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Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs SonicWall TZ comparison

 

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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.5
Palo Alto Networks WildFire efficiently prevents threats, reduces costs significantly, and integrates seamlessly for comprehensive real-time security.
Sentiment score
7.4
SonicWall TZ ensures rapid returns, blocking threats effectively, proving invaluable for small businesses, especially during the pandemic.
The service generates a low rate of false positives, reducing the overhead of managing false positive events.
That is a reason to buy a firewall, and it is challenging to put a monetary value on security.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.3
Palo Alto Networks WildFire support excels for large companies, with varied quality and responsiveness for others, depending on region.
Sentiment score
5.4
SonicWall TZ customer service varies; some praise efficiency and competence, while others note slow response and communication issues.
There is a lack of SLA adherence, and third-party partners do not provide prompt responses.
The support is quite difficult to access promptly.
The service response times are aligned with standards, responding within a few hours based on the problem's criticality.
Customer service is excellent.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.2
Palo Alto Networks WildFire excels in adaptability, scalability, and seamless integration, meeting diverse organizational demands and high-performance standards.
Sentiment score
8.6
SonicWall TZ offers suitable scalability for small to medium businesses, but model selection is crucial for future growth planning.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is scalable, and I give it a nine for scalability.
Wildfire is highly scalable.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.4
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is highly reliable, stable, and efficient, excelling in large-scale deployments and seamless cloud integration.
Sentiment score
7.6
SonicWall TZ is highly reliable and stable, though minor issues occur under heavy use or after updates.
In terms of stability, SonicWall doesn't have performance issues.
SonicWall TZ is definitely stable and offers a good value for money.
 

Room For Improvement

Palo Alto Networks WildFire needs improvements in cost, user interface, ease of deployment, integration, detection capabilities, and support efficiency.
SonicWall TZ needs an improved interface, reporting, security features, and more efficient support, licensing, and advanced options.
The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings.
The support could be improved, as it takes a while to get assistance from the vendors.
Integration with other vendors, especially with VPNs, can be challenging and requires more effort when configuring.
The VPN license should be improved by providing more free SSL VPN licenses.
SonicWall TZ could benefit from newer technology.
 

Setup Cost

Palo Alto Networks WildFire is valued for advanced security despite high costs, preferred by enterprises but challenging for smaller firms.
Buyers find SonicWall TZ pricing competitive but potentially high due to additional subscription and licensing fees, affecting affordability.
I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of affordability.
The perpetual license comes as a bundle, which makes it less expensive than buying a single license.
When comparing similar products across vendors, there may be a small difference in cost.
I would also position its pricing as a three, where one is the lowest price and ten is the highest.
 

Valuable Features

WildFire offers sandboxing, App-ID, and automation, excelling in threat detection with real-time updates and seamless integration.
SonicWall TZ offers user-friendly management, robust security features, and scalability, making it ideal for small to medium enterprises.
Integrating Palo Alto Networks WildFire with various security protocols similar to a firewall has significantly improved the overall threat detection capabilities in our organization.
The most valuable feature of Wildfire is its sandboxing capability for examining suspicious files or locations.
The advanced gateway security features such as web filter, application control filter, IPS, ideas, gateway antivirus, anti-spyware, and botnet filter are valuable.
The solution stands out for its solid performance and reliability.
For SMB segments, SonicWall performs well.
 

Categories and Ranking

Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
69
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd)
SonicWall TZ
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
84
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Palo Alto Networks WildFire is designed for Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and holds a mindshare of 12.3%, up 12.4% compared to last year.
SonicWall TZ, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 3.0% mindshare, up 2.2% since last year.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

AjayKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced cybersecurity with advanced sandboxing and effective in controlling DNS issues
Improvements are needed in the UI part. The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings. This information should be integrated with the Dashboard so that system admins can see what is happening. Furthermore, technical support needs a lot of improvement, particularly in terms of responsiveness and adhering to service level agreements.
Rias Majeed - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust VPN integration stands out despite needing enhanced vendor compatibility
The integrated VPN functionality is working well with the global VPN client, which is a fast client, though it comes at a cost. SonicWall TZ is functional depending on the service level taken by the user. For SMB segments, SonicWall performs well. Despite lacking certain features, it is still considered a good product. The appliance itself is functional and stable, offering integrated solutions.
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
19%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one considers that fact, it is all the more impressive that the setup is a fairly straightf...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like the most about it is that it has an attractive web dashboard with very easy nav...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advanced malware and zero-day exploits with real-time intelligence. The sandbox featu...
Would you choose Fortinet Fortigate or Sonicwall TZ?
I’ll say it depends on your needs. Fortinet FortiGate and SonicWall TZ are both next-gen firewalls (NGFW) with similar basic features. However, Fortinet offers more performance, scalability, and in...
What do you like most about SonicWall TZ?
The most valuable feature of SonicWall TZ is the double authentication, where it asks for one password and again asks for a four-digit code, which changes every 30 seconds.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall TZ?
The price is normal. It is a nominal cost for an SMB TZ used for SMB businesses. However, more licenses are required to purchase the perpetual license for SSL VPN and Global VPN. Only one SSL VPN a...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Dell SonicWALL TZ
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
AeroM_xico Delta TechOps, Unimat
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and others in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Updated: May 2025.
850,671 professionals have used our research since 2012.