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KerioControl vs Sophos UTM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 7, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.8
KerioControl delivered significant financial benefits through bandwidth optimization, VPN efficiency, and reduced support, maintenance, and security expenses.
Sentiment score
5.4
Sophos UTM delivers positive ROI quickly through cost savings, centralized management, competitive pricing, and effective network management.
I have seen a return on investment with Sophos UTM, and I can share that the price is around thirty percent better, especially if you count in the employee time.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.3
KerioControl support receives mixed reviews, with some praise but many report slow responses and reliance on online communities.
Sentiment score
6.5
Sophos UTM is praised for customer service, yet AWS support delays and regional service quality discrepancies are noted.
I have never needed to contact customer support as the product is easy to use.
Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean
I would rate the technical support by Sophos a 10.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
The technical support by Sophos is amazing, especially when I pay for the enhanced support.
Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP
The customer support for Sophos UTM used to be better when it was still Astaro.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.7
KerioControl suits small to medium businesses but faces scalability issues in larger enterprises, requiring hardware upgrades for increased capacity.
Sentiment score
5.4
Sophos UTM offers scalability and adaptability, supporting seamless expansion with virtual and hardware options, despite limited physical upgrades.
KerioControl has met some of the network infrastructure needs yet could improve in terms of scalability.
Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean
You can have high availability clusters, so very, very scalable in my opinion.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
KerioControl is stable and reliable, with minor hardware or update challenges, and performs well according to user assessments.
Sentiment score
7.4
Sophos UTM is stable and reliable, with few bugs; proper sizing prevents occasional performance issues related to CPU usage.
 

Room For Improvement

KerioControl requires improvements in VPN, user interface, support, security, performance, and customization features for large networks.
Sophos UTM requires enhancements in user management, scalability, and interface while improving security features, flexibility, and centralized management.
If you want to really implement some rules that are a little bit more difficult, Sophos always recommends getting the dedicated WAF, or web application firewall, but I would prefer to have more features on the web application firewall in the firewall itself because it would make more sense.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
It would make my work much simpler because it makes decision-making much easier.
IT Manager at Vegol
I would prefer to see additional features in the next release of Sophos UTM because cyber crime increases every day, so we also need to improve our game to prevent any chances for intrusion.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
 

Setup Cost

KerioControl offers affordable pricing with complex licensing, appreciated features, but high annual fees can be challenging for small offices.
Sophos UTM provides flexible, cost-effective licensing with some complexity, making it valuable for enterprises despite pricing concerns.
The price for the product is rated as ten out of ten.
Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean
The pricing would be more economical if sold directly to the user compared to going through a partner, as they need to take their percentage.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
Pricing has become expensive recently due to the dollar hike and naira value changes in Nigeria.
Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP
I was considering RED because I have different sites I wanted to connect, and instead of doing site-to-site, the RED option is quite pricey.
IT Manager at Vegol
 

Valuable Features

KerioControl provides user-friendly navigation, robust security features, VPN support, and efficient network management with positive feedback on ease of use.
Sophos UTM offers robust security, user-friendly interface, VPN integration, reporting, and scalability, ideal for small to large businesses.
The most valuable features include geo-tagging, which blocks all other IPs except for the specified accounts, and web filtering.
Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean
We are now going to use the central services, but we are still concerned because of data protection, because we do not know where all the data will be stored in the cloud.
CEO at iSource GmbH
For zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier.
IT Manager at Vegol
In my opinion, the best features Sophos UTM offers are part of the firewall itself, so we don't need an extra appliance, we don't need to set up extra open-source VMs or anything.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

KerioControl
Ranking in Unified Threat Management (UTM)
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (27th), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (13th)
Sophos UTM
Ranking in Unified Threat Management (UTM)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of KerioControl is 4.3%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos UTM is 10.0%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Unified Threat Management (UTM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sophos UTM10.0%
KerioControl4.3%
Other85.7%
Unified Threat Management (UTM)
 

Featured Reviews

Constantnos Achilleos - PeerSpot reviewer
Product manger at Asbis Mediteranean
Leveraging geo-tagging and web filtering for enhanced network security
The solution is used for site-to-site VPN connections and it is valued for its cost efficiency and easy connectivity. It is especially beneficial for multi-site VPNs and is used in about fifteen different components KerioControl has provided a financial benefit as it allows purchasing one license…
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.
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908,800 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
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise3
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for KerioControl?
KerioControl offers good pricing as one license covers all features needed without extra payment. The price for the product is rated as ten out of ten.
What needs improvement with KerioControl?
Regarding KerioControl's application awareness and control feature, I have not used it much.
What is your primary use case for KerioControl?
With KerioControl, we usually use them for site-to-site VPNs for most of our clients. With multiple offices, we use KerioControl as our solution.
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?
I would like to improve Sophos UTM in that there is software I use that goes deeper in the reporting on usage. There is software called Fastvue that breaks down everything in the firewall and whate...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

No data available
Astaro
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Triton Technical, McDonald's
One Housing Group
Find out what your peers are saying about KerioControl vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
908,800 professionals have used our research since 2012.