Zyxel Unified Security Gateway provides web filtering, malware protection, antivirus, and peer-to-peer blocking, offering stability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness but facing challenges in robustness and technical support.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Zyxel Unified Security Gateway | 3.6% |
| Fortinet FortiGate | 24.9% |
| Sophos UTM | 9.8% |
| Other | 61.7% |
Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is a versatile tool used by companies for blocking websites, malware filtering, and acting as a firewall and router. Serving as a gateway for internet access, it is also utilized for VPN and firewall purposes. Users appreciate its performance, although challenges such as high CPU utilization, complex interface, and lack of robust data security hinder its effectiveness. While it performs well for VPN needs, some consider open-source solutions due to open SSL communication limitations. Users have reported issues like unexpected reboots and difficulties integrating it, making it less suitable for next-gen firewall needs.
What features are most important in Zyxel Unified Security Gateway?Zyxel Unified Security Gateway finds use across industries as companies require efficient web filtering and reliable malware protection. It's commonly deployed in sectors needing stable internet access and robust VPN functionalities, although certain limitations prompt users to seek alternative solutions in complex IT environments.
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and technical consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees | 4.0 | I've used Zyxel Unified Security Gateway mainly for VPN and firewalls; it's stable and effective but has a complex interface and lacks open SSL support, so we're considering a simpler, open-source alternative when our license ends. |
| System Admin at a educational organization with 11-50 employees | 3.0 | I use Zyxel Unified Security Gateway in my company for blocking websites and malware filtering. It offers valuable features like web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus. It's cost-effective but lacks scalability and data management improvements if handling very secure data. |
| It Manager at Diamond Braces | 4.5 | I use this capable internet gateway with good standard features, despite its slow advanced UI and unresponsive tech support. I experienced high CPU once, but it's cheap, easy to set up, and I rate it highly overall. |
| System Administrator at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees | 1.5 | While scalable and low-cost for basic firewall/routing, I find this product awful, unreliable, and prone to reboots. Performance is bad, support is unhelpful, and it lacks next-gen features. I strongly advise against it. |
I use it mostly for VPN and for some firewall solutions.
When considering my main use case with VPN, I can say that I got the Zyxel Unified Security Gateway, and it works fine. However, we are thinking about using a different solution based on open source because Zyxel Unified Security Gateway doesn't support open SSL communication.
The Zyxel Unified Security Gateway solution is stable and does its job effectively. These are the main advantages I can confirm.
The integration capability is quite challenging. The system is very complicated, and many features are hidden. I'm looking for something new that is slightly simpler. Regarding user experience, the interface has significant room for innovation and improvement. The Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is not particularly user-friendly in my experience.
The solution has been in use since before I joined the company, approximately eight years ago.
The deployment and installation of the products are challenging due to the design of the user interface.
The solution demonstrates good stability.
I have no reason to complain about the technical support from Zyxel Unified Security Gateway.
Positive
In the past, I read comparisons of different products on PeerSpot website, including FortiGate firewall, Open Sense, and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway.
The installation typically takes one business day to complete.
I cannot compare whether Zyxel Unified Security Gateway saves time or money because I don't know how much effort would be required to make a different solution work.
I cannot definitively comment on whether Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is an affordable product as I haven't done comparisons with other solutions. When our license expires, we plan to explore open source solutions.
We are considering switching to a different open source solution for VPN because Zyxel Unified Security Gateway doesn't support open SSL communication.
Zyxel Unified Security Gateway can reach me via email if they have questions or comments related to my review. I am not interested in being a reference for them.
I rate Zyxel Unified Security Gateway 8 out of 10.
I use the solution in my company for blocking websites and malware filtering.
The most valuable features of the solution stem from web filtering, malware protection, and antivirus.
If you have very secure data, Zyxel Unified Security Gateway will not be very useful. My company doesn't have to deal with secured data right now, so the tool is enough for us currently.
The product has some scalability and data management issues where improvements are required.
I have been using Zyxel Unified Security Gateway for two and a half years.
It is a stable solution. For the past two and a half years, I haven't faced any issues with the product's stability.
It is not a scalable solution, which is a major reason why my company is considering updating the tool to its latest version.
Right now, in terms of the use of the solution in my company, there has been a rise from 1,500 users to 3,000 concurrent users.
