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Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 2024

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 Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
9th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
64
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (11th)
SonicWall Capture Advanced ...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
30th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.1%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

AshwaniTyagi - PeerSpot reviewer
Advanced protection and good integration capabilities with good reliability
We use Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to offer services to our customers as a managed security service provider. We provide solutions and services to our customers across the globe. For example, if I want to host a firewall in the cloud or somewhere where the physical appliance is not a possibility…
MG
When compared to other solutions, it is cheaper and more economical
The most valuable feature is the alerting system. For a small to medium customer, it is a cost-effective value. It does all the basic requirements. It fulfills all of our requirements. We get alert messages whenever there is a new threat. We are notified at the firewall level that things are blocked, which keeps us in our comfort zone.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can monitor the traffic manually and detect threats. Additionally, we can block different IP addresses and URLs."
"The feature that I have found the most useful is that it meets all our requirements technically."
"We use the product on our Azure network firewalls."
"Centralized management is valuable because it allows us to configure settings in one location and apply them across all three locations."
"It offers robust solutions, making it valuable to my customers."
"It is reliable and the support is very good."
"It provides complete security posture from end-to-end. This has given us better visibility into what our security aspects are."
"The threat prevention and WildFire features are the most valuable features. DNS is another good feature of the product."
"We use it for protection against viruses and ransomware attacks."
"Provides good protection and security."
"I like this setup for a firewall. You can set things up very easily and you can automate items as well. It's a very robust firewall solution for enterprise as well as small businesses."
"The ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) on scanning is the most valuable feature."
"It also has an easy configuration. The feedback that we get from our customers is that it's a good product."
"The reporting that you get from it is the most valuable feature. You can see it via the appliance itself, and also via the MySonicWall account for the registered device. You are able to select the file if it's malicious, and you can select it in the reporting and see what triggered it, and things like that. I found that to be quite useful."
"They have a large database of commonly known things that they can catch automatically, then they have anything which is questionable go to the sandbox and be examined there before going into our network."
"We get alert messages whenever there is a new threat. We are notified at the firewall level that things are blocked, which keeps us in our comfort zone."
 

Cons

"People are less aware of Palo Alto."
"It can definitely improve on the performance."
"They made only a halfhearted attempt to put in DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"I would like to see a more thorough QA process. We have had some difficulties from bugs in releases."
"The performance of VM instances has some limitations in terms of threshold and throughput compared to appliances."
"It is not very easy to scale up the solution."
"The disadvantage with Palo Alto is that they don't have a cloud-based solution that includes a secure web gateway."
"There are some delays that I have observed when my company communicates with Palo Alto's support engineers."
"The setup needs improvement. It needs to be made more user-friendly."
"It does fare well against enterprise products."
"I would like to have better documentation before starting with deployment because the deployment is a bit complex."
"SonicWall should promote their roadmap and improve their marketing to customers."
"If anything at all, it would be some very minor updates that need to be done, but in terms of changes, nothing comes to mind."
"SonicWall had a recent layoff. This is a concern for us, because now we are missing the local presence from both the engineering and sales side."
"Having an on-premise solution as well would be an option for some people, but they'll want to use a cloud solution for their sandboxing. Certain sites would want to keep all the checks done on an on-premise appliance. All the checking, rather than sending that up into a cloud engine."
"I would say the solution needs a much simpler user interface, but the functionality of the firewall is quite extensive. You need the user interface to be that way. However, if there was a way to make the user interface a little easier, that would be great."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good."
"AWS is available as a AMI that you can purchase from the AWS Marketplace. Therefore, you need to purchase the licensing, since it is per AMI. Then, you deploy it on a regular EC2. Then, for on-premise, you can use both Palo Alto's software and hardware."
"The solution is expensive. I rate its pricing a three out of ten."
"It is not the cheapest on the market. The total cost for two firewall instances is $75,000. This includes licenses, deployment fees, and support for two years."
"Palo Alto is more expensive than other products."
"The product is costly but provides all essential security features. I rate the pricing a seven out of ten."
"Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive."
"The VM series is licensed annually."
"When you compare it with other solutions, they are cheaper and more economical."
"It's thirty dollars per user and we have 30 users."
"We get our value for our money."
"The best deal from SonicWall is to buy the HA pair. When you buy the initial one, you receive the second one at a significant discount. If there is an event and something happens to one firewall, then you have the second firewall to roll into. For the price, it's pretty to tough to beat and not a lot of other firewall vendors offer it. You battle for a discount on both. Where with SonicWall, if you buy one, the second one is at half price. It's pretty straightforward."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Real Estate/Law Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Warren Rogers Associates
Wonder Cement, Foster Clark Products
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs. SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.