Sophos Firewall Reviews

The antivirus features are valuable.

The price should be cheaper. Xstream must be included in future releases.

I have been using the solution for five years.

I rate the tool’s stability a seven out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability a ten out of ten. Our clients are SMBs.

I rate the ease of setup a ten out of ten. The solution is deployed both on-premise and on the cloud. The deployment takes half an hour.

I rate the pricing a six out of ten.

We are distributors. We sell the solution. We have many customers. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

The product’s most valuable feature is the user management system.

The product's technical support services could be better. 

We have been using Sophos XG for three to four years.

I rate the product’s stability an eight or nine out of ten.

We have 15 to 20 Sophos XG users. I rate its scalability an eight or nine.

We do not receive enough technical support services from Sophos XG.

Neutral

The initial setup was complicated because we didn’t have executives with proper expertise. It took us two months to complete.

I rate Sophos XG’s pricing a seven out of ten.

I rate Sophos XG an eight out of ten.

We use the latest version.

We are very familiar with the solution. It's pretty straightforward, our personnel is properly trained and we use it efficiently. The solution integrates very easily with other brands.  I've done VPN tunnels with other brands, and that was fine as well. The solution is quite stable and we don't have any issues with it. The VPN is easy and has good logging, monitoring and notifications.

When compared with Sophos XG, Fortinet lacks the notifications and reporting features. 

When it comes to improvements that the vendor can make, we see that the cloud integration for managing all the firewalls is essentially a replacement of the on-prem version we had. It's not mature yet, being still in its infancy stage. That would require some improvement. As I have many firewalls, having the ability to delegate access to use, such as exists with Microsoft CSP or other services, would be a nice feature to see. 

Also, as a tech person, I know that executives do not wish to receive complicated reports, so a simplified executive report for executives would be a nice improvement. This would save us from having to explain issues which are beyond the scope of their knowledge. 

Sophos XG is basically a mix of UTM9, Check Point and several other technologies. It is essentially a merging of technologies. We've been using it since version UTM9, at which point we switched to Sophos XG..

The solution is quite stable. 

The solution is scalable, but an organization should assess in advance its size based needs. Say, for example, a company utilizes the XG 125 version, but grows rapidly. At this point it may need to switch to the 210 version. Yet, switching from one version to another would not really present an issue. One can restore the backup configuration version on the new hardware and be up and running. 

Technical support is pretty good, although I did have some issues with its availability during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though this seems to have been a challenge faced by all major support companies. There were delay issues owing to their teleworking, but the support they offer is quite supportive and they have all the necessary documentation.  The truth is that I have a need for many cases, although the ones I require have to do with things that are out of my control, such as licensing or the occasion of a new app that failed to show up in the console. I have many sub-sites and I did face a serious issue. Technical support was pretty helpful even though I had to redesign the typology of one of my sites. They actually tried assisting me with the original design and I found them to be quite helpful and to possess a good base of knowledge on the site. 

It is important for a person to properly learn the features of any product so that he can optimize its utilization. The setup of the solution is pretty straightforward. What is truly important for a person with only a basic network background is to undergo proper training, so that he may learn about all the features and how to configure them. 

For any product a person uses, it is a good idea to do a test run. Sophos allows for its product to be evaluated without any financial commitment. It offers a free virtual machine for home use testing of the features. 

At present, Fortinet seems to have a slightly higher rating than Sophos XG, so if it were also to turn out to be more cost effective this would affect my rating of it. The reason is that this factor does have an impact on the decisions reached by CEOs when it comes to cost-benefit analysis.

This said, I rate Sophos XG as a nine out of ten, because we are very happy with it and don't really have any issues. We have actually been replacing Cisco normal routers, not sets, with Sophos and we're very happy with them.

The best use case of Sophos XGS is for customers who use CMGs that manage the gateway of Microsoft, which was made obsolete years ago. Clients want to replace their proxy with some solution, and Sophos is one of the best bets.

The solution is good for web filtering. It's also possible to use it as a load balancer and a destination firewall and site-to-site channeling. Remote users can gain access via Sophos. It solves for a variety of uses that the client needs. 

In our market, they offer a web filter SSL VPN and they are very useful for the customer.

The initial setup is very simple. 

It's stable and reliable. 

We can scale the product.

