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SonicWall NSv vs Sophos UTM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
411
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
SonicWall NSv
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (36th)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sileesh Sivadasan - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Samaila Yusuf - PeerSpot reviewer
Network protection strengthens through effective threat management features and secure access control
The zero-day protection and firewall rules are some of the most effective features for threat management. I can set the rules and features, and also use IPsec to connect all my on-premises servers and link them to Sophos UTM so that they are protected even when in the cloud. Additionally, I use it to control access into the building through a captive portal integrated across all the PCs we have, ensuring secure access only for authenticated users.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate brings numerous benefits to my company."
"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate include its easy configuration and user interface."
"The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"Fortinet FortiGate provides combined features that other firewalls do not offer, offering a full package cost-effective manager with all integration supported."
"Offers good security and filtering."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"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."
"SonicWall excelled in threat management, evident in how users handled it effectively."
"We are very impressed with it."
"The product helps improve our security."
"I would rate the overall product a nine out of ten."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"It is not an easy task to protect your web servers from the big bad internet. The Web Server Protection in this solution does it elegantly and, if configured correctly, even hides the server's base system from prying eyes."
"Technical support is very responsive."
"Good basic firewall functions with advanced firewall scanning."
"Sophos UTM's most valuable features are profiling and its simple configuration."
"The intrusion prevention is great, and I like dual virus scanning on the network layer because we scan it through Avira and Sophos. Web filtering is also a fantastic option for clients who want to really lock down internet access."
"It has helped by identifying threats within the company. If there are computers or servers that are compromised, then we are able to identify them right away in the system."
"The scalability is good."
"Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."
 

Cons

"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"Its pricing can be better."
"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
"One issue that I have had is that sometimes I need to monitor the traffic, so I need to filter it according to the user and which user is using it the most. I experience a bottleneck most of the time, particularly at the peak time when the number of contracts and users are at maximum."
"I would rate Fortinet support a six out of ten. The immediate response is not that good, particularly when raising a critical or P1 ticket; they lag in the immediate response."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."
"The cloud features can be improved."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"The price is a significant factor."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
"The price is a significant factor. Mostly in India, the customer service has many hurdles to get real support."
"The five-factor authentication needs improvement."
"During initial configuration, I encountered a few issues."
"The virus updates will always depend on new viruses that are discovered. Maybe they can send a notification or a reminder for update time."
"I would like some features that are available in other brands. For example, I sometimes a person is using too much bandwidth, and it isn't easy to find this information in Sophos. Also, we have to switch connections manually when we are using a VPN and lose the MPLS connection. It isn't automatic."
"We would like to have unique viewable IDs for rules and in the packet filter logfile, for easier debugging of old log files."
"The classification segregation of applications lacks sufficient definition."
"There's an issue that when we deploy UTM on fiber, it automatically upgrades to the latest version without giving an option to stay on the current one."
"It is a little too CPU resource intensive, so we would like to see improvements there."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."
"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."
"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten"
"Fortinet FortiGate allows you to purchase licenses for hardware and software."
"The price could be lower."
"The price is fine."
"For the performance that we get, the price is reasonable. There are cheaper options, but they may not deliver the same kind of performance that we want. For the performance they provide, the price is acceptable."
"Its price is good."
"We are currently using the trial version."
"The tool is moderately priced."
"Our initial purchase, which included a three-year term of support, was about $25,000 USD."
"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."
"The solution’s pricing is less compared to other products."
"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."
"Go to a vendor and let them assess your needs so you can get a right-sized device."
"Sophos UTM is moderately priced, but it could be improved."
"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"Although Sophos UTM is a good product, other products have more flexibility with their pricing. It is a very fine product, but when someone wants more relaxed pricing or more leverage in pricing, Sophos is more rigid."
"The solution is very low cost compared to competitors. You have a good firewall, a lot of functions for less than the price of some omni firewall competitors."
"The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive. As I said, we looked at Webroot, which is a big alternative, and Sophos was almost three times the price of Webroot. That's a pretty big difference."
"It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget."
"For under 50 users, MSP licensing is profitable."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
27%
Educational Organization
7%
Comms Service Provider
5%
Performing Arts
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
7%
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What do you like most about SonicWall NSV?
The product helps improve our security.
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...
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...
What do you like most about Sophos UTM?
The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the endpoint protection feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?
The value between what I receive and what I pay is the best in the industry.
What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?
With artificial intelligence, there is room for improvement in all antivirus and security software. However, the bad ...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
SonicWall Network Security Virtual
Astaro
 

Overview

 

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
One Housing Group
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