Sophos XG vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall comparison

Sophos and Zscaler are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Sophos is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2, while Zscaler is ranked #25 with an average rating of 8.3. Sophos holds a 10.7% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Zscaler’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 93% of Sophos users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 13, 2025

Sophos XG and Zscaler Cloud Firewall are significant players in the cybersecurity industry, competing in the network and web security category. Sophos XG may have an upper hand in comprehensive traditional security features, while Zscaler stands out in cloud-based scalability and operational efficiency.

Features: Sophos XG offers Web and Application Filtering, IPS, and Anti-malware capabilities. It integrates with endpoints for enhanced security with features like Synchronized Security and Sophos Sandstorm for sandboxing. Zscaler Cloud Firewall, designed for the cloud, provides superior scalability and web security. It operates without hardware, offering cloud-specific features that cater to modern security demands.

Room for Improvement: Users of Sophos XG point out the need for improvements in RAM performance, packet monitoring, and centralized management. The technical support and documentation can also be enhanced. Zscaler users suggest better integration with legacy systems and a need for improved policy customization and more extensive data center coverage to decrease latency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sophos XG suits on-premises and hybrid environments, offering robust hardware and versatile deployment options. Zscaler excels with its rapid deployment due to a cloud-native architecture. Feedback on Sophos XG support varies by region, whereas specific customer service experiences with Zscaler are less frequently discussed.

Pricing and ROI: Sophos XG has mid-range pricing with competitive long-term licenses, seeing strong ROI through comprehensive features that minimize management burdens. Zscaler is perceived as more expensive, particularly for small businesses, but its cloud-focused advantages justify the cost for many. It appeals less to price-sensitive users than Sophos XG, which offers diverse pricing models adjustable to various budgets.

To learn more, read our detailed Sophos XG vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XG vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XG is 10.7%, up from 9.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Cloud Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

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.

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TarunPanchal

IT Manager , SAP HANA Administrator at Tara Paints & Chemicals

Decades of expertise lead to seamless installations and robust security

I typically use the Sophos XG Firewall to enhance my cybersecurity by using all layers. The intrusion prevention system impacts my security posture effectively, as we have not faced any ransomware or cyber threats. I have more than 800 servers live from Sophos. The synchronized security feature has proven to be very beneficial, and I have not encountered any issues. Sophos XG Firewall has contributed to reducing overall costs because it helps save money. We purchased endpoint security for the first time last year, and even without endpoint security, it provides comprehensive security. Sophos XG uses AI effectively to enhance threat detection and response, securing from AI at the packet level.

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Bhaskar Rao

Network manager admin at Yamaha

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is value for money."

"The ECC management and the GUI that offers single interface management are the most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate."

"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."

"The inspection and web security features are most valuable."

"What I appreciate about Fortinet FortiGate is that the UI is easier than what I've previously known from Sophos."

"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."

"We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."

"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is SD-WAN."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Easy to deploy and user friendly."

"The most valuable feature I have found to be the reporting function."

"The updates are helpful and add to the solution in a positive way."

"Because of the pandemic, the VPN is the most valuable feature."

"My experience with deploying Sophos XG was easy."

"The initial setup is pretty simple."

"My clients gain efficiency in protecting against attacks from malware such as ransomware and hacker attacks. It also provides them efficient internet access control, and full visibility of ports, applications, and websites."

"The stability of Sophos XG is very good. However, there have been some issues with other weaker models because they are limited in hardware in resources."

More Sophos XG pros

"Zscaler Cloud Firewall understands the applications in the current generation and adapts to the present generation cloud applications."

"Zscaler is still a very good product."

"The solution offers good sandboxing."

"I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate."

"The scalability is okay. We have around 2200 people using this solution."

"Since it is really customizable, I can use it and avoid enabling access to the full network."

"Most of the features that Zscaler has to offer, we will deploy."

"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."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pros

Cons

"We faced difficulties with the configuration because there are many features we could optimize using Fortinet FortiGate, but our reseller didn't have a good understanding of it. So, we just use it on a basic level, not with the best practice for using FortiGate."

"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."

"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."

"At this moment, we believe that Fortinet FortiGate should be improved by injecting more AI because the kind of threats we are seeing are more ransomware threats. Fortinet FortiGate is able to ensure these threats do not enter, but we would prefer to see more proactive alerting mechanisms come out."

"At the moment, the main concern is the pricing and the type of licensing."

"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the protection, it did not prevent us from being attacked. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate could provide more features for WAF devices. I should not have to purchase two solutions, it would be a benefit to combine these features into one solution."

"They need faster serviceability and more security features."

"Vulnerability scanning could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Some of the firewall rules are complicated for us to understand, they should be simplified."

"The MTR feature needs enhancing."

"The solution could improve by having better security."

"The support engineers of the product are not very tech-savvy, making it an area where improvements are required."

