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Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard XTM [EOL] comparison

 

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

Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (5th)
WatchGuard XTM [EOL]
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Bashir Bashir - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Vegol
Firewall management has become simpler and now provides real-time visibility and bandwidth control
The features I have found most valuable in Sophos UTM are that it is much easier to configure, I appreciate the reporting side of it, and the rules are very straightforward to work with. Sophos UTM's real-time insights into network health help my organization because I get real-time reports on what is happening on my network, what is trying to access me, the destination, and all that. I can then be reactive or proactive, and for zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier. The use of Sophos UTM's intuitive management console has impacted my security policy enforcement in that it is much easier to configure; I configure with information rather than with presumptions.
Generalm4545 - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager- IT & Automation - Serum at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Protects from attack software and hacking but it doesn't provide the reports in a readable format
In my opinion, image clarity is very important, because I don't get the proper image product on reports. This means that functionality is not there. My engineer does not know how he can replace an order. We attach a log after any kind of keys using a utility instead. For the internet policies that we are implementing, the policy should be based on proper protocols. We use the default policies and there are a number of third-party protocols that appear here. Management with WatchGuard XTM means that out of policy is the problem from our side. In this way, we can not do effective services for people with this one. The policy definition with WatchGuard XTM is not proper for all use case requirements. I've got weekly business reports that I am expecting attachments with from WatchGuard XTM that display data for all kinds of consideration which should be required. Main User Functionality Level Order must adhere to using the admin functionality on the registry, or else our users publish their own name. Maybe these recommendations are irrelevant, but I say that the issue to improve most with WatchGuard XTM is the Main User Function.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We used several vendor products before UTM, and now it is all in one box - firewall, proxy, and VPN, and Sophos is much easier to manage and configure."
"The isolation of infected machines is a big feature. Also, the ability to detect external sources that change files on a file server is really big."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the efficiency and mail filtering module."
"Less and faster administration, full control of traffic, and a lot of futures included in the base price."
"They are all valuable, but the most valuable is the uplink balancing."
"As both a firewall and UTM it's perfect."
"Other than that, Sophos offers a full replacement for TMG on UTM9."
"This solution improved our firewall capability, and we installed an identity process that is extremely helpful."
"ROI was complete in less than a year."
"We switched because WatchGuard offered better value for money without sacrificing security."
"Security is a requirement for any organization, using WG products you can deploy faster solutions to big problems with a fair price."
"We have used technical support for WatchGuard many times and overall, we are satisfied with it. They are always listening and there is a good reaction time to our findings. When there are issues, they really try to resolve them."
"XTM is more effective and friendly to use than our previous solution, and it also provides me with very good VPN tunnel stability."
"After installing the product, we achieved awareness of our data protection needs and email misuse."
"The product is easy to use and is the fastest way to learn about firewalls."
"It configures in all-in-one place.​"
 

Cons

"We had some problems with the configuration. They had provided a CloudFormation template, and we had to go several rounds to make it work."
"They could definitely improve on the support, especially in other countries."
"There is absolutely no support when using AWS. If you buy the on-premise Sophos solution, you get support."
"The logs are not clear, which means that you need an additional piece of software in order to read them clearly."
"In short, the UI and UX are the areas of improvement in Sophos UTM and similar solutions compared to Palo Alto."
"Sophos UTM's internet security could be better."
"It would be nice if it had basic features, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"I would love to see artificial intelligence capabilities integrated into Sophos UTM."
"One huge issue with WatchGuard XTM is that I'm not getting reports in a readable format. Readable means, I don't want Excel online. We repeat auditing when we trigger the report or setup calendar. That functionality is what we are looking for from WatchGuard XTM here."
"Tech support is sometimes a little bit slow."
"The issue that we had was that the integration with Active Directory was a bit of a hassle."
"The web interface is easy to use but it looks complicated and could be simplified."
"The WatchGuard gateway wireless functionality for managing access points leaves much to be desired."
"I think the anti-Spam feature, and the real time log to inspect the bandwidth users both need improving."
"Our device was not functioning properly, so we returned the product and as a result, our business was down for two days."
"Syslog (Dimension) is focused on presentation, but needs more focus on utility like SonicWall syslog (GMS/Analyzer)."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the product's price a five on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"If you can afford it, go for a small Check Point, as it is easier to manage."
"Sophos UTM's pricing is on the cheaper side."
"Sophos UTM has very reasonable pricing."
"It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget."
"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."
"It's expensive. It has a yearly license."
"The pricing and licensing are both good and better than Sophos's competitors. This is why we went with the product."
"Like all other manufacturers, there are a lot of features and different pricing. The best is to talk to a representative.​"
"Get at least a maintenance contract for the updates and take a larger WatchGuard than you need. A WatchGuard creates new ways to secure your network."
"The licensing and renewal is very expensive."
"It costs less than the SO works and others (like SonicWall, Cisco, and Barracuda) without increasing so much CPU use."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
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
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
16%
Marketing Services Firm
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Performing Arts
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise27
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?
The pricing for Sophos UTM is reasonable; I do not have an issue with it, though I was considering RED because I have different sites I wanted to connect, and instead of doing site-to-site, the RED...
What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?
I would like to improve Sophos UTM in that there is software I use that goes deeper in the reporting on usage. There is software called Fastvue that breaks down everything in the firewall and whate...
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Also Known As

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

One Housing Group
AVG, Cyren, Kaspersky Lab, Lastline, NCP engineering, Trend Micro, Websense
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