We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer advanced features such as embedded machine learning, real-time attack prevention, and evasion blocking. SonicWall TZ stands out for its unified threat management, VPN capabilities, web security, simplicity, stability, and performance.
Palo Alto has the potential for enhancement in areas such as customization, machine learning capabilities, troubleshooting tools, documentation, VPN availability, and security functions. SonicWall TZ could benefit from improvements in throughput, DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, integration, marketing, reporting, ports, and support.
Service and Support: Some customers appreciate the knowledgeable support team and prompt issue resolution provided by Palo Alto Networks. However, there are challenges in reaching support and problems with the ticketing system. SonicWall TZ's customer service is mixed. Some find technical support to be satisfactory, while others face delays and language barriers.
Ease of Deployment: Users find the initial setup for both Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and SonicWall TZ to be straightforward, easy, and intuitive. They do not require complex procedures and can be completed within a relatively short time frame. Training materials are readily available for Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, making it user-friendly.
Pricing: The cost of setting up Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is often seen as higher compared to other options, whereas opinions on the pricing of SonicWall TZ are varied. Some users perceive SonicWall TZ as a cost-effective choice for medium-sized businesses, while others believe it to be expensive and recommend improved pricing.
ROI: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls provide a comprehensive solution that enhances productivity and diminishes the need for extra resources, ultimately leading to enhanced visibility, reporting, and protection. It effectively blocks malicious behavior and safeguards against data breaches, contributing to its value. SonicWall TZ has demonstrated a favorable return on investment through its efficient attack prevention capabilities, although upgrading to newer models is advisable for optimal performance.
Comparison Results: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls emerges as the preferred choice over SonicWall TZ. Users find the initial setup of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls to be straightforward and user-friendly. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offers advanced security features such as embedded machine learning, application identification, and DNS security, which are highly valued by users.
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."
"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."
"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."
"The configuration is quite simple to understand."
"The interface and dashboards are good."
"The structure is much faster and more sophisticated than Cisco."
"Innovative, advanced threat protection is the most valuable feature."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls saves us time."
"It is critical that Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls embeds machine learning in the core of the firewall to provide inline, real-time attack prevention. In my environments, we have an integration with a third-party vendor. As soon as there is new information about new threats and the destination that they are trying to reach on any of our network devices, that traffic will be stopped."
"I'm using most of its features such as antivirus, anti-spam, and WAF. I'm also using its DNS Security and DNS sinkhole features, as well as the URL filtering and application security features."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have a very nice interface for logging and monitoring. I find it easy to navigate and use, and the interface is organized as well. I can find answers within a couple of hours and have seen time savings."
"Content filtering and application rules are the most valuable features. It is also easy to configure."
"Technical support is good."
"The site-to-site VPN connections, content filtering, and in our current remote working situation, SSL VPN remote desktop connectivity are the most valuable features."
"We are able to block whatever we want to block by using this product. It provides all required security features, such as content filtering, VPN, in one box. Before switching to SonicWall, we had specified all required features."
"The most valuable features are security and technical support."
"I find the security we are able to do with the policies to be valuable. The monitoring is valuable as well."
"The most valuable feature is content filtering and app control."
"The solution is priced fairly and competitively."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"Application management can be improved."
"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it'd be great."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"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."
"We would like to see the external dynamic list for this solution improved. The current version does not automatically block malicious IP addresses, which would be very useful."
"The price could be more friendly, which would be good for Palo Alto and us. If the price were a little lower, then it would be a viable option for mid-level businesses, who may not be able to deploy at the current price point."
"When we looked at it originally, we needed to host the Panorama environment ourselves. I would prefer it if we could take this as a service. It might be that it is available, but for some reason we didn't choose it. The downsides of hosting are that we need to feed and water the machines. We are trying to move to a more SaaS environment where we have less things in our data centers, whether they be in our cloud data centers or physical data centers, which can reduce our physical data center footprint."
"The machine learning in Palo Alto NG Firewalls for securing networks against threats that are able to evolve and morph rapidly is good, in general. But there have been some cases where we get false positives and Palo Alto has denied traffic when there have been new updates and signature releases. Valid traffic gets blocked. We have had some bad experiences with this. If there were an ability, before it denies traffic, to get some kind of notification that some traffic is going to be blocked, that would be good."
"Having a better pricing model would make this product more competitive, and more affordable for our customers."
"As things are evolving, we want to make sure that Palo Alto is able to keep up with what is going on outside. They should continue to do more intelligence-related enhancements and integrate with some of the other security tools. We want to have a more intelligent toolset down the road."
"The solution has normal authentication, but does not have two-factor or multi-factor authentication. There is room for development there."
"Surfacing actionable intelligence right away could be better. You have to dig far to get some of the information. If the solution could surface the two or three things out of the 10,000 a day that we really need to deal with, it would be helpful."
"GUI interface could be improved."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"There is still room for improvement, and it's not advisable even if the organization has grown."
"The solution should provide some additional ports."
"I'd like to have cloud management at no additional cost. Unfortunately, leveraging SonicWall's cloud management capabilities is cost-prohibitive, so we don't use it. They should have a reasonable subscription or offer it to us at no cost as an MSP."
"Getting support can be slow."
"It would be good if Analyzer would be part of the stock license, so even if a layperson is getting the device, he or she doesn't forgets about ordering the Analyzer because it's already there."
"The solution must provide more ports."
More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Pricing and Cost Advice →
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 161 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is rated 8.6, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls writes "We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is most compared with Check Point NGFW, Azure Firewall, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Netgate pfSense, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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