Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Sophos UTM comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Palo Alto Networks WildFire and Sophos UTM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Morphisec and others in ATP (Advanced Threat Protection).
To learn more, read our detailed ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) Report (Updated: March 2023).
688,083 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"At the moment we are satisfied with this product. It's a stable, scalable, and resilient solution for us.""The most valuable feature is protection against malicious links, fishing, and impersonation. You can train people to be aware of these threats, but they're not always careful. When they're using their phones between meetings, they click on a link, and it's game over.""The most valuable feature is the integration. It's a single console, so we don't have to switch around between multiple products. Another valuable feature is the ease of operations and maintenance.""Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content.""It also gives the vulnerability status according to the versions you have selected. Let's say you have Google Chrome. It mentions the versions it has, and it updates. Within two hours of an update, it is reflected in the dashboard. That's really nice to have.""Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution.""The risk level notifications are most valuable. We get to know what kind of intrusion or attack is there, and we can fix a problem on time.""The technical support is good and quick to resolve issues."

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"The scalability is acceptable.""Intuitive threat prevention and analysis solution, with a machine learning feature. Scalable, stable, and protects against zero-day threats.""WildFire's application encryption is useful.""I like the analysis they apply to the unknown files, and I think they have good technology to use as a sandboxing tool. I didn't find something similar to WildFire in the marketplace.""The most valuable feature of this solution is how it keeps up-to-date with viruses.""I love the idea of Palo Alto Networks WildFire. It's more geared toward preventing malware. If someone's laptop or phone is malware-infected, the tool prevents it from uploading valuable corporate data outside the corporate network. That's what I love about Palo Alto Networks WildFire. It stops malware in its tracks.""The analysis is very fast.""The most valuable features of the solution are user-friendliness, price, good security, and cloud-related options."

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"What I like about Sophos UTM is that it improves my company's security. The solution is easy to set up, which I like, and it's very stable.""Technical support is very responsive.""The initial setup is pretty straightforward.""Sophos UTM is very user-friendly and has good integration with other solutions.""The solution's sandboxing, application center, and database engine are good.""The initial setup has been fine.""The most valuable feature is ransomware protection.""So far, the solution has been problem-free."

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Cons
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 could improve by giving customers information on techniques to prevent threats. For example, information about best practices on how to protect their own devices against hackers and scammers, such as educational information or training. This would help others have a better understanding of cyber security. Additionally, there can be more security features added.""The custom alerts have to improve a lot.""Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features.""They can improve their security in a way where a customer can know if all their attachments are safe or not to open through a report. The solution does its job perfectly, but it never reports to the customer whether those attachments have been stopped before or not.""In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement.""It would be better if it were more scalable. It depends on the architecture, but we would like to make it more scalable for both data centers.""This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products.""One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get a lot of information on integrations with such apps for security and authentication."

More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Cons →

"They can keep on doing more updates. As new malware and viruses are coming out, they can make sure that WildFire is up to date.""There are more specialized solutions that compete with Wildfire. Therefore, they need to work on their machine learning and AI to be more competitive.""The cost of the solution is excessively high.""The system performance degrades after the solution has been deployed for some time. The data that it gives us becomes a little bit slow. When you try to get some data for troubleshooting, it seems like it's working hard to extract that data.""There are some formats that the solution cannot support .""In the future, Palo Alto could reduce the time it takes to process the file.""The cyber security visibility and forensics features to receive more information about incidents could improve in Palo Alto Networks WildFire.""Management and web filtering can be improved. There should also be better reporting, particularly around web filtering."

