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ShieldX vs SonicWall NSSP comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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

ShieldX
Average Rating
9.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Microsegmentation Software (11th)
SonicWall NSSP
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (31st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. ShieldX is designed for Microsegmentation Software and holds a mindshare of 2.5%, up 0.4% compared to last year.
SonicWall NSSP, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 0.6% mindshare, up 0.1% since last year.
Microsegmentation Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ShieldX2.5%
Illumio Segmentation22.3%
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation18.6%
Other56.599999999999994%
Microsegmentation Software
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall NSSP0.6%
Fortinet FortiGate13.3%
Cisco Secure Firewall7.8%
Other78.3%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

MP
IT Director at park holidays uk
Proactively monitors, blocks, and reports what it has blocked; and self-updates meaning there is zero maintenance
The most valuable feature is the automatic scaling. With its microservices, it scales both up and down, depending on traffic and throughput. The traffic through our website depends on holiday bookings. It's very quiet in November through January, and then our traffic picks up quite rapidly and, at our peak, we will take in excess of a million pounds of business a day through our website. The UI was also one of the huge selling points. My web development manager was blown away with the detail and the granularity that you can get out of the UI. It is a very strong and informative UI, with the amount of data it provides. Uptime on the system has been 648 days and we do very little to it because it self-updates and alerts. It does everything that we need it to do, so the administration side of it is zero. One of the beauties about ShieldX is that it's such a good "fire-and-forget" product.
SyedTaha - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of IT and Information Security at GLEEDS USA INC
Support has resolved concerns promptly and security tools have strengthened intrusion prevention and access control
The service we received from SonicWall NSSP and their distributors has been excellent. Every time I have had a concern, they have resolved it in a single call. The interface of SonicWall NSSP console is user-friendly with comprehensive features. The web filtering and access control policy are top priorities for me. It is very effective because it prevents any indecent behaviors in the network or from outside the network. Half of the task is completed by the intelligence based on the behavior. Installation was easy because our infrastructure has minimal requirements. For expanded infrastructure, support from a SonicWall NSSP technical team may be required. We have implemented it on our own.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We were able to see what devices are talking to each other, giving us more visibility."
"It has helped us tighten our security posture. Now, staff can only access things that they should be accessing."
"For other security professions who are looking for something which is low in cost that does microsegmentation, they should look at ShieldX."
"...It takes the exact same policies that you would apply to your on-premise environment and enables you to simply apply them to the cloud. It becomes one policy for both on-prem and for the cloud."
"ShieldX makes it a lot easier and a lot simpler to define your policies and define your rules, and that greatly reduces the opportunity for user error."
"The most valuable feature is the automatic scaling. With its microservices, it scales both up and down, depending on traffic and throughput."
"The UI was also one of the huge selling points. My web development manager was blown away with the detail and the granularity that you can get out of the UI. It is a very strong and informative UI, with the amount of data it provides."
"The Adaptive Intention Engine is fantastic. It allows us to develop security policies using the language of our internal customers. It's machine-learning applied to security workflows. That allows us to much more easily construct the policies that will protect those workflows."
"The sandbox and the DPI-SSL are two main key features that I find valuable."
"I like the filtering feature, which provides easy access. The SSL certification feature is also nice. The solution enhanced our security posture."
"The VPN functionality is really good. Overall, the whole device is very easy to manage. The software that comes with it is also good."
"SonicWall NSSP offers features such as stateful firewall, deep packet inspections, IPS, application intelligence, user-based policies, centralized visibility from the management console, advanced protection with RFDPI, high-speed scanning, RTDMI technology, Capture ATP, cloud sandboxing, and encrypted traffic inspection with DPI-SSL and TLS."
"If I had to pick between the top three firewalls with all things being equal, I would go with SonicWall just for the support and ease of management."
"SonicWall has helped us deliver security solutions effectively, particularly in threat prevention and content filtering."
"SonicWall NSSP is stable and scalable too."
"The product's most valuable features are simplicity and comprehensive protection capabilities, including load balancing, IPS, antivirus, and web filtering."
 

