Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Illumio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
CloudGuard Network Security reduces costs and manual tasks, enhances security, and improves efficiency with flexible cloud deployment.
Sentiment score
7.4
Illumio enhances operations with traffic visibility and logs, offering cost-effective security and high ROI, despite early measurement stages.
The value lies in maintaining operational integrity with zero downtime or incidents, facilitating secure, ongoing business operations.
Implementing CloudGuard has resulted in an excellent return on investment over one hundred percent ROI.
The unified policy is comprehensive and helps me to create firewall policies that are shared across all our facilities and plants.
Illumio is known to be the cheapest solution among the security solutions we evaluated.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
7.0
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is praised for reliable service but has some inconsistencies in regional and first-level support.
Sentiment score
1.0
Illumio customer service experiences mixed reviews, with inconsistent responsiveness and empathy, suggesting a need for improvement in support.
They usually respond quite fast, and they are very knowledgeable about what they do.
We had an endless loop of emails trying to fix this, and the suggestion was to reinstall the gateway and do it from scratch, which was not an option at that point because it would leave that specific location without access.
Available twenty-four by seven.
Even if we raise an issue on non-working days like Saturdays or Sundays, we receive prompt responses.
From my experience, they are very responsive.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Check Point CloudGuard is scalable and adaptable, valued for cloud flexibility but faces some licensing and architecture limitations.
Sentiment score
7.6
Illumio scales effectively for global clusters, supporting diverse team sizes and cloud expansions without significant issues.
I can deploy it everywhere I need it.
We have transitioned from 1,000 to 500 users without any issue.
We perform minor and major upgrades, and it works seamlessly.
Scaling it to a large level is not an issue for us.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is stable and reliable, with high performance and issues addressed through updates and maintenance.
Sentiment score
8.0
Illumio is highly stable, with users rating its reliable performance and SaaS option around 8.5 out of 10.
I have not observed any downtime.
For instance, when we are working on a release and do an upgrade, we start experiencing unexpected issues.
The solution is stable.
Illumio is a stable solution with no glitches or bugs reported, making it a reliable product for us.
 

Room For Improvement

Check Point CloudGuard needs improvements in usability, support, integration, automation, and cloud compatibility for enhanced user experience and cost-effectiveness.
Illumio needs better support, enhanced integration, security improvements, detailed guidance, OS compatibility, automation, and comprehensive firewall management.
Scalability could be improved as well; needing to purchase a new license each time I want to add a new interface is not ideal.
Better documentation would be welcome.
The user interface could be more intuitive, and the initial setup and configuration can be complex, requiring a technical team.
There could also be more examples of how the automations can be done using Illumio.
That's why I'm looking for comparisons with other products.
There should be an option to upgrade from the console to the latest version instead of performing manual upgrades.
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise users have mixed views on Check Point CloudGuard's pricing, with some noting cost-effectiveness and others perceiving high expenses.
Illumio's pricing varies by workloads, with annual costs of 10,000-15,000 USD, often considered expensive or cost-effective.
The pricing and licensing are expensive, costing between seven thousand to eight thousand dollars.
Check Point is expensive, however, with the features and capabilities, I can justify the cost.
It is the highest in the market.
I know that Illumio is the cheapest solution in the security area.
I think it's not very expensive if we compare it with Guardicore.
 

Valuable Features

Check Point CloudGuard provides scalable, comprehensive threat prevention and easy management across hybrid and public cloud environments.
Illumio offers application mapping, traffic monitoring, and policy enforcement, enhancing security with network flow visibility and protocol blocking.
One of the most valuable features is the automated threat prevention, which helps us detect and block potential cyberattacks in real-time, minimizing data breaches.
Centralized management is the feature I like best, resulting in reduced workload and more continuous policy.
Network Security provides us with unified security management across hybrid and cloud as well as on-prem.
Illumio helps in audit purposes by saving data and showing blocked traffic, ensuring no outside traffic is allowed.
The most important feature is the traffic review analysis, where we use the draft view and the reported view that helps us understand how the application interacts with other applications in the environment, and based on that, we are able to define the policies.
The dependency map is the most valuable aspect.
 

Categories and Ranking

Check Point CloudGuard Netw...
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
155
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (8th), Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (5th), WAN Edge (3rd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (3rd)
Illumio
Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security
6th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (13th), Microsegmentation Software (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is 2.1%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Illumio is 22.8%, down from 24.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud and Data Center Security Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security2.1%
Illumio22.8%
Other75.1%
Cloud and Data Center Security
 

Featured Reviews

Martin Raška - PeerSpot reviewer
Unification of security features strengthens network protection
The overall network security is good. It's big-picture, all in one bundle. It's valuable to have everything in one place instead of spreading across different products. Unified security management positively affects a company's security operations. They have one unified view of the security. I can connect multiple gateways to the management and have it in one place. I can have reporting and views in a single pane of glass on the consolidated platform. It's easy to use. The management is the best on the market. It's very easy to work with, read, understand, and navigate. It helps increase our customer's security posture. We can see in some cases CloudGuard improves our customers' posture overall.
Alark Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Visual traffic interface aids in network micro-segmentation while a streamlined update option enhances process efficiency
The strongest aspect of Illumio is the visual traffic interface, which allows us to see all traffic that communicates with our servers and allied companies. We can write rules that can be embedded into the IP table, making it easy to handle. Illumio enables us to see network flows, traffic sources, and destinations. The policy generation and enforcement capabilities are valuable, allowing for selective enforcement. Illumio helps in audit purposes by saving data and showing blocked traffic, ensuring no outside traffic is allowed.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud and Data Center Security solutions are best for your needs.
871,469 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Performing Arts
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business60
Midsize Enterprise38
Large Enterprise75
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
The tool's most valuable feature is its management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
My experience with the pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is that it was good.
What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
I think Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is an ideal product, so I see no improvements needed. If I had to think of one area where it could be improved or made easier, I would say that suppo...
What do you like most about Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
The features that I have found most useful is the ability to centralize all the rules and then distribute them across various locations. However, I've encountered challenges related to tagging poli...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
I do not have specific knowledge about pricing details as it is handled by upper management. I know that Illumio is the cheapest solution in the security area.
What needs improvement with Illumio Adaptive Security Platform?
There should be an option to upgrade from the console to the latest version instead of performing manual upgrades. This would be more helpful to streamline processes.
 

Also Known As

CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
Illumio Adaptive Security Platform, Illumio ASP
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
Plantronics, NTT Innovation Institute Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Illumio and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
871,469 professionals have used our research since 2012.