"Recently, I've had a problem with updating things."

"One area of improvement is the lack of cross-cluster capability, meaning you need different sets of tasks and pipelines for each Kubernetes cluster."

"The weakest point is the technical support because they are difficult to get into contact with."

"It is already secure but it could be better in terms of other breaches that may occur."

More Sophos XG cons

"Instead of the standard license, they should certainly provide customers with the visibility to access and view the logs."

"We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee."

"There are several areas for improvement. Firstly, the GUI is outdated, with noticeable lags and delays, especially when generating reports for past transactions."

"Certain criteria need to be met if you want to scale this solution."

"Data Leak Prevention is only for web filtering and there is no protection for email."

"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."

"They do not provide a few components that are fundamental to differentiate the products"

"Zscaler Cloud Firewall should have a better understanding of all dynamic cloud applications."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has a competitive price."

"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."

"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 price is high compared to some of the other solutions."

"It's a very full-featured and it's priced well solution."

"It was worth the money overall. It's good value."

"There is no challenge in Fortinet FortiGate pricing."

"Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"When comparing with Palo Alto and Cisco, Sophos is cheaper."

"The tool's pricing and licensing are very complex. As a developing company, we need approvals from management to make a purchase, which can take time. We asked Sophos XG to renew our current firewall license for one or two months while we plan to accommodate our increasing IT assets."

"My customers pay a license for one or three years to use Sophos XG."

"The price is good for the moment."

"The price of the solution is reasonable when comparing it to other solutions."

"The price can be a bit steep but for the number of features, it is worth it."

"For licensing the XG 210, we paid approximately $3000 for three years. There are no additional fees on top of this."

"The subscription costs approximately $300 yearly."

More Sophos XG pricing and cost advice

"There are different subscription models available."

"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 not the most budget-friendly solution, but it's important to consider its overall value."

"Zscaler is priced too high compared to the cost of Fortinet."

"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."

"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."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

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...

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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...

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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 ...

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Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...

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What are the main differences in features between Sophos XG and FortiGate 80F?

Hi Arvind P , The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Fact...

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What do you like most about Sophos XG?

IPS works smoothly.

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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...

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What do you like most about Zscaler Cloud Firewall?

The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution.

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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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

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OPNsense vs Sophos XG

Compared 10% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos XG

Compared 9% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Sophos XG

Compared 5% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sophos XG

Compared 4% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sophos XG

Compared 4% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 14% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

OPNsense vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Sophos XG

July 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

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Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Sophos XG is a versatile network security solution that offers network protection, firewall management, VPN access, web filtering, and intrusion prevention, providing comprehensive security for businesses from small offices to large enterprises.

Sophos XG stands out for its Synchronized Security, easy setup, and robust templates. It manages VPN access, protects against threats, and handles load balancing and traffic monitoring. The cloud-based management, centralized dashboard, and detailed logging make it user-friendly and reliable. Integration of features like email protection, SD-WAN, and unified threat management ensures a broad spectrum of security needs are covered. However, it could benefit from improvements in network security, user portals, technical support, and more scalable SD-WAN features.

What are the key features of Sophos XG?

Synchronized Security: Orchestrates threat intelligence sharing between endpoints and firewall.
Unlimited SSL VPN Clients: Provides extensive VPN client support for secure remote access.
Cloud-Based Management: Facilitates remote administration with a cloud-hosted platform.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and blocks potential threats in real-time.
Centralized Dashboard: Offers a comprehensive view of network security status.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Scalability: Easily adapts to growing business needs.
User-Friendliness: Simplified setup and intuitive management.
Effective Threat Protection: Provides robust security against a wide range of threats.
Comprehensive Reporting: Delivers detailed insights and analytics.
Cost-Effectiveness: Competitive in pricing with flexible deployment options.

Sophos XG is implemented across industries such as healthcare, education, and finance to secure sensitive data and ensure regulatory compliance. It aids in endpoint protection, application control, load balancing, and traffic monitoring essential for these industries. Enhancing network security, simplifying VPN setup, and integrating adaptive security features remain focal points for businesses.

Sophos

Zscaler enables the world’s leading organizations to securely transform their networks and applications for a mobile and cloud first world. Its flagship services, Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Private Access, create fast, secure connections between users and applications, regardless of device, location, or network. Zscaler services are 100% cloud-delivered and offer the simplicity, enhanced security, and improved user experience that traditional appliances or hybrid solutions are unable to match. Used in more than 185 countries, Zscaler operates the world’s largest cloud security platform, protecting thousands of enterprises and government agencies from cyberattacks and data loss.

Check more details: https://www.zscaler.com/produc...

Zscaler

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

Information Not Available

Zenith Live, Azure, Carlsberg Group

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XG vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

July 2025

Free Report: Sophos XG vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

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