We compared SonicWall NSa and WatchGuard Firebox across several parameters based on our users' reviews. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below:
Comparison Results: SonicWall NSa's setup is generally considered easy, while WatchGuard Firebox is described as straightforward and simple. SonicWall NSa offers advanced threat protection and unique features like centralized firewall management, while WatchGuard Firebox is praised for its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface. SonicWall NSa could improve integration and bandwidth monitoring, while WatchGuard Firebox needs enhancements in areas such as interface, web blocker feature, reporting, and customer support. The pricing and licensing for both products are generally reasonable, but SonicWall NSa offers more diverse pricing models.
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."
"User-friendly and affordable security solution that's recommended for SMB customers. This solution has good technical support."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"The most valuable features are simplicity, management, and that it's constantly evolving."
"The solution is stable."
"Centralized monitoring, policy management, and virtualized appliances allow us to take control over our public and private infrastructure."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is security. They are known for efficiency and are on the top of Gartner Quadrant reviews. Fortinet FortiGate has an easy-to-use platform with a good graphical interface. The configuration is simple and the solution provides an overall good layer of security."
"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
"Deep packet inspection and intelligent application control are the most valuable features. It is a very updated solution. It is very current as compared to other brands and vendors."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is its ability to work like any other firewall."
"The most valuable features are the VPN, SSL VPN, and IPSec VPN."
"The product blocks access when I visit unrecognized websites."
"SonicWall provides endpoint security with advanced protection. Moreover, SonicWall includes access points and additional features."
"Setup is easy. Anyone with basic firewall experience can do it."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"Easy to scale solution that provides advanced threat protection. Their technical support is very good, very knowledgeable, and easy to reach."
"The solution has a useful traffic monitor."
"The most valuable feature is the NAT-ing, the IP addresses... We can direct the traffic where it needs to go. We can control the traffic."
"I like their management features a lot. Their System Manager server as well the System Manager software make managing them, and tracking changes, very easy and complete."
"They've done a lot of work with their SD-WAN, which we do use, to have our old internet service with our new internet service. If anything goes down on a particular interface, I can have different rules applied. Most of my users don't even know when our primary internet goes down anymore... I don't have to be here to do anything to switch it to our backup internet or to switch it back."
"The reports are detailed."
"One of my favorite features is the Geolocation service, where you can actually block specific activity or IP addresses registered to certain countries. For example, I don't want any web traffic from Russia or North Korea. I may even lock down certain policies down to 'I only want U.S. IP addresses.' I find that very useful."
"The main features of the solution are the control of the site-to-site network access and the overall features."
"The client is easy to use and stable"
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"The central management for the FortiGate Fortinet Firewall needs improvement. They have the manager to do the essential management for both SD-WAN and for the security policy. They should also improve the SD-WAN function."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"Do not even consider NetExtender - probably one of the most horrific, nightmare grade Java-based VPN clients. We have but all given up trying to make it work reliably."
"We have used other solutions such as pfSense and Linux native firewalls. I prefer SonicWall NSa but if you are going to use something for an enterprise you need another solution."
"Overall, Im satisfied with SonicWall NSa, but it would be better if they could add a small terminal to each device. This would help me deal with certain issues by running a small bot onto any PC."
"An area for improvement would be SonicWall NSa's integration with antiviruses."
"The content filter needs to be improved."
"It doesn't require much improvement. The only improvement area is that cloud reporting, assessment reporting, and other reporting features should be available with the subscription. They should provide reporting features with the subscription base, which is currently not there. We bought the reporting tool, but there are some complications. They have made some changes to the application, and now the reporting management is completely on the cloud."
"SonicWall needs to work on SD-WAN."
"The user interface could be better."
"Firebox would be improved with integration for endpoint protection solutions."
"When working with WatchGuard, specifically in configuring Panda Security on the portal for the first time, it was challenging for me."
"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."
"There should be better integration and a way to configure multiple vendors into the same data center in order to offer more flexibility."
"The only downside is that it is missing an API, that you can use to easily collect information from it."
"The solution's pricing could be improved."
"The pricing could be improved. It is definitely one of the more expensive products."
"The level of support from WatchGuard is not as good."
SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 79 reviews. SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and OPNsense, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our SonicWall NSa vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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