SonicWall NSSP vs SonicWall NSv comparison

SonicWall NSSP and SonicWall NSv are both solutions in the Firewalls category. SonicWall NSSP is ranked #38 with an average rating of 7.3, while SonicWall NSv is ranked #36 with an average rating of 7.8. SonicWall NSSP holds a 0.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to SonicWall NSv’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of SonicWall NSSP users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of SonicWall NSv users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

SonicWall NSSP and SonicWall NSv are two distinct offerings tailored to different needs in cybersecurity. SonicWall NSv seems to have the upper hand due to its cloud-native architecture and greater flexibility in modern infrastructures.

Features: SonicWall NSSP offers high throughput, robust security services, and extensive customizability. SonicWall NSv provides cloud-native architecture, flexibility, and scalability essential for dynamic environments.

Room for Improvement: SonicWall NSSP needs simpler setup procedures, better reporting functions, and enhancements in management experience. SonicWall NSv requires better documentation, more intuitive configuration processes, and improved performance under heavy loads.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonicWall NSSP has a straightforward hardware-based deployment but can be complex without technical experience. Its customer support has mixed reviews with responsive assistance but occasional slow responses. SonicWall NSv is flexible but complicated to deploy due to cloud dependencies. Its customer service is efficient but could offer quicker solutions.

Pricing and ROI: SonicWall NSSP has competitive initial setup costs but mixed ROI due to ongoing maintenance. SonicWall NSv is more cost-effective over time, with favorable ROI from reduced hardware expenses and increased operational efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed SonicWall NSSP vs. SonicWall NSv Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall NSSP vs. SonicWall NSv

July 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSSP is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSv is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

Read full review

Winsley De Oliveira

Owner at ANOC

Long-term reliability and efficient customer support elevate user experience

The best features with the SonicWall NSSP firewall are safety and stability. The most defining aspect I can share is that if you try to find firmware, a pirate firmware for Fortinet on the internet, you're going to find it in Russia or elsewhere. However, try to find SonicWall NSSP firmware and you will never find it anywhere. Nobody shares it. I have my internal library for old and deactivated firewalls, but we don't share with anyone. This is very significant because anyone claiming to have hacked SonicWall NSSP firmware is incorrect. With Fortinet, it's different. It's a very nice product. For the customers and clients, it's transparent. We have rules, and they are very strict. Any bad sites or blocklist sites are blocked, and users don't complain. They are used to our controls. We have a standard package for our customers that's the same in every company. When customers buy it, they must accept it. If they don't accept the package we offer as a consulting company, we don't sell. It's a yes or no situation with no options. All our customers have the same scenario and configuration, with very minor exceptions.

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Sileesh Sivadasan

Director at Infosec Infra

Helps small businesses expand branches more easily

The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support. If I want to talk to a customer executive, they ask many trivial questions. Even if I explain that I am asking for a Dell partner, they still ask specific questions, and they will explain many unnecessary questions.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."

"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."

"The tool is a nice product and easy to handle. The software's user interface is also good. You can easily implement remote access in the solution."

"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."

"The GUI is good."

"The features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."

"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."

"The features that I have found most valuable are the SD-WAN and their IP4 policy."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The VPN functionality is really good. Overall, the whole device is very easy to manage. The software that comes with it is also good."

"The solution's pricing is good."

"It has been delivering results efficiently. Its configurations and updates have been easy. It is also user-friendly."

"SonicWall NSSP is stable and scalable too."

"I like the filtering feature, which provides easy access. The SSL certification feature is also nice. The solution enhanced our security posture."

"The product's most valuable features are simplicity and comprehensive protection capabilities, including load balancing, IPS, antivirus, and web filtering."

"SonicWall has helped us deliver security solutions effectively, particularly in threat prevention and content filtering."

"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."

"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."

"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."

"I would rate the overall product a nine out of ten."

"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."

"SonicWall excelled in threat management, evident in how users handled it effectively."

"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."

"The product helps improve our security."

More SonicWall NSv pros

Cons

"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."

"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."

"Though the tool's GUI is user-friendly, it can be considered as an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."

"They could improve the response time and quality of support."

"Some of the software stability could improve."

"The user interface of the Fortinet FortiGate management console could be more intuitive and user-friendly, and the log analysis and reporting features could be enhanced to provide more flexibility and customizable insights."

"There are mainly two areas of improvement in Fortinet FortiGate— the licensing cost and the timing of upgrading licenses for boxes."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The solution's stability and scalability also need improvement."

"Its reporting functions can be improved. It has decent reporting, but you got to pay a lot more money for it. That's where it begins to fall apart. It comes with minimal zero reporting unless you buy some extra modules. With those extra modules, you can get all the data, but it takes a while to put together what you need for your customer. It is for technical people, but there is no executive summary of the reporting."

"The product needs improvement for phishing emails."

"The EDR and XDR capabilities of SonicWall need to be improved."

"The user interface, the GUI, could be improved."

"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 price is a significant factor."

"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."

"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."

"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."

"Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details. At present, they do not provide detailed reports compared to other products."

"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."

"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."

"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."

More SonicWall NSv cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"No comment."

"Its price is affordable and lesser than Cisco. Cisco is expensive. In terms of licensing, there is only one issue. If a customer's license has expired a month ago and they do the renewal after one month, Fortinet renews the license from the start of the previous month. The activation of the product is done from the previous month, not from the date of renewal. The customers usually shout and complain that because they are paying today, the renewal should start from today. The support contract renewals or licensing should be renewed from the date of renewal, but Fortinet starts from the day it had expired. It is a loss for customers. They might have had some problems because of which they did not take the license one month before. Fortinet should work on this. Cisco doesn't do this. Cisco always starts from the day they apply for the license."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls."

"For medium and enterprise organizations, FortiGate is more affordable."

"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."

"Licensing for Fortinet FortiGate is on a yearly basis. Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."

"On a scale of one being cheap and ten being expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The setup costs and licensing are reasonable, and the solution provides good value for its features."

"For SonicWall NSSP high availability, active/passive, you need to buy one license, and so you get much more value for money."

"I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten."

"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."

"The pricing is cheap, and that's where, you know, the some of the organization goes for the SonicWall."

"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."

"The tool is moderately priced."

"We are currently using the trial version."

"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."

"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."

"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Computer Software Company

27%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Performing Arts

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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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...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What do you like most about SonicWall NSSP?

The solution's pricing is good.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSSP?

SonicWall is a rather expensive solution with a rating of eight out of ten regarding its pricing. Despite being expen...

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What needs improvement with SonicWall NSSP?

The EDR and XDR capabilities of SonicWall need to be improved. When compared to a brand like SentinelOne, SonicWall s...

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What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?

The product helps improve our security.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSV?

I am somewhat satisfied with the price for SonicWall NSv, rating it as eight because, compared to other products, the...

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What needs improvement with SonicWall NSV?

Currently, we are getting challenges with user-wise reports and other reporting details. At present, they do not prov...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall NSSP

Compared 36% of the time

OPNsense vs SonicWall NSSP

Compared 19% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 25% of the time

SonicWall NSa vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 24% of the time

Stormshield Network Security vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 20% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs SonicWall NSv

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

August 2025

Download SonicWall NSSP product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

August 2025

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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

SonicWall Network Security Services Platform

SonicWall Network Security Virtual

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

The SonicWall Network Security services platform (NSsp) 12000 series takes a modern approach to threat detection and prevention by combining cloud intelligence with appliance-based protection in a scalable, high-speed platform.

SonicWall

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.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Comlogic, Depaul, Hutt City Council

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall NSSP vs. SonicWall NSv

July 2025

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