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."

"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."

"One issue is that they have retired SSL VPN for existing devices. This causes significant effort for us to change customer setups."

"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."

"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."

"The product keeps hanging."

"The licensing could be improved as it is a little confusing and too granular for Fortinet FortiGate."

"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Updates come out agonizingly slowly, a trickle."

"Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement."

"The UI can be cumbersome and, sometimes, features are not where you think they should be."

"The solution is not scalable."

"It needs a better user interface. The one they have is not so good."

"In short, the UI and UX are the areas of improvement in Sophos UTM and similar solutions compared to Palo Alto."

"Sophos UTM's internet security could be better."

"The reporting could be a lot better."

More Sophos UTM cons

"Improvement is needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer."

"The SD card could be more secure."

"The biggest issue was their support department was not able to help us, then everything stops. This is a no-go area for me."

"The product must improve its pricing."

"With Stormshield, there are difficulties joining things, and it can be complex depending on the architecture."

"Not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."

"This is not a next-generation firewall."

"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."

"We pay $500 per year for the license."

"I think the price of Fortinet FortiGate is very reasonable."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable for an SME."

"Its price is reasonable. They have a clear pricing policy. It is not complicated by the number of VPN users at a time. We know what the price is. The yearly subscription for the security license is rather high, but it is all included for whatever number of users you have and the kind of functions you need."

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

"The license is too expensive to renew. The license renewal process is also complex."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall costs our company around $12000 per year."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"If you can afford it, go for a small Check Point, as it is easier to manage."

"Pricing for the upgrade was very competitive as Sophos wanted to retain existing customers."

"The solution is affordable compared to others, such as FortiGate. The price is important."

"Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."

"It's reasonably priced."

"You cannot really say that the solution is expensive, given the protection it gives."

"This product is free for home users. The more expensive products have better performance."

"Sophos UTM is moderately priced, but it could be improved."

More Sophos UTM pricing and cost advice

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

"The pricing could be better."

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"I think the price is good."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jan 3, 2016

Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate

I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

19%

Comms Service Provider

18%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	71
Midsize Enterprise	27
Large Enterprise	26

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

See all answers

What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

See all answers

What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sophos UTM?

The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the endpoint protection feature.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?

The value between what I receive and what I pay is the best in the industry.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?

For the challenges I've faced, zero trust is one area where I haven't worked much or have sufficient experience.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?

The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 7% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sophos UTM

Compared 7% of the time

More Sophos UTM Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 13% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 8% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XG vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

October 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos UTM

September 2025

Download Sophos UTM product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

September 2025

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

No data available

Astaro

NETASQ Firewalls

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

Sophos UTM is a unified threat management platform designed to protect your businesses from known and emerging malware including viruses, rootkits and spyware. The solution provides a complete network security package with everything your organization needs in a single modular appliance.

Sophos UTM Features

Sophos UTM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Web and Email Filtering
General Management
Network Protection
Network Routing and Services
Advanced Threat Protection
Authentication
Email Encryption and DLP
Web Policy
End-User Portal
VPN IPsec Client, VPN SSL Client, and Clientless VPN
Web Application Firewall Protection
UTM Endpoint Protection and Management
SEC Endpoint Integration
Logging and Reporting

Sophos UTM Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Sophos UTM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple point solutions
Intuitive interface to help you quickly create policies to control security risks
Provides clear, detailed reports to give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection
Complete control to block, allow, shape and prioritize applications
Two-factor authentication with one-time password (OTP)
Integrated wireless controller
Allows you to connect remote offices with easy VPN and Wi-Fi

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Sophos UTM solution.

PeerSpot user Dana B., Network Administrator at a manufacturing company, says “The web and email filtering are the two biggest and most valuable aspects of the solution for us. The solution overall has just been a good, cost-effective solution for us. The solution offers a lot of functionality. The solution scales well. We've found the technical support to be helpful. The stability and performance are quite good.”

A Technical Director at a security firm mentions, "Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."

Marek M., Senior Network Engineer at a computer software company, comments, “Sophos UTM is the simplest of these products to set up. If you follow the instructions using the wizard, which is just a few steps, then you will have a firewall to protect you and your customer.”

A Software Sales Manager at a tech services company explains, “The overall visibility of the console is what I find most valuable, plus it's very user-friendly. It can be integrated with other solutions such as SOAR, SIEM, etc., even when you have an existing firewall. I really like that the console can be integrated. You'll see everything on the same window, and the single window feature of the machine is so good. These are the features I really like.”

James D., IT Manager at Manual Workers Union, states, “The fact that it's on the cloud means we don't have to administer it on our network or deal with a physical machine, which saves us money. The solution has many great features. From the console, we can start different scannings on different machines. We enjoy the centralized reporting part of it. The initial setup is simple. We enjoy its general stability. The solution can scale. So far, the solution has been problem-free.”

Sophos

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

One Housing Group

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Buyer's Guide

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

September 2025

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