Cons

"With any kind of tool like ShieldX, where you're in the cloud instead of a traditional firewall, you're using CPU resources in those environments to provide the protection. So there's a cost associated with CPU resources. I'm pressing upon them to make the product much more efficient and use less CPUs to do the same thing."
"They need to be consistent in performance and capabilities over time, given the fact that this is new and I want to see where this goes in the next year or so. As the vendor continues to evolve and add future functionality, we want to make sure that we are still keeping up with the integrations, etc. Time will be the key factor here. The proper support for some of the latest technologies, Docker containers, etc. They need to keep up with threat landscape, so we will see how the security get layered. This is what we are going to be keeping an eye on."
"We are having some issues with their LDAP and integrating it with the Active Directory. We can't seem to set it up."
"There should be a bit more customer care, with regular review meetings on it or regular reports. It would be nice to have a quarterly or biannual review of what ShieldX has blocked."
"I would like better reports and in-depth reporting."
"They need to be consistent in performance and capabilities over time, given the fact that this is new and I want to see where this goes in the next year or so."
"No security product is foolproof against hackers, intruders, and other such things. As a security product, they have to keep pace in terms of protection from new hackers and intruders."
"The platform could benefit from an improved marketing strategy."
"The user interface, the GUI, could be improved."
"The product needs improvement for phishing emails."
"In my opinion, SonicWall NSSP needs improvements, particularly in Gen 7 devices, where I face high data plane and management plane issues, especially when enabling User Level Authentication."
"The initial setup is quite complex because we have to get a lot of policies."
"The EDR and XDR capabilities of SonicWall need to be improved."
"Its reporting functions can be improved. It has decent reporting, but you got to pay a lot more money for it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For other security professions who are looking for something which is low in cost that does microsegmentation, they should look at ShieldX. It might not be the big name out there, but it does everything that you are looking for in microsegmentation at a very low price."
"Security policies are now applied as applications are going up. Because it's automated, we don't have the three to four week delay. The insertion of applications in the cloud for us dropped from an average of three to four weeks to a couple of days."
"We are very happy with the pricing and licensing. It's about getting a site-wide license. One of the challenges that we've had with our previous vendor had been the cost of licensing."
"We are actually expecting our costs to drop in the coming year, but it is just a matter of the licensing expiring. That is going to happen in the next six months or so. Then, we will start to see a decrease in overall spend."
"ShieldX ensures that we can have the separation needed for our environment to avoid drastically increasing the cost on the licensing side. From this perspective, it's been very positive and helpful."
"For a three-year deal we paid £55,000 plus tax... But, and this is a big "but," this was over two years ago. ShieldX had only just hit the market. We were the first company in Europe to buy ShieldX."
"ShieldX also enables us to migrate to cloud environments faster. That is an important part of it for sure because it takes the exact same policies that we would apply to our on-premise environment and enables us to simply apply them to the cloud. It becomes one policy for both on-prem and for the cloud."
"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."
"For SonicWall NSSP high availability, active/passive, you need to buy one license, and so you get much more value for money."
"The setup costs and licensing are reasonable, and the solution provides good value for its features."
"The pricing is cheap, and that's where, you know, the some of the organization goes for the SonicWall."
"You got to buy some VPN licenses, and there might be a $40 to $50 one-time license fee per current user. There are different layers. They have several different levels of event security software and depending on the model, it seems to come out to be $1 to $2 a day. So, if you bought a three-year license, it is going to be anywhere from $900 to $1800 depending on the bundle and model that you buy."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
21%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
18%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSSP?
In my opinion, SonicWall NSSP needs improvements, particularly in Gen 7 devices, where I face high data plane and management plane issues, especially when enabling User Level Authentication. I beli...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall NSSP?
I recommend SonicWall NSSP for multiple clients, including manufacturers and pharmaceutical clients, and based on the requirement, I perform proper sizing and suggest the appropriate model.
 

Also Known As

APEIRO, ShieldX APEIRO
SonicWall Network Security Services Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Iowa State University
Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council
Find out what your peers are saying about Illumio, Broadcom, Akamai and others in Microsegmentation Software. Updated: September 2026.
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