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Sophos UTM vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall 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)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
113
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
Zscaler Cloud Firewall
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
8.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (26th)
 

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.
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.
Bhaskar Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Though it helps deal with web traffic or any malicious traffic, it needs to work on its DC performance issues
The product's initial setup phase is moderate in level, so it is neither very complex nor very easy. For the deployment, my company first needs to gather all the requirements of the users and the domain names and consider how many users there are in the company. In the implementation and planning part, my company needs to consider what kind of policies we will create while ensuring that the policies are created based on the requirements of the users. There is a need to segregate the users' requirements since there are separate departments in the company, like the HR department, sales department, IT department, and manufacturing department, so that our company can create policies depending on their requirements. On-site, if you want a GRE tunnel, our company can handle GRE tunnel traffic routing and Zscaler Cloud Firewall, after which Zscaler will take action based on the policies created by our organization. For the deployments and maintenance, a team of five members consisting of two managers and three engineers is required.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has upscaled our security posture, especially regarding external connectivity, because any access or connection from the company has to go through the Fortinet FortiGate firewall."
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"Overall, I would rate Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten."
"We have found it to be very reliable and that's why our teams and various users in our company use it as our main firewall every day."
"Fortinet offers the latest versions to cater to the needs of enterprises."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"The solution has improved my organization significantly, with impactful capabilities such as sandboxing and cloud solutions, such as XDR, MDR, and EDR."
"The most valuable feature is the bundled subscription, which is IPS, TV and web filtering."
"The initial setup has been fine."
"I like the web filtering options."
"Efficient and effective - it's easy to separate rules."
"It helped to connect our satellite offices to the main Amazon infrastructure in a circular way."
"Sophos UTM has a good user interface and granular security controls."
"Technical support is very responsive."
"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 stability, overall, is excellent. I haven't had a problem in the last two years."
"It is a stable solution."
"The solution offers good sandboxing."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Most of the features that Zscaler has to offer, we will deploy."
"It provides in-depth visibility into your network, ensuring that traffic flowing into your organization, be it from offices or individual users, is effectively filtered and secured through multiple layers of protection."
"The visibility and log availability offered are highly valued for troubleshooting purposes, and this is a key factor driving customer interest in the firewall module."
"Since it is really customizable, I can use it and avoid enabling access to the full network."
"Zscaler Cloud Firewall understands the applications in the current generation and adapts to the present generation cloud applications."
 

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"One of the most important areas for improvement for Fortinet FortiGate is the limited resources for tests. I was limited to a few interfaces for one month, and it would be great if Fortinet could improve these features in their test versions."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"If I had any criticism that I would give FortiGate, it would be that they need to stop changing their logging format. Every time we do a firmware upgrade, it is a massive issue on the SIM. Parsers have to be rebuilt. Even the FortiGate guys came in and said that they don't play well in the sandbox."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"Fortinet doesn't provide multiple virtual firewalls which would facilitate end users and customers."
"The UTM filtering needs improvement."
"In Sophos UTM there is always a problem with the routing tables. If you want to see the routing table, you have to use the UI. You can't do it via a web browser. The routing table is better in Fortinet."
"The management suite is easy and the agent is easy to develop."
"When we call support, we get put on hold for a long time."
"The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing."
"The documentation during the AWS integration was a little fuzzy on getting it to work with how the whole public exposure versus private exposure, then routing some of the traffic."
"Anti-phishing functionality should be improved."
"The reporting system needs to allow for customizations because many reports do not include details that we expect."
"The interface configuration could be improved."
"If I can get rid of Jetscaler, I will use Twingate for sure."
"The issue right now is probably that Zscaler is not providing web browser isolation. Another solution, Menlo, offers this. For one customer, we had to send traffic to Menlo to do the isolation for us. It was requested by the customer so that they could integrate any iframe. Zscaler needs to add this type of feature in their next release."
"I don't have the visibility of a control dashboard or a network management system."
"Its technical support services could be better."
"There are some areas it could improve when it comes to blocking, we have to block some things manually. For example, if we block a top-level domain we have seen that the new IPs come through, the IPs are not blocked. There should be some more granular way of doing it. My only request is if you're blocking something at a top level, the sub-level sub-domains and all those other IPs should be blocked too automatically."
"Data Leak Prevention is only for web filtering and there is no protection for email."
"Because it's on cloud, it doesn't allow application of extra settings."
"It would be better if they improved their policy, package visibility, and flexibility while we're creating rules for inspection. It could also be cheaper or more things could be included in the basic package. In the next release, I would like better coverage in the Asia Pacific region and better quality of service."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is more expensive than Sophos. Fortinet is overall more expensive than Sophos. The small range of Fortinet, such as 60F and 80F, is more expensive than the small range of Sophos. Sophos is cheaper. In addition, if you jump from 80F Series to 100F Series, the price doubles."
"The pricing of the solution is very competitive."
"Fortinet FortiGate allows you to purchase licenses for hardware and software."
"We just pay a flat monthly fee to the vendor for the support."
"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."
"Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."
"The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."
"The price is fair for what we get with FortiGate."
"For under 50 users, MSP licensing is profitable."
"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 prices can be better, they could make it a lot cheaper."
"Unless you are in the United States, or you have to use Sophos, you can't contact Sophos directly. You have to use a third-party ​company, and they all have different ways of how they explain their licensing."
"Sophos UTM's pricing is on the cheaper side."
"The solution's pricing is based on a licensing model and is competitive."
"I have no problem with the cost or licensing of this solution. This is a primary reason whay I wanted this solution. It does the same thing cheaper than other name brands."
"We purchased the appliance with five years onsite support and licenses."
"There are different subscription models available."
"There is an annual license required for the use of the Zscaler Cloud Firewall."
"It comes at a significantly reduced cost while ensuring control and effectiveness."
"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product is a bit expensive compared to the solutions offered by its competitors, like Palo Alto. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the license in charges associated with the product."
"It is expensive for small businesses."
"There are licensing costs, and I would not say that it's a cheap vendor."
"The licensing is on a yearly basis. It is somewhere around 30 or 40 pounds per user for our organization."
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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
17%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Retailer
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 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 ...
Which lesser known firewall product has the best chance at unseating the market leaders?
Netscope, Zscaler if they continue route they are on now. FIrewalls needs great deal of automation on each end, datac...
What do you like most about Zscaler Cloud Firewall?
The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Cloud Firewall?
Zscaler Cloud Firewall is quite expensive compared to competitors. However, it offered moderate value for money.
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Astaro
No data available
 

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
One Housing Group
Zenith Live, Azure, Carlsberg Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Sophos UTM vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
857,162 professionals have used our research since 2012.