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AlgoSec vs Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Skybox Security Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of AlgoSec is 22.3%, up from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks Panorama is 8.3%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Skybox Security Suite is 10.9%, up from 10.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Shameerudheen Kp - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to setup with good auto-implementation and good rule reviews
AlgoSec is slow when it is loaded with too many firewalls and policies. A plan to take care of heavy usage is to be considered. Support of all firewalls and policy features to be enabled. AlgoSec should support in identifying most hit rules and re-ordering existing firewall rules - this is a very key to manage firewall CPU. A clustering of AlgoSec can also be considered. A group of AlgoSec servers managing large client bases geographically or datacenter-wise or function-wise. A head reporting unit and child processing units.
Kim Ejby Lorentzen - PeerSpot reviewer
Unified firewall management streamlines operations across branches with prompt support services
The primary use case for this solution is the management of the entire firewall portfolio across various branches Palo Alto Networks Panorama has simplified management by providing a unified interface for firewall management and configuration. One of the key advantages of Palo Alto Networks…
NenadMijatovic - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient in vulnerability management, stable and easy to use
Vulnerability management is the most valuable feature because it lets you focus on the most critical vulnerabilities. That's the important thing. Here in Serbia, there are not so many companies that have too many firewalls inside one company. So, they usually don't buy this model for Firewall Assurance unless there is some compliance. So you can prove that your firewalls are compliant. So, that model is not so important here in Serbia. It's for bigger companies. So, they usually buy network assurance to build the model of the network and vulnerability management to focus on the most important vulnerabilities. Moreover, Skybox can collect data for many vendors. From the endpoint protection vendors to the network equipment vendors to other security vendors. So, it supports more than one hundred vendors to collect data from them.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The training provided by AlgoSec helps a lot in the development of employees who work with the tool."
"​The initial setup process is excellent."
"AlgoSec gives us a high level of confidence that our ACLs and our risk components are actually in line with our expectations. Because we run a lot of our firewalls as an internal change control boundary, we rely on them heavily to segregate vendor networks. It gives us a high level of confidence that those third-party networks that ride on the backbone are segregated and appropriately defined."
"AlgoSec has a feature that provides intelligence on which rules are correct. It was crucial in helping us understand which rules were important and which ones could be turned off or removed, simplifying the structure. It helps prioritize actions and performance needs. The performance boost we had was huge. We were considering buying new firewall structures, but with AlgoSec, we just organized the rules and avoided spending more money on the environment."
"The most valuable feature is the unused rule optimization, where it clears the policy when appropriate."
"It offers a range of automated workflows and processes that accelerate security policy management."
"The most valuable features are the network map, risk analysis, and tickets for firewall changes."
"We have critical security policies. With AlgoSec, we can create a security policy to manage critical applications. I have worked in the bank and they have critical applications. We created some security policies for those applications. Controlling the flow is critical for our customers."
"Our team has the option to make configuration changes at any given time."
"Everything about the reporting and everything about Palo Alto Networks Panorama is good."
"These features are instrumental in achieving effective results."
"It's easy to deploy any software or policies."
"Palo Alto Networks Panorama has simplified management by providing a unified interface for firewall management and configuration."
"The entire ease of use is most valuable. If you're managing firewalls locally with PAN-OS, the look and feel of Panorama is the same. So, you don't have to relearn another product. If you're used to managing firewalls from Palo Alto, you can easily use Panorama to manage them. It looks and feels the same."
"We use the solution for centralized monitoring."
"The firewall rules and policies are the most valuable aspects of the solution."
"The most valuable feature is firewall management."
"The solution's simplicity of use is its most valuable feature."
"It's given us more visibility in terms of what are the kinds of configurations that are on these devices, and how many of these are stale rules. So it's helped greatly in terms of cleaning up of rules, for sure. And it has definitely given us a more secure way of backing up the configuration on these devices."
"The product's most valuable feature is vulnerability management."
