Menlo Secure vs SonicWall TZ comparison

Menlo Security and SonicWall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Menlo Security is ranked #51, while SonicWall is ranked #26 with an average rating of 9.3. Menlo Security holds a 0.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to SonicWall’s 1.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Menlo Security users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

SonicWall TZ and Menlo Secure are key players in the cybersecurity market. SonicWall has an edge in pricing and support, whereas Menlo Secure's advanced features justify its higher cost.

Features: SonicWall TZ provides robust firewall capabilities, threat detection, and prevention, along with VPN support. Menlo Secure excels in isolation-based web security, offers a single console for policy management, and supports cloud proxy solutions.

Room for Improvement:SonicWall TZ could enhance its GUI for simplicity and integrate more advanced security features. Menlo Secure might improve reporting capabilities, ease of authentication for certain sites, and the logging experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonicWall TZ is recognized for easy deployment and solid customer support. Menlo Secure requires more expertise but offers comprehensive deployment tailored for security-centric environments.

Pricing and ROI: SonicWall TZ is a cost-effective choice for businesses on a budget, providing good ROI. Menlo Secure, with its premium pricing, delivers significant ROI for organizations prioritizing top-tier security features.

To learn more, read our detailed Menlo Secure vs. SonicWall TZ Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure vs. SonicWall TZ

April 2026

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 16.0%, down from 21.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Menlo Secure is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall TZ is 1.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	16.0%
SonicWall TZ	1.9%
Menlo Secure	0.3%
Other	81.8%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav

Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd

Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches

Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.

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reviewer2701794

Head Of Bluechip Enterprise at a manufacturing company with 51-200 employees

Provides strong protection and multiple use cases but struggles with market recognition

There aren't specific areas for improvement; however, they're not as well known as the big vendors such as Palo Alto. Menlo Secure is a smaller company with limited resources and funding, which makes it challenging to compete with larger companies such as Palo and Cisco. What can be improved is market awareness and adoption of the technology. When selling it in the channel, regardless of how good the technology might be, success depends more on market adoption and awareness.

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Fernando Kavindra Fernando

Senior Pre-sales and Solutions Engineer - Cyber Security at Enterprise Technology (Pvt) Ltd

Web filtering and traffic balancing have improved security for SMBs but threat insight still needs work

I assess the machine learning capabilities of SonicWall TZ in proactive threat detection to not be at the level of other vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, and Check Point. It is somewhere in between, so I would not recommend it for a large enterprise-level organization to rely on because it is not at that level. SonicWall TZ's content filtering service is reliable. We have used it, but it is not very reliable compared to brands such as Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, or Check Point. What could be improved about SonicWall TZ is the threat intelligence, which by far is not at the level of vendors such as Fortinet, Palo Alto Networks, and Check Point. Their threat intelligence needs to be improved, as does the GUI, which is not as user-friendly compared to devices such as Fortinet. They could learn from their competitors by making the product more user-friendly. The product interface is not that user-friendly. By adopting a more user-friendly GUI, improving threat intelligence, and enhancing the available guides would be beneficial. In my understanding, in some cases, the KB articles and knowledge articles were not that efficient. They were useful, but they could have been more precise with the knowledge base articles. They need to provide more information about SonicWall TZ, specifically more documentation and more troubleshooting articles. Other than the threat intelligence and the user-friendly GUI, there are no other additional features that I can think of for SonicWall TZ in the future or at least in the next release to make it more competitive.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can integrate certain other services with FortiGate and use additional threat intelligence services because they allow you to combine various solutions, enhancing your overall security."

"The performance is very good and the solution is simple to manage."

"The pricing is great and very reasonable."

"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."

"The solution is stable and quite reliable; there are no bugs or glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze."

"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."

"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations, and additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."

"Overall, we're very happy with their firewalls, but when we have issues or bugs, there are some difficulties in finding the resolution."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"It has reduced security events to follow up on. While it is not 100%, there has been probably a 90% or more reduction. We were getting hit left, right, and center constantly from people browsing the Internet and hitting bad websites. It was not just bad websites that were stood up to be malicious, but good sites that were compromised."

"Either you have access to something or don't have access to it, and if you do, we can ensure, 100 percent of the time, that there is nothing malicious that is going to impact our system in any way."

"Accessing the internet with a proxy from anywhere is the most valuable feature. It ensures that users are only able to browse legitimate websites. If they happen to go to a legitimate website with a malicious payload, the isolation feature will take care of that."

"This security technology addresses risk and enables people to conduct business without that risk, which is where the ROI is realized."

"The solution is invisible to our end users, so it doesn't have any impact on their work or performance."

