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SonicWall Netextender pros and cons

Vendor: SonicWall
3.5 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

SonicWall NetExtender allows remote work and secure network access from home.
NetExtender offers good management control over destinations and routing, allowing policy and static route customization.
The integration with SAML provides valuable support for identity management and secure access policies.
VPN accounts integrated with Microsoft Identity Management enhance security through Microsoft Intune and conditional access policies.
SonicWall NetExtender supports high availability and multifactor authentication, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity.

CONS

SonicWall Netextender requires payment while some competitors offer VPN clients for free.
It involves significant administrative work, especially when dealing with license management across multiple appliances.
Changes in physical location necessitate a complete redeployment as it is not portable.
It consumes a lot of bandwidth.
The current infrastructure struggles with scalability and zero trust, making integration with newer technologies difficult.
 

SonicWall Netextender Pros review quotes

PR
System Administrator at RBDigital
May 27, 2021
NetExtender works very well. I never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me. In terms of management, you have good control over the destination. You can use NetExtender to set the policy and the static route for a client. You can modify it based on what your client needs or can access. You have good control over routing.
DS
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jun 9, 2021
The initial setup is pretty easy.
KE
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Jun 29, 2021
The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML.
Learn what your peers think about SonicWall Netextender. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
DE
Exec Admin/IT/Accounting at JJW Construction.com
Nov 8, 2021
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
JB
President at River Mill Data Management, LLC
Mar 7, 2022
I found nothing of value in this solution.
Rahul Soman - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure Specialist at Dynatrade LLC
Apr 30, 2022
Employees can have access to the network from home.
KE
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Feb 1, 2023
One of the most valuable features of SonicWall Netextender is the integration of VPN accounts with Microsoft Identity Management, which enables us to enforce secure access through Microsoft Intune and conditional access policies. This helps ensure that only authorized individuals are able to access the VPN, rather than anyone with knowledge of a password.
Gary Downey - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Alignment Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Oct 2, 2023
The product has two-factor authentication.
Bharath Kumar Gajula - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Nov 6, 2023
My company opted for this solution because it can individually perform. Basically, we don't require load balancers and all those additional feature sets or additional devices that might be required. The solution can handle the certificate, DNS queries, and all that stuff individually.
PratapNegi - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Technology at Group Publishing, Inc.
Jan 2, 2024
The solution provides high availability.
 

SonicWall Netextender Cons review quotes

PR
System Administrator at RBDigital
May 27, 2021
SonicWall can be difficult for some people, but I don't find it difficult. Some companies provide a VPN client for free, but you have to pay for NetExtender.
DS
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Jun 9, 2021
There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender.
KE
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Jun 29, 2021
Right now, you have to load each license on to an appliance. You can't pool across multiple appliances. So, you end up having to do a lot of administrative work to recover if an internet provider goes down, and you cannot leverage it as easily into a DR solution.
Learn what your peers think about SonicWall Netextender. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
DE
Exec Admin/IT/Accounting at JJW Construction.com
Nov 8, 2021
The Netextender application itself doesn't really look pretty, however, we can still use it. We don't care what it looks like. That said, if they did a cosmetic update, that would be fine.
JB
President at River Mill Data Management, LLC
Mar 7, 2022
They need to rewrite the software to make it a usable product.
Rahul Soman - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Infrastructure Specialist at Dynatrade LLC
Apr 30, 2022
The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth.
KE
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Feb 1, 2023
The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly.
Gary Downey - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Alignment Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Oct 2, 2023
The UI could be a little better.
Bharath Kumar Gajula - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Architect at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Nov 6, 2023
The only concern I do have is with the zero trust, and the solution is not coping with the newer technologies as much as it needs to do on that particular factor.
PratapNegi - PeerSpot reviewer
Head of Information Technology at Group Publishing, Inc.
Jan 2, 2024
The product does not work well.