"The features that I have found most valuable with Skybox Security Suite, and this is because I work on the security side, are the firewall assurance, the change manager and the vulnerability control. These three features are the most impressive from Skybox Security."
"The revalidation and policy recertifications are most valuable."
"The solution offers very nice dashboards and they've recently added a very good Java-based web interface."
"It can be integrated with a vulnerability management solution. When a client comes, apart from pitching network and firewall change management, we are recommending having vulnerability management. So, rather than just having the audit of the firewall, they can integrate it with their vulnerability management solution, which could be Rapid7, Qualys, or any other solution. This provides them the most value out of the platform. That is the way we are approaching our customer base."
 

Cons

"AlgoSec license usage is handled differently between firewall vendors. It may be a bit challenging to properly size the purchase of a new license - especially if a client is running multiple vendor firewalls in the environment."
"It would be interesting if the product could automate the switch configuration and create a dynamic map of the entire network."
"We needs object level permissions and application level recertifications."
"Creating more intuitive menus could be helpful, especially for first-time users."
"Fireflow needs to be a little more user-friendly."
"AlgoSec's audit management is not good enough and can be improved."
"​In the VMware platform, sometimes the application is frozen and we have to reload the machine​."
"We would like to see them utilize the cloud to help with performance improvement, and with various processes needed on a daily basis."
"The customer support needs to be better."
"The solution could improve by having a true single pane of glass environment for unified management. At the present time, you still have to use three or four different solutions to bring everything together."
"Its scalability can be improved. It is too expensive to scale it in the way Palo Alto wants us to scale. Scalability is one of the main reasons why our customer is looking for alternatives. It is too expensive to scale. Its redundancy also requires improvement, but it seems that in the latest version, redundancy is improved, and you can have more than two devices in an HA pair. So, they are heading in that direction. It would be good if they combine their dynamic list functionality in a much better way with Panorama and include it as out-of-the-box functionality. Palo Alto supports the dynamic list functionality for some basic threats, but there is a lot of scope for improvement."
"The setup cost is too high."
"There is room for improvement in the graphical user interface (GUI), which is becoming outdated, especially the NAT section."
"Sometimes technical support is slow to respond."
"I am observing that whenever pushing our configurations sometimes the configuration will not push properly and then we have to go to the individual firewall and save it again."
"The dual WAN functionality is missing in this solution."
"There is room for improvement in the product's user interface. It could be more user-friendly."
"The solution does not support certain devices or vendors in some regions or countries due to regulations."
"Reporting. A lot of the reports, out of the box, are limited to a certain number of either configuration violations or access rule violations. So when you first set up a new firewall to be monitored by Skybox, you don't get a real full report. You have to really tweak it to get everything."
"The Network Assurance, which helps to create the network model, is not so rich."
"The primary room for improvement would be to enable a web interface, which is not something which is there in the product. This is supposed to have come a year, a year and a half ago, but still has failed to come out. It still needs a client application to be installed on a workstation to be able to access that server and then run these reports. So I cannot extend that access to anybody. It has to be one administrator all the time. So unlike a web interface, where you can give multiple users simultaneous access and generate the various reports, that isn't a possibility at the moment."
"Change Manager can be improved. If they can improve Change Manager so that whatever we want to do on a firewall, we are able to do it through Change Manager, it will be helpful for us. Whenever we are doing a change, it only does them at an L3 and L4 level, but all the firewalls are at the application layer. So, whatever needs to be done on the firewall, we aren't able to get it done through Change Manager. Currently, this functionality is not there because of which we are sometimes losing customers. I can create a role on Layer 3, Layer 4, but when it comes to the application layer, such as configuring and defining URLs or other things at the application level, it can't be done through Change Manager. Customers demand that they should be able to do everything through Change Manager. They don't want to do it through some other mechanism to accomplish their complete change management policy. They don't want to use a firewall manager because sometimes, they don't have any manager. They ask if they can use our solution so that a manager is not required. If Change Manager can do all the management automatically without involving any other manager, it will be great. They can also provide better integration with other managers so that everything can be done through a central point."
