


SonicWall NSa and SonicWall NSv are two security solutions with distinct features, pricing, and ease of deployment. SonicWall NSa seems to appeal to users preferring physical appliances, while SonicWall NSv is favored for virtualized environments.
Features: SonicWall NSa is praised for its robust hardware performance, comprehensive security features, and secure SD-WAN. SonicWall NSv receives high marks for its flexibility in cloud environments, scalability, and adaptability to virtual settings.
Room for Improvement: SonicWall NSa users often cite the need for better reporting tools, easier firmware upgrades, and more intuitive management options. SonicWall NSv reviews suggest improvements in the initial setup process, more intuitive management options, and enhanced user management experience.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonicWall NSa users report a straightforward deployment process but note long setup times due to configuration complexity. Customer service is generally well-regarded. For SonicWall NSv, deployment is quick and efficient, yet some users mention the learning curve associated with virtual environments. Customer service is also positively reviewed, with quick response times.
Pricing and ROI: SonicWall NSa is noted for its higher initial setup cost, but users feel the investment is justified by its long-term reliability and performance. SonicWall NSv presents a more cost-effective solution due to lower setup costs for virtual environments and offers good ROI through its scalability.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
We had budgeted about thirty lakhs, but after negotiating with SonicWall NSa, we saved almost ten lakh rupees in a year.
Investment was challenging but strategic, given its advantages like 30% depreciation in the Indian ecosystem by the third year.
I have seen a return on investment that includes money saved, time saved, and fewer employees needed.
Based on SonicWall NSv, it helped us to easily navigate through everything and get done what we needed in a very quick manner.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
SonicWall support is always available to help us on an immediate basis.
The support from SonicWall was excellent.
SonicWall support is very helpful and responsive.
Customer support for SonicWall NSv is top-notch.
Whenever I create a case regarding any issue, their support is prompt and effective, adhering to the SLA, which leaves our customers very satisfied.
I would rate the customer support a 10 out of 10.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
I would rate its scalability around eight out of ten, meaning there are no issues, and it is pretty easy to scale.
Regarding scalability, it's important to ascertain the customer's future requirements, as firewalls need to be sized according to their expected scalability, such as moving from 500 users today to more in the coming years.
SonicWall NSa is very supportive and capable of handling everything from smaller organizations to big enterprise-level organizations on a model-wise or configuration-wise basis.
It has met our organization's needs by allowing us to scale our security posture consistently with our cloud compute growth, increased traffic and user areas, new cloud regions, and policy complexity growth.
Nonetheless, the product is robust, eliminating major scalability concerns.
On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate its scalability as eight to nine.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
Configuration changes have been made that have reduced that latency.
The stability of SonicWall NSA is quite good.
Understanding and handling these devices onsite was limited, requiring external support.
It rates around eight to nine in terms of stability, and it is quite good.
Regarding security, we have not had any issues since we have been using SonicWall NSv, and everything is usually up to date.
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
More details in the analytical tools offered would be appreciated since it is not yet mature.
At those times, the CPU spikes considerably, and due to that, the firewall response becomes slow.
There are some aspects of the dashboard configuration or customization that could be improved.
I believe that application-based QoS policy is very important given the current environment. This feature should be available for application QoS as well in this firewall.
When the software was downloaded, optimal hardware utilization was lacking, making hardware upgrades inevitable.
Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
It is about 20% cheaper.
SonicWall is much cheaper compared to Fortinet, particularly regarding renewal and licensing costs.
I would rate the price of the product as seven out of ten.
The Global VPN will be chargeable in our product, unlike Fortinet or Sophos, where it is free—this is a major difference.
SonicWall NSv was a bit expensive for the subscription.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that it is low cost.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
Real-time deep memory inspection is very helpful and has had a positive impact on our security posture.
SonicWall NSA's most valuable features are its SD-WAN and a system RTBI that blocks all attacks.
