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Ivanti Connect Secure vs SonicWall Netextender comparison

Ivanti and SonicWall are both solutions in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category. Ivanti is ranked #8 with an average rating of 6.8, while SonicWall is ranked #10 with an average rating of 9.0. Ivanti holds a 5.4% mindshare in EIV, compared to SonicWall’s 3.1% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Ivanti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 70% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

Ivanti Connect Secure

Read 29 Ivanti Connect Secure reviews

3,875 Views
3,216 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

SonicWall Netextender

Read 14 SonicWall Netextender reviews

2,555 Views
2,555 Comparison Views

70% willing to recommend

Ivanti Connect Secure

SonicWall Netextender

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Ivanti Connect Secure and SonicWall NetExtender are competing secure remote access solutions. Ivanti Connect Secure has advantages in pricing and support, while SonicWall NetExtender excels in features.

Features: Ivanti Connect Secure offers robust security, comprehensive management capabilities, and detailed reporting and diagnostics. SonicWall NetExtender includes advanced features, seamless integration with other SonicWall products, and standout scalability and cross-platform support.

Room for Improvement: Ivanti Connect Secure could enhance mobile support, streamline the installation process, and focus on agility. SonicWall NetExtender could improve interface intuitiveness, performance optimization, and refine usability and speed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Ivanti Connect Secure benefits from straightforward deployment and robust customer service. SonicWall NetExtender's complex deployment is balanced by highly responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Ivanti Connect Secure is cost-efficient with a favorable ROI, making it appealing to budget-conscious buyers. SonicWall NetExtender, although pricier, justifies its cost with extensive features and long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

December 2025

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Helped 881,757 peers since 2012

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

Ivanti Connect Secure

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

8th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

SSL VPN (1st)

SonicWall Netextender

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

10th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Ivanti Connect Secure is 5.4%, down from 6.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Netextender is 3.1%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Ivanti Connect Secure	5.4%
SonicWall Netextender	3.1%
Other	91.5%

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

Featured Reviews

Kaushlendra Singh

Manager - IT Infrastructure and Network at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides secure and simple remote access but needs improved reporting capabilities

Ivanti Connect Secure is simple and secure, making it valuable for our organization. Ivanti Connect Secure's access control feature provides global protect, which allows country-wise blocking. There are many access controls available, and policies can be created on a host basis and on the MAC address of assets that will connect. Firewall versions and OS versions can be defined, and only devices meeting these criteria can connect to the VPN. These features are effective, along with MFA. Ivanti Connect Secure is a client-based, agent-based solution, so if the agent is installed, users are able to connect to the network. Ivanti Connect Secure utilizes identity-based LDAP authentication. Ivanti Connect Secure is very effective for remote access for remote workers.

Read full review

Rich Darress

Chief Operating Officer at Darress Tech

Has provided secure remote access to multiple client networks with consistent performance

When buying the appliance itself, there is one downside that isn't exclusive to SonicWall. When you apply all the security settings, many people have one gig connections for internet ISP. If you're bringing in a one gig connection, you have to have a more robust SonicWall to handle that throughput with all your security settings turned on. It gets pretty pricey upfront if you're bringing in a one gig connection. If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious. However, this issue exists with pretty much any appliance.

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

"It's quite stable."

"The most robust and reliable feature of Ivanti Connect Secure is the VPN tunneling, using both the Pulse and the Ivanti client."

"The stability of the product is its most valuable feature."

"From an end-user perspective, the setup phase is easy."

"Pulse Connect Secure is a stable solution."

"The most valuable features of the solution are reliability and uptime."

"This solution enables secure connections for our engineers to work from home or other locations."

"The new UI that they are providing right now is very good."

More Ivanti Connect Secure pros

"The solution provides high availability."

"The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML."

"The best features of the SonicWall Netextender were its ease of use."

"Employees can have access to the network from home."

"It allows us to work remotely."

"NetExtender works very well. I never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me. In terms of management, you have good control over the destination. You can use NetExtender to set the policy and the static route for a client. You can modify it based on what your client needs or can access. You have good control over routing."

"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."

"My company opted for this solution because it can individually perform. Basically, we don't require load balancers and all those additional feature sets or additional devices that might be required. The solution can handle the certificate, DNS queries, and all that stuff individually."

More SonicWall Netextender pros

Cons

"The user experience has room for improvement."

"Pulse Connect Secure could improve by having better integration with NAC solutions, such as Cisco ClearPass integration with Pulse Connect Secure. Additionally, they need better integration with Microsoft Azure AD and Azure Authenticator."

"The solution must be more user-friendly."

"Setup is complex. A few users had some issues with it."

"We want to switch to another solution because there are some challenges with the support from Pulse. The quality of documentation is also not good. It is sometimes very hard to find documentation that provides a solution and describes how all this works."

"An area for improvement in Pulse Connect Secure is the concurrent connections, particularly needing a license if you want to use Pulse Connect Secure with your Microsoft or Windows machine."

"Zero test FDP (Fraud Protection and Prevention) should be improved."

