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Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa) comparison

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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

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
592
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
20th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall Capture Security ...
Ranking in Firewalls
31st
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 15.1%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa) is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate15.1%
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series1.2%
SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa)0.1%
Other83.6%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at airtel
Enables customers to manage security effortlessly with intuitive features and easy integration
In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.
Rohit Ghorpade - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Network Engineer at a insurance company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Identity-based perimeter control has improved security and supports reliable remote access
Currently, we are working with vendors such as Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, Cisco, Check Point, and Citrix. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is a better firewall. Deep packet inspection and threat prevention basically comply with whatever traffic is incoming and outgoing through the firewall. I do not think anything improvement is required. The thing is that Palo Alto Networks PA-Series works mostly on a license-based model. If you want to utilize any feature, you have to purchase the license. For example, URL filtering requires a license purchase. It simplifies the implementation because LDAP server profile can be integrated. Basically, that simplifies the implementation of access rule or security policy.
Mark Richmond - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at Next Level Communications
Enhanced security with efficient threat detection for worry-free operations
Capture scans attachments, sending them to a sandbox. It runs executables or PDFs in Windows Server, Linux, and other operating systems to detect any malicious content before releasing them for download The setup of Capture results in an absence of breaches and infections, thus becoming part of a…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The interface is user-friendly, so it's easy to add policies and block traffic."
"The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities."
"Its user interface is good, and it is always working fine."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"Having IPS helps in ensuring that our network is protected from potential threats, which is crucial as we implement our payment gateway."
"The solution can scale well."
"It is quite easy to handle."
"With Fortinet FortiGate, we improved security significantly."
"The product's most valuable feature is web filtering."
"A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced. It is almost 90% faster compared to other solutions."
"The solution is robust."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to us."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is basically integrated with LDAP to fetch the identity of the users and we provide access based on the identity."
"The product's initial setup process was simple."
"The solution has a three-layer architecture, and it helps customers to deploy the solution quickly."
"The setup of Capture results in an absence of breaches and infections, thus becoming part of a comprehensive protection suite."
 

Cons

"An area for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is that their support needs to be more customer friendly."
"To some degree, it's almost a question as to why some of this stuff isn't simpler. For example, for an AP deployment, while it's integrated, the number of steps that you have to go through in order to get the AP up, seems like a lot."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"FortGate's IPS reporting could be made better by giving more details regarding the source and destination of network traffic when it comes to the overview section. This would allow me to more easily follow the flow of traffic based on IP addresses, without having to integrate the IPS with other products that perform more sophisticated traffic analysis."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included. You have to buy their cloud module that's an add-on for getting more customized reporting."
"Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective."
"There are no AI integrations in the Palo Alto Networks PA-Series firewall. I would like to see something in the future, but as of now, it is not required."
"However, they are expensive and there might be some sticker shock if you just looked at them for the price."
"There seem to be some issues with TAC (Technical Assistance Center) or Palo Alto support. Anytime you open a case, a level one engineer joins, and then you have to escalate it to level two or three. The support system has changed in the past few years, and that's something they need to look into."
"The product's gateway services can be improved."
"Pricing flexibility could be an aspect worth considering, as it has been a concern for some of our clients."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should improve its price. It should also include a feature similar to Sophos' Security Heartbeat."
"As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers."
"There is room for improvement in Palo Alto Networks PA-Series in the areas where they can minimize applications and implement features that can be useful for us."
"An improvement could be made in its speed, as there are instances where it holds up processes."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortigate's pricing is competitive."
"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is an expensive solution."
"The solution is more expensive than Sophos. It could be cheaper. The licensing is on a yearly basis. We have had it for about three years. We must only pay extra for the license, additional requirements, and the hardware box."
"The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars."
"Fortinet FortiGate IPS' licensing is quite simple to understand."
"The product is expensive. I rate its pricing a six out of ten."
"The initial setup is super straight forward and as far as the licensing goes for the small product that we have, the pricing was pretty competitive. It wasn't as simple and as cheap as a SonicWall but for the service we would get it was a good price."
"With Palo Alto, even when you enable all the modules, it still provides the exact throughput they advertise."
"From my perspective, managing the price is important, especially because we're a small business. For larger organizations like Barclays, we provide our requirements to the client, and they place the order on BigFix. It's their responsibility to consider their budget and make decisions accordingly. We appreciate the features we get, but the cost-sharing still depends on the client."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series's price is much higher than other firewall brands."
"Compared to other vendors, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is expensive."
"The product is offered to users at high prices compared to the pricing model of the other vendors in the market."
"The cost varies depending on the device model, with entry-level firewalls priced around $1,300 to $1,500, while higher-end models can reach prices of several hundred thousand dollars."
"The tool's pricing was reasonable when we bought the product. We pay around 60,000 dollars per year."
"The product is expensive."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business370
Midsize Enterprise138
Large Enterprise195
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise17
No data available
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
If we look at the features, then the price is good, but they do charge for the GlobalProtect VPNs. Overall, the prici...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
There is room for improvement in Palo Alto Networks PA-Series in the areas where they can minimize applications and i...
What is your primary use case for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
I am using Palo Alto Networks PA-Series to ensure protection and cybersecurity by preventing and implementing network...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa)?
It's a mid-range protection suite, not as expensive as Cisco and not as cheap as Linksys.
What needs improvement with SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa)?
An improvement could be made in its speed, as there are instances where it holds up processes. However, it's still re...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Capture Security appliance (CSa)?
Capture scans attachments, sending them to a sandbox. It runs executables or PDFs in Windows Server, Linux, and other...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
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