Hillstone E-Series vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM comparison

Hillstone Networks and Sophos are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 100% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 84% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Hillstone E-Series and Sophos Cyberoam UTM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM

December 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

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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Stu Harris

Managing Consultant at Affordable IT

Reliable security features have effectively protected against breaches and promote scalable network management

The methodology of the rule sets is perhaps one of the plus points. I think everybody else does it, but the way the rule sets are configured makes it an easily understandable way to manage. One of my presentations demonstrates appropriate and affordable, comprehensive threat protection with centralized management and improved network security. This describes how firewall and VPN functionalities of this product benefit my organization. Protection and identity based security are probably the major selling points, with logging and centralized management. It allows you to identify issues first, and the reporting facilities are there and can be automated. You've got automated reporting that you can set appropriate levels of reporting to management and to the operational team, so they are alerted to what's going on. This describes how Sophos Cyberoam UTM's reporting capability helps in managing our network effectively.

Read full review

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 quite popular in my region, so we are implementing Fortinet FortiGate firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate is the best option on the market when it comes to firewalls. It's straightforward to deploy and has good stability and performance."

"Fortinet FortiGate has a threat detection capacity compared to other vendors."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very light product. It's easy to understand."

"FortiGate is more feature-rich and has a broader range of hardware. T"

"I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud."

"The interest of the Fortinet FortiGate appliance is the ability to manage quickly and easily the different functionalities."

"I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues."

"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."

"Five out of five ROI."

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

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

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

"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."

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

"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."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

"Bandwidth Management and aggregation. It is valuable for combining two ISPs. Switching to a secondary/redundant ISP is thus seamless, in the event that the primary ISP goes down. The Bandwidth Management is also valuable for limiting heavy downloaders that may impact negatively on the experience of other users."

"The tool is stable."

"The most valuable feature of this product is the threat protection."

"Sophos Cyberoam UTM is used for perimeter security, web filtering, intrusion prevention and as a VPN."

"I like Sophos Cyberoam UTM as a security component or device for organizations. Performance-wise, it's a satisfactory solution, and it works okay. It also has good features."

"The product is worth the investment."

"The product is a simple and user-friendly UTM that can handle accounting, reporting, firewall, IPS, and antivirus for industries."

"The most valuable features are the firewall section, the VPN, and how you control live users."

More Sophos Cyberoam UTM pros

Cons

"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."

"They should provide us with a CSV number for patch updates. It will help us block specific signatures as well."

"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."

"They can probably improve the reporting feature. Reporting and report alerting are the main key features of this solution. They can always find ways to improve these."

"One area for improvement involves FortiAnalyzer, specifically regarding the SOC part and log interpretation. Sometimes interpretation is very difficult."

"The built-in logging and reporting is limited without FortiAnalyzer."

"Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet."

"Areas that have room for improvement in Fortinet FortiGate include support and GUI enhancement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

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

"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."

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

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

"The current usage reporting is very basic."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

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

More Hillstone E-Series cons

"The product strategy of the manufacturer is strange. I don't understand what they are doing in that regard."

"The solution is at its end of life and some of the appliances are finishing."

"Cyberoam UTM needs to have more certifications with third-parties, such as NSS Labs."

"The VPN is an area that can be improved."

"The technical support response time could be faster."

"There are some issues with logs and report limitations."

"I would like to see real-time alerts on traffic insights."

"The solution had a feature to import users from a CSV file. However, the latest version does not have that option."

More Sophos Cyberoam UTM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The main reason we chose Fortinet FortiGate was that the price was better than the competition."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a very cheap solution."

"If the price of the license in Fortinet FortiGate was less expensive it would be better."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall costs our company around $12000 per year."

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."

"It is not expensive as compared to Cisco."

"Some of our customers are using Sophos and SonicWall due to price concerns, as they can't manage the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate."

"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"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."

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

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."

"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is high."

"It’s value for the money. It’s functionally competitive with higher priced alternative brands."

"Sophos Cyberoam UTM is a cost-efficient solution compared to other solutions."

"The solution comes with a yearly licensing fee."

"It is worth the value."

"The solution's pricing is good since it is neither too high nor too low"

"Sophos Cyberoam UTM needs cheaper pricing."

"We pay for licensing the solution. It's my understanding that it is not overly expensive. It may be somewhere around $2,000 for a license."

More Sophos Cyberoam UTM pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	188

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	46
Midsize Enterprise	29
Large Enterprise	17

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 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...

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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...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Hillstone E-Series?

Our company did not use the tool's micro-segmentation features. There were no issues while integrating the tool. I ha...

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What do you like most about Sophos Cyberoam UTM?

The solution works perfectly without any users.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Cyberoam UTM?

The price is appropriate, but if you want the real truth, it's actually quite expensive. The annual software licensin...

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What needs improvement with Sophos Cyberoam UTM?

As for areas where Sophos Cyberoam UTM can be improved, it's hard to say; I have not at the moment seen anything that...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

OpenVPN Access Server vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 16% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 10% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Stormshield Network Security vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 3% of the time

More Hillstone E-Series Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Compared 15% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Compared 9% of the time

Azure Firewall vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Compared 7% of the time

KerioControl vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Compared 5% of the time

More Sophos Cyberoam UTM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

January 2026

Download Hillstone E-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Cyberoam UTM

January 2026

Download Sophos Cyberoam UTM product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

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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

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

Cyberoam Unified Threat Management hardware appliances offer comprehensive security to organizations, ranging from large enterprises to small and branch offices. Multiple security features integrated over a single, Layer 8 Identity-based platform make security simple, yet highly effective.

Sophos

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

Gulf Corporation for Technology, Maridive & Oil Services, Fidelity Bank, Petra University, Capital FM Kenya, Safari Park Hotel and Casino, Mayfair Casino, Pacific International Lines, Mozambique Ministry of Education, University of Namibia, Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, University of Hawai, New Delhi Municipal Council

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM

December 2025

Free Report: Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM

Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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