"At the moment, Pulse Connect Secure is a pretty good solution, and I don't see any issues with it. Currently, I'm not aware of a new or additional feature that's needed in Pulse Connect Secure, but it would be good if the team could look at how the speed of connection could be increased. Though it's quite seamless and I didn't face any problem with the speed, it would be better to improve the speed and keep going forward, especially as the industry's changing and people would love connections to be a lot faster."

More Ivanti Connect Secure cons

"Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution."

"There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender."

"The Netextender application itself doesn't really look pretty, however, we can still use it. We don't care what it looks like. That said, if they did a cosmetic update, that would be fine."

"The UI could be a little better."

"They need to rewrite the software to make it a usable product."

"SonicWall can be difficult for some people, but I don't find it difficult. Some companies provide a VPN client for free, but you have to pay for NetExtender."

"The only concern I do have is with the zero trust, and the solution is not coping with the newer technologies as much as it needs to do on that particular factor."

"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."

More SonicWall Netextender cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of the product is high, but worth it because of the utility and great product support."

"The pricing for Pulse Connect Secure is not low and not high, so it's good. It's a six out of ten for me, price-wise."

"I rate the product price a six to seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"Pulse Connect Secure is relatively cost-effective."

"A license is required for you to use Pulse Connect Secure, but I'm not aware of how much it costs."

"The price of Pulse Connect Secure is expensive."

"The pricing is quite nominal. We pay on a yearly basis."

"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."

"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."

"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."

"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."

"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."

"The solution has a pretty good price."

"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pulse Connect Secure?

From an end-user perspective, the setup phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pulse Connect Secure?

Ivanti has always been known to be pricey, making it a rather high-cost solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pulse Connect Secure?

The reporting capabilities of Ivanti Connect Secure are not strong; the format is simple, and obtaining a detailed report is difficult and requires manual work. Regarding points for improvement, th...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Netextender?

The pricing for my experience with the setup cost and licensing of SonicWall Netextender is fair. The Netextender itself has no cost. It's the SSL licensing that is attached to the SonicWall. It us...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?

SonicWall Netextender has not helped with compliance, as it is not applicable for what I'm doing. I've put several feature requests in over the years and they've implemented them all, so it current...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SonicWall Netextender?

Getting to local resources on a customer's network is my main use case with SonicWall Netextender or SonicWall SSL-VPN. As a managed service provider, all my customers have SonicWalls and I get int...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenVPN Access Server vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 14% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Ivanti Secure Access vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 8% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 6% of the time

More Ivanti Connect Secure Competitors

OpenVPN Access Server vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 30% of the time

SonicWall Connect Tunnel vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 14% of the time

SonicWall SMA vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 10% of the time

SonicWall Mobile Connect vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 9% of the time

More SonicWall Netextender Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure

January 2026

Download Ivanti Connect Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall Netextender

January 2026

Download SonicWall Netextender product report

Also Known As

Pulse Connect Secure

No data available

Overview

Ivanti Connect Secure provides a seamless, cost-effective SSL VPN solution for remote and mobile users from any web-enabled device to corporate resources— anytime, anywhere.

Ivanti

SonicWall Netextender provides secure remote access, supporting remote work with valuable features like two-factor authentication, low latency, and integration with Microsoft identity management.

SonicWall Netextender facilitates secure client-to-site VPN connections for remote staff, integrating seamlessly with Microsoft identity management and using existing credentials like Active Directory. Its cost-effectiveness and detailed documentation attract enterprises in sectors such as insurance, healthcare, and education. Despite excellent control over routing, the intuitive setup could be improved, with users experiencing performance and licensing flexibility issues, especially with multi-factor authentication. While integration with SAML ensures seamless authentication, high bandwidth consumption and the outdated interface are mentioned for enhancement. Overall, SonicWall Netextender supports remote file transfers and access to Microsoft 365 portals, although additional features like automatic connection on startup and AI integration would address current user demands.

What features does SonicWall Netextender offer?

Remote Work Support: Facilitates secure connections for remote staff
Integration with Microsoft Identity Management: Connects effortlessly using existing credentials
Two-Factor Authentication: Enhances security during remote access
Low Latency and High Stability: Ensures uninterrupted remote connections
Cost-effectiveness: Attracts organizations with budget-friendly options

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Secure Access: Reliable protection for remote file transfers
Ease of Setup: Quick deployment with minimal IT disruption
Flexible Integration: Utilizes existing credentials for seamless user experience
Documentation: Comprehensive guides for efficient setup and use

Enterprises from insurance, healthcare, and education sectors benefit from SonicWall Netextender by enabling secure remote or hybrid work. Companies facilitate efficient management of remote work, providing access to corporate resources from any location. Challenges include the authentication setup, but its support for remote access to Microsoft 365 and secure file transfers offer substantial utility for these industries.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

Axcient, Baloise Group, Cygate, Catholic University of America, Datec Inc, Revlon, Santa Monica Networks, 7-Eleven

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

December 2025

Free Report: Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

Find out what your peers are saying about Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

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