"The fact that it is a cloud proxy solution is another feature we like. For example, if you acquire a new company, you can use it to protect that new company without the need to install anything physically on their networks."

"For us, the primary goal is protection on the web, and that's extremely important. We're not using any of the other services at this time. The web part is key to the success of the organization. It gives us the ability to protect. It can isolate. It opens the session in an isolated format so that the code isn't running locally. It is running over in the Menlo environment, not in ours. It is not running on the local computer, whereas if you were to go to a normal website, it would run Java or something else on the local machine and potentially execute the malicious code locally. So, it does give us that level of protection."

"We have definitely seen ROI, as we save a ton of money and time because the numerous hits that we were receiving from our security tools prior to implementing them had to all be chased down, dispositioned, and endpoints had to be reimaged."

More Menlo Secure pros

"From our point of view, the most valuable feature was the ease of deployment."

"No issues with stability."

"It's a very cost-effective solution."

"I usually recommend SonicWall TZ for organizations that are looking for a solution without a big budget because it is quite budget-friendly and easy to deploy."

"The solution's VPN is very good for stability and detecting threats."

"The solution offers the right amount of control without being incredibly convoluted and frustrating, or without being too dumbed down where you don't have options to do certain things."

"I have seen attacks that have been prevented by it, so I would say I have seen clients receive a return on investment."

"I've found the technical support to be helpful."

More SonicWall TZ pros

Cons

"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."

"Monitoring could be improved."

"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI."

"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"It needs more available central management."

"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."

"The visibility of the network can be better. The GUI can be improved for better visibility of the network flow."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"In the best of all worlds, we wouldn't have to make any exceptions. However, that is a big ask because a lot of that depends on how websites are constructed. For example, there are some very complex, application-oriented sites that we end up making exceptions for. It is really not that big an issue for us to make the exceptions. We feel like we are doing that without a huge impact on our security posture, but we do have to make some exceptions for complex sites, e.g., mostly SaaS-type sites and applications."

"The user monitoring could still be improved."

"We are now transitioning to another solution. The main reason for that is that managing all of the exceptions and troubleshooting all of the issues our users have had connecting to the internet has become too significant in terms of workload, compared to what we hope we will have with another solution."

"The user monitoring could still be improved."

"Currently, I don't have a good way to see which of my rules are being used in the access control lists."

"In the best of all worlds, we wouldn't have to make any exceptions. For example, there are some very complex, application-oriented sites that we end up making exceptions for."

"Menlo Secure is a smaller company with limited resources and funding, which makes it challenging to compete with larger companies such as Palo and Cisco."

More Menlo Secure cons

"The user support could be improved because you have to go outside and get that kind of support."

"I would like them to make the interface a little bit easier to use so you can find out where in the heck you're going instead of having to go to 15 different places to get something installed."

"Its pricing can be better. It is very expensive."

"Content filtering, Load balancing. Bandwidth management."

"We have experienced some issues with SonicWall TZ and they are lacking some advanced features other vendors have."

"Sonic Analyzer could be improved. It's difficult to manage and not very intuitive."

"Its reporting can be improved. Currently, we cannot directly get the user names."

"The market seems to be going to a cloud-supported, new generation of firewall products."

More SonicWall TZ cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"FortiGate SWG is a cost-effective solution well-suited for organisations of all sizes."

"It is very cost-effective. You get features similar to other firewalls, such as Palo Alto, but at a lower price."

"I'll rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten since it is moderately priced."

"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."

"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall costs our company around $12000 per year."

"Work through partners for the best pricing."

"Compared to other firewall products, it's a little cheaper in terms of pricing."

"The pricing is flexible."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The solution is expensive. It's more expensive than the solution I previously used. Compared with the other cloud-based solutions, it's very competitive."

"It is appropriately priced for what they're doing for us. Considering the protection provided, I feel their pricing is spot-on."

"We save a ton of money and time. Previously, the numerous hits that we were receiving from our security tools, prior to implementing them, had to all be chased down, dispositioned, and endpoints had to be reimaged. It was just a ton of effort to do all that. That is where the savings from time and money come in."

"The license that we purchased is good for three years."

"Customers are required to pay for a yearly subscription."

"The product is not expensive, but it is not cheap."

"I give the price an eight out of ten."

"It comes to a range between five hundred to seven hundred dollars."

"The prices are expensive."

"There are a few features that are licensed and there should be more that are licensed. The price of the solution is midrange compared to others, I have not had anyone complain."

"It is highly priced and has a slow performance compared to other firewalls."

More SonicWall TZ pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

15%

Retailer

10%

Computer Software Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	367
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	193

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	64
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	14

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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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 ...

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What needs improvement with Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

There aren't specific areas for improvement; however, they're not as well known as the big vendors such as Palo Alto....

