The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet-fortigate-reviews ), Check Point, and Cisco, the performance does not degrade significantly. Although I rate the cost six out of ten, the features justify the higher expense.
I rate the pricing of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series as six or seven out of ten. The cost involves purchasing through a vendor, which might mark up due to the supply chain. I've had no complaints about Palo Alto's pricing.
Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
Head Of Information Security-CISO at PricewaterhouseCoopers
Real User
Top 5
May 2, 2024
Companies in Pakistan have limited budgets. Palo Alto is more expensive than other products. So, people are reluctant to put Palo Alto in their environment. It's too costly compared to other tools. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten.
The pricing for Palo Alto is quite high compared to FortiGate, which is more affordable. I don't have the exact figures as my manager handles that, but from my research, Palo Alto's licensing costs are significantly higher.
Based on the customer budget, they can choose from 12-month, 36-month, or 60-month licensing models. The solution is quite expensive compared to Fortinet, Check Point, or Cisco. Customers can go for the solution's premium version, which I wouldn't say is expensive because it secures important data.
Lead Security at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Nov 17, 2022
The price is fair enough. The most expensive is Cisco, followed by Fortinet, then Palo Alto. Palo Alto is very much within the range. We use Software Next-Generation Firewall Credits for licensing and consuming VM-Series. They have a cloud solution using their portal. You can go in and put it through the license. We can't use the credits on the fly. It is not possible because they acquire new CPU RAMs. We cannot change this on the fly. It will take one day of downtime. It is not easy. This is planned downtime. You have to plan for it outside of business hours. If you do the downtime during the business day, you can't do anything. The Software Next-Generation Firewall Credits enable us to protect ourselves without going through a long procurement cycle. The licensing part plus implementation is very easy. You just create the firewall, and it can do everything.
This is not the cheapest firewall but it's not the most expensive of the options on the market. There's a new licensing structure coming in that we're really trying to understand, so I would suggest studying up on it. I recommend getting a partner involved for purchasing the product.
Manager-Information Technology at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 10
May 2, 2022
Initially, pricing was high. Later on, we were able to negotiate the pricing and get something that fits our budget. The solution provides protection and there wasn't an additional cost involved, in terms of security.
Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive. When a customer wants to implement Palo Alto, even a small box, there are several licenses, and having all of them is sometimes really hard to justify. It is difficult for some clients to understand why such a small box costs so much. For instance, they have the dashboard license, and then they have the user license, and so on. If the pricing were more competitive then it would be good because more customers would use the product, rather than use simpler firewalls.
Consultant at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Reseller
May 19, 2021
The VM series is licensed annually. The option exists to procure a basic license. With this, the firewall feature comes with the application and the board, with everything in code. A subscription is included.
Executive Cyber Security Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Sep 21, 2020
I do not have to do budgets and I am thankful for that. I am just the guy in the chain who tells you what license you are going to need if you choose to go with Palo Alto VM-Series. How they negotiate the license and such is not my department. That is because I do not resell. I know what the costs might be and I know it is expensive in comparison to other solutions. I get my licenses from Palo Alto for free because they like me. I have proven to be good to them and good for them. When they have customers that are going to kick them out, I can go in and save the account. I will tell you, they do practice something close to price gouging with their pricing model, just like Cisco does. When I can go out and I can get an F5 for less than half of what I pay for Palo Alto, that is a pretty big price jump. An F5 is really a well-regarded firewall. When I can get a firewall that does twice what a Palo Alto does for less than half, that tells me something. Sophos decided that they were going to play with the big boys. So what they did is they went in and jacked up all their prices and all their customers are going to start running away now. The model is such that it is actually cheaper to buy a new firewall with a three-year license than it is to renew the Sophos license of the same size firewall for an older product. It sorta does not make sense.
Technology Specialist at Accretive Technologies Pvt Ltd
Real User
Jul 15, 2020
I don't have any dealings with the accounting side of the solution. That's handled by someone else. I'm not sure what the cost is or if we pay monthly or yearly.
Infrastructure Team Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Jan 14, 2019
We used BYOL, because of the cost to own. We procure the solution through AWS Marketplace because previous experience with their physical appliances. The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS for a three-year commitment is a great deal, if you can plan that far ahead.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Solution Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Jan 14, 2019
Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace is a secure way to purchase this solution. Our organization chose to procure this solution via the AWS Marketplace because we have clients who were interested in the solution. Also, for out proof of concept, we decided to purchase it. The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS should be from $1.28/hr or $4,500.00/yr. Then, it would be a good price for the performance that it delivers.