We were the only organization that remained secure with a zero infection rate.
The cloud delivery threat intelligence spots suspicious behavior in just a few seconds, stopping it before execution, automatically blocking and quarantining files.
SonicWall NSv positively impacts my organization by providing firewall capabilities as a virtual firewall while offering the capabilities of a physical firewall with great performance and reliability.
SonicWall NSv has positively impacted my organization by helping us access our whitelisted web apps since we manage web apps while ensuring proper standards to prevent any information leaks.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiGate | 18.7% |
| SonicWall NSa | 1.7% |
| SonicWall NSv | 0.3% |
| Other | 79.3% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 357 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 133 |
| Large Enterprise | 188 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 54 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 22 |
| Large Enterprise | 24 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 10 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 8 |
| Large Enterprise | 7 |
Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.
Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.
What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.
SonicWall NSa dispenses advanced threat protection using a high-performance security platform. The NSa series implements intuitive deep learning technologies in the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform to dispatch the automated real-time threat detection and deterrence enterprise organizations need today. SonicWall Network Security appliance (NSa) series is best for mid-sized organizations to distributed enterprises and data centers.
SonicWall NSa series next-generation firewalls (NFGWS) combine two very robust security ideologies to deliver advanced threat protection to keep users’ networks safe. Boosting SonicWall’s multi-engine advanced threat protection (ATP) is their Real-time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMI™). The RTDMI intuitively identifies and stops aggressive zero-day threats and vicious malware by investigating memory directly. This real-time process allows SonicWall RTDMI to be accurate, lessen false positives and discover and alleviate malicious threats and attacks. SonicWall’s single-pass Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) will audit every byte of each and every packet by investigating both outbound and inbound traffic on the firewall. By combining the SonicWall Capture Cloud Platform along with on-box offerings such as intrusion prevention, web/URL filtering, and anti-malware, the NSa series is able to block the most malicious and dangerous threats at the gateway.
Additionally, SonicWall firewalls supply absolute protection by executing complete inspection and decryption of SSH and TLS/SSL encryption connections - no matter the port or protocol. The firewall takes a deep dive into each and every packet (the header and data) routing out any anomalies, zero-day intrusions, threats, and protocol non-compliance. Users can also define unique criteria specific to their organization to ensure their networks remain safe. This aggressive deep packet inspection is able to identify and block malicious attacks, stop dangerous malware downloads, prevent the spread of infections, and defeat command and control (C&C) communications and data exfiltration. Protocols involving inclusion and exclusion allow users complete control to decide, based on specific governance policies, organizational policies, or government or legal compliance, which traffic is to be investigated for decryption or inspection.
SonicWall Nsa offers enterprise organizations the network control and fluid flexibility they desire using an intrusion prevention system (IPS), VPN, real-time visualization, and other advanced powerful security features, making it a popular firewall solution in today's marketplace.
Reviews from Real Users
“The features that I have found most valuable are the firewalling, which is very good, and the GUI which is very intuitive. It is easy to use and provides great security.” - Network Engineer at a maritime company
“What's valuable in SonicWall NSa is the ATP (advanced threat protection). It can protect users from malicious links. SonicWall NSa also has a Sandboxing service that is very helpful for us, especially when end users accidentally click on malicious links. Another valuable feature of this solution is that it is very useful for site-to-site VPN connectivity issues. SonicWall NSa has very good hardware. I also love that SonicWall has very good technical support, who are very knowledgeable, provide good suggestions, and they're easy to reach.” - Mohammed M., Network Administrator at Transgulf Readymix
SonicWall NSV is a software-based virtual firewall that provides additional security for customers with public-facing servers or services on Microsoft Azure. The AGSS Bundle is considered the most valuable feature, providing security services such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI.
Additionally, customization of firewall rules provides great value to customers, allowing them to lock things up in the way they desire. SonicWall NSV offers extensive security control options to protect customers' valuable information and assets.
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