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 9.5. Fortinet holds a 30.5% mindshare in UTMU, compared to Sophos’s 8.2% 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 588 Fortinet FortiGate reviews

69,521 Views
13,209 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Sophos UTM

Read 119 Sophos UTM reviews

6,819 Views
3,000 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Stormshield Network Security

Read 18 Stormshield Network Security reviews

2,826 Views
1,328 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: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

March 2026

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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 April 2026, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 30.5%, down from 37.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos UTM is 8.2%, up from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stormshield Network Security is 4.0%, up from 3.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	30.5%
Sophos UTM	8.2%
Stormshield Network Security	4.0%
Other	57.3%

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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Bashir Bashir

IT Manager at Vegol

Firewall management has become simpler and now provides real-time visibility and bandwidth control

The features I have found most valuable in Sophos UTM are that it is much easier to configure, I appreciate the reporting side of it, and the rules are very straightforward to work with. Sophos UTM's real-time insights into network health help my organization because I get real-time reports on what is happening on my network, what is trying to access me, the destination, and all that. I can then be reactive or proactive, and for zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier. The use of Sophos UTM's intuitive management console has impacted my security policy enforcement in that it is much easier to configure; I configure with information rather than with presumptions.

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Zsolt Jónás

System Administrator at NaxoNet

Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention

I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

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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

"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."

"The Fortinet FortiGate IPS has a good interface and integration."

"If anyone asks me for my experience with Fortinet solutions, I would recommend FortiGate, especially if they need to use it for security."

"FortiGate firewalls are easy to manage through a user-friendly web interface. They also have advanced features like DDoS and DLP. However, I wouldn't recommend enabling all of these features on one device because it can cause performance issues."

"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."

"This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."

"The solution is highly scalable because they have devices that can handle a large amount of traffic."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is security. They are known for efficiency and are on the top of Gartner Quadrant reviews. Fortinet FortiGate has an easy-to-use platform with a good graphical interface. The configuration is simple and the solution provides an overall good layer of security."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I did take a look at other open source solutions, but found the Sophos UTM, being the best professional free for Home UTM solutions, full blown, and updated daily, to be the best solution."

"Sophos UTM provides security for our network here and access through a VPN connection for our remote users. It also offers the flexibility to create different tools for accessibility."

"Configuration could not be made any easier."

"The UTM features are reasonably strong and the patterns are updated on a regular basis."

"We are very happy with the product so far."

"An easy solution to learn because the graphics are very intuitive."

"Brings greater visibility into the network traffic coming inside and passing away from the company."

"The product is easy to manage and easy to install."

More Sophos UTM pros

"The scalability of the solution is good."

"Customer service is very good, because of their presales support helping me with initial setup I decided to go with NetASQ in the first place, and support after the sale has been equally good as well."

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

"This solution is quick and easy to configure."

"Stormshield is pretty robust, compared to other products like Fortinet, as you get more security with Stormshield and spend less money."

"The features I find most valuable is the backup inspection, the filtering, and the load balancing, and I am also impressed by the antivirus feature that gives us two controls over the viruses - one is from the parameter and one on the endpoint."

"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."

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

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"Deploying FortiGate is hard."

"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."

"Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server."

"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."

"I could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."

"Its technical support could be better."

"I wish that they could integrate zero-trust technology into Fortinet FortiGate. I am not sure whether it has been done already, but if they could implement that, it would help significantly."

"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Initially, there were issues with the wireless network as wireless access points were disappearing from the dashboard after some time."

"Sophos UTM could be simplified, and they can improve on the many other features, like SD-WAN and load balancing. Sophos UTM is missing a few features that their competitors have. For example, if you have multiple branches you would like to connect, the load balancing features aren't available on multilink. If we create a VPM for multiple LAN links, we cannot load balance the traffic."

"The only issues that I have experienced with technical support are when I get a Tier 1 support person who knows about the on-premise product, not the AWS side of the product."

"I would like to see Sophos UTM add support for all the new threat-detection technologies and the ability to respond to novel security threats that come along every day."

"There were a lot of features and functionality in Sophos SG UTM but nothing was state of the art in terms of technology. You did not get the latest functions. It was very monolithic as it was based on an old Linux PuTTY system."

"The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive."

"The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing."

"Finding information about Sophos’ sizing guidelines can actually be difficult. Also, Sophos does not make it clear what they mean by “users” when you are sizing a firewall, which then leads to undersized implementations."

More Sophos UTM cons

"Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."

"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly for us as we dont use it very often even if we never had problems to modify setup when needed."

"The stability is not that good based on my experience. We have a lot of disruptions when it comes to Stormshield."

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

"The pricing of this solution needs to be decreased."

"The product must improve its pricing."

"This solution has a big problem with web filtering and it needs to be improved."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product pricing is reasonable."

"The price is fair compared to the other competitors."

"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."

"The pricing is better compared to other solutions like Check Point, Arista, or Cisco."

"Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."

"I rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"There is a need to pay for a license for the product."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We originally purchased the solution through the AWS Marketplace. I started my proof of concept doing pay-as-you-go, then moved to a VAR for a 'Bring Your Own Licence' (BYOL) licensing model. The BYOL license still requires you to accept the terms of the AWS Marketplace to deploy."

"The price of the license for Sophos UTM is approximately $5,500. The solution is less expensive than competitors."

"The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive. As I said, we looked at Webroot, which is a big alternative, and Sophos was almost three times the price of Webroot. That's a pretty big difference."

"The pricing and licensing are both good and better than Sophos's competitors. This is why we went with the product."

"There is a license for the device and for the software. We pay annually for the solution and the cost is competitive."

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

"I think the pricing of Sophos is very fair."

"I have no problem with the cost or licensing of this solution. This is a primary reason whay I wanted this solution. It does the same thing cheaper than other name brands."

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 pricing could be better."

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

"I think the price is good."

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

"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

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

11%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	364
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	75
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	27

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
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...

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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...

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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 ...

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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?

I have no declaration regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Sophos UTM.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?

The needed improvements for Sophos UTM include that the GUI could be a little more high-resolution-aware because it's...

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 Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 6% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos UTM

Compared 6% of the time

Zyxel Unified Security Gateway vs Sophos UTM

Compared 3% of the time

More Sophos UTM Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 9% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 7% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos UTM

March 2026

Download Sophos UTM product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

March 2026

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Astaro

NETASQ Firewalls

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

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)

March 2026

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