Fortinet FortiGate vs Sophos XG comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 13, 2023

We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG agreed that deployment was quick and straightforward.
  • Features: Reviewers of Fortinet FortiGate felt the software has excellent stability, great features, and an excellent firewall and VPN solution. Sophos XG is regarded as a complete firewall solution that is suitable for small and mid-sized businesses. Users say the VPN is valuable for remote workers.
  • Room for Improvement: FortiGate users said the solution was hard to integrate with non-Fortinet solutions, and a few remarked that the SD-WAN could be improved. Sophos XG's interface earned mixed reviews, with many feeling it was overly complex. Others said that the reporting features also need some work. 
  • Pricing: Whereas users of Fortinet FortiGate felt that the software was costly, especially since each feature needs a separate license, reviewers of Sophos XG felt the software was reasonably priced, and a few remarked on the benefit of the flexible pricing offered.
  • Service and Support: Fortinet FortiGate users mentioned that the software needs better and quicker support. In comparison, Sophos XG users had mixed reviews on technical support. Some were very happy with the level of support, while others felt there was a significant delay in response time.
  • ROI: Users of both Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG saw a great ROI after implementing the software.

Comparison Results: Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG had similar user ratings regarding ease of deployment, service and support, and ROI. In terms of features, each software has its pros and cons. Fortinet FortiGate offers some great features, but it is a little more complex and needs better reporting. Sophos XG provides a stable, complete firewall solution, but it fails to integrate well with other products, and the SD-WAN needs improvement. Sophos XG was the better option for pricing, as they offer flexible pricing based on region.

To learn more, read our detailed Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG Report (Updated: September 2023).
735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Which solution do you prefer: Fortinet FortiGate or Sophos XG?
Answer: In terms of features, each product has its pros and cons. Fortinet FortiGate offers some great features, but it is a little more complex and needs better reporting. Sophos XG provides a stable, complete firewall solution, but it fails to integrate well with other products, and the SD-WAN needs improvement. The support of Fortinet is better than Sophos, and the FortiGate market is better than Sophos.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The technical support in our region is excellent.""The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer.""All of the features of Fortinet FortiGate are useful and the security protection is good.""It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall. You don't need to pay some other company for another product to do that for you. The firewall can do that for you. So, it's an easy-to-use product for people to be independent. They don't need to rely on other vendors to do what the firewall can do. They can do everything.""The performance is good.""The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful.""Its user interface is good, and it is always working fine.""Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."

More Fortinet FortiGate Pros →

"Sophos XG's price is right, and it's easy to manage. It's a good fit for our current needs at the moment.""The scalability of Sophos XG is good.""I've tried out Sophos XG a little. It has a good interface that's very user-friendly, but I haven't used all of its functions because I'm only configuring and running the system.""Content blocking for websites is the most valuable aspect of the solution.""The most valuable features of Sophos XG are user-friendliness and it is highly secure.""Using Sophos endpoint and the firewall, synchronized security is easy.""Over the past two years, during the COVID pandemic, the VPN has helped us a lot.""The solution comes with a common bundle which comprises all the feature."

More Sophos XG Pros →

Cons
"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI.""They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down.""There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved.""The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement.""I would like some automated custom reporting.""Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why.""I would like to see better pricing in the next release, as well as a simplification of the installation.""Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"Sophos XG could improve by making the remote access and VPN better.""The interface can bit a bit more user-friendly.""I would like to next release to be able to support on-premise deployment. The construction of the rules within the firewall could also use some improvement.""It would be better if they made their own hardware like Palo Alto and Fortinet. They use their own ASICs and claim it is more secure.""We recently did an upgrade on the Sophos XG firmware and we were surprised that after the upgrade, the automatic switch actually we were using did not work anymore.""I would like to have a more efficient login process.""Some businesses require Dynamic IP. This feature would be useful if it worked.""Scalability could be improved. It could be better."

