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McAfee Web Protection [EOL] vs SonicWall CFS comparison

 

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

McAfee Web Protection [EOL]
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.1
Number of Reviews
16
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall CFS
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.7
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
Web Content Filtering (8th)
 

Featured Reviews

BharatUjenia - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Group Manager - Enterprise IT at WNS Global Services
Provides very good accessibility and handles any overload very well
McAfee Web Protection has been around for many years and the solution holds its ground as a product providing good accessibility and handling any overload very well. McAfee has developed new features similar to those found in other solutions; enabling seamless deployment, reducing the footprint on data centers, and making the solution more scalable, more resilient, and more reliable.
DS
Consultant at a media company with 51-200 employees
Reliable content filtering but need more traffic control
To deploy it as a proxy, we use this solution for content filtering, URL filtering, and solution filtering on the user end. When the user is connecting to the internet and should not access some social media website or malware sites, we can block it through SonicWall CFS. CFS is our content…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The LiveSafe version works very well and has a very small price."
"The solution does what it's meant to do."
"I receive a monthly report and I've never had a problem so I presume that it's doing its job well."
"It is functional. It has reduced risk and downtime while also ensuring regulatory compliance, which is critical."
"The product is very easy to implement, the process is straightforward with no complexities to speak of, and it's very quick to deploy so you can install it and have it up and running in ten minutes."
"It has dependable anti-malware and intrusion prevention features all-in-one package."
"McAfee Web Protection is a good solution and its mature security environment has helped our organization."
"McAfee Web Protection was a good tool because in the olden days when you had to use a proxy tool when browsing the internet. Today the logic has changed slightly, in the sense your protection's taken onto the cloud. You'll exit a predefined gateway on the cloud before your internet browsing happens and therefore you're secured."
"It is very stable."
"When the user is connecting to the internet and should not access some social media website or malware sites, we can block it through SonicWall CFS."
 

Cons

"The technical support is good, but it's always "I'll call you back", especially when there are no threats."
"The True Key version for mobile phones should be improved. The password manager is not as seamless as on the desktop. Once implemented, on the desktop, when you go to the site, it automatically fills and connects you, whereas, on the mobile phone, it doesn't do that quite seamlessly. You need to open the True Key application and then select the password you want to use. It then opens in the browser. There are fewer steps in the desktop version as compared to the mobile version."
"The configuration could be simplified because it is more complex to make the configuration on McAfee. What can be improved is the support of the agent on smartphones, IOS or Android. That still now is not available yet."
"We used a consultant to help us set it up. Unfortunately, he was not that good. They were out of McAfee people. He was a consultant and knew the product, but he was not a McAfee person. How they managed it and how they worked was not straightforward."
"I'm not sure if the solution itself is cloud-based or not. If it isn't they really need to begin to develop that out a bit."
"In McAfee Web Protection there are gaps in the security design, in the overall architecture, the gaps need to be fixed."
"Add McAfee Client Proxy agents for mobiles to Web SaaS instead of the consumer based mobile security platform."
"The only thing I can think of that might be negative is that sometimes I get a feeling that web protection products are purposely filtering some sites that are not really malicious."
"It has to be able to control more than just web traffic. Malware, scanning, capture, and integration should be included with the content filtering."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The license number would be approximately $35,000."
"In McAfee Web Protection you have the ability to install any appliance you want with the same license. If you need an appliance on-premise, you can install it with the same license because the license is for users, not for appliances. If you need one more, you can install it and you don't have problems with the license or need to change your environment."
"The pricing is cheaper than some of the other options that are available."
"$150 Canadian per year."
"It is not very expensive. It costs 100 Canadian Dollars per year per license. I buy one-year or two-year protection. The license covers my PC, laptops, and telephone. The cost is per user but for multiple devices. It has just the standard licensing fees. There are some options for extended protection. For example, if I wanted to have a VPN, there will be an extra cost. So, there are upgradable features, but I'm very happy with what it is giving me with the basic plan. It gives me the basic privacy protection that I need."
"Licensing is on a yearly basis and the pricing is very reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
11%
Marketing Services Firm
10%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend McAfee Web Protection?
I highly recommend McAfee Web Protection. In my opinion, it is a comprehensive web protection platform with a great firewall. I find that it is a lot less bulky than competing solutions on the mark...
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Also Known As

McAfee Web Gateway, McAfee SaaS Web Protection
SonicWall Content Filtering Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sicredi
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about iboss, Barracuda Networks, Forcepoint and others in Web Content Filtering. Updated: July 2026.
906,887 professionals have used our research since 2012.