"The initial setup with Skybox Security is hard. You need one or two strong security engineers on your team."
"The solution needs to move improve its interface to a full web browser version that is more accessible and doesn't require installation for use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I compared the prices of AlgoSec with Tufin and FireMon. I don't recall the exact cost, but it was within budget and not very expensive. In addition to standard licensing fees, we didn't have any significant additional costs. We did hire new people for the change management process, but that's not a technology issue."
"It will reduce your operations costs with improved team performance."
"Licensing is offered as a subscription and as a perpetual model."
"I find the price too expensive. It looks a bit like SAP, so it does have standard functionality out of the box, but you will spend a lot of money if you want to customize it. However, the price is not as extreme as SAP or Oracle, but the actual implementation does turn out to be expensive."
"The pricing could be better."
"Pricing is great if you have a small number of large firewalls, otherwise, it does not bring ROI."
"AlgoSec is not much more expensive compared to other products available in the market."
"The price is within the standard of security products."
"If I were to rate the pricing of Palo on a scale of one to five, with one being really high and five being a good, reasonable price, I would rate Palo as a three."
"Sometimes the company prefers to give a license to test the product in our environment before we go to the customer. But the customer should buy his own license, and that's the system here. The system is different between one country and another. Some countries say that the IT solutions provider should provide the license."
"There is a license required to use this solution and it is paid annually."
"It is pretty reasonable as compared to other companies."
"The pricing is considered a little bit expensive, but depending on the client, it's worth it."
"Licensing fees are paid yearly."
"Palo Alto products are generally priced higher compared to their competitors."
"Although I don't have direct knowledge of the setup cost I believe it is mid-range."
"The pricing is high, and the licensing model needs more flexibility."
"Skybox comes with extra licenses and has a change management license. The licenses are expensive, but they come with extra value."
"The product's pricing is excellent value. In terms of licensing, make sure you understand your network components, all your hops through your network, thoroughly, before you decide on the total cost. If you want to do point-to-point flow analysis and such, you need to have the configuration of all the devices in between point A and point B. A lot of people don't realize all their network components until they start using this product."
"I think the price is fair."
"With licensing, the number of network nodes becomes very expensive to the point where you have to rationalize if the tools are warranted anymore."
"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."
"It's expensive."
"The pricing has increased exorbitantly in the last few years, so now it is questionable. Now, it makes me want to review other products."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
20%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AlgoSec?
AlgoSec's ability to integrate with various security and networking solutions enhances its overall value.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AlgoSec?
I am into operations and not aware of cost or pricing.
What needs improvement with AlgoSec?
AlgoSec is slow when it is loaded with too many firewalls and policies. A plan to take care of heavy usage is to be c...
What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks Panorama?
The most valuable aspect of Palo Alto Networks Panorama for me is the centralized management of multiple firewalls.
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks Panorama?
The solution requires more flexibility and quicker response times. High-speed replies are crucial. Additionally, the ...
What do you like most about Skybox Security Suite?
Overall, the tool has helped us reduce risks. If any step is missing, it's easier for my team or engineers to identif...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skybox Security Suite?
Skybox Security Suite has indeed helped us reduce costs. The prices of AlgoSec and Skybox Security Suite are approxim...
What needs improvement with Skybox Security Suite?
There is room for improvement in the product's user interface. It could be more user-friendly.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Maersk, Delta Airlines, Chevron, General Motors, T-Mobile, Chevron, AT&T, BP, Bell Canada, HCA Healthcare, Morgan Stanley, Unilever, Nationwide Insurance Enterprise, US Bank, Microsoft 
University of Arkansas, JBG SMITH, Temple University, Telkom Indonesia
ADP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BT, USAID, Delta Dental, EDF Energy, EMC, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson
Find out what your peers are saying about AlgoSec, Tufin, Palo Alto Networks and others in Firewall Security Management. Updated: March 2025.
841,205 professionals have used our research since 2012.