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.
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.
"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."
"The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
"You can create multiple Virtual Domains (VDOMs), which are treated as separate firewall instances."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the SD-WAN and their IP4 policy."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics."
"The GUI is good."
"I like it for its simplicity. It is very simple to configure and implement. It is a very good product for medium-sized organizations."
"The most valuable features are the reporting, dashboards, and graphical user interface. It gives a good overall picture of what is happening over the network."
"Web publishing is important, as well as the importance of the antivirus patch."
"The solution comes with a common bundle which comprises all the feature."
"I like the tunneling part which we are using for the VOIP. We have various other sites where we connect via tunneling. The tunneling part is very fast and easy to implement."
"In my experience, the solution was easy to use, has lots of features, and is easy to configure."
"It is feature-rich, I like the server authentication, and the reports are good."
"Sophos XG protects our network from advanced threats."
"The UTM filtering needs improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."
"I think that the infrastructure for the VPN could be improved. The way that it is bundled also made it difficult to use and sell as it is too expensive."
"Fortinet FortiGate is not very easy to use. The navigation could be improved to make it easier to use."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing."
"I'd like to see better reporting. While the logs are great, the reports are not."
"They need to improve the SD-WAN feature."
"It could offer a DNS Filter for blocking botnet networks."
"The only area that requires improvement is scalability."
"Sophos needs improvements made to the console, such as host entry or defining rules directly from it."
"The interface could be simplified and diagnostic system graphs improved."
"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."
"I would like to have more artificial intelligence in the web monitoring service that comes with it. It should alert us when particular events happen. It has already got some of that. I know that it is more of a service, and Sophos is already looking at it. It is called SIEM."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 306 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "It's a reliable solution that's easy to install and cheaper than competitors ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". 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 SonicWall TZ. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Sophos XG report.
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Go with Sophos XG or if you have tight budget and technical expertise then can move with pFsense.
Dear Sharif.
For 150 users any firewall will work perfectly. You can choose as per your convenience, availability, price, and better implementation partner in your region. Keep a bigger box at the central location and configure SD-WAN. SOPHOS has by default SD WAN. Make sure you have secure access to the cloud and all endpoints should have endpoint protection else only firewall will not help.
Most of the cloud service providers work on any-any rule because their responsibility is network uptime and availability. Security of your setup is your responsibility.
Manageability is better in Fortinet however features are better in SOPHOS. License bundle & ATP functions are are good in SOPHOS. Support response is good in SOPHOS but you will find less tickets in FORTINET once it is implemented as per your setup.
Overall both are good for your setup. You can choose as per convenience.
Hope this will help.. Greetings .. Ravi
In my opinion, the first point of strength is the support, and FortiGate is doing a great job in terms of support. It has numerous reference guides for configuration. The other advantage is ease of management in both the UI and CLI levels. You can use FortiGate modules to protect against web and virus attacks.
Hello Sharif,
I prefer FortiGate SDWAN Devices (FortiGate) even though we also deliver Sophos to our clients.
The decentralized FortiGate devices work as firewalls with an excellent security ecosystem. FortiGate and most other items work as Hardware units or on virtual machines.
As a Telco company we have a lot of companies working in different industries with various requirements. We can support them all with FortiGate.
Our customers prefer the security features, the stable ecosystem for life cycle management, for device/user/policy management, thread detection & prevention, intrusion prevention, sandboxing, ... the low operation effort to build a stable company network that supports the need of any customer size.
In our business, we also like that the architecture of a company network can be easily changed if the customer requirements change. From single-line sites to Data Centers with high availability and Cloud integration FortiGate can be used in any design.
The different security features that can be added by the license are powerful and integrated into the management dashboard. Updates of protection mechanisms against new threads happen automatically as soon as a new protection mechanism is available when new threads occur. The security team at Fortinet is excellent.
Greetings
Andre
Hi, XG is EOL the new series is XGS, both are excellent equipment but I prefer Fortigate, why ??? DHCP slection, leader SD-WAN, many IPSEC dynamics is possible on SOPHOS but is limit the are conflicts with many IP's dynamics you need to use DDNS, SSL tunnel for remote clients, VRF, advanced routing with OSPF and BGP ("as path"). Greetings