We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Sophos XGS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The solution is very user-friendly."
"It's a user-friendly firewall. Most of the tasks are very simple. It's simple to configure and troubleshoot this firewall."
"Their proxy-based inspection is responsive and secure."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."
"It is a one box solution, which covers most of the edge device’s requirements."
"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The most valuable features are the IPS and Antivirus."
"The most valuable feature is that its IPsec works perfectly."
"The most valuable features are locking applications from in and out of my test network and testing malware on different devices. I use malware detection, antivirus, and basic firewall policies to check for different types of security breaches. The UI is really nice and easy to use."
"The most valuable features we have found to be the VPN, ease of use, and overall simplicity."
"It offers the same robust features and functionality in virtual, on-premise, and traditional data center environments."
"It is highly scalable because it has a mesh architecture that allows consistent policies."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"Technical support has been super responsive and dedicated to getting any challenges resolved."
"It is scalable."
"Sophos XGS that's a good firewall. If you use the endpoint, then you have what Sophos calls synchronized security. That will mean that if one of the endpoints is affected, it will be automatically set in isolation."
"In this solution, the most valuable feature is that it's a security device. Maintaining security is very valuable for us. The other feature that we did not find in other products is that it works well with thin client environments."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS for me are XGS IPS, SD-WAN, VPN setup, email protection, and integration with endpoint security."
"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."
"One of the main advantages of Sophos XGS is the processor. You don't have to wait a long time for when you are managing the firewall and the traffic is faster now."
"There are good KCL rules and policies as well as NATing rules."
"The solution is very user-friendly, and the GUI is so good that I don't have to use the CLI. This eliminates the need for typing; clicking allows me to get to what I'm looking for."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."
"Backup can be improved."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."
"Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"The graphical user interface should be enhanced."
"Technical support could be better."
"Integration could be better. Whatever devices I'm using with FortiGate are all compatible. The access points and switches are also FortiGate, so I can easily integrate them. But it would be better if we could embed other devices as well. There are compatibility issues with other brands, and we need that. We can only integrate universal brands with FortiGate. The initial setup could also be easier."
"Not a ten because I think that Cisco is better."
"In the next release, I would like to see integration capability with SIEM tools, such as QRadar, and LogRhythm."
"The interface needs to be updated and simplified."
"Sizing can be challenging for customers interested in using Fortinet FortiGate-VM."
"The block, the clarity, the quarantine command, is not very user-friendly. You would have to do everything through the command line and I would have preferred if it wasn't a CLI."
"We'd always like the solution to be a bit less in terms of cost."
"There are issues with some designs being able to work on high availability."
"Sophos XGS could improve the price."
"The reporting could be better."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"Sometimes, we haven't received proper support. They couldn't find the solutions that we required. One thing that we need is an NTP server facility. The Sophos XGS device does not have this capacity or this feature."
"We'd like an interface that can monitor everything."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having a Network Access Control(NAC). This feature is a basic function in other firewalls and should be added, such as Palo Alto."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 18th in Firewalls with 62 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox and Sangfor NGAF. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sophos XGS report.
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