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Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB Room for Improvement

Abdul  Basit - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Manager IT at Asia Petroleum Limited

I think URL filtering could be better to some extent.

Improvements could be made in Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB compared to Sophos. The URL filtering option in Palo Alto gives a very clear vision of the network and the applications using URL filtering. If you assign a user in a group not to access certain URLs, that user should only be allowed to access LinkedIn without running videos. However, deep URL filtering in Palo Alto is not configurable. One user can have access to LinkedIn with video running, while another cannot. They should improve this deep analysis of URL filtering options.

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AP
Engineer at Kahramaa

The drawback we see compared to FortiGate, which we use as an internal firewall in the data center, is the clustering behavior that has a different approach.

From Panorama, the management perspective on daily operations, FortiGate has a different method of policy pushing and other functionalities.

It would be beneficial to have support for geographically dispersed clustering, especially when having multiple data centers and wanting to migrate, enabling one firewall in one data center and another firewall in another data center in an active-active approach.

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AA
Student at a educational organization with 201-500 employees

I am a fan of Palo Alto Networks and do not notice many negative aspects. However, Palo Alto should not be expected to behave exactly like Zscaler since they have other functionalities, like firewall inspections and routing. Some software management-wise scalability features need improvement.

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Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2519496 - PeerSpot reviewer
Owner at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

The main limitation is that it needs a live Internet connection for ongoing updates. URL filtering may not be necessary without Internet connectivity, as you wouldn't be accessing URLs. It's important to note that URL filtering itself doesn't require a separate license. The license you purchase grants access to the URL database and category mappings. If you're comfortable creating and managing your categories, you can use URL filtering without a subscription.

Many of the employees, particularly in first-tier customer support, lack experience. This often results in repetitive questions and strict adherence, even if you have completed several steps.

The biggest differentiator is its integration with WildFire. When a Palo Alto user worldwide submits a new file to the sandbox for evaluation, antivirus signatures, and URL database entries are automatically generated and propagated if the file is found malicious. While competitors aim to achieve similar results, they have not yet reached the same execution level as Palo Alto.

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MV
Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

One of the less favorite features is the cost of the solution. For example, ~5K for a PA-820 AND ~$1K EACH *per year* for Premium Support, Threat Prevention, and PANDB URL filtering. We also implement other solutions. We tell customers that if they want to have the best possible perimeter security, they're going to have to pay for it. Some smaller entities don't have the budget for it, so we'll suggest Fortinet or something that has similar but inferior capabilities, but is less expensive.

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KS
Sr Cloud Data Architect at Sun Cloud LLC

We have been trying make Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB work with ELK stack. We have had some challenges with that because we are getting limited SNMP. It would be good if it worked better with ELK stack.

I'm only able to do it faster when I log into the device and not through Panorama.

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reviewer1295949 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Services and Engineering at a tech consulting company with 11-50 employees

Support needs to be enhanced.

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reviewer1396008 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees

An area for improvement would be the technical support, which can be slow.

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DS
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees

It would be ideal if this solution could be a separate product rather than have to have it deploy through a firewall. If it was a separate product, many of our customers would be happier as most just require a URL filtering option. They do not require a firewall. They do not require any threat prevention or anything. 

If it was a separate product, we could deploy it to branch offices or any of our customer locations in which different firewalls are being used. 

The solution is a bit expensive.

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AA
Deputy manager IT at Hyundai Nishad

One way Palo Alto can improve is by offering sandboxing. I don't know if they currently offer a sandboxing feature together with the firewall or not. They should provide secure sandboxing with the firewalls.


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reviewer818484 - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Manager at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees

Performance monitoring could use improvement. 

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BB
Sr. Systems Analyst at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

The biggest improvement is the categories per site. For hosting sites like Blogspot, they host sites that should be in different categories, but get lumped together in general. There needs to be more granularity or multiple categorizations.

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Buyer's Guide
Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB
June 2025
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.
860,168 professionals have used our research since 2012.