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Hillstone E-Series vs SonicWall TZ comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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

Hillstone E-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
40th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
SSL VPN (10th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (24th)
SonicWall TZ
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.9%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall TZ is 1.6%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall TZ1.6%
Hillstone E-Series0.9%
Other97.5%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users
We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.
Ashutosh Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
Advanced security filters have blocked threats and protect our users’ web and application access
SonicWall TZ gives us multiple features, such as Content Filter, Application Filter, ATP, IPS policy, Geo-Filter, Botnet filter, and many more. I use Content Filter with SonicWall TZ most of the time because we need to create a policy on behalf of the content filter to track who is using what. If we want to block any types of websites for any specific user, we can do it from the firewall. SonicWall TZ has multiple features, such as Application Filter as well. SonicWall TZ has impacted our organization positively because it stops all threats. If any types of malware signature or any types of bad behavior malware appear, it prevents them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"Five out of five ROI."
"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"With Hillstone, TCO and ROI are very good, it's an easy sale."
"The solution, as a firewall, is very useful for any company trying to protect their premise through the internet."
"It is an easy solution to set up."
"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."
"This solution has an easy setup, good support, and reasonable pricing."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is that it is easy to install and maintain."
"The scalability of SonicWall TZ is good and easy to add users."
"In every sector, SonicWall is doing good; our clients do not have any complaints, they feel comfortable using it, it has all the facilities to block the threats, and it is quite good."
"The most valuable feature is content filtering and app control."
 

Cons

"The tool only had some memory-related problems."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"The current usage reporting is very basic. I would like to be able to access more granular data."
"The room for improvement would be the SSL VPN license cost."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"SonicWall TZ can improve the UI application and when you create any net policies or any new policy, it will not sync or work properly."
"The hardware is outdated and very slow."
"SonicWall is very expensive in terms of using it for 500 users. It's very expensive compared to Cisco Meraki."
"I would like them to make the interface a little bit easier to use so you can find out where in the heck you're going instead of having to go to 15 different places to get something installed."
"The pricing is of this solution is high and could be reduced to make it more competitive."
"We require centralized monitoring of the network features, which they have but they are not to the level that we require."
"The price could be better for us in Bolivia."
"FortiGate has a client DNS in the firewall, but SonicWall doesn't have that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."
"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."
"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."
"It comes to a range between five hundred to seven hundred dollars."
"It is highly priced and has a slow performance compared to other firewalls."
"License renewals come in around $35,000 to $45,000."
"The price could be better for us in Bolivia."
"The solution is moderately priced, where it's neither cheap nor expensive."
"It is an expensive solution compared to one of its competitors."
"We have to pay yearly. Its licensing can be improved, and they should provide more features, such as AV, email filtering, and so on with the basic subscription."
"Licensing costs have been around $2,000. There are no other costs above the standard licensing fees."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business65
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise13
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
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Would you choose Fortinet Fortigate or Sonicwall TZ?
I’ll say it depends on your needs. Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ are both next-gen firewalls (NGFW) with similar basic features. However, Fortinet offers more performance, scalability, and in...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall TZ?
The price is normal. It is a nominal cost for an SMB TZ used for SMB businesses. However, more licenses are required to purchase the perpetual license for SSL VPN and Global VPN. Only one SSL VPN a...
What needs improvement with SonicWall TZ?
I assess the machine learning capabilities of SonicWall TZ in proactive threat detection to not be at the level of other vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Check Point. It is somewhe...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell SonicWALL TZ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO
AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat
Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone E-Series vs. SonicWall TZ and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,223 professionals have used our research since 2012.