The vendor provides technical support for the product. In my company, we have a technical team of three members who decide how to resolve an issue. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.
Neutral
The product's initial setup phase was easy.
The product's deployment phase is usually managed by my company, and sometimes we seek help from the vendor.
The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.
With the network part ready, the solution can be deployed in an hour and a half.
It is a cost-effective product in the market. Compared to the other firewall solutions in the market, Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is a cheaply priced product.
The price of Zyxel Unified Security Gateway is good compared to other similar products in the market.
An increase in the number of users is a reason why my company decided to evaluate other options in the market against Zyxel Unified Security Gateway.
The product's most beneficial feature is its ability to adapt to and deal with all malware attacks.
The intrusion detection capabilities I need are present in the solution. The tool has impacted the security posture in our organization since it has antivirus, anti-spam, web filters, security and quality control. The enhancement in the security posture has been beneficial for my company.
Integrating Zyxel Unified Security Gateway with our company's existing network infrastructure has been good as it works fine and I haven't seen any issues in it till now.
The vendor takes care of the maintenance part of the solution.
I recommend the product to those who plan to use it.
I rate the tool a six out of ten.
We use this product as a gateway for our users to access the internet.
This is a capable appliance and the standard features work well for us.
Although manageable, the user interface is a little bit slow and could be improved. There are two user interface options available, namely the basic and the advanced. The basic UI is not very good and doesn't have a lot of features, although it is fast. The advanced UI allows me to do whatever I want, but this is where the issue of speed exists.
At one of our sites, the CPU utilization was very high, and for no reason.
Technical support needs to be more responsive to requests.
We have been using the Zyxel Unified Security Gateway for at least five years.
This solution is pretty solid, other than the instance where we had experienced abnormally high CPU utilization.
We have not had to scale or expand, so I haven't put any thought into its scalability. As we add more offices, we will increase usage.
I do not have a lot of experience with technical support. On one occasion, I submitted a request about a problem that a user was having and I never received a response.
I have not used another similar solution.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I can just use my configuration templates and apply them the way I want. The deployment takes less than a day.
We have two IT people who maintain our gateway.
This gateway is pretty cheap.
We did not compare other products before this one was chosen.
Overall, this is a good solution, but anything can be improved. To summarize, I would say that it's not the greatest but it's pretty cheap, and it's got basic functions that we can use.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
We primarily use the solution as a firewall and a router. We use it for freelancing.
The solution is good for freelance and routing, as we don't have a separate router.
It's usable for me, for my purposes.
There are some filtering options such as peer-to-peer blocking and things like that.
The solution can scale well.
The cost is very low.
I have never seen it in any company that I've worked with before, and I would advise other companies not to buy it.
The device is really awful It doesn't work well. It is unreliable. They tried to put something professional on a market, however, it's anything but.
Technical support is unhelpful and does not resolve issues quickly (or at all).
From the WiFi access points, the performance is really bad from Zyxel. We have about 26 WiFi access points and still, it does not work as expected.
I need a next-gen firewall next time. I want to be able to do something about malware, et cetera, and that's not the case at this moment. It's a traditional firewall. It doesn't do that.
Sometimes it reboots when you least expect it, and that's the main issue.
When you go on the internet, and you read about it, you'll find more people with the same problems you are having, and they do not get resolved by the company.
The stability is unreliable and the performance is bad. I would not say that the solution works very well in general.
The scalability is good. We bought extra licenses for more access points that are quite easily put in for some extra storage for logging. That was not that difficult to do. It's easy to expand.
The support was really bad. I've had support from them and it took me over three months to get one thing resolved. In fact, it was not resolved in the end. The experience was really bad.
You try to call them, you try to reach out and send them emails, and they don't respond.
The initial setup has a moderate level of difficulty. You need to have so much knowledge, however, that's true with every firewall.
We have a yearly licensing agreement with the company.
The licenses are okay. The costs are pretty low.
We are a software company. We build software. We do not sell the product.
We are using the latest, most up-to-date version of the solution.
I would steer other potential users away from this product. I will never advise this product to anyone. I have never seen it also in a company. I'd rather suggest a company choose another brand.
I'd rate the solution at a three out of ten. I really have not had a good experience with the product.
