Sangfor NGAF Reviews

We use Sangfor NGAF's next-generation firewall as a security firewall which includes a web application firewall, web app filtering, and URL filtering. It also helps us defend against botnet attacks and similar threats.

In my office, there are about three people who are involved in the direct use of it, although not too many others know about the firewall yet because it's a new product.

The absolute best part of Sangfor NGAF is their support. It's a 24/7 support channel, and the last time I requested their assistance I got a reply within three minutes. They helped solve the problem immediately.

Sangfor also gives you a warranty for any issues or defects with their hardware. If you find any issue, they will replace the hardware within five working days. We send any hardware that is faulty to our local country partner and they will do the RMA. 

When it comes to deployment environments, I like that you have options. If you want a hardware firewall, then you can use their hardware. Conversely, if you want a cloud firewall, then they can provide that, too.

I would be happy if Sangfor developed a firewall designed specifically for home use, as well as for small businesses such as clinics and so on. A household version of the Sangfor firewall for your personal computer or laptop would be ideal, in my opinion.

I have used Sangfor NGAF for about four years.

Sangfor NGAF is very stable and comes with a hardware warranty where they will replace the defective hardware within five working days. So if something goes wrong, you don't have to fix it, but instead you can just get it replaced.

Sangfor have divided their firewalls into several categories, so you have multiple options with regard to scalability and how many users you need to account for.

For example, if you've got low bandwidth requirements, you might want to deploy the 5200 model. But as you go into higher bandwidths, you will have to deploy the 5300 model or higher.

My recent experience with their support was wonderful. I had an error come up on my Google Chromecast device, where it would simply restart over and over again because it was blocked on the firewall.

When I opened a ticket with Sangfor support to help solve this problem, one of their support members called me within three minutes and asked about the issue. They discovered what was wrong and resolved it. From this experience alone, I can say their support is the very best.

Positive

It's very easy to set up. They provide support services on a 24/7 basis, and with this support it makes everything easier to install, configure, and troubleshoot. I would give them a perfect score for support.

If you know you have around 200+ computer users on your network, then the Sangfor NGAF 5200-F-I model would be the minimum recommended model for that amount of users. This model includes modules for packet filtering, deep packet inspection, malware scanning, DSCP filtration, and many other features.

The 5200-F-I model costs around $5,000 once-off, and then around $1,000 per year for the license renewal for both the hardware and software. The $5,000 payment includes deployment, all the modules, the initial license costs till the next year, and deployment support calls. It covers basically everything to get started, and I would rate the pricing as 5/5 stars in terms of competitiveness.

When evaluating Sangfor NGAF with its competitors' products, the first thing I would note is that the other solutions are not likely to fulfill their hardware warranties within five business days, as Sangfor does.

Another advantage of Sangfor is cost. Many other firewall companies offer their products at a high licensing cost, and the modules that come with these solutions are also very costly. In contrast, the Sangfor firewall is not only highly affordable to procure, but it's also very cheap to deploy.

Finally, when you compare Sangfor with Fortinet, for instance, there is a big difference when it comes to configuration. With Fortinet, you typically have multiple different products to configure for various purposes, such as FortiEDR and FortiAnalyzer. All these products from Fortinet have to be configured with the different algorithms and modules that they suggest. But in Sangfor NGAF, everything is in one window.

I would rate Sangfor NGAF a ten out of ten.

Sangfor NGAF offers the same features as any other firewall product in the market. In terms of the valuable feature, I would say that the low cost the product offers was one of the major deciding factors when choosing the product in our company.

There are some difficulties with the deployment of the LDAP part in Sangfor NDAF, making it an area of concern where improvements are required.

The support offered by the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required. The knowledge levels and response time of the support team need improvement.

I have been using Sangfor NGAF for three months. I am the head of the IT team in my company. My team members use Sangfor NGAF.

Considering that my company has been using the product for only a few months, I rate the product's stability a five out of ten.

The scalability offered by the product is neither bad nor good.

