Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Palo Alto Networks and Sangfor are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.3, while Sangfor is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.8. Palo Alto Networks holds a 0.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sangfor’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Palo Alto Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Sangfor NGAF and Palo Alto Networks K2-Series are competitors in the network security category. Sangfor NGAF appears to have an edge in terms of affordability and ease of use, while Palo Alto is preferred for its advanced security features.

Features: Sangfor NGAF is highlighted for its ease of use, strong virus database, and comprehensive reporting features. It provides a straightforward deployment process and integrates well with existing systems. Palo Alto K2-Series is recognized for its superior IPS, SSL decryption capabilities, and strong application and URL inspection features, along with excellent threat intelligence via WildFire.

Room for Improvement: Sangfor NGAF could benefit from better integration of consoles and enhanced real-time reporting. Improvements in feedback mechanisms and interface intuitiveness would also help. Palo Alto K2-Series could optimize its user experience, reduce pricing, and enhance management and third-party integration. More comprehensive reporting and frequent updates are desired by users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sangfor NGAF offers quick problem resolution with responsive 24/7 local support, though some regions report slower support. Its deployment process is flexible. Palo Alto K2-Series provides robust technical support and consistent service but faces challenges with its complex GUI during deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Sangfor NGAF is considered cost-effective with a high ROI compared to Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Cisco, making it attractive for small to medium-sized enterprises. Despite its high cost, Palo Alto K2-Series is valued for its security capabilities, though concerns about accessibility for smaller enterprises persist.

To learn more, read our detailed Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

June 2025

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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 July 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.2%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.3%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

One of the best tools for the prevention of evasive threats

There is a feature called granular application controls, which I liked. Instead of relying on ports and IP addresses, they use AMP ID. This kind of solution is very good. Another valuable feature is the prevention of evasive threats, which is one of the best tools I've encountered. SSL decryption and app ID-based SSL decryption are also impressive, along with the integration with user ID. Identity-based policies ensuring only authorized users can access specific resources are excellent features. Normally, there is something called SIM or SCIM in IDA IDM, but this feature is provided on the box, which is exemplary.

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Zaid Farooqui

CIO at Indus Motor Company

Enhanced threat detection with integrated security features and good support

We are using application firewalling, WAF, and SD-WAN. The capabilities are mostly within the box. For example, you will get web application firewall WAF as part and parcel of this. SD-WAN is also bundled. It integrates with their SIEM and SOAR solutions very nicely. Lastly, the pricing point is very cost-efficient as well.

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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

"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."

"The initial installation is very straightforward."

"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."

"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."

"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."

"The IPsec tunnels are very easily created, and quite interoperable with devices from other vendors."

"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 technical support in our region is excellent."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The solution is reliable and scales well."

"Everything I could possibly want has already been implanted in the new version."

"The company is inventive and always adds a lot of great features."

"Palo Alto has an approach that makes the configuration easier not only for the customers but also for the IT help for the customers."

"The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is its management abilities. Additionally, the updates are very good."

"This firewall is very good for our customers because they don't have to write their own rules for adding an application."

"I have found the threat profile feature valuable."

"Prevention of evasive threats is one of the best tools I've encountered."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

"The price versus value is good because the solution is less expensive than Sophos, Fortinet, or SonicWall."

"It enables us to not only detect but also prevent various types of incoming threats, allowing us to take appropriate corrective actions and exercise control over the network."

"Sangfor's tech features and technologies are more powerful than those of the other solution providers in terms of security. They also have big solutions in terms of cybersecurity."

"The most valuable feature of Sangfor NGAF is its integration."

"Sangfor NGAF works accordingly with our customers. The solution has good performance, easy to use, and integrates well with the endpoints."

"In terms of the most valuable features, the IPS report is quick and updated. Performance is also valuable."

"Sangfor NGAF's standout feature is its powerful application control, enabling precise restrictions on mobile user access to approved applications."

"Sangfor is a good solution that provides a WAF and firewall solution. Most other vendors, like Sophos and Fortinet and Cisco, only provide one solution. That's a valuable feature of Sangfor."

More Sangfor NGAF pros

Cons

"The captive portal could be improved."

