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Sophos Firewall pros and cons

Vendor: Sophos
4.1 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Clients gain efficiency in protecting against ransomware, malware, and hacker attacks with Sophos Firewall, enhancing overall cybersecurity.
The flexibility of configuration allows Sophos Firewall to meet the needs of various companies by offering robust security features and customizable policies.
Key features like central management, cloud integration, and synchronized security make it a highly effective choice for managing network and endpoint protection.
Sophos Firewall provides comprehensive threat management capabilities, including advanced threat protection, intrusion prevention, and ransomware protection, ensuring the safety of network traffic.
Sophos Firewall is cost-effective and offers great value with competitive pricing, making it accessible for small to mid-sized businesses seeking reliable security solutions.

CONS

Scalability is limited and upgrading requires purchasing a new model with higher specs.
Technical support is slow to respond and difficult to contact, leading to long wait times for assistance.
Reporting capabilities are insufficient, lacking detail and often showing users as unknown.
Firmware updates can cause configuration issues and require reconfiguration, complicating the update process.
Pricing is high compared to competitors, making it less cost-effective for some users.
 

Sophos Firewall Pros review quotes

it_user431136 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant Information Technology at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Dec 24, 2017
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.
HS
IT Infrastructure & Security Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Mar 15, 2018
The most valuable feature, according to the setup we have at our work place here, is the flexibility of the system or the firmware that's running the appliance. It's so flexible, performing multiple rules with different configurations. According to the set up here, we need to implement several firewalls with different access levels, because we have a variety of users. For this requirement, it's very flexible and very easy to use.
it_user846270 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Infrastructure Solutions Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Apr 1, 2018
Valuable features include: the ease of setting up the VPN connection; the fact they have the cloud management option, so I can manage the firewall on a cloud platform from anywhere I am; the user interface is very user-friendly, so it's very easy for the administrator to make any policy changes.
Learn what your peers think about Sophos Firewall. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
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Sherif Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
Jun 21, 2018
It has a very friendly interface like the Cyberoam iNG units, it has customizable policies, it has proper templates that you can even modify, and you can customize the rules, down to each single user.
KS
IT Consultant at Crotus
Apr 18, 2019
We have found that the simplicity of the XG 210 is its most valuable feature.
Sherif Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
May 23, 2019
Sophos XG has cybersecurity. It integrates with the antivirus software.
IH
Network & Hardware Administrator at Nile Projects & Trading Co.
Aug 1, 2019
It gives me a very good, stable connection in all tunnels.
OA
Chief Technology Officer at Leystel Nigeria Limited
Aug 22, 2019
The SL VPNs are the most valuable feature. I have a lot of systems out of the head office that need to connect to the local networks, and they all connect wirelessly via the Sophos VPN client.
HB
Lead Advance Engineer at IHCC
Aug 25, 2019
What I like about his program, is that it is easy to use and easy to manage.
it_user736143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Manager at iBound
Aug 25, 2019
The filtering is very easy to do. You can segment and create profiles for usage very easily.
 

Sophos Firewall Cons review quotes

it_user431136 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant Information Technology at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Dec 24, 2017
It could offer a DNS Filter for blocking botnet networks.
HS
IT Infrastructure & Security Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Mar 15, 2018
It is performing well. However, the only challenges that we are facing are the effectiveness with blocking the proxy and tuneling applications, aside from proxy and similar applications. So the application filter on the product is not really performing 100%. Every now and then there are some updates that are happening on such applications, and it takes time until it gets the appropriate updates and becomes capable of capturing such applications and blocking them. A new feature I would really like to see would be some sort of an enhanced application filter with greater efficiency when it comes to the applications that can bypass firewall policies. These applications are really a nightmare. Once they are on the network and not detected, or the appliance is not really successful in capturing them and unblocking them, the bandwidth gets wasted all the time.
it_user846270 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Infrastructure Solutions Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Apr 1, 2018
I would like the update process to be easier, to update the firmware of the boxes. I think it's much better automatically than having to do it manually: Download the file, do network discovery. I they can make the update process much more automatic that would help.
Learn what your peers think about Sophos Firewall. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Sherif Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
Jun 21, 2018
Let's say I set up a rule to block users from accessing YouTube or Facebook. The rule will only block the HTTP traffic, which is non-secure traffic... The problem comes when you are trying to block, or allow, similar traffic that uses HTTPS. You have to create a certificate and import it into the users' web browsers, whatever they are using... The problem occurs when you're dealing with roaming users who use laptops and have to move between different sites that have different types of policies applied to them. You have to import all sorts of certificates from each site into their browser. Doing so will most probably conflict with something else that is totally irrelevant and cause a problem.
KS
IT Consultant at Crotus
Apr 18, 2019
When I call, I have to wait at least one to two hours to reach them.
Sherif Fouad - PeerSpot reviewer
Group ICT Manager at a mining and metals company with 501-1,000 employees
May 23, 2019
The only issue that Sophos XG now needs to improve is the product's reporting capability.
IH
Network & Hardware Administrator at Nile Projects & Trading Co.
Aug 1, 2019
I would like to have remote access to clients using a static IP for a certain period of time.
OA
Chief Technology Officer at Leystel Nigeria Limited
Aug 22, 2019
The initial set up process can be a little tricky, especially when you are registering with Sophos using your registration number. Setup is not necessarily complex, but it's not trouble-free. You do have connectivity issues at the initial setup with registering the device on the Sophos platform to access the advanced features. It doesn't always go through the first time around. That may be an issue with the quality of our automation. I'm not sure exactly what it is.
HB
Lead Advance Engineer at IHCC
Aug 25, 2019
The program is rather expensive.
it_user736143 - PeerSpot reviewer
Operations Manager at iBound
Aug 25, 2019
The UTM itself needs improvement. When you're navigating it seems like it takes forever to load anything. The hardware is okay. It's just the software that could be more responsive.