We compared Sophos XG and Sophos XGS based on our user's reviews in several parameters.
These include the need for more intuitive user-friendliness, clearer interface, enhanced stability, and improved alert management. Users suggested improvements such as easier navigation, better display of options, and more efficient alert handling. Some users also reported occasional performance issues and system crashes, indicating areas that can be refined for a more reliable user experience.
Features: Sophos XG is known for its advanced threat protection capabilities, seamless integration with security tools, and exceptional technical support, while Sophos XGS focuses on robust security measures, comprehensive network visibility, and efficient performance.
Pricing and ROI: The setup cost for Sophos XG product varies depending on user feedback. Customers have emphasized the overall cost of implementation, the initial investment required, and the licensing arrangements. On the other hand, feedback on Sophos XGS suggests that some users find the product competitively priced and of good value, but there are concerns about significant setup costs and complexities in licensing. Experiences with setup costs differ among users for both products., The Sophos XG product offers positive ROI with its effective protection and simplified network management. On the other hand, Sophos XGS provides a significant increase in ROI by improving security infrastructure and streamlining security operations.
Room for Improvement: Sophos XG has room for improvement in user-friendliness, interface clarity, and stability. Users desire more intuitive navigation, clearer options, and improved alert handling. Performance issues and system crashes are also a concern. Meanwhile, there are areas of opportunity for improvement in Sophos XGS according to user feedback.
Deployment and customer support: The reviews for Sophos XG and Sophos XGS show that the duration required for deployment, setup, and implementation phases varies among users. Some users reported longer deployment duration for XG compared to XGS, while others mentioned similar timeframes for both products. Context is important in understanding the differences., Users have reported positive experiences with the customer service and support provided by both Sophos XG and Sophos XGS. They appreciate the expertise, prompt responsiveness, and willingness to address concerns shown by both teams.
The summary above is based on 79 interviews we conducted recently with Sophos XG and Sophos XGS users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"The UTM feature is quite good. FortiAP is easy to deploy because both Fortigate and FortiAP are under the same brand. Otherwise, you need to do more work on the configuration."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."
"Sophos is a stable solution, and we haven't had any bugs or limitations."
"The user interface is very good."
"The cloud-based interface makes it easy to manage."
"It is stable, flexible, and easy to use. It has got a web management portal that can be accessed from anywhere."
"The product has all the latest features."
"I have found the feature allowing you to manage everything from a centralized location beneficial."
"This is a very stable solution."
"Some of the most valuable features are filtering and application control. The DDoS detection also shows traffic jamming and traffic shaping."
"It's easy to use and user-friendly."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"It is scalable."
"Setup was straightforward. One person is enough for deployment."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The scalability of Sophos XGS is very good."
"Sophos XGS is profound as a firewall and security product."
"The solution is stable."
"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"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."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Technical support for this solution can be improved."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."
"There's an IP address delivery for our VPN client and a limited range of IP addresses. So this is a problem in the latest firmware release, but rather than using homework scenarios, we need a lot of VPN clients."
"XG is at its end of life. People are moving to XGS."
"In the Sophos XG, the SD-WAN has all the rules done separately, such as net policy routing. In the previous version, they were all in a single rule and everything was done that way. The way it is now is difficult for us because we are not used to this newer version. The firewall rules should be easier to configure and create. Everything should be done with a single click."
"The only issue that Sophos XG now needs to improve is the product's reporting capability."
"I would like to have better SSL decryption and HTTP decryption. There should be filtering of SSL and HTTP traffic. Sophos XG consumes a lot of endpoint resources. It consumes a lot of RAM and CPU resources, and they should look into this."
"Sometimes when you roll out a new firmware, you find that the rules you already have in place are broken, so it's difficult to migrate to a new firmware. That's the only downside I've experienced in Sophos."
"Technical support could be improved. They aren't as responsive as they could be."
"I would like the update process to be easier, to update the firmware of the boxes. I think it's much better automatically than having to do it manually: Download the file, do network discovery. I they can make the update process much more automatic that would help."
"The price of Sophos XGS could improve, it is high."
"Sophos' technical support has degraded in the last couple of years. They seem to need to ask a lot of questions, even with simple problems, and take a long time to provide solutions."
"There are a lot of false-positive cases."
"The first time a person sets it up, they will need training."
"Reporting could be improved. The structure could be better because most of the reports aren't detailed."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
"We'd like an interface that can monitor everything."
"Sometimes, we haven't received proper support. They couldn't find the solutions that we required. One thing that we need is an NTP server facility. The Sophos XGS device does not have this capacity or this feature."
Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 18th in Firewalls with 58 reviews. Sophos XG is rated 8.2, while Sophos XGS is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Highly stable, scalable, and priced well". Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox, Meraki MX and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Sophos XG vs. Sophos XGS report.
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