Sophos Firewall Reviews

The performance is good. 

It is scalable.

Technical support has been helpful in general. 

The fabric solution, the access points, and the WiFi, is not being delivered to Egypt due to some regulations. It's hard to get any devices in Egypt right now.  I need one solution and one centralized interface to monitor all the switches, access points, firewalls, and everything. I found this in Fortinet. Sophos is falling short.

We'd like an interface that can monitor everything. 

The costs could be better. 

I've used the solution for two to three years. 

I can't speak to the stability, however, the performance is good. 

The solution can scale well. It's not a problem to expand it. 

We have about 400 people on the solution currently. 

Technical support is good. 

We also worked with Fortinet. While we are on Sophos right now, we're also moving again towards Fortinet. I'm waiting on the delivery right now. 

I am implementing a new public solution for access points and switches. I'm going to FortiGate since it offers a full solution, and it is already delivered to the country, Egypt. With the Sophos access points, they are not delivering regarding regulatory issues and something like that.

We do have some people on the solution that maintains it. I don't handle the initial step myself. We have a team that does it. 

Our own team can handle the initial implementation.

The pricing of Sophos is the same as Fortinet. In general, the solutions in the market are all around the same price. 

When you go to finalize the project and include another competitor, the distributor tends to give a big discount on the solution to exit to another one.

I'm a customer and end-user. 

I don't know which version of the solution we're currently on. I'm the director of the department, and therefore, I'm not working with it directly. There's a team that's working on the versions and upgrading software and so on, while handling the technical issues. 

I'm just dealing with the high level of design or decision-making.

It's not a bad solution. It's a good option and it takes a market share in Egypt. However, I like Fortinet as they have a device that's reaching in the market and the cost is not bad. They also have an impressive monitoring interface with FortiAnalyzer and FortiManager. 

I'd rate Sophos seven out of ten. 

we are using Sophos XGS for full control over our network.

Sophos XGS has improved our organization.

The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use.

The price of Sophos XGS could improve, it is high.

I have been using Sophos XGS for approximately two years.

Sophos XGS is stable.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is good.

We have approximately 10 technicians that know how to use the solution.

The support from Sophos XGS was responsive. They solved the issues we had.

Positive

We have not used another solution prior to Sophos XGS.

The initial setup of Sophos XGS was easy. The time it took for us to implement the solution was approximately one month.

We use a third party with our in-house team to do the implementation. We have 10 workers that maintain the solution.

I rate the return on investment for Sophos XGS a three out of five.

There is an annual licensing fee to use Sophos XGS. It is an expensive solution.

I rate the price of Sophos XGS a four out of five.

We did not evaluate another solution before choosing Sophos XGS.

I rate Sophos XGS seven out of ten.

XGS' most valuable feature is ransomware protection. 

In the next release, XGS should include mobile features like two-factor authorization.

I've been using XGS for seven years.

XGS is stable.

XGS is scalable.

Sophos' technical support has degraded in the last couple of years. They seem to need to ask a lot of questions, even with simple problems, and take a long time to provide solutions.

Neutral

The initial setup is simple.

XGS' price could be lower, though it's moderately priced in the market.

I also evaluated SonicWall and FortiGate.

XGS is a perfect product for small and medium businesses. I would rate it as eight out of ten.

I am a cyber professional. I support customers with this solution. Sophos XGS is primarily a firewall. The product allows my customers to manage their internet access for their employees while protecting their environment from things like malware.

The solution requires one administrator as it does not require much maintenance. It depends on the usage and the environment. For example, in some account configurations, the environment has only four or five rules, other times there are over 100 rules. More rules will require more maintenance. 

The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is the application control. I also enjoy the dashboard and reporting that it provides to my customers. 

Sophos helps my customers manage applications from accessing the internet, not only websites. We can ensure there is limited access to applications like Facebook. For example, Facebook is not accessible, but Facebook Messenger for chatting is. This prevents posting and sharing. We make restrictions without prevention.

Sophos XGS would benefit from further development in the SD-WAN area. It would be great if they could give technical people access to all the WAN links that we are connecting to, including inside the SD-WAN. 

They should make available or round robin inside the SD-WAN. This would allow us to move to another link if one goes down.

I have been using Sophos XGS for six years.

There have been issues with the stability of this product. Sometimes it requires restarting. We have looked into the client environment and this is not causing the instability. The problem is common.

Sophos XGS is not scalable. It is a hardware appliance and we should migrate the settings if we need to. In order for it to scale, you require additional hardware.

Sophos' technical support is responsive. There are times we need to push them to accelerate the process because there is a delay in replying. Sometimes, the first stage of first-line support does not have enough knowledge.