More Sophos XG Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."
  • "It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
  • "The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."
  • "Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."
  • "Licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is on a yearly basis. Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
  • "The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."
  • "The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device."
  • "It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The price is reasonable"
  • "When compared to other products, Sophos licensing is very affordable."
  • "The price is reasonable but it would be great if it was reduced to half the price."
  • "Over the last two years of the COVID-19 crises, most users required an SSL VPN license, something for which SonicWall charges but which Sophos offers for free."
  • "The pricing was reasonable."
  • "The price is reasonable in my opinion."
  • "Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
  • "We have a three-year license."
  • More Sophos XG Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Answers from the Community
    Anonymous User
    Wang Xin - PeerSpot reviewerWang Xin
    MSP

    I prefer Fortinet's products, because their security products are more complete, which can better link and facilitate future expansion.

    Andre Boettcher  - PeerSpot reviewerAndre Boettcher
    MSP

    As engineers, we tend often to prepare a comparison based on parameter lists and try to find out what is the best solution. Engineers are very often number driven. But these comparison sheets show most of the time only half of the truth. The whole picture often needs to be seen in the context of demand, usage, IT operation, support, and economy.   


    I recommend contacting the IT management of   Dansk Skoleforening, an educational organization in Denmark and Germany.  As YouTube translation works well I recommend checking the following videos:


    Dansk Skoleforening for Sydslesvig e. V. – Glasfaser und SD-WAN mit DDoS-Schutz im Schulalltag - YouTube  


    Glasfaser plus SD-WAN für den Dansk Skoleforening | 1&1 Versatel (1und1.net)


    The Fortinet ecosystem can solve various tasks based on well-structured and realized products and services which is more than only SOPHOS XG can deliver. Both solutions are good and we can deliver both.


    For different types of educational places (e.g. schools, kindergartens, management) and for solving different tasks we de decided in an RfP to use Fortinet. It is a cost-efficient, customer IT resource-friendly, multi-functional, and economical solution that meets the customers' requirements for function and security best.


    Maybe the requirements of your challenge are similar to that of the Dansk Skoleforening. That's why I recommend direct contact with it. 

    We are a Fortinet partner but independent and able to deliver various SDWAN and security solutions. We decide typically to the one that meets customer requirements best. In a competition, Dansk Skoleforening decided on our recommended Fortinet solution that we delivered to a satisfied customer in the area of education. 

    Andrew Ramsey - PeerSpot reviewerAndrew Ramsey
    Real User

    FortiGate all day long.   Sophos bought Cyberoam several years ago and basically put a prettier GUI on it.  So, you really are getting a Cyberoam with the Sophos GUI.  There are some other additions; but I don't all our Sophos device a few years ago.

    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at large. In my opinion, Fortinet would be the best option and l use… more »
    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I would… more »
    Top Answer:Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat signatures and updates. I also appreciate that I can just import addresses and URL… more »
    Top Answer:Hi Arvind P ,  The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Factor. The Sophos XG appliance that offers a direct competition to the Fortigate 80F… more »
    Top Answer:The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW. They can not be compared with each other because the price, license, firewall… more »
    Ranking
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    Reviews
    98
    Average Words per Review
    473
    Rating
    8.4
    7th
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    Views
    57,417
    Comparisons
    40,596
    Reviews
    51
    Average Words per Review
    512
    Rating
    8.2
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate is an innovative line of firewalls that aim to protect organizations from all types of web-based network threats. They come in a wide variety of product types. Fortinet FortiGate’s solutions are available in a large range of sizes and form factors and are key components of the Fortinet Security Fabric, which enables immediate, intelligent defense against known and new threats throughout the entire network.

    Fortinet FortiGate provides users with next-generation firewall solutions that provide proven protection with unmatched performance across the network, from internal segments to data centers to cloud environments. You can protect every part of your network without exception. Additionally, your protections can be managed from a single central location. This ensures that the task of protecting your network is infinitely easier to accomplish.