"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."

"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."

"It would be nice if FortiGate incorporated some built-in endpoint protection features. I would also like a built-in SOC dashboard for managing multiple Fortinet firewalls."

"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."

"The main thing they have to improve in Fortinet FortiGate is the technical support; the rest of the features are good enough. We can handle them, but sometimes you really need support, and in that case, we are not getting it at the proper time."

"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."

"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"In the past, we've had trouble with Palo Alto's application filtering not getting it right. I would not be recommending layer 7 application filtering yet."

"The URL Filtering module needs to have more categories added to it."

"Threat prevention could use improvement. Not just in malware exploits and C2 traffic; enhancing web traffic protection would be a great upgrade."

"They could improve by providing more features in the solution."

"The licensing cost is a typical complaint with many clients. The solution is expensive."

"The password function of the solution could be improved. Additionally, some of the processes take too long to complete."

"They should implement the features that the other firewalls have."

"The scalability for on-premises version is limited as it depends on the model."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

"The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardware scalability, allowing for more storage and memory capacity."

"Our experience with its customer support was quite challenging."

"The interface and user experience are horrible."

"The solution has too many bugs and these slow down the implementation."

"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."

"Sangfor need greater exposer in the market because the market is mainly saturated by Fortinet. The user experience of Fortinet is quite different compared to NGAF. If we want to switch our users from Fortinet to NGAF, we have to convince them that the user experience will be much easier once once they start to use it."

"Sangfor could improve their interface capacity on the 5100 series model and upgrade their hardware from one gig to 10 gig. This would improve the overall throughput."

"Sangfor could improve by providing better real-time reporting, as the current reports don't offer the level of detail we need, especially for runtime insights."

More Sangfor NGAF cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"Pricing is lower than Cisco."

"In terms of the market, it's not a cheap product, but it's cost-effective."

"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."

"The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced."

"The price is okay."

"The price range is quite acceptable and normal."

"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is expensive."

"This solution is expensive compared to other, similar products."

"Palo Alto firewalls are very expensive."

"We are on an annual license to use Palo Alto Networks K2-Series."

"The overall price of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series could be reduced."

"The price of the solution is expensive."

"Pricing is a sensitive issue because the cost is high in this market."

"This is an expensive solution, although you will get value for the price."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

"The solution has a TCO that is 32% to 50% less than Sophos, Fortinet, and SonicWall."

"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."

"The price could be more competitive."

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

"Sangfor NGAF price is reasonable and there is an annual license. However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."

"The price falls in the mid-range, neither exceptionally low nor high."

"Sangfor NGAF is a cheaply priced product, especially if I consider the previous product that was used in my company."

More Sangfor NGAF pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Educational Organization

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

19%

Performing Arts

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls

In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it...

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What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

It is a stable solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

The pricing for the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series solution is affordable and there are no complaints about the licensing.

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What do you like most about Sangfor NGAF?

I think Sangfor NGAF is more valuable than Cisco products because of its simplicity and ease of management. If I comp...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?

The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.

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What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?

The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 100% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Competitors

Sophos XG vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 16% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

H3C SecPath Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

More Sangfor NGAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

June 2025

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor NGAF

June 2025

Download Sangfor NGAF product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

Palo Alto Networks

Sangfor Next Generation Firewall (also known as NGAF) is a converged security solution providing protection against advanced threat, malware, viruses, ransomware and web-based attacks using integrated security features like firewall, IPS, anti-virus, anti-malware, APT, URL filtering, Cloud Sandbox, and WAF. As the world's first AI-enabled and fully integrated Next Generation Firewall & Web Application Firewall (WAF), NGAF offering the security visibility, real-time detection and response, simplified operation and maintenance and high-performance application layer security needed to operate an enterprise network in total security. Tested and proven to provide cutting-edge network security by ICSA Labs and endorsed by Gartner Inc., NGAF harnesses the power of Sangfor’s Neural-X threat intelligence and analytics platform and Engine Zero’s innovative malware detection to provide next-generation protection for today’s enterprise.

Sangfor

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

State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME

The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

June 2025

Free Report: Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks K2-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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