Overall, I would rate their technical support a three out of five.

Neutral

The initial setup of Sophos XGS is straightforward. I would rate it five out of five for ease of setup.

The cost of Sophos XGS is based on per unit, per appliance, and capacity. The capacity depends on the environment. Based on the size, we choose the model. The model selected dictates the pricing.

When comparing the pricing of Sophos to the competition, I give them a five out of five. It is competitively priced.

I have worked with Fortinet and WatchGuard. Other solutions have better performance and security value than Sophos XGS. 

Sophos has most of the features. If they don't have the features one year, they are added the next. At one point they did not have SGON, but now they do. It is not performing like Fortinet or Watch Guard, they need to do some enhancements. 

Sophos has the upper hand on reporting on the firewall itself. For small to medium-sized businesses Sophos is better than the competition.

If the organization is small or medium-sized I would recommend this solution. I would give it a nine out of 10 in this case. If the company is enterprise level, I would rate the solution a five out of 10.

Overall, I rate the Sophos XGS a seven out of 10.

We primarily use the solution as a firewall.

Sophos XGS is okay. It’s excellent for firewall purposes.

For me, the platform is stable. It's very stable. It works when it's configured. Also, when you're checking, the logs, the graph, and the graphs are easy to read.

I can also use it for other purposes. For example, it's got a DSCP from there. It can be a distribution. I can have other functions work there, so I can do a lot more than just the firewall components.

It gets easier and easier to set up.

It works. However, Sophos configurations are a bit complex. It's not very user-friendly. I don't find it user-friendly when it comes to setting up the firewalls.

The user interface for the technical admin can be better. It should be set forward to configure a firewall. if a firewall has complexities. I don't know why they did that. However, you should be able to quickly set up a rule to minimize the mistakes that a security administrator or a firewall administrator can make and configure. If not, that becomes an issue. One mistake on a firewall could result in a bridge.

It should be more straightforward. If you compare it with GFI Carrier Control Firewall, which is very straightforward, you can see why it’s helpful when it's easier.

I’ve used the solution for about three years now.

The solution is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn’t crash or freeze. It’s reliable and the performance is good.

The solution is scalable. However, it depends on the model of the physical appliance. There are virtual and physical appliances, so it depends on which one you use. Obviously, there could be a limitation on the number of interfaces you need to use since you may want to have additional services plugged in. Then, the number of ports available may only be two, and yet you actually need to have 10. Maybe you need to buy a module that plugs in; however, there could be a challenge there.

In our organization, we have three to four security administrators.

I've never spoken to technical support directly the way I've been talking to the Fortinet team. I was working with a local partner to get it set up.

In our case, since we were doing it for the first time, we took about a week to complete everything. We were doing a lot of other things and learning as we went. If I had to redo it now, it wouldn't take me a week as I know exactly what I need to do after learning over a period of time. Also, I have backups that allow me to back up and restore, so I just restore the configuration. It’s much more manageable. The first time there’s a learning curve.

We work with a partner and distributor. We are working with the sales party since it was the first time we used them. They offer us professional services.

I found the solution to be expensive. I pay close to $10,000 per year, which I find to be expensive compared to the other similar solution or equivalent solutions.

It's just that one cost, and it's an annual license. As long as my appliance is working okay, I don't need to replace it. However, it's just that. Of course, within that, there are also support services. You might have technical support costs depending on which one of the tiers you pick.

I'm a customer of Sophos.

We’re using the most up-to-date version of the solution. It’s around version 18.

A new user needs to get trained on the appliance to understand how to implement rules and fully appreciate how to work with it. It's not that straightforward. You need to understand what the different areas are. It's complex in the way the rules are set up. My colleagues in the industry have similar comments about Sophos. It’s more complicated than it looks.

I’d rate the solution a seven out of ten, mainly due to the complexity. If I make a mistake, then that firewall is of no use. It needs to be easier to set up so that it provides me or guarantees me that what I want to set up is what I've set up to secure my environment.

We primarily use the solution as a firewall.

The most valuable features are the Sophos management or the central management, including the reporting and managing of multiple firewalls using Sophos Central.

The synchronized security, which also integrates with the Sophos endpoint, is great. That's one of a few of the main features which is beneficial with Sophos XGS.

The solution is stable.

The setup is simple.

There were certain lacking capabilities, for example, the searching of its settings et cetera, previously in Sophos XG. There have been some features that were not visible or unavailable compared to the one here on Sophos XGS. Right now, Sophos XGS is stable with its current firmware and hardware versions. It’s gotten better.

