We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: The main difference between these two products is the scalability. While Azure Firewall users say the scalability could be improved, users of Sophos XG are satisfied with the solution’s capability to scale. Azure users also mention that the interface and the reporting, logging, and monitoring features all need improvement.
"The solution is very, very easy to use."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."
"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"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."
"I can easily configure it."
"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."
"It's helped us improve our security posture."
"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 most valuable feature is threat intelligence. It is based on filtering and can identify multiple threats."
"Among the most valuable features are the DDoS protection that protects your virtual machines, the threat intelligence, and traffic filtering."
"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."
"So far, I'm happy that they have recently added a firewall role, so I feel a little more comfortable with the security. The threat management is good."
"I've tried out Sophos XG a little. It has a good interface that's very user-friendly, but I haven't used all of its functions because I'm only configuring and running the system."
"The solution comes with a common bundle which comprises all the feature."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XG are user-friendliness and it is highly secure."
"This is a very stable solution."
"I have found the solution easy to use and fully integrated."
"The performance is good."
"The product has all the latest features."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"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."
"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."
"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"Palo Alto has a feature called WildFire Analysis that is unavailable in FortiGate. WildFire is better than a sandbox because it can address zero-day threats and vulnerabilities. It can immediately identify zero-day threats from the cloud."
"The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion... My second concern is that, while they have Zero-day vulnerability and anti-malware features, the threat engine needs to be strengthened, its efficiency can be increased."
"Azure Firewall should have a free trial version for new users so that they can evaluate it before deploying it."
"It would be much easier if the on-premises, firewall rules, had some kind of export-import possibility in place, which is not the case right now."
"The tool needs to improve the onboarding and transition process for on-prem users."
"It has fewer features than you can get from other firewalls, like anti-spam and anti-phishing. Those kinds of things are not included. It only includes IDS and IDB."
"It needs a lot of improvement, especially on intruder detection. They are working hard on that."
"The product could be made more customizable."
"Currently, it only supports IP addresses, so you have to be specific about the IPs that are in your environment."
"There is room for further integration of AI into the system."
"While it is a secure solution, I believe it could be improved."
"The only issue that Sophos XG now needs to improve is the product's reporting capability."
"Scalability it is a bit limited. We did a sizing exercise before the purchase. But that was just to fit our current needs. There was no room for having an option to upgrade the device. The only option that we have if we are grow in the near future, is to go for another model with higher specs, which is actually more expensive. In other words it doesn't have that modularity ."
"Sophos can improve the debugging of the WAPS function."
"Their updates can be faster and more regular."
"Recently, I've had a problem with updating things."
"For the moment, managing the Sophos interface is a little bit challenging."
"The interface of Sophos XG could be improved. I would prefer the Sophos XG to have an interface for the technician who is setting it up similar to the Sophos SG. I felt the Sophos SG user interface was superior. however, in terms of the functionality of the product, Sophos XG is in many ways more powerful than the Sophos SG. I have no complaints about the quality of the product or the end result. For someone who has used both, I preferred the old interface to the new one."
Azure Firewall is ranked 21st in Firewalls with 33 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX. See our Azure Firewall vs. Sophos XG report.
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We monitor all Firewalls 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.