We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and Sophos UTM 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."Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"
"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"I like how we can achieve total integration."
"It's a firewall that secures our internal network. I have been using it since 2013, and I find that most of the features are advanced, and very user friendly."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"The feature that I have found the most valuable is the control over the network permissions and the network."
"Microsoft's technical support is very good. They're quite knowledgable and responsive."
"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."
"I think that one of the best features is definitely the premium version, along with the IDPs in terms of the intrusion detection and prevention system."
"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."
"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."
"Performance and stability are the key features of this product."
"We use the solution for application and server deployment."
"We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers."
"With Sophos, we have not had any incidents this year. The security provided has been good. It has proven to be okay for our needs."
"It's easy to use."
"I have no problem with the cost or licensing of this solution. This is a primary reason whay I wanted this solution. It does the same thing cheaper than other name brands."
"So far, the solution has been problem-free."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the firewall application and application control."
"What I like about Sophos UTM is that it improves my company's security. The solution is easy to set up, which I like, and it's very stable."
"The solution can scale."
"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"Technical support is good but the response time could be faster."
"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."
"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."
"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."
"For larger enterprises, they need to adjust the scalability."
"Right now, with Azure Firewall, we cannot have a normal inbound traffic flow. For inbound, Microsoft suggests using application gateways, so the options are very limited. I cannot use this firewall as an intermediate firewall because of the limitations, and I cannot point routing to another firewall. So if I want to use back-to-back firewall architecture in my environment, I cannot use Azure Firewall for that type of configuration either."
"The interface could be improved, it's not very user friendly."
"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."
"Azure Firewall has limited visibility for IDPS, no TLS inspection, no app ID, no user ID, no content ID, no device ID. There is no antivirus or anti-spyware. Azure Firewall doesn't scan traffic for malware unless it triggers an IDPS signature. There is no sandbox or machine learning functionality, meaning we are not protected from Zero-day threats. There is no DNS security and limited web categories."
"Azure should be able to work better as a balancer also, instead of just being a firewall. It should have a wider mandate."
"We find it's different implementing it region-to-region. It might help if it was universal across all regions."
"I didn't like it much. It suits only small businesses. It isn't scalable and reliable. There is a very critical issue with the power supply."
"There is still room for improvement in wireless protection. I don't mean their WiFi device is bad, but there are still things to improve on, such as WiFi roaming."
"I would like this solution to support ICAP. Also, they no longer support on-premises management, and are forcing clients to use centralized management via the cloud, which I don't agree with."
"Sophos UTM sometimes falls short in high-availability environments. They used to launch firmware that didn't work very well in a high-availability environment."
"With Sophos UTM, there is a general rule in the firewall when the country blocking can block some countries from accessing your data. In the current version, you still need to add it by putting in the IP range. This feature would be helpful for administrators and it gives them the advantage to block stuff in less time."
"Initially, there were issues with the wireless network as wireless access points were disappearing from the dashboard after some time."
"The five-factor authentication needs improvement."
"There needs to be some improvement in the IPsec VPN. There is implementation only support. I have version one. I'd be most interested in having IP version two from the protocol."
Azure Firewall is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 33 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 3rd in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 110 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. 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 Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and Check Point NGFW, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Azure Firewall vs. Sophos UTM report.
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