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"An area for improvement in Sophos UTM is load balancing because my company cannot use it currently. If Sophos could release a new configuration for the load balancing feature to work for my company, that would be great.""In short, the UI and UX are the areas of improvement in Sophos UTM and similar solutions compared to Palo Alto.""There were a lot of features and functionality in Sophos SG UTM but nothing was state of the art in terms of technology. You did not get the latest functions. It was very monolithic as it was based on an old Linux PuTTY system.""In Sophos UTM there is always a problem with the routing tables. If you want to see the routing table, you have to use the UI. You can't do it via a web browser. The routing table is better in Fortinet.""The management suite is easy and the agent is easy to develop.""The support could be better.""We need a better VPN client for the customers.""The integration capabilities could be better."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "From the pricing point of view, like any other product in the market, there is scope for negotiation."
  • "Defender is a little bit more expensive as compared to others. We are in the manufacturing environment. So, we don't have a high budget for all of our endpoint devices. Its cost is a major concern for us."
  • "For licensing, it's usually a yearly package for customers who are subscribed to Office 365, but they can also pay on a monthly basis."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
  • "Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
  • "The solution saves money so we have seen a return on investment."
  • "Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."
  • "The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
  • More Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing could be improved."
  • "We are on an annual subscription. When we purchased the firewall, we had activated this solutions license for a minimum of one year. The price of the solution is fair."
  • "It depends on the features. Additional features cost additional money as well."
  • "The solution is overpriced."
  • "The price of the Palo Alto Networks WildFire license is expensive. When it came time to renew the solution the price doubled."
  • "WildFire is a little bit pricey. Sometimes it's difficult to sell it to customers at the current price."
  • "The physical appliance is around €3,000 or €4,000, and then, you have the licensing for a year for around €3,000."
  • "Palo Alto Networks WildFire is an expensive product."
  • More Palo Alto Networks WildFire Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The appliance should be purchased and there is a fee for the license."
  • "The prices can be better, they could make it a lot cheaper."
  • "The solution is very low cost compared to competitors. You have a good firewall, a lot of functions for less than the price of some omni firewall competitors."
  • "Although Sophos UTM is a good product, other products have more flexibility with their pricing. It is a very fine product, but when someone wants more relaxed pricing or more leverage in pricing, Sophos is more rigid."
  • "There is a license for the device and for the software. We pay annually for the solution and the cost is competitive."
  • "The price is comparable to other products of this kind."
  • "Sophos UTM's pricing is on the cheaper side."
  • "There was an up-front charge of around $70,000, to purchase the hub and license. Beyond the initial cost, licenses are charged for annually, but they are good value for the service we receive."
  • More Sophos UTM Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Defender for Office 365 has helped eliminate having to look at multiple dashboards and that is the aspect I like most… more »
    Top Answer:If we had compared it with other vendors, then I would have more to say about the cost, but we didn't. However… more »
    Top Answer:One area for improvement is integration. For example, when it comes to external SaaS platforms, we were not able to get… more »
    Top Answer: The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one considers… more »
    Top Answer:FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like… more »
    Top Answer:When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advanced… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite… more »
    Top Answer:The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW… more »
    Top Answer:The management suite is easy and the agent is easy to develop.
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    MS Defender for Office 365
    Astaro
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 protects all of Office 365 against advanced threats like business email compromise and credential phishing, and automatically investigates and remediates attacks. With Defender for O365 you get Integrated threat protection for all of Office 365 that gives you:

    - Native protection for Office 365 with built-in protection that simplifies administration, lowers total cost of ownership, and boosts productivity.

    - Unparalleled scale and effectiveness with powerful automated workflows to improve SecOps efficiency.

    - A complete solution for collaboration that protects you from attacks across the kill chain.

    To learn more about our solution, ask questions, and share feedback, join our Microsoft Security, Compliance and Identity Community.

    Palo Alto Networks WildFire is a highly effective cloud-based advanced threat protection (ATP) solution that organizations in a wide variety of fields trust to help them keep safe from digital threats. It is designed to enable businesses to confront even the most evasive threats and resolve them. It combines many techniques to maximize the level of threat protection available to users.

    Palo Alto Networks WildFire Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy WildFire include:

    Proactive real-time threat prevention. Organizations that utilize WildFire can take a proactive approach to their network security. Wildfire’s security scanning software is supported by powerful automation that enables it to run 180 times faster than other similar solutions. It also leverages machine learning to spot and address two times more malware monthly than its competitors. Users can solve issues as they arise, which prevents them from suffering severe harm.

    A holistic approach to security. WildFire leverages many of the security features and characteristics that can be found in some of the most effective security solutions in a way that provides users with a powerful protective blanket. It combines such things as machine learning, dynamic and static analysis, and a custom-built analysis environment, and enables users to cover many different potential avenues of attack. In this way, organizations can easily detect and prevent even the most sophisticated threats from harming them.

    Reduce overhead costs. Using WildFire cuts the expenses that a business incurs. Its architecture is based in the cloud and, as a result, users do not have to purchase hardware to run it. Additionally, those users do not have to pay anything more than a product subscription fee. They can scale it up as they wish and incur no additional costs.

    Palo Alto Networks WildFire Features

    Some of the many features WildFire offers include:

    Third-party integrations. WildFire gives users access to integrations that can enable them to combine Wildfire’s security suite with outside tools. If an organization thinks that they are missing something, they can easily use Wildfire’s third-party integrations to bolster their capabilities. These integrations can connect to many different types of tools, like security information or event management systems.

    URL filtering. Organizations can use a URL filtering feature to safeguard themselves against known threats. When this feature is active, it will scan for traffic coming from specific URLs that are known to be malicious. This keeps them one step ahead of those threats that they know about.

