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Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

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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
13th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (13th)
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
28th
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 September 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.2%, down 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-Series2.8%
Sangfor NGAF1.2%
Other96.0%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadNadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Has supported urgent deployments and enabled inline threat protection but pricing and features could be more flexible
I am not using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series mostly, but based on my experience, there are some deficiencies in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers. However, for urgency and for some solutions that customers need for some of their other sites and subdivisions, we are providing the same.
Zaid Farooqui - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The most valuable features are security and support."
"We use the product on our Azure network firewalls."
"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."
"We have reduced the number of configuration lines by 90%. We need fewer number of admins right now because of it."
"The technical support for the solution is very good."
"The most valuable features are the DNS security and threat prevention capabilities."
"The most valuable features are web control and IPS/IDS."
"The most valuable feature of Sangfor NGAF is its integration."
"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, and that's a valuable feature of Sangfor."
"The capabilities are mostly within the box."
"The most valuable features are the WAN optimization, the internet access gateway (IAG), and the central console, which allows us to implement on their firewall."
"In terms of the most valuable features, the IPS report is quick and updated, and performance is also valuable."
"So far, the performance and reliability of the product have supported our company's critical network traffic."
"It offers application control features."
"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."
 

Cons

"In the next release, I would like to see better integration between the endpoints and the firewalls."
"It has to be more scalable for the deployment of VMs on the cloud."
"I would like to have automatic daily reporting, such as how many users have connected via SSL VPN."
"The utilization monitoring and GUI have room for improvement."
"The performance of VM instances has some limitations in terms of threshold and throughput compared to appliances."
"If additional web application firewall capabilities could be integrated into the existing firewall, it would negate the need for additional products."
"Recently, they introduced their Prisma Cloud solution. Compared to the previous technologies, like Panorama, which is used for centralized firewall management, or even the individual firewalls, it's a bit challenging to integrate the traditional firewall policies into Prisma Cloud."
"There's room for improvement in terms of integration with the load balancer. It isn't like Fortinet, which has a load balancer built into its firewall. It is effortless to integrate within the load balancer-plus-firewall solution."
"Lacks consistency in terms of filtering certain websites and applications."
"I think the GUI needs to be improved, there are a lot of areas where the panes do not make sense."
"However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"There is room for improvement in dependency on certain infrastructure, like the DNS dependency on the current DNS server that the company has. It should be standalone. It should not depend on any other DNS server."
"It has an issue with the Sangfor Cloud Platform rather than the firewall. When we run a virtual machine, the window tabs display Chinese characters."
"They need to improve their research team and they need to study their data to analyze it and build the product."
"I feel Sangfor should follow the hierarchy and close deals via resellers instead of closing it all with their own team."
"The support for YouTube or the Internet is not enough."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Palo Alto can be as much as two times the price of competing products that have twice the capabilities."
"Do not buy larges box if you do not need them. Rightsizing is a great task to do before​hand."
"It is an expensive product."
"We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good."
"Purchasing on the AWS Marketplace was simple, effective, and easy."
"Initially, pricing was high. Later on, we were able to negotiate the pricing and get something that fits our budget."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate."
"For licensing, It depends how they want to use the firewall. The firewall can be used only for IPS purposes. If you only want that firewall IPSs, you will only need a license that is called threat prevention. That license, threat prevention, includes vulnerabilities, antivirus signatures and one additional measure (that I can't remember), but it includes three measures and security updates."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"Price-wise, I would not consider Sangfor NGAF to be a cheap product. It is an expensive firewall solution, though not as expensive as something like Palo Alto, which is costly. However, the higher price point is justifiable given the feature set the tool provides that other firewalls may not offer in a single dedicated appliance."
"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 you know you have around 200+ computer users on your network, then the Sangfor NGAF 5200-F-I model would be the minimum recommended model for that amount of users. This model includes modules for packet filtering, deep packet inspection, malware scanning, DSCP filtration, and many other features."
"We purchased one year technical support and return to factory support, and we also purchased one-year technical support services. So those were additional."
"It is one of the cheapest tools in the market."
"Sangfor NGAF price is reasonable and there is an annual license. However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"For over 2000 users, the cost is around 5000 to 6000 USD. If you want a web application firewall, you have to purchase an additional license for it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
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: September 2026.
914,109 professionals have used our research since 2012.