SonicWall NSa vs Sophos XG comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 6, 2022

We performed a comparison between SonicWall NSA and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Users of both solutions feel they are easy and straightforward to deploy.
  • Features: SonicWall NSa offers good DPI-SSL capabilities. Users say it has great firewalling, high availability, high failover, and provides a very intuitive GUI. The functionality and interface are standard on virtual appliances as well as hardware. Many users feel better integration with more anti-virus tools is needed, in addition to improved storage capacity and reporting.

    Sophos XG offers VPN, solid firewalling, robust intrusion detection, and content blocking. Users find Sophos XG easy to use and manage and say the interface is user friendly and very intuitive. Users would like to have improvement to the SD-WAN, GDPR capabilities, and better integrations.
  • Pricing: Users of both solutions find the pricing to be reasonable.
  • Service and Support: For the most part, users of both solutions are very happy with the service and support.

Comparison Results: Sophos XG’s single pane of glass makes it easy for users to manage the entire solution from anywhere. The solution is very light, stable, and provides excellent real-time control. Many users have experienced stability issues with SonicWall NSa. They feel it can be a bit buggy, resulting in occasional freeze-ups and downtime. The solution does not scale easily.

To learn more, read our detailed SonicWall NSa vs. Sophos XG Report (Updated: November 2023).
746,635 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Q&A Highlights
Question: Best Firewall for 300 user organisation: Sonicwall NSA 3650 vs. Sophos XG 310
Answer: Both have some unique features and per my experience with both the vendors, Sophos has more features, functionalities, and support. For more info, drop me an email to pranavjyoti@outlook.com
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so.""FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value.""Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution.""The wireless control is helpful.""The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable.""It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation.""Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features.""The security fabric is excellent."

More Fortinet FortiGate Pros →

"SD-WAN is a good feature.""The most valuable features to us are the security services which is a critical factor in our deployment. Today we need to have all the security services enabled because firewalls are not enough.""Sometimes I have some queries, and the SonicWall support team resolves my queries.""Easy to scale solution that provides advanced threat protection. Their technical support is very good, very knowledgeable, and easy to reach.""I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product.""Overall SonicWall NSa is a good solution for our use case.""SonicWall's sales support is much better than other vendors'.""SonicWall's technical support is very good."

More SonicWall NSa Pros →

"The features that I have found most valuable are first the Web Filter and the Web Application Firewall SD-Wan on Version 18. Additionally, RED Tunnels allows a Sophos vital to speak to another Sophos vital in headquarters.""The most valuable feature of Sophos XG is the VBM.""The stability of Sophos XG is very good. However, there have been some issues with other weaker models because they are limited in hardware in resources.""The firewall functionality and unified threat management are the most useful features.""We can configure rules with the user, traffic, etc., making it a very versatile solution for our network.""The most valuable features are its nice interfaces and configuration. The endpoint is also very good.""One of the most valuable features is the VPN.""The stability of Sophos XG is good, it has good performance."

More Sophos XG Pros →

Cons
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports.""I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules.""I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool.""They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers.""Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation.""The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI.""With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic.""There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."

More Fortinet FortiGate Cons →

"The cost could be lower. There could also be more flexibility for smaller companies.""Competitors provide SSL encryption licenses for free, whereas SonicWall only provides two licenses by default, but you have to pay for the rest of the licenses.""The user interface could be better.""Customer support is severely lacking with very slow response times.""The security standards for space and point of view should be improved so that the solution deploys in critical areas.""The thing main thing is that there's no user admin and in other firewalls, we can enable the scalable features, but SonicWall doesn't have that feature.""The dynamics needs to be improved. The solution is not very compatible compared to the market products.""The solution can be a bit expensive."

More SonicWall NSa Cons →

"I would like to next release to be able to support on-premise deployment. The construction of the rules within the firewall could also use some improvement.""While it is possible to configure between two of the solution's devices in the same model, the high available usually fails.""The interface of Sophos XG could be improved. I would prefer the Sophos XG to have an interface for the technician who is setting it up similar to the Sophos SG. I felt the Sophos SG user interface was superior. however, in terms of the functionality of the product, Sophos XG is in many ways more powerful than the Sophos SG. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the end result. For someone who has used both, I preferred the old interface to the new one.""When it comes to improvements that the vendor can make, we see that the cloud integration for managing all the firewalls is essentially a replacement of the on-prem version we had and is not sufficiently mature.""The VPN features can be improved. Due to covid-19, we have a lot of employees that work from home and we need better VPN capabilities.""Sophos XG's user interface has some room for improvement.""Sophos XG could improve by making the remote access and VPN better.""Lacks improved throughput performance in a box."