Some firewall names like Palo Alto and FortiGate are very famous for security. People find them very secure. While Sophos is fairly secure, they aren't known for their security, and it's not an obvious selling point. Unfortunately, on Gartner, Magic Quadrant, and Forrester, Sophos doesn't have a good presence. They need to get better at marketing their abilities and expanding what they can do.

I would like to see them in third-party evaluation reports like Gartner, Magic Quadrant, or Forrester to make it easier for us to show our customers that Sophos is a leader in the market. It will be easier for us to sell them. Our market depends on what products are currently in Gartner and Forrester, and these platforms. 

We've been working with the solution for five to six years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product is scalable. 

We have more than 100 clients on Sophos. 

Technical support is good and above average. 

Neutral

It is easy to set up the solution. It's not a complex process. 

While it depends on the magnitude of the customer's environment, normally the deployment only takes a day or two.

We do not require any outside assistance. We can handle the setup ourselves. 

If the client needs us to, we can deploy the solution for them. Since we sell the solution, we have a good understanding of the process. We have been doing implementations for years. 

The pricing is moderate. It's not overly expensive. They offer good licensing. 

We are using and selling the solution. We are deploying it for different customers.

When the customer wants to buy an appliance, definitely it's an on-prem solution. However, when it comes to an endpoint or a firewall as a service, they offer cloud solutions as well.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

We did buy access points, and we did use the WiFi configuration. We did create a configuration for the WiFi to the access points on the same interface. It's great for access point integration.

The user interface is fine.  

The configuration and customization capabilities are good.

It is very lovely to work with Sophos in general. It's easy to use and user-friendly.

There is a lot of great documentation available to users. 

The stability is good. 

It's scalable. 

The licensing prices are too high.

There are a lot of false-positive cases. 

We'd like to see access point integration. 

I've been using the solution for four months.

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product can scale. 

We have about 150 users on the solution right now. 

I have not used any technical support services. There is so much documentation online, I do not need assistance. 

I also use Microsoft products. I prefer Sophos for on-premises and Microsoft for cloud and antivirus products. 

Microsoft Defender and the Microsoft Defender cloud panels admin portal are native, and we are using many Microsoft products, so it just makes sense due to the environment to use Microsoft products. 

While the deployment was done before I began work in the organization, I reset it and configured it completely.

There are a lot of Sophos post-configuration documents, Sophos videos, et cetera. It was the first time that I configured Sophos. However, it was all good.

The product is very easy to maintain. 

The cost to license the product is a bit expensive. I'd rate the cost at a four out of five in terms of affordability. We pay about $150.

I'm a consultant. I'm using the latest version of the solution.

Sophos is good for smaller companies. It might not be suitable for large ones. 

I'd rate it seven out of ten.

We use it to secure the enterprise endpoint devices, whether they are servers, laptops, or mobile phones.

Security synchronization is one of the best features because it integrates the firewall with the endpoint devices.

It would be nice to have features like the network access control (NAC) that Cisco has for Identity Services Engine.

In the next release, I would also like to see an increase in the performance of the processing units.

I've been using Sophos XGS for about four years now.

The technical support is good. They have a support portal where you can log in a case and have direct support from one of the experts.

They are responsive and follow up closely, so I would give them a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is very user-friendly because they have graphical user interface options and command line interface options. I would give the initial setup a rating of five out of five.

It has three modes of deployment. You can have it deployed as physical hardware, as a virtual machine, or as software in the cloud.

We implemented it through an in-house team.

The pricing for Sophos is much better compared to that of Fortinet and Check Point. On a scale from one to five with one being expensive and five being competitive, I would rate Sophos' pricing at four.

The pricing can be for the hardware appliance and the license, or it can be subscription-based. It can be around 3000 USD up to 25,000 USD per year depending on the model or series of the hardware you choose to buy.

Sophos XGS is suitable for enterprise customers and SMBs.

Overall, I would rate Sophos XGS at eight out of ten.

I use XGS for filtering and spam blocking. We have 255 users.

Spam filtering is what I love most about XGS.

The reporting could be better. 

I have been using Sophos XGS for about five years.

Setting up Sophos XGS is straightforward, and it took us about four hours to deploy.

I pay for a yearly license for XGS. It's not cheap, but the price is okay compared to other gateway devices. It's in the middle. 

I rate Sophos XGS eight out of 10. 

We are primarily using the product for firewall issues, including protecting the network and so on.

