Sophos XG Reviews

We have experience with Sophos XG, which is the older version as well. It has been around three or four years that I have been working with Sophos XG.

We are the partners of Sophos XG, and we are in the partners platform.

For Sophos XG, we are not using it in our on-premise environment, so we pitch it to customers based on their requirements.

In some scenarios, we offer maintenance for the firewalls, especially in high availability situations.

The interface of Sophos XG is basic, and we can manage it easily compared to other firewalls; for example, it is much easier for configurations than Palo Alto.

Regarding the security level in Sophos XG, we need to see the Gartner reports because there are competitors such as SonicWall that we have to consider.

As for valuable features in Sophos XG, I am not able to recall many at this moment, but it has good integrations with Active Directory Protocol and others.

I do not have any specific ideas on what disadvantages Sophos XG could improve upon.

Everything has been good; I have not encountered any major challenges or problems.

AI could be one of the area for improvements.

It has been around three or four years that I have been working with Sophos XG.

We have found that Sophos XG is stable; I would say it is stable overall.

I am not sure how scalable Sophos XG is.

We have not reached any enterprise customers pitching for Sophos XG, so I have no clarity on its effectiveness for them.

The technical support from Sophos XG is good, and the response times are also good.

Positive

The installation of Sophos XG is quite easy, and we have not found any difficulties in the process.

That is the older version of Sophos XG.

Generally, Sophos XG is used in an on-premise environment.

Adding AI features would be practical, especially given the current trend of integrations across products.

Clients would use AI in the product for addressing configuration issues or simply to query the AI when they face problems.

Regarding disadvantages, only the potential for AI in configuration seems to be the area for improvements; I cannot clarify any more disadvantages.

I give Sophos XG an overall experience rating of nine out of ten.

On-premises

The primary use case for Sophos XG is for two reasons: the firewall capability for protection against malware and Sophos XG's extended capability in routing and IP routing. I use it in a small organization.

The most valuable feature of Sophos XG is its routing and network routing capabilities. I particularly appreciate the routing capabilities that Sophos XG has.

There is room for improvement in the cybersecurity and personal information protection areas of Sophos XG.

I have been using Sophos XG for about seven years.

The initial setup was complex, but since our last conversation, I am happy with what I have.

I rate the stability of Sophos XG as nine out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Sophos XG at about an eight.

The technical support directly from Sophos is not that great, which is why I had to employ a local company that deals with it more to assist me.

Negative

I used a different solution before Sophos XG, but it did not provide the routing capabilities that Sophos XG has, which is why I switched.

The initial setup of Sophos XG was complex, but after our last conversation, I am content with the product.

As an end user, I am not involved in the installation process.

The problem with the return on investment for Sophos XG is the three-year license. The license fees are extremely expensive, and in most cases, once the license has expired, Sophos requires the purchase of new hardware if one decides to run it online, which is a major drawback.

Sophos XG is extremely expensive compared to other products, but its capabilities warrant the cost. However, the three-year license fees are significantly high.

I looked between Sophos and FortiGate before deciding on Sophos XG.

Based on my experience, I would recommend Sophos XG to other people. The overall rating I would give this solution is seven.

On-premises

We use the product for traffic and security control. 

We currently have multiple clients, and many users are working remotely. We need antivirus protection to guard against malware introduced from public networks. One of the most beneficial features of Sophos XG is its integration with Sophos Central. If any file is detected as malicious on any endpoint or firewall, Sophos Central immediately identifies the threat and publishes the information across all endpoints and firewalls. If a single system gets infected, the threat is communicated and addressed across the entire network, including all sites and remote users.

One drawback I've noticed with Sophos XG is that sometimes, the platform can become unresponsive. I've observed that it occasionally hangs, causing traffic to get stuck. During these times, users cannot access the internet or any services routed through the Sophos Firewall. This issue happens randomly and isn't something we've encountered with other firewalls like FortiGate, which we used in the past.

Dealing with licensing has been a big challenge for us. Despite our efforts to resolve issues through our sales contact, we've faced limitations. After confirming our purchase orders, we had to escalate the issue. We were ready to extend our licenses for two or three months.

I have been working with the product for a year. 