More Sophos XG Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
  • "The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."
  • "Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."
  • "Licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is on a yearly basis. Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
  • "The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."
  • "The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device."
  • "It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."
  • "There is a license to use Fortinet FortiGate."
  • More Fortinet FortiGate Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "SonicWall NSa has two types of license. The advanced license is a bit expensive when compared to the comprehensive license, but when you compare the advanced license to the licensing cost of other brands or competitors, it is expensive."
  • "We paid about 10,000 in our currency for one packet of SonicWall NSa."
  • "The solution is based on a yearly licensing model that is reasonable compared to other options."
  • "The price of SonicWall NSa is expensive."
  • "There are different pricing models for SonicWall NSa."
  • "SonicWall NSa has reasonable pricing. My company pays for it yearly, but I forgot how much the company pays. From what I remember, you only pay for the license fees."
  • "The price is high. I would rate it four to five out of ten."
  • "Compared to Fortinet and Cisco, SonicWall NSa is a cheaper solution."
  • More SonicWall NSa Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "For every firewall, you will need to pay the license for the following year. If they don't pay for the license renewal, they basically won't get the support from Sophos."
  • "There is no need to get one edition, just the licensing, as we are talking about a common bundle which encompasses all the features."
  • "The licensing for Sophos XG is based on the number of users, so I get the module from the sizing of the customer."
  • "A Sophos XG license costs approximately $45,000"
  • "We pay licensing fees of approximately $2,000. We have a contract for three years."
  • "Sophos XG is a very good solution, and it's cheaper than most of the other vendors. It is really affordable."
  • "Annual standard licensing fee."
  • "There is a license required to use this solution and my customers pay for it annually."
  • More Sophos XG Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage at… more »
    Top Answer:From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know… more »
    Top Answer:As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite… more »
    Top Answer:We use SonicWall NSa for authenticating MAC (media access control) ID from the PC.
    Top Answer:Compared to Fortinet and Cisco, SonicWall NSa is a cheaper solution. You have to pay additionally for IPS, which is not… more »
    Top Answer:SonicWall NSa's reporting could be improved.
    Top Answer:Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat… more »
    Top Answer:Hi Arvind P ,  The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form… more »
    Top Answer:The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW… more »
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
    NSA 250M, NSA 2600, NSA 3600, NSA 4600, NSA 5600, Dell SonicWALL NSA
    Learn More
    Overview

    Fortinet FortiGate is an innovative line of firewalls that aim to protect organizations from all types of web-based network threats. They come in a wide variety of product types. Fortinet FortiGate’s solutions are available in a large range of sizes and form factors and are key components of the Fortinet Security Fabric, which enables immediate, intelligent defense against known and new threats throughout the entire network.

    Fortinet FortiGate provides users with next-generation firewall solutions that provide proven protection with unmatched performance across the network, from internal segments to data centers to cloud environments. You can protect every part of your network without exception. Additionally, your protections can be managed from a single central location. This ensures that the task of protecting your network is infinitely easier to accomplish.

    Benefits of Fortinet FortiGate

    Some of the benefits of using Fortinet FortiGate include:

    • The ability to manage your firewalls from a centralized automated control console. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiManager enables administrators to exercise control of their firewalls in a streamlined manner. Administrators have full visibility and control over their system from a single location. It utilizes automation that collects information in real time, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of running various types of workflows. Administrators can free up resources by automating the most basic tasks.
    • The ability to produce uniform, appropriate, and coordinated responses to threats across networks. Fortinet FortiGate’s FortiGuard feature generates system protections in near real time. This allows administrators to address threats to the system with custom-made solutions that can be uniformly enforced.
    • The ability to scale up your security to fit your changing security needs. Fortinet FortiGate’s design allows users to accelerate the transfer of data between users and escalate the number of users that are covered without compromising security of performance. This means that users can grow their networks and continue to collaborate without worrying about the system slowing down or coming under attack.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall solutions are cutting edge. They stand out from competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are the robustness and power of their firewalls. Fortinet FortiGate’s firewall provides users with many valuable features that allow them to maximize what they can do with the solution. These firewalls enable users to use a single piece of software to accomplish tasks that often require the use of multiple pieces of software.

    PeerSpot user Eric S., a Solutions Engineer and Consultant at a tech-services company, notes the robustness of this solution when he writes, "One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface.”

    PeerSpot user Jim M., a network admin at Penobscot Valley Hospital, notes the power of Fortinet FortiGate’s security software when he writes, "It does a lot for you for intrusion protection and as an antivirus. The threat management bundle is worth the money. You don't need another company to monitor your web traffic for you. You can do everything yourself on the firewall. You restrict your own black list for people on the firewall.”

