No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Hillstone T-Series vs Sophos UTM comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (42nd)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
 

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…
HR
CEO at iSource GmbH
Integrated security tools have supported critical infrastructure and improved network performance
Regarding Secureworks Taegis VDR Vulnerability Management, I do not have all these shortcuts in my head. Perhaps I have to ask my technicians, but we are in full stress because we have to change this entire firewall equipment, also the entire access points, because of the end of life. We also have the full product in for XDR and extensions. We are also part of the webinars from Sophos. It would be better if there were also some important webinars in German. Everything needs improvement, because also the wireless, also RED box and so on. The handling was much easier on the old equipment than on the new XGS. I think there should also be a little more automatic for SD-WAN routing and so on. Because we have to learn some things from the basic completely new because it is different than Sophos UTM, the XGS. The features that could be improved about Sophos UTM include the new features we have in XGS with a simpler interface. For example, in Sophos UTM, we could define IP hosts and use this IP host. We did not have to insert on every, for example, for wide area networks, we had to put the IP addresses from the other side by hand. In Sophos UTM, we could define it under definitions and then use this IP host where we needed it. In the new XGS, if there is a change in the IP address, we have to do it on all, for example, site-to-site VPN tunnels and so on. We have much more work and it is not so easy because we have to check all the definitions. It is also, for example, some of the male technicians like me, we have a biology handicap. For example, male technicians in Europe also have a red-green problem. So we use these light colors on the interface. In some cases, it is not easy to see the, for example, letters or numbers because of the contrast.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"It has been stable so far."
"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."
"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."
"Sophos has great security features and does a good job of protecting my network."
"The most valuable feature is the price. I've been requesting prices all over these years between different solutions like Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Check Point and Sophos has been the cheapest and the best of all of them that I have tried. I have been working with Fortinet, it's a fact that the price is surprisingly better."
"Sophos UTM's best feature is SIM in the cloud, which combines the gateway solution and endpoint solution to send telemetry data to the cloud and provides full contact visibility regarding security."
"This is a very stable product."
"We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers."
"The solution has email firewall built in with all sorts of functionality, it is an absolutely excellent firewall, the logging is really good, you get great information about what's going on."
"​Configuration could not be made any easier."
"RED remote Ethernet Device layer 2 site-to-site tunnel is a layer 2 tunnel based on SSL protocol that you can establish with or without a static public IP from the provider and this is a feature you will not see among another vendor."
 

Cons

"They have a very good technical support team, but I think there are some communication issues due to language differences."
"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, but there are customers who will buy because they understand that this has a cost involved and they will cater their budget for that."
"Licensing is not cheap."
"The SG platform does however not scale to a large enterprise deployment."
"There can be a delay when it comes to reaching out to technical support."
"They should have more powerful appliances."
"The web filtering engine needs to be improved as, sometimes, the service hangs for a while and restarts randomly."
"​I am going to flat out say technical support is terrible. Being a Platinum level customer, I am not happy with the support.​"
"Because it is in Indonesia, technical support is only available via email and on the website. There does not appear to be enough technical advice available from support."
"​Reporting: We have had to work manually in many of our reports."
"It is a pretty straightforward setup, but it should be some sort of documentation that takes you step-by-step to help set it up for your VPC."
 

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."
"The AWS Marketplace product should be a better fit, but it is a little pricier."
"It's reasonably priced."
"Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
"We pay for the service on a yearly basis. The last time we paid was in June, for a year. At the time, it was about $20,000."
"It will cost approximately $67 US per device. We have 300 devices in our organization."
"This solution is less expensive than FortiGate."
"Unless you are in the United States, or you have to use Sophos, you can't contact Sophos directly. You have to use a third-party ​company, and they all have different ways of how they explain their licensing."
"Purchasing it through the AWS Marketplace went smoothly. We did not have any issues and the pricing was decent."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
14%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?
The pricing for Sophos UTM is reasonable; I do not have an issue with it, though I was considering RED because I have different sites I wanted to connect, and instead of doing site-to-site, the RED...
What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?
Regarding Secureworks Taegis VDR Vulnerability Management, I do not have all these shortcuts in my head. Perhaps I have to ask my technicians, but we are in full stress because we have to change th...
 

Also Known As

Hillstone T-Series Intelligent Next-Generation Firewalls, Hillstone iNGFW
Astaro
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Córdoba
One Housing Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone T-Series vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.