Director of Cloud Security at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Dec 11, 2018
Because the solution was getting deployed on AWS, it was the best place to go and it was available there. One of the factors for selecting Palo Alto was they had flexible pricing. They had a pay-as-you-go model. Comparable to other products, such as Check Point, the price point was definitely a plus. It was expensive but it was comparable.
We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good. We used the AWS Marketplace because we were set to move to AWS. We rely on Amazon and their partners to process our research.
Cloud Practice Engineer at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Dec 11, 2018
The purchase process through AWS Marketplace was easy for us because we are partner to Palo Alto, so it was straightforward. All we need to do was purchase it from AWS Marketplace because we had a license. AWS is available as a AMI that you can purchase from the AWS Marketplace. Therefore, you need to purchase the licensing, since it is per AMI. Then, you deploy it on a regular EC2. Then, for on-premise, you can use both Palo Alto's software and hardware. So, it depends on your usage. Compared to other solutions, I think the pricing is efficient.
Purchasing on the AWS Marketplace was simple, effective, and easy. The price is not bad. They have a yearly renewal fee, and the pricing is exactly where we expect it to be.
Our company is entirely AWS, so it is the only place to go to purchase anything. Some parts of purchasing through AWS Marketplace are good, such as this product was easy to find and launch. Some of the other parts could be clearer in the AWS Marketplace, e.g., how to properly do an annual subscription. The pricing and licensing are reasonable.
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a highly effective advanced threat protection (ATP) solution and firewall that can be hosted on cloud computing technologies designed by many different companies. It decreases the amount of time that it will take administrators to respond to threats. Users that deploy VM-series have 70% less downtime than those who use similar firewalls. Neither protection nor efficiency are concerns when this next-generation firewall is in play.
VM-Series is...
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet-fortigate-reviews ), Check Point, and Cisco, the performance does not degrade significantly. Although I rate the cost six out of ten, the features justify the higher expense.
I rate the pricing of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series as six or seven out of ten. The cost involves purchasing through a vendor, which might mark up due to the supply chain. I've had no complaints about Palo Alto's pricing.
The pricing is reasonable and reflects the quality of the product. There are no issues with the cost, as it is commensurate with the quality received.
The pricing is at a reach level. I'm not the person who deals with exact pricing details.
The solution tends to add to costs especially when scaling, although measures like using large compute instances minimize the need for scaling.
I'm not the right person to give a rating for pricing, as I use a not-for-sale license provided by Palo Alto for testing.
Pricing can be an issue when competing with products like Fortinet, which often offer similar functionality at a lower cost.
Companies in Pakistan have limited budgets. Palo Alto is more expensive than other products. So, people are reluctant to put Palo Alto in their environment. It's too costly compared to other tools. I rate the pricing a nine out of ten.
The licensing model should be improved. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is the most expensive tool among competitors.
The pricing for Palo Alto is quite high compared to FortiGate, which is more affordable. I don't have the exact figures as my manager handles that, but from my research, Palo Alto's licensing costs are significantly higher.
There is a need to make payments toward a yearly subscription-based model in which you need to add modules that you want to use in your company.
Based on the customer budget, they can choose from 12-month, 36-month, or 60-month licensing models. The solution is quite expensive compared to Fortinet, Check Point, or Cisco. Customers can go for the solution's premium version, which I wouldn't say is expensive because it secures important data.
The solution is a little bit expensive compared to other vendors.
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is an expensive product but the best one in the market.
The product is cheaper than the on-premise version.
I rate Palo Alto Networks VM-Series pricing an eight out of ten.
The solution is expensive. I rate its pricing a three out of ten.
It is an expensive product. I rate the pricing an eight out of ten. We purchased a three-year license for it.
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate. Fortigate is number one in terms of pricing.
The price is fair enough. The most expensive is Cisco, followed by Fortinet, then Palo Alto. Palo Alto is very much within the range. We use Software Next-Generation Firewall Credits for licensing and consuming VM-Series. They have a cloud solution using their portal. You can go in and put it through the license. We can't use the credits on the fly. It is not possible because they acquire new CPU RAMs. We cannot change this on the fly. It will take one day of downtime. It is not easy. This is planned downtime. You have to plan for it outside of business hours. If you do the downtime during the business day, you can't do anything. The Software Next-Generation Firewall Credits enable us to protect ourselves without going through a long procurement cycle. The licensing part plus implementation is very easy. You just create the firewall, and it can do everything.
