VMware Carbon Black App Control vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

VMware and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Application Control category. VMware is ranked #2, while WatchGuard is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.6. Additionally, 100% of VMware users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 5, 2025

WatchGuard Firebox and VMware Carbon Black App Control compete in the cybersecurity space, particularly focusing on network and endpoint security. WatchGuard Firebox often holds an advantage due to its user-friendly interface and versatility in setup, while VMware Carbon Black stands out with its focused application control capabilities, especially for endpoint security.

Features: WatchGuard Firebox provides a user-friendly GUI, easy VPN setup, and integrated web filtering, enhancing usability and security management. It also supports VPN and branch office VPNs, and offers robust management features such as System Manager. VMware Carbon Black App Control is notable for its application control, visibility on endpoints, and prevention of malicious software installations.

Room for Improvement: WatchGuard Firebox could improve compatibility with third-party solutions, enhance its interface design and reporting, and integrate more cloud services. VMware Carbon Black App Control needs to address its handling of false positives, optimize integration with Mac OS, and streamline the application whitelisting process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WatchGuard Firebox is flexible, supporting on-premises, hybrid cloud, and private cloud deployments, and is known for responsive technical support, though response times vary by region. VMware Carbon Black App Control is often deployed on-premises and generally provides knowledgeable support, but sometimes faces delays.

Pricing and ROI: WatchGuard Firebox is competitively priced, delivering quick ROI thanks to its low maintenance needs and comprehensive features. VMware Carbon Black App Control offers competitive pricing within the endpoint security market but is generally more expensive than Firebox, with customers appreciating the investment in its advanced protection features.

To learn more, read our detailed VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. WatchGuard Firebox Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. WatchGuard Firebox

August 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

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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Abul Atti M Salem

Cybersecurity Consultant at KAFD DMC

We can isolate problem machines and limit their access

We use App Control to scan the network for virtual machines that have unauthorized applications. We can isolate the problem VMs and control application access. More than two years. I rate Carbon Black App Control 10 out of 10 for stability. I rate App Control six out of 10 for scalability.…

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Rajesh Makwana

Regional Pre-Sales Engineer at Roundrobin Tech

Efficient bandwidth management and secure network access with a strong firewall

The primary use case of the Firebox mainly revolves around bandwidth management, unnecessary web blocking, application control, and protection against brute force attacks. It is also implemented for load balancing, SD-WAN, and branch-to-branch connectivity from one location to another. We also use…

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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

"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."

"Fortinet FortiGate is among the best options in the market."

"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."

"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."

"Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."

"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."

"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."

"The use of Fortinet FortiGate in an infrastructure saves time, reduces costs, improves the security of users and resources, and prevents data leakage."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"All the functions within VMware Carbon Black App Control are valuable."

"I use the console to check for threats and I find it to be very user-friendly."

"The visibility is valuable."

"The effectiveness of application whitelisting is very good."

"The API integration is good."

"We use App Control to scan the network for virtual machines that have unauthorized applications. We can isolate the problem VMs and control application access."

"If any malicious activity, like VAT viruses, anything RNE, ZOD malware, or something similar, comes in we know that unless we approve it, it's going to be blocked."

"The visibility, reporting, and the ability to stop or prevent malicious or undesired applications from being installed are the most valuable features."

"Firebox operates effectively in the background, blocking potential threats without a need for constant monitoring."

"From my experience with their customer service team, I would say that they seem quite knowledgeable and fairly quick to respond."

"Centralization is a crucial feature for me as it allows me to have all sites and customers accessible under a single click, not limited to just one."

"The protection that it provides from ransomware is valuable. The awareness that it has is also valuable. It didn't have a central console earlier, but now it has a central console, which is pretty good."

"It's pretty simple to understand when you want to do any diagnostics on your network. If you want to go in and see what packages are having trouble getting through, what's being held, stalled, etc., it's very easy to use in that way."

"There are no problems with the technical support. If a problem occurs it gets resolved immediately with our technical support partners."

"I like that this product has very few issues."

"We experienced that WatchGuard is easy to setup regarding VPN compared to other firewalls of other brands."

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"Fortinet could improve the windows opener or the virtual IP solutions for opening windows. The virtual IP settings need improvement as firewalls are trending in new development directions."

"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."

"The main thing they have to improve in Fortinet FortiGate is the technical support; the rest of the features are good enough. We can handle them, but sometimes you really need support, and in that case, we are not getting it at the proper time."

"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."

"In my case, the 101F is not scalable. I faced problems with scalability related to memory. When we hit 100% memory usage, it stops the internet connection, so we need to control the traffic. We cannot increase the memory."

"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."

"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the logging and reporting. Additionally, the next-generation application's policies should be improved. When they were released they had bugs."

"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Carbon Black does not use the database for identifying the file, the fields, or malware."

"I rate App Control six out of 10 for scalability."

"The initial setup is somewhat complex."

"The solution should have overhead in keeping lists of applications that you want don't want to run."

"The reporting is not good and needs to be improved."