    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

    Sophos XG Firewall is a complete firewall solution that provides all the real-time security and insights you need to protect your network from ransomware and advanced threats. Sophos XG Firewall provides visibility into suspicious users, unknown and unwanted apps, encrypted traffic, and other threats. With its advanced artificial intelligence capabilities, Sophos XG Firewall immediately identifies potential risks and intrusions on web servers and networks.

    Sophos XG Firewall Features

    Sophos XG Firewall offers a wide range of security features, including:

    • Application control: Prevent widespread infections with XG’s Security Heartbeat. XG Firewall automatically identifies the source of an infection on a network and automatically prevents it from accessing other network resources.

    • Synchronized user ID: Eliminate the need for client or server authentication agents by sharing user identification between the endpoint and the firewall through Security Heartbeat.

    • Centralized management: Easily manage all activities with Sophos Central. The XG cloud management platform allows users to easily set up, manage, and monitor XG firewalls along with other Sophos products. Some of Sophos Central’s features include alerting, backup management, one-click firmware updates, and rapid deployments of new firewalls.

    • Lateral movement protection: Automatically isolate compromised systems at every point in the network to stop attacks dead in their tracks.

    • Network protection: Protect networks from attacks and threats while providing secure network access.

    • Web protection: Gain clear visibility and control over all users’ web and application activity.

    • Web server protection: Solidify web servers and applications against hacking attacks while providing secure web access.

    • Email protection: Consolidate email protection with anti-spam, DLP, and encryption. XG’s Live Anti-Spam provides protection from the most recent spam campaigns, phishing attacks, and malicious attachments. Data Loss Prevention automatically triggers encryption on sensitive data in outgoing emails.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Sophos XG Firewall stands out among its competitors, among other reasons, for its intrusion detection capabilities, its user-friendly management platform, and in general, for being a complete and robust firewall solution.

    Niranjan P., a network & system support engineer, writes, “Sophos is a comprehensive solution which allows me to configure all the attendant products, such as Sophos's firewall, endpoint, and encryption features. A nice feature of Sophos is that it offers in sync and heartbeat security. When my clients have a perimeter involving Sophos firewall and endpoints with Sophos Endpoint, they can communicate with each other.”

    Antonio D., sales manager at INFOSEC, notes, “The product has a console that is based in the cloud for all their products. In this console, they have email security, firewall security, endpoint security, et cetera. All of the products on offer in the console are very useful for us. The solution is stable. The solution works well for enterprises and large-scale organizations.”

    Antony M., ICT/HMIS supervisor at a healthcare company, writes, “The VPN feature is the most valuable. It has come in handy during this period when people are working from home. The filtering feature is also valuable because you can easily filter the sites that you don't want to visit. You can also set timely surfing quotas”

    Offer
    Learn more about Fortinet FortiGate
    Learn more about SonicWall NSa
    Learn more about Sophos XG
    Sample Customers
    Pittsburgh Steelers, LUSH Cosmetics, NASDAQ, Verizon, Arizona State University, Levi Strauss & Co. Whitepaper and case studies here
    Orange County Rescue Mission, First Source, Michaels & Taylor, Green Clinic Health System, Aspire Chiltern Skills and Enterprise Centre, UnitedStack, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, Celtic Manor Resort, Star Kay White, Air Works, Unimat Life, NHS Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support (YHCS), Hutt City Council, Mato Grosso do Sul, Nspyre
    Information Not Available
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Financial Services Firm8%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization21%
    Computer Software Company15%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company19%
    Construction Company9%
    Retailer9%
    Educational Organization9%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company17%
    Retailer8%
    Government7%
    Comms Service Provider7%
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company12%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Comms Service Provider12%
    Government6%
    Manufacturing Company5%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business48%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise30%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business27%
    Midsize Enterprise32%
    Large Enterprise41%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business58%
    Midsize Enterprise20%
    Large Enterprise22%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business40%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise44%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business62%
    Midsize Enterprise23%
    Large Enterprise15%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business38%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise43%
    Buyer's Guide
    SonicWall NSa vs. Sophos XG
    November 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about SonicWall NSa vs. Sophos XG and other solutions. Updated: November 2023.
    746,635 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    SonicWall NSa is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 26 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 36 reviews. SonicWall NSa is rated 8.0, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Easy to scale advanced threat protection solution with knowledgeable technical support, but has occasional bugs". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Secure, duel switch capabilities, and good support". SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Cisco Secure Firewall, WatchGuard Firebox and Netgate pfSense, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Sangfor NGAF. See our SonicWall NSa vs. Sophos XG report.

    See our list of best Firewalls vendors.

    We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.