Around 150 users of the product, and it is double in number if you consider the handheld devices in my company.

The services from the solution's technical support have not been as satisfying as my company expected. I rate the technical support a three out of ten.

Negative

I have experience with Fortinet. My company chose Sangfor NGAF after Fortinet ran out of its capability to offer support, considering how the tool has become too old.

I rate the product's deployment phase a five on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a difficult process and ten means it is an easy process. The deployment phase can be difficult to manage in certain places, while in some other areas, it can be easy.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price.

As there are some problems with the product partner, my company has not been able to fit in the web-filtering functionality of the product to meet our needs.

So far, the performance and reliability of the product have supported our company's critical network traffic.

I don't recommend the product to others who plan to use it, considering that the tool has problems in areas like support and deployment.

I rate the product a four out of ten.

Our company uses the solution for perimeter security. We are distributors in the Middle East and Africa. We look for competitive analysis against Fortinet and Sophos. 

The price versus value is good because the solution is less expensive than Sophos, Fortinet, or SonicWall. 

The interface and user experience are horrible. To perform simple things, you need to jump between many screens. There is no simplicity, everything is complex. 

The available information is lacking. I'm struggling to give my coworker information about how to configure. The public information available is too old and hasn't been updated. 

The solution is not out-of-the-box because it requires a mandatory license. 

Outside of China, the solution does not offer active-active, virtual domains, or concurrent sessions. The CCB or UTB sessions and BPM channels are very low. The solution is a Chinese product and that side is different from the rest of the world. China has version 8.0.59 but the rest of the world has 8.0.47 only. 

The solution has very, very slow hardware performance. 

I have been using the solution for one year. 

The solution is stable so I rate stability an nine out of ten. 

The solution is not really scalable because it is limited by the capability of the box. You cannot scale out or up because there are hardware limitations. 

Scalability is rated a zero out of ten. 

In Asia, technical support is good but it is very weak in our region. When you are looking for information from technical support, it will take ages for them to respond but chances are good that they won't respond at all. 

Even presale support is not good. 

I rate support a two out of ten. 

Negative

The setup is complex because the interface is not good. 

For someone who is already a professional with another product, the setup is rated a five out of ten. For someone with security experience only, the setup is rated a one out of ten. 

We implemented the solution in-house. One experienced person can deploy. 

Setup for someone who is experienced with other products will take a day for configuration.

Someone who knows security but doesn't know other products like Fortinet, Sophos, or SonicWall will struggle. It takes days to fetch out between sequences and you have to jump between screens for things like ABI, email security, and DLP. It takes time to figure out the proper sequence. 

The solution has a total cost of ownership that is 32% to 50% less than Sophos, Fortinet, and SonicWall. Licenses are also less expensive than Sophos. 

The solution is not out-of-the box because a license is mandatory. You cannot operate the device by itself. This makes no sense because you should be able to use the default features or operate it without a license. Even if the device is capable, you still need a license. 

The four categories of licenses are features, hardware, software updates or technical support, and advanced features. The vendor insists it is mandatory to buy the minimum features license. This license mandate is very strange. 

The solution might raise its prices because Fortinet is increasing between 5% to 20% depending on the product and the solution competes with Fortinet. If the leader in the industry increases prices, other vendors will likely follow. 

The pricing right now is an eight out of ten because it is good.

Fortinet is one of the best products so I recommend its use instead. There is continuous development and good R&D for the product.

I would not recommend use of the solution at all. There has not been one single improvement or feature update in the last year. The solution is very bad at R&D. 

The solution also keeps changing names and product positioning. It used to be called Butler, then Cloud Platforms. 

There is not a single Sangfor employee right now outside of China who can give an explanation of their products. They don't know how the products even work. For example, they can't explain who can book the NGAF with Neural-X, with Engine Zero, or with a Platform-X or Butler cyber command. 

I rate the solution a four out of ten. 

Sangfor NGAF specializes in ransomware detection and helps to protect our network from ransomware threats and malware. This is the primary reason we purchased this solution, and we are currently negotiating to upgrade our appliances to volume M5200 Series. Additionally, Sangfor NGAF provides a web application for financial software.

