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SonicWall Mobile Connect vs SonicWall Netextender comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 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

SonicWall Mobile Connect
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
30th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall Netextender
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
16th
Average Rating
6.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of SonicWall Mobile Connect is 1.0%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Netextender is 3.9%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

RD
A straightforward tool with high adoption rate due to its user-friendliness
SonicWall Mobile Connect’s marketing efforts are commendable; they may not be perceived as the most secure player compared to Fortinet or Meraki. SonicWall Mobile Connect should focus on positioning itself as a strong contender in the mid-market segment to improve its standing. Many high-end engineers dismiss it in favor of Fortinet or Meraki, often due to a lack of firsthand experience.
JayPrajapati - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows using a custom port for the VPN connection and provides very satisfactory customer support
In the past, customers wanted an application that could run directly upon starting the PC, automatically connecting to the firewall. We were not able to do it in NetExtender. This was something customers wanted, but we couldn't provide due to NetExtender's limitations. I feel NetExtender might have rolled out this feature. In future releases, introductions of AI features would be really helpful. For example, we faced a situation where a customer wanted to allow Office 365 access without any kind of internet, just through the local internet. Office 365 has multiple dynamic IPs and URLs that can be updated daily, making it difficult to allow. If there were an AI-based solution that could bring those URLs and new IP addresses to the firewall and add them to the rule, that would be very helpful. That is just one scenario; there are multiple things AI could help with.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The ease of use is great. It's pretty easy for users to get on the tablet or whatever and select the bookmark they need and just take it over."
"The solution offers multiple OS support."
"I can say that it's stable and the performance is acceptable."
"The solution benefits IT managers in backend programming. The ease of configuring and securing it while ensuring security measures is crucial. The tool is easy in terms of user experience. It is straightforward."
"It allows us to work remotely."
"Employees can have access to the network from home."
"NetExtender works very well. I never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me. In terms of management, you have good control over the destination. You can use NetExtender to set the policy and the static route for a client. You can modify it based on what your client needs or can access. You have good control over routing."
"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."
"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The solution provides high availability."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"One of the most valuable features of SonicWall Netextender is the integration of VPN accounts with Microsoft Identity Management, which enables us to enforce secure access through Microsoft Intune and conditional access policies. This helps ensure that only authorized individuals are able to access the VPN, rather than anyone with knowledge of a password."
 

Cons

"Lacks multiple cloud integration."
"Licensing includes things that my customers don't need."
"SonicWall Mobile Connect’s marketing efforts are commendable; they may not be perceived as the most secure player compared to Fortinet or Meraki. SonicWall Mobile Connect should focus on positioning itself as a strong contender in the mid-market segment to improve its standing. Many high-end engineers dismiss it in favor of Fortinet or Meraki, often due to a lack of firsthand experience."
"Technical support can always get better. Any time you have to call in for any certain thing, it can be difficult."
"The only concern I do have is with the zero trust, and the solution is not coping with the newer technologies as much as it needs to do on that particular factor."
"Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution."
"The Netextender application itself doesn't really look pretty, however, we can still use it. We don't care what it looks like. That said, if they did a cosmetic update, that would be fine."
"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."
"The product does not work well."
"In future releases, introductions of AI features would be really helpful."
"The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly."
"They need to rewrite the software to make it a usable product."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."
"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."
"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."
"The solution has a pretty good price."
"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."
"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."
"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about SonicWall Mobile Connect?
The solution benefits IT managers in backend programming. The ease of configuring and securing it while ensuring security measures is crucial. The tool is easy in terms of user experience. It is st...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Mobile Connect?
SonicWall Mobile Connect’s marketing efforts are commendable; they may not be perceived as the most secure player compared to Fortinet or Meraki. SonicWall Mobile Connect should focus on positionin...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Mobile Connect?
The tool helps with secure connectivity for remote workers. Introducing the new NetExtender with SSL connectivity has been particularly beneficial. It simplifies administrative tasks by allowing pr...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Netextender?
Pricing is a simple thing. We have the key, and we need to enter it in the SonicWall official portal. That's all. Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, ...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?
In the past, customers wanted an application that could run directly upon starting the PC, automatically connecting to the firewall. We were not able to do it in NetExtender. This was something cus...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about SonicWall Mobile Connect vs. SonicWall Netextender and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.