    Benefits of Fortinet FortiGate

    Some of the benefits of using Fortinet FortiGate include:

    • The ability to manage your firewalls from a centralized automated control console. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiManager enables administrators to exercise control of their firewalls in a streamlined manner. Administrators have full visibility and control over their system from a single location. It utilizes automation that collects information in real time, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of running various types of workflows. Administrators can free up resources by automating the most basic tasks.
    • The ability to produce uniform, appropriate, and coordinated responses to threats across networks. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiGuard feature generates system protections in near real time. This allows administrators to address threats to the system with custom-made solutions that can be uniformly enforced.
    • The ability to scale up your security to fit your changing security needs. Fortinet FortiGate’s design allows users to accelerate the transfer of data between users and escalate the number of users that are covered without compromising security of performance. This means that users can grow their networks and continue to collaborate without worrying about the system slowing down or coming under attack.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall solutions are cutting edge. They stand out from competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the robustness and power of their firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall provides users with many valuable features that allow them to maximize what they can do with the solution. These firewalls enable users to use a single piece of software to accomplish tasks that often require the use of multiple pieces of software.

    PeerSpot user Eric S., a Solutions Engineer and Consultant at a tech-services company, notes the robustness of this solution when he writes, "One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface.”

    PeerSpot user Jim M., a network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital, notes the power of Fortinet FortiGate’s security software when he writes, "It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall.”

    Sophos XG Firewall is a complete firewall solution that provides all the real-time security and insights you need to protect your network from ransomware and advanced threats. Sophos XG Firewall provides visibility into suspicious users, unknown and unwanted apps, encrypted traffic, and other threats. With its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, Sophos XG Firewall immediately identifies potential risks and intrusions on web servers and networks.

    Sophos XG Firewall Features

    Sophos XG Firewall offers a wide range of security features, including:

    • Application control: Prevent widespread infections with XG’s Security Heartbeat. XG Firewall automatically identifies the source of an infection on a network and automatically prevents it from accessing other network resources.

    • Synchronized user ID: Eliminate the need for client or server authentication agents by sharing user identification between the endpoint and the firewall through Security Heartbeat.

    • Centralized management: Easily manage all activities with Sophos Central. The XG cloud management platform allows users to easily set up, manage, and monitor XG firewalls along with other Sophos products. Some of Sophos Central’s features include alerting, backup management, one-click firmware updates, and rapid deployments of new firewalls.

    • Lateral movement protection: Automatically isolate compromised systems at every point in the network to stop attacks dead in their tracks.

    • Network protection: Protect networks from attacks and threats while providing secure network access.

    • Web protection: Gain clear visibility and control over all users’ web and application activity.

    • Web server protection: Solidify web servers and applications against hacking attacks while providing secure web access.

    • Email protection: Consolidate email protection with anti-spam, DLP, and encryption. XG’s Live Anti-Spam provides protection from the most recent spam campaigns, phishing attacks, and malicious attachments. Data Loss Prevention automatically triggers encryption on sensitive data in outgoing emails.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Sophos XG Firewall stands out among its competitors, among other reasons, for its intrusion detection capabilities, its user-friendly management platform, and in general, for being a complete and robust firewall solution.

    Niranjan P., a network & system support engineer, writes, “Sophos is a comprehensive solution which allows me to configure all the attendant products, such as Sophos's firewall, endpoint, and encryption features. A nice feature of Sophos is that it offers in sync and heartbeat security. When my clients have a perimeter involving Sophos firewall and endpoints with Sophos Endpoint, they can communicate with each other.”

    Antonio D., sales manager at INFOSEC, notes, “The product has a console that is based in the cloud for all their products. In this console, they have email security, firewall security, endpoint security, et cetera. All of the products on offer in the console are very useful for us. The solution is stable. The solution works well for enterprises and large-scale organizations.”

    Antony M., ICT/HMIS supervisor at a healthcare company, writes, “The VPN feature is the most valuable. It has come in handy during this period when people are working from home. The filtering feature is also valuable because you can easily filter the sites that you don't want to visit. You can also set timely surfing quotas”

    Offer
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiGate
    Learn more about Sophos XG
    Sample Customers
    Pittsburgh Steelers, LUSH Cosmetics, NASDAQ, Verizon, Arizona State University, Levi Strauss & Co. Whitepaper and case studies here
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    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider9%
    Government5%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Healthcare Company9%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Government7%
    Retailer5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise33%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business62%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise15%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise44%
    Buyer's Guide
    Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG
    September 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG and other solutions. Updated: September 2023.
    735,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 108 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 54 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Secure, duel switch capabilities, and good support". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Check Point NGFW and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG report.

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    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.