We haven't seen any major issues with customer support from Sophos. We have faced some problems, but we understand that the support team can sometimes be unresponsive.

Positive

When comparing FortiGate to Sophos XG, I would say that if I'm working on large-scale asset monitoring and security purposes, especially if I have a data center that requires firewall security, then FortiGate would be my choice. It's faster and more responsive than Sophos XG support. 

The tool's deployment takes two to three hours to complete. It doesn't require any maintenance. You would need one engineer to handle one application. 

I can say there has been some return on investment. It's good, but I would still say it's higher by about 10-15 percent compared to other market products with similar configurations.

The tool's pricing and licensing are very complex. As a developing company, we need approvals from management to make a purchase, which can take time. We asked Sophos XG to renew our current firewall license for one or two months while we plan to accommodate our increasing IT assets.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten. 

We mostly deploy Sophos XG to our customers because we are an IT system integrator. Our primary use case involves working with small to medium businesses to control internet usage, perform web filtering, application control, and manage bandwidth.

Sophos XG is popular among small to medium businesses, allowing them to control internet usage, perform web filtering, application control, and manage bandwidth. Additionally, AI assists in configuration, offering clues when users are stuck, which enhances user convenience and efficiency.

There is interest in seeing more features related to AI and customization in future releases.

I have been working with Sophos XG for at least five to six years.

The installation process is straightforward and easy due to the training we receive. In new site setups, it's quick, but migrating from one vendor to another requires more planning and can take a couple of days.

I would rate the stability of Sophos XG as nine out of ten.

I would rate the scalability of Sophos XG as nine out of ten.

Customer service and support for Sophos XG is excellent, and I would rate it as a ten.

Positive

I worked with other vendors like Cisco, Palo Alto, and Microsoft long ago.

The initial setup varies by scenario: it's quick for new sites, but it takes longer for vendor migrations due to the need for seamless planning.

I have a dedicated team of five engineers who handle installations.

There are cost savings compared to competitors, providing more financial benefits.

Sophos XG offers good pricing compared to competitors. While there are extra expenses for additional features, overall licensing costs are well-regarded.

I would rate Sophos XG as a nine out of ten. The cost savings make it suitable for small to medium businesses with 50 to 300 users. Overall, I am very satisfied with the product.

On-premises

Our main use case at the moment for Sophos XG is to create a site-to-site VPN with one of our clients. We cannot use AWS VPN, so we use Sophos XG.

We only used the VPN functionality. We did not explore other aspects of the product beyond the VPN capabilities.

The IPsec VPN is the only feature we utilized in Sophos XG. We did not explore the web and application filtering capabilities, and these features have not helped our organization in managing bandwidth or access to malicious sites.

The user-friendly interface of Sophos XG is acceptable but too complicated. There are many options and configurations, but it is very complicated to navigate through all those options if you are not familiar with the product.

Sophos XG can be improved by making the UI more user-friendly. They should add packet capture functionality in the UI instead of requiring users to access the server directly for this purpose, as it is a very useful tool that everyone needs. Additionally, it can be confusing when working in the AWS Marketplace, as users might mistakenly purchase the old version of Sophos XG.

I have been using Sophos XG for three or four months. It is new, and we may discontinue using this product because it has not met our requirements.

Considering the deployment flexibility of the Sophos XG firewall, hybrid deployments have not supported our organization's diverse technological infrastructure.

It is a bit early to tell, but Sophos XG is adequate for my company's growing needs at present.

I have not tried their customer service and technical support.

Positive

I have considered other solutions before Sophos XG, including pfSense, AWS firewall, and Kato firewall.

I was previously using AWS firewall and Kato firewall before switching to Sophos XG.

My experience with deploying Sophos XG was easy.

My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was through AWS.

I do not use the security heartbeat functionality.

I have not tried the synchronized security feature of the Sophos XG firewall.

I am not particularly interested in being a reference to the vendor. We do not use Sophos extensively, so I may not provide substantial insights.

What led me to consider changing was that we thought the VPN configuration was not working because of the product we used to work with, so we tried other alternatives.

On a scale of 1-10, I would rate Sophos XG a seven or eight, though this rating is limited by our minimal usage of the product.

