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Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Sophos XG 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
7.1
Sophos XG reduces costs with ransomware blocking and two-factor authentication, improving productivity, security compliance, and network management.
The service generates a low rate of false positives, reducing the overhead of managing false positive events.
The graphical interface of Sophos XG simplifies configurations, saving time in support and troubleshooting compared to the Linux-based solution I previously used.
It's good, but I would still say it's higher by about 10-15 percent compared to other market products with similar configurations.
Having a Unified Threat Management system like Sophos XG has helped us spend less on network security, thus providing a good return on investment by managing our income effectively.
 

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
6.3
Sophos XG support is knowledgeable but inconsistent, with user experiences varying based on the team and region involved.
There is a lack of SLA adherence, and third-party partners do not provide prompt responses.
The service response times are aligned with standards, responding within a few hours based on the problem's criticality.
The support is quite difficult to access promptly.
Users are reluctant to open support cases and would rather reinstall an appliance themselves than go through the support process.
I would rate the technical support a nine out of ten.
Microsoft's protection has received positive feedback and strong on-site support from both customers and partners.
 

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
7.2
Sophos XG is scalable for SMBs but may require upgrades for large enterprises due to hardware constraints.
Wildfire is highly scalable.
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is scalable, and I give it a nine for scalability.
You can scale up to multiple firewalls with centralized management.
You can't upgrade memory or storage on a specific model, which limits scalability.
The scalability of the solution is limited to three nodes and may not be sufficient for extensive scaling.
 

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
8.0
Sophos XG demonstrates improved reliability and performance, with issues quickly addressed, meeting organizational demands across diverse environments.
I would rate the stability of Sophos XG a ten out of ten.
Sophos XG is very stable, even when serving as a DHCP server.
Sophos XG is resource-greedy, affecting performance even on newer computers.
 

Room For Improvement

Palo Alto Networks WildFire needs improvements in cost, user interface, ease of deployment, integration, detection capabilities, and support efficiency.
Sophos XG faces challenges in interface simplicity, technical support, VPN setup, and requires improvements in several features and integrations.
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.
The solution should have the ability to be up to date with the most recent threats.
This suggests a vulnerability that needs addressing to ensure administrators can update patches without losing access.
Business cannot stop just because of issues with support.
 

Setup Cost

Palo Alto Networks WildFire is valued for advanced security despite high costs, preferred by enterprises but challenging for smaller firms.
Sophos XG offers competitive multi-year contract pricing with notable features, though additional security features and support incur higher costs.
I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of affordability.
I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten as high.
The licensing cost in the final currency amount, is 163,080, with three years of support.
I rate the pricing a ten out of ten.
 

Valuable Features

WildFire offers sandboxing, App-ID, and automation, excelling in threat detection with real-time updates and seamless integration.
Sophos XG is praised for its user-friendly setup, synchronized security, and essential features like VPN, MFA, and threat protection.
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.
This unique technology provides efficient branch connectivity without the need to invest in additional firewalls for each branch.
I particularly like the visibility it provides into network traffic, allowing us to identify and address issues efficiently.
The firewall feature of Sophos XG has been the most effective for threat prevention.
 

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)
Sophos XG
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
207
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (4th)
 

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.
Sophos XG, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 11.5% mindshare, up 9.2% 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.
Mohamad Charara - PeerSpot reviewer
Security features improve protection while integration and resource management require enhancements
Sophos XG ( /products/sophos-xg-reviews ) is not easy to navigate and to use, and the integration capabilities are lacking. It cannot integrate properly with solutions like Darktrace ( /products/darktrace-reviews ). The VPN client on mobiles, especially Android phones, has issues. It is resource-greedy, causing performance problems even on new computers. Improvements are needed in resource management and integration with other security 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
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
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...
What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know the firewalls change every 5 to 7 years as stated but you really do need to upg...
Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat signatures and updates. I also appreciate that I can just import addresses and URL...
What are the main differences in features between Sophos XG and FortiGate 80F?
Hi Arvind P , The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Factor. The Sophos XG appliance that offers a direct competition to the Fortigate 80...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
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