"I would like to see the addition of some more features that are in other, similar solutions."

"Another issue is that even sometimes if you approve, for example, Adobe as a publisher, you say any product or anything that's from Adobe has to run. It generally runs, but especially in a large environment and with a lot of users, sometimes, due to some certification validation issues or some other issue, it might stop the process from running. Genuine processes like Adobe and Chrome can get blocked. so that needs to be improved."

"Its setup is very complex, and it requires guidance from the support team, but it is well worth the effort."

"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."

"It would be wonderful if the WatchGuard team develops nice products for threat intelligence."

"WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention needs to improve its support."

"WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention catches so little. When I've implemented it, it just can't look at the traffic in a thorough enough manner to capture as much as it should. And I find that I'm disenchanted with all data loss protection solutions I've tested and looked at."

"Reporting is something you've got to set up separately. It's one of those things that you've got to put some time into. One of the options is to set up a local report server, which is what I did. It's not great. It's okay... Some of the stuff is a little complicated to get up and running. Once you do, it becomes very user-friendly and easy to work with, but I find there are some implementation headaches with some of their stuff."

"The drawbacks are just sometimes not having the technical information that we need in order to easily make connections with all of our Internet-based clients."

"I would like to see more tutorials on setting up the Firebox."

"The ease of detecting where an issue is should be improved."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not a very costly product if you compare it with other products. The return on investment is also good. If you compare the return of investment and money that you are spending on this product with Palo Alto, Cisco, Check Point, and other solutions, the investment is very less. We are happy with this solution. The optional licenses are there, and you can choose which one you want and which one to avoid."

"We have the full license that included all of the features and support."

"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."

"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."

"It's an expensive solution."

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

"No comment."

"The price, in comparison to other products is very cheap."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We pay a fee for support, which is renewed annually."

"Its price is reasonable and what is expected for these types of products."

"The pricing for this product is competitive and our customers who told us that often, Carbon Back is the cheaper solution."

"I spent $600 or $800 on this product and I'm paying a couple of hundred dollars a year in a subscription service to keep the lights on, on it... It works out to $100 or $200 a year if you buy several years at once. It's fair."

"The pricing of WatchGuard is probably a little higher than the SonicWall, but it makes up for it in dependability. It's worth it to me, especially since it's not much higher. For just a little bit higher price you get the dependability of the firewall with the WatchGuard brand."

"Despite the fact that there is always room for improvement, the current pricing of the solution is still lower compared to its competitors."

"Over the years, the costs have increased, especially since I cater to very small businesses."

"The licensing model for WatchGuard Application Control is based on the number of users. WatchGuard Application Control also has licensing models with several features."

"The two larger devices are about $1,000 each and the smaller ones are about $500 or $600 each... It's cheaper and you have more control because it's self-managed."

"The cheapest configuration, for maybe five people, is approximately $500."

"I think the tool is quite competitive compared to the other brands."

More WatchGuard Firebox 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

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Retailer

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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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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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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ThreatLocker Zero Trust Endpoint Protection Platform vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 23% of the time

Ivanti Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 18% of the time

McAfee Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 18% of the time

Airlock Digital Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 11% of the time

Check Point Application Control vs VMware Carbon Black App Control

Compared 10% of the time

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OPNsense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 6% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XG vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos UTM vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

More WatchGuard Firebox Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control

July 2025

Download VMware Carbon Black App Control product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Firebox

July 2025

Download WatchGuard Firebox product report

Also Known As

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

CB Protection, Carbon Black CB Protection

WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

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

Carbon Black is a leading provider of next-generation endpoint security. Carbon Black serves more than 3,700 customers globally, including 33 of the Fortune 100. As a cybersecurity innovator, Carbon Black has a strong heritage of innovative technology leadership in multiple endpoint security categories, including application control, endpoint detection and response (EDR), and next-generation antivirus (NGAV). Leveraging its big data and analytics cloud platform - the Cb Predictive Security Cloud - Carbon Black solutions enable customers to defend against the most advanced cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks. Deployed via the cloud, on premise, or as a managed service, customers use Carbon Black solutions to lock down critical systems, hunt threats, and replace legacy antivirus.

VMware

WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.

WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.

What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?

Ease of Setup: Quick and straightforward installation process.
GUI: User-friendly graphical interface for simplified navigation.
VPN Features: Secure and efficient virtual private network management.
Web Filtering: Advanced filtering for safer browsing experiences.
Threat Detection: Proactive monitoring and detection of cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Centralized Control: Streamlined management from a single point.
High Throughput: Efficient data handling and processing capacity.
Stable Performance: Consistent and reliable operational functionality.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless connection with user directories.
Customer Service: Strong support service for customer inquiries.

WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.

WatchGuard

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

Kaas Tailored, Core-Mark, Indeed, Hologic, Landmark Credit Union, Project Worldwide

Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence

Buyer's Guide

VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. WatchGuard Firebox

August 2025

Free Report: VMware Carbon Black App Control vs. WatchGuard Firebox

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