We performed a comparison between Sophos UTM and WatchGuard Firebox based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The initial installation is very straightforward."
"It is useful for protecting and segregating the internal networks from the internet. Most of our customers also use the FortiGate client to connect to their offices by using the VPN client, and of course, they usually activate the antivirus, deep inspection, and intrusion prevention services. They are also using it for web filtering and implementing various policies dealing with forwardings, NAT, etc."
"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"LinkGreat firewall capabilities"
"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and there are several operating systems that can include the hardware capacities. In the newer releases, the resources were more useful because they were included in the operating system."
"One of the valuable features is a standardized OS."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"Advanced protection (Sophos Sandstorm) - Protects against crypto viruses in real-time."
"It has allowed us to design a bespoke cloud space for our clients, while still having an excellent level of protection."
"Brings greater visibility into the network traffic coming inside and passing away from the company."
"Efficient and effective - it's easy to separate rules."
"Monitoring and reporting are areas that need improvement."
"Sophos is a unified solution. We have anti-virus protection, firewall rules, knotting, and DACC all in one box."
"Configuration could not be made any easier."
"The cost of the solution is very reasonable."
"The client is easy to use and stable"
"It's very easy to use, especially compared to similar products. A lot more users use the WatchGuard appliance now than use the SonicWall appliance because of the ease of usability."
"One of the most valuable features is the Geolocation. Because we aren't a multinational corporation, it allows me to look at things which might be suspicious to make sure that they are legitimate transactions rather than people sniffing around the network."
"We experienced that WatchGuard is easy to setup regarding VPN compared to other firewalls of other brands."
"Firebox operates effectively in the background, blocking potential threats without a need for constant monitoring."
"Policy VPN, site-to-site VPN, traffic monitoring, anti-spam filters, and all other advanced features are valuable."
"The ports that I have assigned appear to be unattainable to outside 'mal-actors,' unless they have an address registered on the internet that this thing is expecting. That's a layer of security."
"It provides us with Layer 2 and Layer 3 security."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"The pricing could always be better."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"They've become quite expensive."
"The user interface could be improved."
"We need to speed up the support."
"The reporting could be a lot better."
"Needs to improve the certificate management (ex. Let's Encrypt support)."
"Sophos should be more user-friendly, have more dashboards, and an easier implementation."
"There is absolutely no support when using AWS. If you buy the on-premise Sophos solution, you get support."
"Sophos UTM's internet security could be better."
"They could definitely improve on the support, especially in other countries."
"It is a little too CPU resource intensive, so we would like to see improvements there."
"We bought Firebox four or five years ago, and with the first version I had to reboot it every two or three months for no apparent reason. We upgraded last year to the M370 and it's been running, but it is rebooting from time to time. I don't know why."
"There's always room for improvement, especially if the threats are getting more sophisticated and the IT department cannot sufficiently meet this kind of sophistication with their own knowledge and experience. Knowing that this solution can get up to the level of addressing a lot of these threats is something that everybody wishes for. If we look at the dark web and the lawful web, they are two opposites, and if these two good and bad collide in the world of the internet, you want the best possible product—especially if you cannot get to that point of knowledge. I am just an individual and end user, with limited knowledge of usage. That's why I say there's always room for improvement, from their side and also from mine, because by knowing exactly what they can achieve and the knowledge that they can get on an everyday basis, and the portion that is understandable to me, it's an improvement for them as well."
"Due to their lack of investment in marketing, channel development, and certifications, WatchGuard faces challenges in gaining visibility and market share, especially in regions like Pakistan."
"There is a slight learning curve."
"I haven’t dug deeply into the reporting features yet or if they are working well. However, I have generated several reports and there was too much unnecessary information, in comparison with the reporting features in the Sophos firewall. Sophos' reporting is more readable and easier to configure."
"There are a couple of things I wished that it would do, but I can't think of those off the top of my head."
"This solution needs the option to add an external hard drive."
"A 12-hour power outage... got our batteries."
Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 110 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 3rd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 79 reviews. Sophos UTM is rated 8.4, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Sophos UTM is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Untangle NG Firewall, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Check Point NGFW. See our Sophos UTM vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
See our list of best Unified Threat Management (UTM) vendors and best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Unified Threat Management (UTM) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