We use Sangfor NGAF primarily for security, which has helped save our files from being encrypted by ransomware. Our desktop PCs have essential data, like word files and excel documents. 

We previously had a ransomware attack on our file server, and Sangfor NGAF protected us by alerting and disconnecting the server from the network.

The firewall system needs gradual improvements because there are more threats and challenges in the world every day. Sangfor NGAF has a comprehensive database for ransomware and viruses, but when we compare it to other solutions, the price could be more competitive.

Since we have a very comprehensive solution with Sangfor NGAF, it is hard to identify any additional features we want to add. It already provides good features for ransomware attacks and data recovery. In the past, we wanted encrypted data for a virus to be recoverable, and Sangfor offered the solution.

We have been using Sangfor NGAF for four years. We use it for overall IT infrastructure protection and are currently using version 1 of Model M5100.

We currently deploy a hybrid infrastructure of cloud and on-premises. We use the solution for our accounting and financial software, websites, internet blocking, and other features. Some clients are on the cloud, and others are on-premises. We also have a Sangfor solution that filters the in and out traffic.

The solution is relatively stable. Interestingly, we discontinued the updates and software licenses about a year ago, and the appliance and solutions are still working. In addition, there is no limitation on the license, so services won't stop if it expires. You can also update the license at any time for a partial cost.

This solution is scalable. We can add many features and lengths and expand according to our needs.

The IT specialists and engineers in my organization use this solution. Our whole organization is under the protection of Sangfor NGAF. The solution has footprints in India and Europe and many government agencies use Sangfor NGAF in Pakistan.

For deployment, we needed three people who were all IT specialists, and only one of them was from Sangfor. As a result, we deployed it with very few resources, and there were no recurring charges. Also, most people are very well-versed in technology and can multitask.

The technical support team was very helpful, provided support, and guided us during our initial deployment. We were good to go in 15 to 20 minutes.

We previously used Sophos and pfSense, an open-source firewall. 

The initial setup was very straightforward. The solution is out of the box, and the software and appliance can be quickly installed. It has a very nice AI feature, and we only needed to implement parameters and define some policies. The deployment took 15 to 20 minutes because we had to get familiar with the new system. 

We defined WAN and LAN networks for our implementation strategy and then defined the servers. Next, we identified the modes and decided the desktop would be the best. There were other considerations but it has been four years, so it is hard to remember all of them.

We completed our deployment in-house.

We have seen a return on investment. The systems are protected, and their operating systems are readily available. We are protected from ransomware attacks and the loss of data. This solution protects us, and it has benefits.

On a scale of one to ten, with one being the cheapest, I rate the price a six out of ten. There are no hidden or additional costs other than what we were provided. Therefore, we are happy with our initial decisions.

We evaluated other options and completed some financial comparisons but the IT specialists advised that Sangfor NGAF worked well. 

I rate this product an eight out of ten because we don't know what we may need from this solution in the future. We are satisfied and hope to upgrade to a new version soon. However, right now, our current version is working fine.

In terms of advice, we would recommend Sangfor NGAF. But, a company should first prepare an analysis, compare different products, and then decide what they want.

We use the solution to connect and protect all the internal servers. All publicly accessible websites and servers are connected to the solution.

The product is very fast and reliable. It has a quick response.

The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup.

I have been using the solution for one and a half years.

Around 150 users are using the solution in my organization. Both internal and external traffic goes through the firewall because the firewall is placed on the main data center.

If we have any issues, we read the documentation. If the issue cannot be fixed, we can contact the support team. I have not contacted the support team yet. I configure things by myself.

We were using Cisco’s firewall before. It ended support. We cannot use the products that have ended support. Cisco and Sangfor work similarly, but their GUIs are different.

The initial setup is very easy.

It is one of the cheapest tools in the market. The choice depends on the customer’s budget.

Overall, I rate the product a nine out of ten.

