No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 25, 2026

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

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
14th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (15th)
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series2.9%
Sangfor NGAF1.4%
Other95.7%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

AV
Cyber security consultant at L&T Technology Services
Enhance cybersecurity for large enterprises using advanced threat management
An improvement could be the integration of security intelligence with Palo Alto cloud via APIs. This would allow IOCs, domains, and hash values to be automatically entered, reducing manual entry. Integration with CSIRT across all use levels would make it easier for administrators to stay updated on the blocked entities without manual intervention.
AK
Network Administrator at GC University Lahore
Leverage detailed reporting for effective attack management
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications hosted there, websites, FTP portals, making it quite comprehensive. Essentially, it performs all the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature that I have found the most useful is that it meets all our requirements technically."
"The solution strengthens our IT posture."
"The additional visibility, which was lacking with cloud-native tools, has improved the organization's cloud security posture. Advanced enforcement and granular security controls help manage potential threats."
"A valuable feature of the solution is that it is not dependent on the hypervisor so we can install it on Hyper-V Microsoft software and deploy it."
"We use Palo Alto to provide remote access, and we've been able to provide access for hundreds of users with a very short build out time."
"The most valuable features are web control and IPS/IDS."
"You already can scale it if you put it in Auto Scaling groups. If you put it in a load balancer, it should already be able to scale."
"I recommend going with the VM series, as it integrates advanced technological standards on a single platform and supports Kubernetes and Docker, which other vendors often don't offer."
"I think Sangfor NGAF is more valuable than Cisco products because of its simplicity and ease of management. If I compare it with Palo Alto and Cisco, both are quite complex products. And if I compare it with FortiGate firewalls from Fortinet, I have also used all these products. Fortinet and Sangfor NGAF are similar products because the applications behind the application and policy layers are almost identical."
"In our hospital, Sangfor NGAF works well for us in terms of ensuring confidentiality and availability, which are crucial in the healthcare industry."
"The product is very fast and reliable."
"So far, the performance and reliability of the product have supported our company's critical network traffic."
"You might try Sangfor if you are on a tight budget. The price is affordable, and Sangfor offers a lot of features. We don't have any complaints about Sangfor."
"I think this solution is a very good example of a proactive solution that can detect problems and immediately fix the problems or issues."
"Sangfor NGAF works accordingly with our customers, the solution has good performance, is easy to use, and integrates well with the endpoints."
"The capabilities are mostly within the box."
 

Cons

"The scalability could be improved further."
"The web interface is very slow, and it needs to be faster."
"The product's AIOps process needs improvement."
"Perfection is unlikely as the dynamic nature of traffic and constant changes can result in occasional bugs despite regular updates."
"The reporting part of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"All areas need improvement: manufacturing, education, financial, etc."
"On the cloud side, they need to come up with more HA solutions to support the multi-region."
"An improvement could be the integration of security intelligence with Palo Alto cloud via APIs."
"However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup."
"The tool is expensive."
"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."
"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."
"The firewall system needs gradual improvements because there are more threats and challenges in the world every day."
"The support for YouTube or the Internet is not enough."
"Our experience with its customer support was quite challenging."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is not the cheapest firewall but it's not the most expensive of the options on the market."
"Purchasing on the AWS Marketplace was simple, effective, and easy."
"The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS should be from $1.28/hr or $4,500.00/yr. Then, it would be a good price for the performance that it delivers."
"It is a little bit of crazy if you compare it to Vanguard, Sophos, or even Cisco. The newest version of Cisco, the Next-Generation Firewall of Cisco, is less expensive than Palo Alto. It is more comparable to Check Point."
"It is an expensive product."
"Do not buy larges box if you do not need them. Rightsizing is a great task to do before​hand."
"Palo Alto can be as much as two times the price of competing products that have twice the capabilities."
"I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series pricing an eight out of ten."
"It costs about 8 to 10 thousand dollars per year for 500 users, standard licensing fees included."
"Sangfor NGAF price is reasonable and there is an annual license. However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"Sangfor NGAF is a cheaply priced product, especially if I consider the previous product that was used in my company."
"The product is very cost-effective compared to other brands or vendors."
"In my opinion, the price of the tool is good in the Pakistani market. We can easily get discounts if needed."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Firewalls solutions are best for your needs.
921,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

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 kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series?
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet...
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.
What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?
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. Making the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Sangfor NGAF?
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications h...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Warren Rogers Associates
The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.