I can’t speak to which features could be added.

As long as they just maintain the stability of the firmware version, we will remain happy.

Support is great, however, it can always be improved.

I’ve been working with the solution for one year. We’ve used it since 2021.

We’ve found the product to be stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn’t crash or freeze. It’s reliable and the performance is good.

In general, the solution is scalable.

Its features and configuration can expand. As long as the engineer or the implementer knows which policies are needed, the Sophos firewall integrator can also help with that. If he or she does not know any complicated solution, Sophos support is also there to help.

I’ve had interactions with Sophos support.

They are actually quite responsive with their cases, as long as the open cases is properly informed or properly included with the right information.

They could always improve support a little bit.

Positive

The initial setup is just a simple set of options. Sophos also provides a lot of data sheets and tutorials online. During the initial setup, there is a guide, which the user can just follow as long as he or she knows their internal network. It’s pretty straightforward.

The maintenance isn’t too intense. However, it is on a case-by-case basis and depends on the complexity of the environment and size.

I really don't have visibility with the pricing. However, the price depends on the size of the box, which indicates that the more users you have, the bigger the box, the higher the price you have to pay.

I haven't had the opportunity to work with other solutions. There are a lot, like Palo Alto, which, in terms of security, are much better than Sophos, as people say. However, Sophos can also work well. It just depends on the company's complexity or preference in the firewall.

I'm currently an agent and a Sophos engineer here in the Philippines. We’re partners.

While we work primarily with on-premises deployments, it is also available on the cloud.

I’d rate the solution eight out of ten.

We are using Sophos XGS for basic purposes, such as the NAT rules it provides.

The most valuable features of Sophos XGS are the ease of use and powerful interface. 

In version 18 of Sophos XGS, the log details are not very good. However, in version 19 they are more detailed. The Fortinet FortiGate has better detail overall compared to Sophos XGS. They provide updates to the solution frequently, but they do not fix the problems that exist.

In the next release, the searching inside of Sophos XGS needs to improve. It is difficult to learn about the functionality and the modules. Additionally, there needs to be more automatic or less manual operations.

I have been using Sophos XGS for three years.

Sophos XGS is highly stable.

We have a small company therefore I am not sure about the scalability.

We have two people using this solution as administrators. The total number of users that are using the solution is approximately 200.

I have not used the support line directly from Sophos XGS, but I used the online knowledge site they have for support. They have good documentation.

The best support is provided by Cisco, Palo Alto, and Fortinet FortiGate because all the knowledge is available easily.

I rate support from Sophos XGS a four out of five.

Positive

The initial setup of Sophos XGS is not easy. 

The price of Sophos XGS is less than competitors worldwide. However, in Turkey the solution is expensive.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Fortinet, Cisco, and Palo Alto, and the Sophos XGS has a more powerful interface. Fortinet FortiGate has too many options while Palo Alto is over more robust than Sophos XGS. However, if your company does not have a large number of users then Sophos XGS is best.

My advice to others is if you are going to purchase a firewall in Turkey, Sophos XGS is the best choice because of the dealers and support available. The second best in Turkey would be Fortinet FortiGate.

I rate Sophos XGS a seven out of ten.

It is a firewall appliance that is used to provide security for network infrastructures. We have it deployed at the edge of our network and we also sell it to other clients to protect their network infrastructure. 

This solution is really easy to use and deploy. It has a dashboard where you can see everything going on within your network. There is also a cloud component so if you need to secure your computers or servers, this can be done using Central Intercept X Advances. Everything is connected to their cloud platform where you can manage either your end point solution or your firewalls.

I have been using this solution for five years. 

It is very stable. I have not heard of any issue where clients would have to replace hardware. It's been really stable for a long while.

This is a scalable solution. This does depend on the are different categories of the XGS. The license you buy would be determined by the number of users intended to use it. 

The support team are helpful when you eventually get hold of them which takes a long time. They can improve how quickly you get technical support.

Neutral

The initial setup is straightforward and takes 15 minutes. The time it takes to setup depends on what you're trying to achieve and how complex you want your configuration to be. 

We completed the implementation in-house for our business and for some of our clients. 

We have started seeing ROI using this solution because one of their products helps you to prevent ransomware. It has helped to prevent ransomware from encrypting one of the systems of one of our staff. That is a huge return on investment

The cost is $10,000 for an annual subscription. 

This is a good product for small and medium enterprises. I can't say how it performs in a large environment. It is a very stable solution. Just like every other product, you need to have someone that has the necessary skill set to manage it. Somebody needs to learn how to set it up and configure it depending on the environment.