My company's customers use the solution as a firewall. Some prefer Sangfor NGAF as a replacement for their current existing firewall. The reason why I am proposing Sangfor NGAF is mainly because of its price point. The tool is very cost-effective compared to other brands.

The tool's most effective part stems from the product's ease of use, which is very important because the client has to manage it at the end of the day.

I think the tool has the feature to detect and kill ransomware in three seconds. The tool claims that it can kill the ransomware on the spot in three seconds and restore all the encrypted files.

The tool's support is an area of concern where improvements are required. The support should be available locally, I would say. As of now, I think the tool is moving towards offering local support. I have heard from my previous customer that the support is actually from another region, making it quite hard for them to get in touch with the technical team.

I have been using Sangfor NGAF for a year. My company is a reseller of the product. I don't remember the version of the solution.

It is a stable solution because of the ease of use and inside the firewall itself, the tool offers WAF. Customers who hear that WAF is integrated into the firewall get interested in the solution. WAF is actually another solution. Instead of purchasing a WAF product, you get it inside Sangfor NGAF. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

In our company, we deal with a wide range of things. The scalability depends on what range the customer chooses. I can't pinpoint or explain the tool's scalability aspect in detail. Different types of firewall models are available.

Under five customers of my company use the tool, and they are all enterprise businesses.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

If one is difficult and ten is easy to set up, I rate the product's initial setup phase an eight out of ten. I never deployed the tool. I am sharing my engineering experience.

I am not quite sure about the deployment situation.

The solution is deployed on the cloud.

If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten. I am not quite sure about the tool's pricing point.

Sangfor NGAF has not shared how it has impacted our customer security operations with my company's sales team. If they do share such information, it is usually with the sales team while I am on the presales team. I am only a consultant, so the product doesn't share such details directly with me.

The tool helped our customers with threat mitigation strategies because it has AI functionalities that are helpful.

Suppose an enterprise customer wants a firewall as the first thing inside the company because of its cost-effectiveness. In that case, I think Sangfor NGAF can be a good option as it comes with the features and abilities of the firewall. I think it is quite a great option for enterprise users.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Sangfor NGAF's standout feature is its powerful application control, enabling precise restrictions on mobile user access to approved applications. The system's adept intrusion detection further fortifies our network, preventing potential threats.

Sangfor NGAF could improve by refining its application control policies, especially in addressing challenges with certain types of applications.

I have been using Sangfor NGAF for ten months.

So far, we have not had any issues with the stability of the solution.

We have approximately 250 users of Sangfor NGAF at our company, but around 400 users all around.

The support team is excellent. Very helpful and competent.

My company opted for Sangfor NGAF over other products because of its affordability, compact size, and easy management features. I like Sangfor more than Fortinet because it is cheaper, has a friendlier interface, and comes with great support. It just feels like a better fit for me.

The initial setup is very easy.

Sangfor NGAF is quite affordable.

Although Sangfor NGAF is a great product, I would rate it as a six out of ten just because I'm new in this field and still exploring other options and solutions.

We are using Sangfor NGAF for the prevention of attacks in our network through the use of IPS, IDS, and web filtering features.

There are currently over 1000 active nodes of the solution in use, and we do not have any plans to increase usage at this time.

Our primary need is to prevent our users from misusing the Internet, which we achieve through implementing traffic shifting and bandwidth restrictions, among other features offered by Sangfor NGAF

An area of improvement for Sangfor NGAF could be in the field of reporting and logging.

I have been using the Sangfor NGAF solution for three years now.

The stability of Sangfor NGAF is good, and I would rate it a seven out of ten. In fact, compared to its competitors, Sangfor is much better so far.

We get good support from customer service.

The initial setup is easy and it is user-friendly.

We have an annual subscription, which is not expensive. In fact, compared to Fortinet, Sangfor is much more cost-effective.

Although we have used different solutions such as Proofpoint, Gadget Control, and FortiNet, we find Sangfor NGAF to be much better due to its security inclusion prevention feature, which is why we introduced this product.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten.