Azure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls comparison

Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Microsoft is ranked #19 with an average rating of 8.2, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.8. Microsoft holds a 2.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 82% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 29, 2024

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Azure Firewall are both popular network security solutions. Users prefer the comprehensive features of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, but Azure Firewall is favored for its seamless cloud integration and flexibility.

Features: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer advanced threat detection, application awareness, and deep packet inspection. Azure Firewall provides seamless integration with Azure services, scalability, and centralized management. Palo Alto provides detailed security analytics, while Azure focuses on easier cloud service integration.

Room for Improvement: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls could benefit from a simpler configuration process and lower resource consumption. Azure Firewall users suggest enhanced logging and reporting features and better analytic capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Deployment of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is often more complex and time-intensive, whereas Azure Firewall typically offers quicker deployment within the Azure ecosystem. Customer feedback indicates Palo Alto has a more responsive support team compared to Azure's support.

Pricing and ROI: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have higher initial setup costs but are justified due to their rich feature set and strong ROI. Azure Firewall offers cost-effective upfront pricing, ideal for cloud-first strategies, with ROI benefits for those utilizing Azure services.

To learn more, read our detailed Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.5%, up from 17.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Azure Firewall is 2.3%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is 3.3%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Q&A Highlights

Netanya Carmi

Content Manager at PeerSpot (formerly IT Central Station)

Aug 22, 2021

What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall cloud platform, autoscaling, and the ability for users to create virtual IP addresses. The cost of the solution is also competitive. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewall is easy to configure and easy to upgrade, offering very good content control. It offers a parallel processing data plan, which makes the overall processes more efficient. Palo Alto offers blocking of undesirable URLs and also offers some threat hunt capabilities, which makes it better than other vendors. However, pricing can be high and support response can be a bit slow. Also, it only offers a cloud-based solution. For Azure Firewall you have to specify each IP address used. We also found Azure to be challenging to implement from region to region, as it does not currently offer a universal approach across regions. Conclusions Although Azure Firewall is very user-friendly and offers good support, it can be very limiting if your operation is more global. We found that even though it costs more, Palo Alto Network NG Firewall was a better fit, as it offers a cloud-based solution and has threat protection capabilities that make it a better overall investment for our business needs.

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Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28

Senior Manager at Cognizant

Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support

We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…

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Charan Kumar

Director, Technology at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Easy to use and configure but could be more robust

The cost of the solution has increased. The robustness of the software could be better. It should be able to cover host-to-host traffic or HTTP traffic. Configurations can be better. The workloads need to still have free access. The encryption and decryption process is not that seamless. It's a little heavy compared to a FortiGate or other firewalls.

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Simon Webster

Security Architect at University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis

The biggest thing that needs to be improved with them is their training. I took a training class for the 8.0 build, then I took it again for the 9.0 and 10 builds. They add new features every time that they do a new major release, but the training doesn't keep up. It is the same basic training that probably was with the 3.0 build, and they just change the screenshots. I would love to see them do some more work since they have all these bells and whistles, but we don't know how to use those features on a large scale. I know this little section here about the firewall, but I know there is a huge amount that still could be done with it. I am not touching enough of it because I just don't know how. It seems like the more I learn about it, the more I learn that there is to learn

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."

"The initial setup is easy."

"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."

"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."

"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."

"Initial setup is easy to configure."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"It is easy for me to protect certain ports or even the IP addresses, as well as do whitelisting, blacklisting, and the FQDN when we want virtual machines connected and to protect certain websites."

"The solution should be capable of self-scaling, which is one of the features we like about it."

"The most valuable feature is threat intelligence. It is based on filtering and can identify multiple threats."

"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 solution can autoscale."

"I like its order management feature. It doesn't have the kind of threat intelligence that Palo Alto has, but the order management makes it much simpler to know the difference."

"The firewall policy control, URL content control, and antivirus are all the most valuable aspects. Threat prevention is as well quite good."

"All its features are good. That's why we recommend it."

More Azure Firewall pros

"When we put it on the border, it was blocking everything that we were getting ahead of time, and we weren't getting any hits. This includes URL filtering, spam prevention, and anti-virus."

"We utilize advanced threat prevention features like web filtering and SSL decryption, which haven't caused any issues."

"URL filtering and WildFire features are most valuable. It is very user-friendly. It is a very solid product, and it definitely works."

"It's quite nice. It's very user-friendly, powerful, and there are barely any bugs."

"The technology's very good. We have had a lot of good experience with this solution."

"The best feature is the packet inspection; compared to solutions like Cisco and FortiGate, Palo Alto's packet inspection is much less CPU intensive, allowing it to detect threats embedded within packages more quickly and efficiently."

"The performance of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is the most valuable feature."

"Provision of quality training material and the reporting is very good."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls pros

Cons

"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."

"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."

"FortiOS is not simple."

"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."

"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."

"It should be more stable. There should be full integration within Fortinet products themselves as well as with other third-party products. Especially when you're not dealing with SIEM and the correlation of the security box, we want Fortinet to be able to share that information with as many other products as it can."

"The performance and speed are aspects of the solution that could always be improved upon."

"The solution lacks multi-language support."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The interface could be improved, it's not very user friendly."

"The development area and QA area could be improved. With those improvements, we can improve projects and take even less time to implement them."

"The product could be made more customizable."

"It is a cloud service, but the lending speed for each region is not always the same. For example, in China, the speed is slow. They need to think about how to make sure that the service pace or speed is always the same in all regions. It would be a great improvement if they can provide the same pace worldwide."

"You have to have a defined IP range within your network to associate it with your network. The problem is you have to plan ahead of time if you expect to use the firewall in the future so that you don't have to reconfigure your subnets or that specific IP range. Other than that, I don't any issues. I use it for basic configuration for a single application, so I really don't try to leverage it for multiple applications where I might find some complexity or challenges."

"The threat intelligence aspect of this particular firewall is not at par with other providers."

"Azure should be able to work better as a balancer also, instead of just being a firewall. It should have a wider mandate."

"The solution doesn't offer the same capabilities of Fortinet. It should offer intrusion prevention and advance filtering. These are two very useful features offered on Fortinet that Azure lacks."

More Azure Firewall cons

"The user interface is a bit clumsy and not very user-friendly."

"The initial configuration is complicated to set up."

"The tech support was once great, but now it is poor. The tech support has gone south. It is really difficult. I had a Priority 1 case last a week in their queue, and after multiple complaints, I finally got somebody to take the case. These are things that are unacceptable in the business world. They could train their employees better."

"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls need better training modules. You have to do a lot of reading prior to watching the training videos, and it's good for people who are really into it. However, often you want to use a video for a TID. You want to see how to do something rather than spend 30 minutes reading and then another 30 minutes watching the class. As a result, I take third-party training classes rather than Palo Alto's training because they are a lot better."

"The price is high and has room for improvement."

"People sometimes find it more expensive as compared to other solutions. There are also fewer training opportunities for Palo Alto than Cisco and other vendors."

"Generating reports is not so easy."

"The support needs improvement, as the quality of the responses is not great and sometimes solutions take a long time."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."

"If you compare Fortinet FortiGate with Sophos and other firewall products available in the market, this solution is affordable."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"Pricing and licensing is a little bit complicated in FortiGate. They are always on the higher side. This is one issue that we always raise with the company that they should reduce the price according to Indian market requirements. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"Price-wise, it's at a good price point for our market."

"The support subscription for the solution is annual. You are paying for support and there are two levels of support, professional and advanced."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable."

"Easy to understand licensing requirements."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Azure Firewall is more expensive. If Microsoft can make Azure Firewall cheaper, I can see that all clients will think of using it. One client used FortiGate because it is much cheaper. Some clients ask me for Cisco, but in the cloud estimate, I found its cost is the same as Azure Firewall."

"Azure Firewalls operate on a pay-as-you-go model, similar to cloud services."

"The solution is cheaper than other brands. My company has an enterprise contract and we finally got a good price with Azure."

"Azure Firewall is expensive."

"The total cost of ownership is much less than Palo Alto, Cisco, or any other brand."

"It is pay-as-you-go. So, you pay based on the usage. If I remember it well, there is a basic fee, and there is a traffic fee. It is not per month. It is per hour or something like that. It is not so expensive."

"The licensing module is good."

"It is expensive, especially with the premium functions. For one of the clients, it was very expensive. You have to use it more at an enterprise level, and there, it was not at an enterprise level. So, it was very costly, but security-wise, it was a very wise decision to use it that way."

More Azure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"The NG firewall is an expensive solution."

"The solution is worth the price, as it can be utilized without the need for high-processing CPUs and resources, thus saving us overall."

"It is an expensive solution."

"It's too expensive."

"In terms of price, the user finds it expensive, rating it around nine."

"The solution is expensive."

"The product is expensive compared to competing products but uses a similar type of pricing model based on hardware, software and maintenance."

"The price is expensive, especially in Turkey, where I am located... Palo Alto is very expensive compared to other vendors, like Fortinet."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...

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How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?

Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the...

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Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls

In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it...

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Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...

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What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

We utilize advanced threat prevention features like web filtering and SSL decryption, which haven't caused any issues.

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Azure Firewall

Compared 20% of the time

Microsoft Defender for Cloud vs Azure Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Azure Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Azure Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

More Azure Firewall Competitors

Check Point NGFW vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 14% of the time

Meraki MX vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 10% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 9% of the time

Sophos XG vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 7% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

November 2024

Download Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

Palo Alto NGFW, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall

Learn More

Fortinet

Microsoft

Palo Alto Networks

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Azure Firewall is a user-friendly, intuitive, cloud-native firewall security solution that provides top-of-the-industry threat protection for all your Azure Virtual Network resources. Azure Firewall is constantly and thoroughly analyzing all traffic and data packets, making it a very valuable and secure fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. Azure Firewall allows users to create virtual IP addresses and provides for secure DDoS protection for the virtual machines on your network. It also provides fast and efficient east-west and north-south traffic security.

Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service built to protect your Azure Virtual Network resources. It is a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability.

Azure Firewall has two significant offerings, Standard and Premium.

Azure Firewall Standard works directly with Microsoft Cyber Security and supplies excellent L3-L7 filtering and threat awareness. The proactive real-time threat awareness will quickly alert you and immediately deny all traffic to and from any known problematic or suspicious domains or IP addresses. Microsoft Cyber Security is updated continually to protect against all new and known potential threats at all times. To learn more about Azure Firewall Standard, click here.

Azure Firewall Premium provides everything the standard version does, and additionally adds extra levels of data encryption, network intrusion detection, extended URL filtering, and Web category filters. To learn more about the added features of Azure Firewall Premium, click here.

Key Benefits and Features of Azure Firewall:

High availability - You do not need load balancers with Azure Firewall; it's already built in and ready to go.
Self-scalability - Azure Firewall is intuitive and will auto-scale as needed based on traffic flow to be ready for peak traffic times.
Threat awareness - Using Microsoft Cyber Security to filter traffic, Azure Firewall will deny any known problematic threats to keep your network safe.
Additional IP addresses - You can securely add up to 250 public IP addresses with Azure Firewall
Improved web category filtering - You can set up specific protocols to allow or deny categories within websites that are deemed inappropriate for use within your network. You have the ability to organize categories based on a defined set of descriptions.

What our real users have to say:

Many PeerSpot users found Azure Firewall to be very user-friendly and easy to use. They liked that it offers seamless integration to the cloud and were especially pleased with the threat filtering options.

Regarding integration and threat intelligence, our users wrote:

“The most valuable feature is the integration into the overall cloud platform.”

“The most valuable feature is threat intelligence. It is based on filtering and can identify multiple threats.”

“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.”

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer comprehensive security, including application control, traffic shaping, threat prevention, and load balancing, designed to secure internal networks, perimeter protection, VPN services, and cloud environments.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are a key choice for managing and protecting data centers, securing remote access, network segmentation, malware prevention, and ensuring high availability and performance for business-critical applications. Known for stability and strong security, these firewalls use application-aware identifiers and IPS/IDS subscriptions to offer advanced threat protection. The unified platform facilitates seamless integration, while GlobalProtect and centralized management via Panorama enhance ease of use. However, there are areas for improvement, including pricing strategies, training, user support, and integration with third-party applications.

What are the essential features?

Stability: Reliable performance in different environments.
Application Control: Identifies applications to manage traffic.
Advanced Threat Protection: Includes DNS security, WildFire, and machine learning.
GlobalProtect: Secure remote access for users.
Centralized Management: Managed via the Panorama platform.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Security: Protects against threats with robust features.
User-Friendly: Simplified interface and easy configuration.
High Availability: Ensures performance for critical applications.
Integration: Seamless with existing systems and applications.
Support: Reliable technical support and resources.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls secure sensitive data and meet regulatory requirements. These firewalls help manage large-scale networks in these sectors, providing essential security features and maintaining high-performance standards. They are implemented to ensure compliance, protect patient information, secure financial transactions, and safeguard customer data.

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Information Not Available

SkiStar AB, Ada County, Global IT Services PSF, Southern Cross Hospitals, Verge Health, University of Portsmouth, Austrian Airlines, The Heinz Endowments

Buyer's Guide

Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

December 2024

Free Report: Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Firewall vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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