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Hillstone T-Series vs Palo Alto Networks VM-Series comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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 T-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
42nd
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Hillstone T-Series is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.8%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series2.8%
Hillstone T-Series0.6%
Other96.6%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

TahirMahmood - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Zubair Feeds
Is stable and has a user-friendly dashboard and a good interface
We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good We cannot secure a specific IP class with this firewall. Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the…
MuhammadNadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Has supported urgent deployments and enabled inline threat protection but pricing and features could be more flexible
I am not using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series mostly, but based on my experience, there are some deficiencies in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers. However, for urgency and for some solutions that customers need for some of their other sites and subdivisions, we are providing the same.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Hillstone supports IOT setup and detecting intrusions from IOT or CCTV connectivity, and with this solution, we can also detect unauthorized devices plugged into the CCTV network and sound the alarm to the administrator."
"It has been stable so far."
"We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good."
"We found some limitations with Fortinet FortiGate, and we are satisfied with Hillstone T-Series right now."
"The only firewall able to monitor traffic from a CCTV network. Can detect unauthorized devices plugged into the network, which standard firewalls can't do."
"If you do not have a Next-Generation Firewall, Palo Alto is a good choice, it is reliable and the support is very good."
"Embedding it into my application development lifecycle prevents data loss and business disruption, allowing the adoption to operate at the speed of my AWS Cloud."
"The VM-Series reports how much bandwidth a particular IP is using. You don't need to regularly log into a website, like a Cisco command, to see what kind of ACL it's getting. There isn't an ACL use portal event. You can go there and see how much my ACL has been getting me."
"The most valuable feature is the CLI."
"The VM-Series scalability is fast and easy to implement, improving our security posture as our Azure network grows."
"In the newer version, there are 3850s, all of them are scalable. They fit better into the medium or small businesses."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is very easy to use because, after installation, its intuitive web interface makes all the traffic very well filtered and gives me all I need."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is better than Fortinet, mainly in its SP3 structure, flexibility, and reliability, and based on feedback from customers."
 

Cons

"Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the hotspot get all the functions, and the security does not work."
"Licensing is not cheap."
"Licensing is not cheap, but there are customers who will buy because they understand that this has a cost involved and they will cater their budget for that."
"They have a very good technical support team, but I think there are some communication issues due to language differences."
"The product could provide protection above Layer 3, which gets into the application layer and provides better visibility into those aspects of application security."
"Its web interface is a bit outdated, and it needs to be updated. They can also improve the NAT functionality. We have had issues with the NAT setup."
"The utilization monitoring and GUI have room for improvement."
"Technical support is good for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, but sometimes for new feature requests, we are facing challenges."
"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the endpoints and the firewalls."
"There is work to be done on the integration side, as AWS doesn't integrate well with third-party firewalls."
"The solution's licensing could be improved, and training should be included before installation."
"If additional web application firewall capabilities could be integrated into the existing firewall, it would negate the need for additional products."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We got a much cheaper price than that provided by Fortinet right now."
"On a scale from one to ten, with one being low and ten being high price, I would rate the price of Hillstone T-Series at three. There are no additional costs other than renewal costs."
"I know Palo Alto is not cheap. They have been telling me, the members of the finance team, it is not a cheap solution. It is a solution whose target is that no matter how big your organization is, small, medium, or large, it is about the maturity of your security team or infrastructure team whom you want to work with."
"The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS for a three-year commitment is a great deal, if you can plan that far ahead."
"Palo Alto can be as much as two times the price of competing products that have twice the capabilities."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is an expensive product but the best one in the market."
"Because I work for a university and the URL is for the institution, it's a free license for us."
"The solution is expensive. I rate its pricing a three out of ten."
"The price of this solution is very high for some parts of Africa, which makes it a challenge."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series?
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet...
 

Also Known As

Hillstone T-Series Intelligent Next-Generation Firewalls, Hillstone iNGFW
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Córdoba
Warren Rogers Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone T-Series vs. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.