Public Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I was a distributor for Sophos XG products and worked with customers seeking network security solutions. In my current company, we previously used Sophos XG products extensively before switching to other options.

Sophos XG offers a robust solution with quota management features that are per IP and per user, which I find to be very effective. The ability to manage everything in one box is a significant advantage, eliminating the need to purchase separate products for email security and other features. The user interface is user-friendly, offering dashboards with widgets that provide speed and status, making configuration easy. Traffic management is facilitated through various configurations and user self-portals. Additionally, Sophos XG makes administrative tasks seamless by allowing easy navigation and configuration.

The technical support could be improved, particularly in terms of response speed, as there were delays when working with their Indian support team.

Traffic management is facilitated through various configurations.

Sophos XG is primarily suitable for SMB and mid-level enterprise categories, but not typically chosen by high-end enterprises in Sri Lanka.

The technical support could be improved, particularly regarding response speed when working with the Indian team.

Neutral

Previously, we used Sophos UTM before transitioning to Sophos XG.

The implementation of Sophos XG is straightforward and easy.

I worked as a distributor and the setup was handled internally or with assistance from vendors.

During my research, I explored products like Fortinet FortiGate and Netgate pfSense.

I rate Sophos XG eight out of ten. While the implementation was straightforward and easy, the technical support could use improvement. I recommend looking into improving the features and security validations to cater to the needs of bigger companies.

Other

My company has normal web-based policies to restrict websites and allow certain legitimate websites. My company also has site-to-site VPNs and SSL VPNs, along with firewalls.

The most valuable feature of Sophos XG for our company's cybersecurity defense strategy stems from a mixture of all of the product's capabilities, which includes areas like web protection and VPN that are important when it comes to cybersecurity.

I would like the product to improve so that it can provide advanced SD-WAN, which can allow users to deal with infinite connections along with seamless bandwidth utilization.

In the product, the area revolving around SD-WAN has certain shortcomings where improvements are required.

It would be great if I could monitor a particular traffic from a network with Sophos XG.

I have been using Sophos XG for around a year and a half. I am a customer of the tool.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution an eight to nine out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven to eight out of ten.

There are around 200 users of the product in my company.

The solution's technical support is good. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have experience with Fortinet.

Sophos and Fortinet provide good features. Interface-wise and usage-wise, Fortinet is good. Fortinet provides a simple interface, while it is an area that is a bit complex in Sophos. Feature-wise, Sophos and Fortinet are similar.

I rate the product's initial setup phase at six or seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

The solution is deployed on the cloud and on-premises.

The solution can be deployed in a day.

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

Sophos XG has the ability to provide good reports.

I rate the tool an eight to nine out of ten.

Hybrid Cloud

We encounter difficulties while navigating through certain features and functionalities of the product. The GUI could be much more transparent.

We have been using Sophos XG for two years. At present, we use the latest version.

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

We have around 15 to 20 customers using Sophos XG. It is suitable for larger companies. We have around 200 technical engineers in our organization managing it. I rate the scalability a nine out of ten.

The technical support team is friendly and supportive in terms of technical assistance.

Positive

We are working with CheckPoint, SonicWall, and FortiGate.

The deployment method involves navigating through several pages, such as selecting the country and configuring LAN and WAN ports, before reaching the manual configuration stage. Instead, simplifying the process by allowing users to log in directly to the dashboard and initiate configuration without additional prompts could be helpful. The implementation time depends on specific firewall requirements.

The product is more expensive than SonicWall. Our customers compare devices for office compatibility, such as Sophos XG 4100 and SonicWall NSA 2300, and question license cost disparities.

I rate the pricing a six out of ten.

The product’s new variant allows for faster processing of data packets from LAN to WAN, surpassing the capabilities of an 8G firewall. It provides threat prevention features, including WAF, IPS, and AV. We have configured SSL VPN capabilities for different branches, which have been working efficiently. For our minimalistic usage, it has been performing well in transferring data from on-premise devices. It helps us generate detailed reports on the dashboard. The product’s integration with Sophos Central enhances security architecture by enabling centralized management under a single dashboard.

We recommend Sophos XG as a priority as it is much more reliable and has efficient technical assistance. It is much easier for configuration, web filtering, or web extension than one of its competitors.

I rate it a seven out of ten.