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Smoothwall Firewall vs Sophos Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

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

Smoothwall Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
43rd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sophos Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
304
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Smoothwall Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Firewall is 6.2%, down from 11.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sophos Firewall6.2%
Smoothwall Firewall0.4%
Other93.4%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Himanshu-Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Qualic
Offers good scalability and monitoring features
There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages. For example, if we're creating a rule, we should be able to do everything on the same page. Just a drop-down thing or something. This would improve productivity.
Ashutosh Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Project engineer at IT Solution india private limited
Robust protection has blocked external threats and provides clear visibility into user activity
Sophos Firewall offers multiple features, including IPS, IDS, ATP, NDR, XOps, web protection, application protection, web server protection, and many more. Out of all those features, I find web protection and application protection to be very helpful and valuable in my daily work. Sophos Firewall has positively impacted my organization by preventing outside threats, allowing me to easily monitor my users, and configuring any rule for any user regarding what they need to use and what I am restricting for the particular user. I can share that it has improved productivity because if anyone could ransom my network, they could demand money to decrypt the files, thus saving us money, time, and providing reliability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was easy to initially deploy it."
"What I found most valuable in Sophos XGS is that it's very easy to manage."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."
"The solution seems to be very easy to use."
"Technical support for Sophos is very good and they have a big presence in South Africa."
"The most valuable feature is web filtering."
"We are using the WAF functionalities of Sophos XGS which has helped the organization."
"Sophos XG isn't expensive compared to Check Point, but the specs and technical side of Sophos XG are close to Check Point, and the price is lower, so I can do the same complex configurations with Sophos XG that I used to do on Check Point firewalls."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages."
"The only issue that Sophos XG now needs to improve is the product's reporting capabilities."
"Sophos XG's web server protection and log viewer could improve. They should also introduce sandboxing."
"I would like to see them in third-party evaluation reports like Gartner, Magic Quadrant, or Forrester to make it easier for us to show our customers that Sophos is a leader in the market."
"The technical support could be improved, particularly in terms of response speed, as there were delays when working with their Indian support team."
"Compared to Fortinet, the cost is high. Even compared to the U.S. market the market price is high."
"Recently, I've had a problem with updating firmware. Updates should be more stable."
"I'd like the dashboard to be improved. It could be a bit more customizable."
"I find the solution too expensive, to be honest. It's one of the reasons I'm looking for an alternative."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I pay close to $10,000 per year, which I find to be expensive compared to the other similar solution or equivalent solutions."
"The cost of Sophos XGS is based on per unit, per appliance, and capacity."
"The product is expensive."
"The product is more expensive than one of its competitors."
"There is an annual licensing fee to use Sophos XGS. It is an expensive solution."
"The solution is not expensive since one pays as he goes."
"We pay for two licenses for the use of Sophos XG annually and it is a flat fee. We do not have everyone going through both of the Sophos XG firewalls a the same time and the Sophos XG on Microsoft Azure is only accessible from the VPN."
"The pricing was reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
16%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business210
Midsize Enterprise61
Large Enterprise53
 

Questions from the Community

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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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Sophos XG, Sophos XGS
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls. Updated: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.