    Deep analytics. Wildfire comes with the ability to provide users with a detailed analysis of any threat that it finds across all of their network environments. It gives users insight into everything from their natures to the actions that they have performed.

    Reviews from Real Users

    WildFire is a solution that stands out when compared to its primary competitors. Two major advantages that it offers are the high speeds at which it can analyze network traffic for threats and the accuracy with which it can pick out genuine threats from false positives.

    Ahmad Z., the principal consultant at Securelytics, writes, “The analysis is very fast. The intermittent is a millisecond and has a speedy response time.”

    Christopher B., the senior systems administrator at a government agency, says, “It gives a more accurate assessment of a virus in terms of whether it's truly a virus, malware, or a false positive. We have some legacy software that could pop up as being something that is malware. WildFire goes through and inspects it, and then it comes back and lets us know if it's a false positive. Usually, when it finds out that it's not a virus, it lets us know that it's benign, and it can exclude it from that scan, which means I don't even have to worry about that one popping up anymore.”

    Sophos UTM is a unified threat management platform designed to protect your businesses from known and emerging malware including viruses, rootkits and spyware. The solution provides a complete network security package with everything your organization needs in a single modular appliance.

    Sophos UTM Features

    Sophos UTM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Web and Email Filtering
    • General Management
    • Network Protection
    • Network Routing and Services
    • Advanced Threat Protection
    • Authentication
    • Email Encryption and DLP
    • Web Policy
    • End-User Portal
    • VPN IPsec Client, VPN SSL Client, and Clientless VPN
    • Web Application Firewall Protection
    • UTM Endpoint Protection and Management
    • SEC Endpoint Integration
    • Logging and Reporting

    Sophos UTM Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Sophos UTM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple point solutions
    • Intuitive interface to help you quickly create policies to control security risks
    • Provides clear, detailed reports to give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection
    • Complete control to block, allow, shape and prioritize applications
    • Two-factor authentication with one-time password (OTP)
    • Integrated wireless controller
    • Allows you to connect remote offices with easy VPN and Wi-Fi

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Sophos UTM solution.

    PeerSpot user Dana B., Network Administrator at a manufacturing company, says “The web and email filtering are the two biggest and most valuable aspects of the solution for us. The solution overall has just been a good, cost-effective solution for us. The solution offers a lot of functionality. The solution scales well. We've found the technical support to be helpful. The stability and performance are quite good.”

    A Technical Director at a security firm mentions, "Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."

    Marek M., Senior Network Engineer at a computer software company, comments, “Sophos UTM is the simplest of these products to set up. If you follow the instructions using the wizard, which is just a few steps, then you will have a firewall to protect you and your customer.”

    A Software Sales Manager at a tech services company explains, “The overall visibility of the console is what I find most valuable, plus it's very user-friendly. It can be integrated with other solutions such as SOAR, SIEM, etc., even when you have an existing firewall. I really like that the console can be integrated. You'll see everything on the same window, and the single window feature of the machine is so good. These are the features I really like.”

    James D., IT Manager at Manual Workers Union, states, “The fact that it's on the cloud means we don't have to administer it on our network or deal with a physical machine, which saves us money. The solution has many great features. From the console, we can start different scannings on different machines. We enjoy the centralized reporting part of it. The initial setup is simple. We enjoy its general stability. The solution can scale. So far, the solution has been problem-free.”

    Offer
    Learn more about Microsoft Defender for Office 365
    Learn more about Palo Alto Networks WildFire
    Learn more about Sophos UTM
    Sample Customers
    Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
    Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
    One Housing Group
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Manufacturing Company13%
    Comms Service Provider13%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Government8%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    REVIEWERS
    Government14%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Comms Service Provider11%
    Computer Software Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Government9%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm12%
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Computer Software Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Government9%
    Retailer6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business42%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise42%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise54%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business47%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise40%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise60%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business59%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise21%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business31%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise48%
    Buyer's Guide
    ATP (Advanced Threat Protection)
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Morphisec and others in ATP (Advanced Threat Protection). Updated: March 2023.
    688,083 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Palo Alto Networks WildFire is ranked 2nd in ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) with 23 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 42 reviews. Palo Alto Networks WildFire is rated 8.2, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks WildFire writes "Intuitive, stable, and scalable zero-day threat prevention solution with a machine learning feature". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". Palo Alto Networks WildFire is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Proofpoint Email Protection, Fortinet FortiGate, Juniper SRX Series Firewall and Meraki MX, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with pfSense, Fortinet FortiGate, OPNsense, Sophos XG and Barracuda CloudGen Firewall.

    We monitor all ATP (Advanced Threat Protection) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.