This is not the cheapest firewall but it's not the most expensive of the options on the market. There's a new licensing structure coming in that we're really trying to understand, so I would suggest studying up on it. I recommend getting a partner involved for purchasing the product.
Initially, pricing was high. Later on, we were able to negotiate the pricing and get something that fits our budget. The solution provides protection and there wasn't an additional cost involved, in terms of security.
Palo Alto definitely needs to be more competitive compared to other products. The problem that I have faced is that the price of licensing is very high and not very competitive. When a customer wants to implement Palo Alto, even a small box, there are several licenses, and having all of them is sometimes really hard to justify. It is difficult for some clients to understand why such a small box costs so much. For instance, they have the dashboard license, and then they have the user license, and so on. If the pricing were more competitive then it would be good because more customers would use the product, rather than use simpler firewalls.
The VM series is licensed annually. The option exists to procure a basic license. With this, the firewall feature comes with the application and the board, with everything in code. A subscription is included.
Its cost is $75.000. This is the total cost, and it includes the license, implementation fee, and support for two years.
Because I work for a university and the URL is for the institution, it's a free license for us.
I do not have to do budgets and I am thankful for that. I am just the guy in the chain who tells you what license you are going to need if you choose to go with Palo Alto VM-Series. How they negotiate the license and such is not my department. That is because I do not resell. I know what the costs might be and I know it is expensive in comparison to other solutions. I get my licenses from Palo Alto for free because they like me. I have proven to be good to them and good for them. When they have customers that are going to kick them out, I can go in and save the account. I will tell you, they do practice something close to price gouging with their pricing model, just like Cisco does. When I can go out and I can get an F5 for less than half of what I pay for Palo Alto, that is a pretty big price jump. An F5 is really a well-regarded firewall. When I can get a firewall that does twice what a Palo Alto does for less than half, that tells me something. Sophos decided that they were going to play with the big boys. So what they did is they went in and jacked up all their prices and all their customers are going to start running away now. The model is such that it is actually cheaper to buy a new firewall with a three-year license than it is to renew the Sophos license of the same size firewall for an older product. It sorta does not make sense.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
I don't have any dealings with the accounting side of the solution. That's handled by someone else. I'm not sure what the cost is or if we pay monthly or yearly.
The price of this solution is very high for some parts of Africa, which makes it a challenge. If it were lowered then it would be more popular.
We used BYOL, because of the cost to own. We procure the solution through AWS Marketplace because previous experience with their physical appliances. The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS for a three-year commitment is a great deal, if you can plan that far ahead.
Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace is a secure way to purchase this solution. Our organization chose to procure this solution via the AWS Marketplace because we have clients who were interested in the solution. Also, for out proof of concept, we decided to purchase it. The pricing and licensing of this product on AWS should be from $1.28/hr or $4,500.00/yr. Then, it would be a good price for the performance that it delivers.
Because the solution was getting deployed on AWS, it was the best place to go and it was available there. One of the factors for selecting Palo Alto was they had flexible pricing. They had a pay-as-you-go model. Comparable to other products, such as Check Point, the price point was definitely a plus. It was expensive but it was comparable.
We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good. We used the AWS Marketplace because we were set to move to AWS. We rely on Amazon and their partners to process our research.
The purchase process through AWS Marketplace was easy for us because we are partner to Palo Alto, so it was straightforward. All we need to do was purchase it from AWS Marketplace because we had a license. AWS is available as a AMI that you can purchase from the AWS Marketplace. Therefore, you need to purchase the licensing, since it is per AMI. Then, you deploy it on a regular EC2. Then, for on-premise, you can use both Palo Alto's software and hardware. So, it depends on your usage. Compared to other solutions, I think the pricing is efficient.
Purchasing on the AWS Marketplace was simple, effective, and easy. The price is not bad. They have a yearly renewal fee, and the pricing is exactly where we expect it to be.
Our company is entirely AWS, so it is the only place to go to purchase anything. Some parts of purchasing through AWS Marketplace are good, such as this product was easy to find and launch. Some of the other parts could be clearer in the AWS Marketplace, e.g., how to properly do an annual subscription. The pricing and licensing are reasonable.