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

People are mainly using it for zero trust web access. Menlo Secure is built from the ground up to provide zero basic ...

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What advice do you have for others considering Menlo Security Secure Web Gateway?

Secure file sharing and data protection is not exactly what Menlo Secure is designed to do. While it can handle some ...

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Would you choose Fortinet Fortigate or Sonicwall TZ?

I’ll say it depends on your needs. Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ are both next-gen firewalls (NGFW) with simila...

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

The price is normal. It is a nominal cost for an SMB TZ used for SMB businesses. However, more licenses are required ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall TZ?

I assess the machine learning capabilities of SonicWall TZ in proactive threat detection to not be at the level of ot...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Prisma Access Browser vs Menlo Secure

Compared 21% of the time

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Menlo Secure

Compared 13% of the time

Netskope Next Gen Secure Web Gateway vs Menlo Secure

Compared 8% of the time

Cloudflare One vs Menlo Secure

Compared 7% of the time

Silo by Authentic8 vs Menlo Secure

Compared 7% of the time

More Menlo Secure Competitors

Sophos Firewall vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 8% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 6% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall TZ

Compared 5% of the time

More SonicWall TZ Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure

April 2026

Download Menlo Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall TZ

April 2026

Download SonicWall TZ product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Menlo Security Web Security, Menlo Web Security

Dell SonicWALL TZ

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Menlo Security Secure Application Access

Menlo Security Secure Application Access makes zero trust access easy, giving users secure connectivity to private applications, including web and legacy applications. At the core of Secure Application Access is the Menlo Secure Cloud Browser, which fetches, secures and delivers the content for users.

In addition to providing simple-to-deploy, clientless ZTA, Secure Application Access and the Menlo Secure Cloud Browser protect applications from attacks such as session hijacking, cookie manipulation, and other tactics that employ protocol manipulation.

Secure Application Access protects applications from Internet threats and provides granular controls for added protection of the application and associated data. These security controls include Read-only/Read-write, Upload/download, Copy/paste, AV scanning, Sandboxing, and Data Loss Prevention.

Last Mile Data Protection

Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection identifies and prevents sensitive data from leaving your company by meticulously inspecting all file uploads and user input across browsing sessions. Leveraging the Secure Cloud Browser, users are protected from the internet and you can protect your organization from data loss with comprehensive traffic monitoring and controls. This approach addresses the growing concerns surrounding data leakage in the age of AI tools like ChatGPT.

By identifying sensitive data through file types, regular expressions, or predefined libraries, Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection empowers security teams to regulate data input into AI platforms and prevent unauthorized uploads. This capability provides crucial protection for intellectual property, PII, and other confidential information.

The solution leverages the Menlo Cloud Security Platform's visibility and control over traffic to reliably detect and prevent data leaks originating from both browser submission forms and non-browser traffic. With the ability to inspect encrypted web traffic, Menlo Last-Mile Data Protection enforces DLP policies consistently across all users and devices, ensuring comprehensive data protection.

Menlo Security

SonicWall TZ provides robust network security with ease of use and VPN integration, favored for its scalability and performance optimized for small to medium businesses.

SonicWall TZ is known for its comprehensive network security features, including advanced threat prevention, VPN integration, and content filtering. It is seen as reliable due to its scalability, performance, and thoughtful integration capabilities, tailored for small to medium businesses. Its cost-effectiveness and easy setup make it attractive, though users note that improvements could be made in pricing and the graphical interface. Reporting functions need enhancement to include more insightful and user-friendly options, and compatibility issues need addressing for advancement alongside competitors like Fortinet. The system supports site-to-site VPNs, deep packet inspection, and unified threat management, offering high security with dependable technical support.

What are the key features of SonicWall TZ?

Robust Network Security: Provides comprehensive protection against threats.
VPN Integration: Simplifies secure remote access.
Content Filtering: Enhances control over internet usage.
Advanced Threat Prevention: Guards against sophisticated cyber threats.
Scalability: Suitable for growing business needs.
Site-to-Site VPNs: Ensures secure connections between branches.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Cost-Effectiveness: Offers solid security without escalating costs.
Ease of Deployment: Streamlines implementation processes.
Unified Threat Management: Comprehensive threat detection and prevention.
Performance Reliability: Consistent performance in various conditions.

SonicWall TZ is widely implemented in sectors needing strong security measures such as finance, healthcare, and retail, where its firewall capabilities and network security facilitate robust protection and efficient traffic handling. It is particularly useful for businesses needing to secure multiple branch connections and ensure efficient remote access.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Information Not Available

AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat

Buyer's Guide

Menlo Secure vs. SonicWall TZ

April 2026

Free Report: Menlo Secure vs. SonicWall TZ

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