Hillstone E-Series vs SonicWall TZ comparison

Hillstone Networks and SonicWall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Hillstone Networks is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0, while SonicWall is ranked #18 with an average rating of 9.3. Hillstone Networks holds a 0.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to SonicWall’s 2.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

SonicWall TZ and Hillstone E-Series are prominent competitors in the network security market. SonicWall TZ appears to have an advantage in ease of use and deployment flexibility, while Hillstone E-Series stands out for its hardware capacity and cost-effectiveness.

Features: SonicWall TZ is noted for its ease of use, making configuration of firewall policies and VPNs, including VPN fail-over and high availability, straightforward. Its integrated security features provide high throughput and application control. Hillstone E-Series is valued for its hardware capacity, innovative features, and the ability to carry out virtual switching without needing third-party equipment.

Room for Improvement: SonicWall TZ faces challenges with its DPI SSL Inspection, a complex interface, and a need for enhanced reporting capabilities. There are also concerns about price and support integration. Hillstone E-Series could advance its reporting features, improve support request handling, and simplify pricing and licensing structures.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonicWall TZ is mainly deployed on-premises and offers cloud configuration flexibility, though user feedback on customer service is mixed, with noted delays in response times and language barriers. Hillstone E-Series is used in varied deployment environments and generally has positive technical support, despite some reports of slow response times.

Pricing and ROI: SonicWall TZ's pricing model can be cost-effective compared to competitors; however, it's often seen as expensive for non-default license features, with good ROI due to robust security and low maintenance. Hillstone E-Series offers economical pricing, providing good value relative to its functionality. Both products deliver solid ROI, but SonicWall TZ’s pricing strategy may result in higher ongoing costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone E-Series vs. SonicWall TZ Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. SonicWall TZ

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:

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 18.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall TZ is 2.8%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	20.7%
SonicWall TZ	2.8%
Hillstone E-Series	0.3%
Other	76.2%

Firewalls

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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TahirMahmood

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.

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Subhadip Pakrashi

CEO at Kapstone Technological Services LLP

Provides reliable performance with strong features and simplicity

SonicWall TZ is user-friendly, admin-friendly, and a beautiful product. I have been selling SonicWall since 2007 without any issues. SonicWall has been working on it excellently. They are up to date, and their research team is good, making the box feature-rich. Based out of India, I have had some issues with their faulty channel policy. It's a very good product, an awesome product for those who want to use SonicWall TZ. You can bet on it, but check out the channel policies in India. They should check out the channels in the channel business. It's just a precaution, nothing more than that. Overall rating: 9 out of 10.

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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

"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."

"The main benefit I have seen from using Fortinet FortiGate is the protection it offers because I can see threats that come through in real-time, and if they are blocked, I can see that."

"The technical support in our region is excellent."

"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."

"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."

"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."

"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."

"We have received a very good ROI; it has provided significant time savings of almost 20-25%."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."

"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ransomware protection that the tool offers."

"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."

"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."

"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."

"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

"It's a stable solution."

"The product’s filtering and URL-blocking features are valuable."

"The most common feature in the firewall, apart from that traditional firewall, would be the security services, like application control, URL filtering, Gateway Anti-Virus, and IPS protection. These are the essential features in the firewalls which I think, has to be enabled and properly used at every network infrastructure."

"The best thing about the product is the very good threat prevention output."

"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."

"It is a scalable solution."

"It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access."

"It's a very cost-effective solution."

More SonicWall TZ pros

Cons

"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."

"The solution is very expensive."

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

"To stay ahead of the competition Fortinet FortiGate IPS needs to think about how to adjust pricing."

"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."

"The cloud features and integration could be improved."

"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."

"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."

"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

"The current usage reporting is very basic."

"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."

"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."

"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."

"The tool only had some memory-related problems."

More Hillstone E-Series cons

"The monitoring is a little bit confusing."

"The solution's cost needs improvement."

"The log analyzer in SonicWall TZ is something that they need to improve upon."

"It would be good if Analyzer would be part of the stock license, so even if a layperson is getting the device, he or she doesn't forgets about ordering the Analyzer because it's already there."

"In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say better load balancing and data filtering."

"The marketing of SonicWall has to be increased. Currently, when it comes to firewalls, most people go for Cisco and Palo Alto. SonicWall should improve its marketing and branding policies to increase sales. Other than that, it is good."

"You need to be a certificate holder to set it up and configure it. It's really important because it looks easy, but it is complex. You need to have the knowledge and experience. But this is normal for technical products. It's not a product for regular user. It's for technical people. You need to have skills."

"Pricing could be lowered slightly."

More SonicWall TZ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of FortiGate is reasonable as I plan to buy new switches. The initial gadgets are already booted, and the pricing seems normal on the market. As for additional costs, I haven't subscribed to many extra features, so I'm only using what I need. Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us."

"The tool is a bit pricey for small businesses, but it is still bearable in terms of cost."

"It is expensive. You need to pay for the subscription every year, which is very expensive. The subscription includes technical support and hardware exchange in case of failure."

"I rate the pricing an eight and a half on a scale of one to ten, where one is low, and ten is high."

"It's very affordable."

"I would rate pricing to be about four or five out of ten, it is reasonable."

"We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"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."

"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."

"SonicWall has authorized distributors in our country. They have about two or three distributors in the country, so it makes it a bit easier. What we do is to request a quotation from these distributors, then we do a value for money analysis and see which one of them is giving us a competitive price."

"License renewals come in around $35,000 to $45,000."

"There are a few features that are licensed and there should be more that are licensed. The price of the solution is midrange compared to others, I have not had anyone complain."

"The pricing was a factor for us, and we felt that the price was good."

"It comes to a range between five hundred to seven hundred dollars."

"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."

"The prices are expensive."

"The price is high compared to some other solutions."

More SonicWall TZ pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Non Profit

Retailer

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	129
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	61
Midsize Enterprise	16
Large Enterprise	14

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 Hillstone E-Series?

The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the fire...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?

I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features w...

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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 simila...

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What do you like most about SonicWall TZ?

The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks...

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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 ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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OpenVPN Access Server vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 20% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 14% of the time

Sophos XG vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder CFW vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

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Sophos XG vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 17% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 9% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 7% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 5% of the time

More SonicWall TZ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

September 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

August 2025

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Buyer's Guide

SonicWall TZ

August 2025

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Also Known As

No data available

Dell SonicWALL TZ

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

Hillstone E-Series is a comprehensive network security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats. It offers a range of features including a firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), virtual private network (VPN), and application control.

With its advanced threat intelligence capabilities, E-Series can detect and prevent sophisticated attacks, ensuring the security of critical data and systems. It also provides granular control over applications, allowing organizations to enforce policies and optimize network performance.

E-Series is easy to deploy and manage, with a user-friendly interface and centralized management console. It offers high-performance throughput and scalability, making it suitable for small businesses to large enterprises. With its robust security features and ease of use, Hillstone E-Series is an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their network security posture.

Hillstone Networks

The secure, sophisticated SonicWALL TZ is widely deployed at small businesses, retail, government, remote sites and branch offices. It combines high-performance intrusion prevention, malware blocking, content/URL filtering and application control.

SonicWall

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

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO

AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. SonicWall TZ

September 2025

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