We compared SonicWall TZ and WatchGuard Firebox across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Comparison Results: SonicWall TZ is highly praised for its user-friendly interface, robust features, and cost-effectiveness. However, there are areas that need improvement such as reporting, licensing, scalability, and support. On the other hand, WatchGuard Firebox is commended for its comprehensive features, ease of use, and reasonable pricing. However, it also has areas that need improvement including the interface, web blocker feature, reporting, customer support, security, configuration options, scalability, and integration.
"This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"Fortinet FortiGate's reliability is valuable."
"It can expand easily."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"Its stability is the most valuable."
"The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The installation is straightforward and took approximately 30 minutes."
"The feature we found most valuable in SonicWall TZ is that it is user-friendly for an administrator."
"The feature with SonicWall that I have found most valuable is that all the models have the same interface. We don't need to learn different interfaces in the smaller or bigger models."
"Access restriction and IP whitelisting are the most valuable features."
"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."
"I find the security we are able to do with the policies to be valuable. The monitoring is valuable as well."
"The site-to-site VPN connections, content filtering, and in our current remote working situation, SSL VPN remote desktop connectivity are the most valuable features."
"We like their interface very much. It's pretty easy to use."
"This product offers great protection using the default settings."
"As a whole, it has a very low requirement for ongoing interaction. It's very self-sufficient. If properly patched, it has very high reliability. The total cost of ownership once deployed is very low."
"The ports that I have assigned appear to be unattainable to outside 'mal-actors,' unless they have an address registered on the internet that this thing is expecting. That's a layer of security."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The solution has increased productivity with our outside salespeople being able to connect into their computers and use those remotely."
"The security that is used for defending from the attacks is very good."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the FireWall features. The management side of WatchGuard is quite easy because it supports two ways to manage it - by the web and the other one they call WatchGuard systems manager. I used to be familiar with WSM only, but they improved their GUI in the web browser and now it is much easier to do it within the web browser."
"Policy VPN, site-to-site VPN, traffic monitoring, anti-spam filters, and all other advanced features are valuable."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"Its customer service could be better."
"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."
"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."
"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."
"The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."
"The log sections could be done more clearly."
"It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions."
"Pricing could be lowered slightly."
"I can't get the support that I need from SonicWall."
"We have been facing issues with reporting."
"The technology in this particular version is very old."
"Sonic Analyzer could be improved. It's difficult to manage and not very intuitive."
"The monitoring is a little bit confusing."
"The next release should have better software and configuration systems that can also be used on Linux."
"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."
"Sometimes, the writing rules are a little confusing in how am I doing them."
"I'm not really impressed with the reporting side of it. It may be something I just haven't figured out very well, but it's hard to filter down on reporting of the actual valuable information that you would want. There is a lot of information out there so you have to have some kind of tool capture it and then filter through. So far, I haven't found the reporting side of the WatchGuard to be that user-friendly."
"The few issues that we have had, such as not knowing where to go, they have been answered quickly."
"The solution needs to improve its accessibility."
"I would like to see more tutorials on setting up the Firebox."
"There's always room for improvement, especially if the threats are getting more sophisticated and the IT department cannot sufficiently meet this kind of sophistication with their own knowledge and experience. Knowing that this solution can get up to the level of addressing a lot of these threats is something that everybody wishes for. If we look at the dark web and the lawful web, they are two opposites, and if these two good and bad collide in the world of the internet, you want the best possible product—especially if you cannot get to that point of knowledge. I am just an individual and end user, with limited knowledge of usage. That's why I say there's always room for improvement, from their side and also from mine, because by knowing exactly what they can achieve and the knowledge that they can get on an everyday basis, and the portion that is understandable to me, it's an improvement for them as well."
SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and OPNsense, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Meraki MX and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our SonicWall TZ vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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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.