It's much faster than the previous firewall, so you can do the work faster. There are no delays in the internet and network.

The performance is better than the other product that we've had. 

Reporting-wise, it's quite good. IPS detection and ATP is getting better and faster.

We have found the initial setup to be quite straightforward. 

The solution is stable.

It can scale well.

The reporting could always be improved upon. They need intelligent reporting, not just your simple, standard reports. 

I've used the solution for the past three months. 

This is a stable, reliable product. The performance is good. It's fast. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product can scale very well. It's not a problem if a company needs to expand. There are different sizes of products. It's a good idea to pick a larger size if you expect to scale. 

We have around 150 users on the solution at this point. They cover different roles from admins to front and back office.

We have a third-party provider that is giving us support. We don't communicate with Sophos directly.

I previously used WatchGuard. That was at a previous company. When I moved here, the organization already had Sophos. 

The initial setup is very simple and very straightforward. Since it was also migration in our case,  we had to do testing and so on. It took one week to deploy it.

We only need one person to handle the deployment and maintenance process. 

We had a third-party assist us during the implementation process.

We renew the license every three years. We get better pricing that way. There are no other expenses beyond the standard pricing. That said, there are additional subscription modules you might need. However, you pick them at the beginning, and it depends if you need them or not.

We did not evaluate other options. We already had the setup, and we didn't want to make any big changes.

I'm a customer and end-user. 

I've currently using the latest version of the solution. 

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

The solution provides firewall protection.

The solution is easy to use and configure, once you know how to apply the policies.

The customer service response time can be improved.

I am currently using the solution.

The stability is good. I have not had any problems with it.

The scalability of the solution is good.

The customer service response time is slow and could use improvement.

The setup is straightforward if you know how to do iOS.

The cost is around $50 per endpoint, and there is a one-time purchase fee for the firewalls of $2,500, plus services. It is roughly around $4,000.

I am currently evaluating CrowdStrike. I like it better.

I give this solution seven out of ten.

If you are looking for a low-cost solution, cheaper than Cisco I recommend this solution. You should also look at Fortinet.

We use this solution for security purposes, traffic filtering, voice filtering, blocking websites, traffic shaping, and wireless protection. We also use this solution to analyze malware threats and email protection logs.

Sophos XGS is profound as a firewall and security product. We have deployed Sophos XGS and Endpoint in several banking systems and government sites. Our customers are satisfied that Sophos XGS is continuously blocking websites and giving us reports on which apps, users or websites are vulnerable. As partners, we also benefit and have deployed several parallels on the customer side. In addition, Sophos has improved its technical support service, and customers are happy about the support.

The most valuable feature is the network policy and SD-WAN policy.

There was a hardware conflict with the software. Recently we did five RMA of Sophos hardware, and several customers said the hardware and firmware were faulty, so there is a dependency on the hardware. For some customers, EQuIS is also an issue, and when we claim RMA from Bangladesh, it takes almost one month to get the product. 

In addition, the firmware has some bugs because it continuously updates in 5.1, 5.3, and 5.7. So, if we randomly change the firmware, it's not fixable, and this should be improved. 

In Sophos XG Firewall, we can create a different zone, like LAN, DMZ, and MZ, but we cannot customize the WAN dual, so it would be good if we could do dual customization.

We have been using this solution for five years. It was called Sophos XG Firewall Endpoint before Sophos XGS. Recently we deployed XGS version 4300. It is deployed on-premises.

It is not a stable solution, and improvements can be made to firmware and hardware.

The scalability could be improved.

The technical support is helpful, but the response time could be faster. When we raise a case, there is sometimes a delay in responding. There is no toll-free number to call for emergency support in Bangladesh, so we call a Singapore number and wait a long time for technical support. When they eventually answer, they ask us many questions, which consumes a lot of time, and they sometimes transfer us to other technical engineers. This is a significant issue for us in Bangladesh and should be improved.

Sophos XGS was a tender proposal, and we chose it.

It was an easy setup, and it was not complex. The deployment depends on the customer's timeline, requirements and scope of work. Basic configuration takes about one or two days, and we deployed both in-house and in the customer environment. I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten. One person can do deployment because we're not doing any mounting, and mounting requires two people. So configuration can also be done by one person.

They have annual licenses, and we have a three-year license. Unfortunately, I do not have information on the licensing costs.

I rate this solution a nine out of ten, and I would recommend this solution to others.