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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
7.2
Number of Reviews
357
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 (28th)
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

"SD-WAN has had a positive impact by reducing the operational costs in terms of headcount and management."
"Run Script is the best tool to use in Fortinet FortiGate with multiple environments."
"Its stability is the most valuable."
"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"The simplicity of the product is great. It's very easy to use, which is a compliment we get all the time in terms of feedback."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"The product helps improve our security."
"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."
"For my small NFB banking services, when they are expanding their branches, I could incorporate a little bit easier."
"Out of ten, I would rate the solution at an eight."
"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 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 most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is reporting, it is flexible. I can monitor the end user's devices, even when they are not on my network. It has good drill-down capabilities."
"The most valuable features of the solution are application filtering and web filtering."
"UTM 9 brings along IPSec as well as iPhone and iPad support. This seems small but it’s useful."
"The initial setup was easy."
"What I like about Sophos UTM is that it improves my company's security. The solution is easy to set up, which I like, and it's very stable."
"​The initial configuration is straightforward thanks to the web GUI. In 30 minutes, you can have a running firewall with UTM protection enabled.​"
"It has allowed us to design a bespoke cloud space for our clients, while still having an excellent level of protection."
"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."
 

Cons

"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."
"One of the most important areas for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is the limited resources for tests."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"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."
"I wish that they could integrate zero-trust technology into Fortinet FortiGate. I am not sure whether it has been done already, but if they could implement that, it would help significantly."
"The configuration part was challenging, especially converting configurations from another OEM to FortiGate."
"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 price is a significant factor."
"The engine provided initially was quite heavy, creating a trade-off between software and hardware-based threat management."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"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."
"It would be nice if it had basic features, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"They could reduce the price."
"The ease of use could be a bit better."
"The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing."
"Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement."
"They could use more SSL VPN support."
"The five-factor authentication needs improvement."
"It is a little too CPU resource intensive, so we would like to see improvements there."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."
"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."
"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."
"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."
"We have the full version of Fortinet FortiGate and we are on a three-year contract with a commitment of five years."
"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."
"It has a competitive price."
"Its pricing is fine. It is on a yearly basis. Other than the licensing fee, there is no extra fee."
"The solution's pricing is good for the technology it offers."
"SonicWall NSV is not very costly."
"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 tool is moderately priced."
"We are currently using the trial version."
"There is a license for the device and for the software. We pay annually for the solution and the cost is competitive."
"Our licensing fees are paid on a monthly basis."
"Sophos UTM is moderately priced, but it could be improved."
"The solution is affordable compared to others, such as FortiGate. The price is important."
"Go to a vendor and let them assess your needs so you can get a right-sized device."
"Purchasing it through the AWS Marketplace went smoothly. We did not have any issues and the pricing was decent."
"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."
"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
Educational Organization
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
27%
Real Estate/Law Firm
7%
Retailer
7%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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
Find out what your peers are saying about SonicWall NSv vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.