We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and Check Point NGFW based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison of Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Azure Firewall seems to be a superior solution. All other things being more or less equal, our reviewers found Check Point NGFW to be rather expensive to purchase. Users of Check Point NGFW feel that the stability of the product could be improved. Additionally, some users are not so impressed by the technical support and training that it offers.
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"The features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."
"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"Network filtering is valuable. The scalability capability from the cloud-native service helps us a lot because it simplifies our day-to-day maintenance activity."
"The firewall policy control, URL content control, and antivirus are all the most valuable aspects. Threat prevention is as well quite good."
"The solution has many useful features. For example, the solution allows users to create virtual IP addresses."
"It's auto-scalable, which is a great feature."
"In terms of the reporting, it's beautiful. It integrates with Azure monitoring and with Azure policies. That piece is a big help. You can set governing policies and you can use the application firewall, as well as the Azure Firewall, to enforce those policies."
"The initial setup is straightforward; Azure Firewall does not have a complex implementation process. It is very simple; you just need to enable the service within Azure. It does not require any maintenance because it is managed by Microsoft, that is, it is a fully managed service."
"The solution is stable."
"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."
"Some of the most valuable features are URL filtering, web filtering, and content filtering."
"Check Point has strong security features as well as some decent monitoring and management capabilities."
"We can decipher the activity of each connection and see what is inside it."
"The QoS blade is very good for controlling traffic such as Windows patches, mail traffic and other stuff."
"The packet inspections have been a strong point. Our identity collectors have also been helpful. In many ways, Check Point has been a step up from our SonicWalls that we had in-house before that. There's a lot of additional flexibility that we didn't have before."
"The Smart Dashboard allows for rule creation and administration and management and is user-friendly."
"As with any firewall, IPSEC VPN is the critical functionality. Not every organization has the budget to implement MPLS or SD-WAN, which makes IPSEC the go-to for site-to-site connectivity."
"We have found the solution to be scalable."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"Monitoring and reporting could be better."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"The solution could be more secure and stable."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"They can improve the pricing of Azure Firewall."
"It's a little heavy compared to a FortiGate or other firewalls."
"Azure has new versions including a premium firewall. But I would like to see them not put the premium features on Azure Firewall Premium alone because it is quite expensive."
"The solution should incorporate features similar to competitors like split tunneling."
"The tool needs to improve the onboarding and transition process for on-prem users."
"It would be nice to be able to create groupings for servers and offer groups of IP addresses."
"For large organizations, a third-party firewall would be an added advantage, because it would have more advanced features, things that are not in Azure Firewall."
"The threat intelligence aspect of this particular firewall is not at par with other providers."
"Complex and not very easy to use."
"They have few predefined reports and it would be nice to increase them since the logs are excellent."
"There are issues with stability while upgrading devices with hotfixes."
"The exterior of the physical device can be improved with the use of a display and not just simple lights."
"I would highlight the need for enhancements in technical support services."
"The study material for Check Point needs to be improved, as well as the cost for certification."
"The improvement could come from better monitoring of traffic data in and out of the firewall."
"It would be ideal to manage everything from one central place."
Azure Firewall is ranked 21st in Firewalls with 33 reviews while Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 277 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8. The top reviewer of Azure Firewall writes "Easy to use and configure but could be more robust". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense. See our Azure Firewall vs. Check Point NGFW report.
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Check Point firewall does a deep inspection of packets till Layer 7 and is more compatible with the organizational environment.
The Azure firewall is also a cloud-based security solution that also provides Advance Threat Protection.