Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs Sophos UTM comparison

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs. Sophos UTM

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Fortinet FortiGate

Featured Reviews

Viraj Fernandopulle

General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.

Mar 7, 2024

Includes built-in APIs, is easy to deploy, and provides good insight into our network

FortiGate offers visibility into the types, brands, versions, and users of connected devices. This visibility is crucial for our industrial devices, as their reliable operation is essential to our business. Fortinet Security Fabric empowers us to comply with regulations, governance, and compliance requirements across regions like the US and Europe, ensuring smooth operations for our global business. FortiGate's built-in APIs enable us to integrate with the vendors of our choice. Fortinet's FortiGate is easy to deploy in our environment thanks to its well-written and easy-to-follow documentation. FortiGate is a highly benchmarked product that improves efficiency and adds value to our organization. Although we don't see a benefit overnight, we gradually see the benefits of FortiGate over the years. It has provided a lot of insight into our organization's activities. FortiGate significantly helped reduce the risk of cyberattacks that could disrupt our production. This has protected us against financial losses. Fortinet has its management suite so it helps to centralize the management of network and security operations in our company. This helps us easily manage the issues and solutions that are required. Fortinet FortiGate provides us with actionable data to inform our decisions about the most appropriate course of action. It delivers insights into resource consumption and compromised hosts, helping us identify the source of unauthorized login attempts. This comprehensive view allows us to understand what's entering our network. Fortinet Security Fabric improved security across our industrial control systems. Fortinet FortiGate helped reduce our mean time to remediate. Fortinet FortiGate helped to mature our approach to cybersecurity for protecting our industrial equipment. The level of detail we can see regarding incoming traffic and ongoing activities is quite high. This detailed visibility extends to host configuration and other such aspects, providing us with valuable insights. As a result, Fortinet can provide a clear understanding of how to manage our network and quickly mitigate any issues that may arise.

Great SAML and SCIM support with the ability to deploy site-2-site tunnels with specific IP restrictions

Daniel Goldfeld

Vice President of Customer Success at Mine - The All-in-One Privacy Suite

Oct 30, 2022

The platform still lacks relevant dashboards and the ability to customize them based on our needs. We would love to also see real-time usage and traffic data as well as be able to build reports. Adding better QoS and traffic shaping to the product will be a nice add-on as it'll allow our admins to prioritize some traffic over others and identify users that are heavy traffic users in the platform. We need the ability to connect the agent prior to computer login. The ability to allow a silent connection (i.e. the agent is completely invisible to the user) could be cool for bigger organizations.

It improved bandwidth utilization and provided link load balancing features for internet and intranet lease lines

M.K. Goyal

Asst General Manager(C&IT) at NMDC Ltd

Jan 11, 2019

Initially, there were problems of wireless access points not getting detected and lease lines were getting disconnected after one hour. Sophos replaced the appliance, but the issue was not resolved . The matter got escalated to their international support and the issue was identified as a bug where long distance fiber connections are used over single mode fiber. The patch was shipped by Sophos with a promise to fix the issue in the next release. Now, the appliance is working fine. The issue of wireless access points was due to some compatibility issues with the D-Link switch. I provided the Cisco 2900 series switches to connect to the wireless access points by creating a separate wireless LAN port on the firewall.

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Mainly the FortiGate reporting system is very good. It guides us through all the expectations of security. Fortinet provides us all that we need for security. Also, Fortinet FortiGate is a next-generation firewall. It is much more advanced than others."

"The GUI is good."

"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."

"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."

"The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful."

"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."

"We are using the FortiGate 100D series. VPN, firewall, anti-malware, OTM, and intrusion prevention are useful features."

"Using the preboot VPN option, we can reset a user who is working remotely that has forgotten their Windows login credentials."

"The benefits are really built into the underlying protocol, however, Perimeter81 makes these available in a user-friendly way."

"It has centralized management that allows administrators to supervise and control the security of the entire network."

"Perimeter 81 has increased my security and privacy while maintaining solid internet performance."

"The scalability is good, and I'd give it an eight out of ten."

"HTTPS decryption is a valuable service and not always found in cloud-based secure web gateways."

"Review of exported and imported packages and protection and content filtering have been useful."

"Its most effective feature is controlling employee access to specific applications. I can manage and monitor every step of the access process."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) pros

"The initial setup has been fine."

"The cost of the solution is very reasonable."

"The three most important features for us are web protection, web server protection, and network protection."

"The solution is scalable."

"The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is reporting, it is flexible. I can monitor the end user's devices, even when they are not on my network. It has good drill-down capabilities."

"Configuration could not be made any easier."

"Sophos UTM has a good user interface and granular security controls."

"The solution's sandboxing, application center, and database engine are good."

More Sophos UTM pros

Cons

"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."

"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution. However, my issue is the performance only. When I use all the profiles, this affects the performance. From the beginning, I should have had a better sizing of the box."

"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."

"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."

"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost."

"The UTM filtering needs improvement."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"In order to have to bypass the login using the website, a good feature for Perimeter 81 to have is a login instance in the Perimeter 81 application. I'm using a Mac and we don't have that functionality."

"Sometimes downloading PDF files can be slow."

"They could improve on the available public documentation."

"Offering in-app explanations detailing what each feature does, its benefits and potential use cases can help users better understand and utilize the tool to its full potential."

"While the product has been instrumental in enhancing security, continuous improvement is essential. Feedback from users and ongoing technological advancements should guide the refinement of these security measures."

"The main problem with Harmony Connect is that, because it's in a new category of offerings by Check Point, there's very little marketing of the product so far, and this means that many potential users don't even know this kind of solution is available. There are also few testimonials or case studies talking about people who have used the product and fell in love with it, for example."

"In mobile devices, there is also sometimes a bit of tear when it is via LTE, however, that must be due to connectivity."

"My customers want more remote functionality. They need another routing option after they connect to the enterprise intranet. For example, let's say a user tries to connect to a remote branch office and headquarters through Harmony Connect. They need a local breakout after connecting to the headquarters, especially in China. They need to put local breakout in the Chinese internet. The current version cannot do something like this."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) cons

"The interface configuration could be improved."

"I am going to flat out say technical support is terrible. Being a Platinum level customer, I am not happy with the support."

"Finding information about Sophos’ sizing guidelines can actually be difficult. Also, Sophos does not make it clear what they mean by “users” when you are sizing a firewall, which then leads to undersized implementations."

"The initial setup was straightforward. The full deployment takes approximately two days which could be simplified to reduce the time. The major part of the process is the configuration and the policy setup."

"Reporting: We have had to work manually in many of our reports."

"Updates come out agonizingly slowly, a trickle."

"As it stands right now, when we have an internet failure on WAN1, it takes several minutes before our WAN2 connection picks up the traffic"

"The integration capabilities could be better."

More Sophos UTM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."

"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."

"The pricing is very reasonable."

"This is not a cheap solution but it isn't expensive, either. It's a good solution for the right price."

"The licensing costs are very low."

"No comment."

"It is too expensive for us. My organization is very small, and we have a total of ten users. We have three internal users and seven external users. The FortiGate 100D series is too expensive for renewing the licenses."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"I consider the product to be a medium-priced solution. There are no additional costs attached to the tool."

"Annual licenses cost $30 to $40 each."

"The product is neither cheap nor expensive."

"The solution is priced appropriately considering its uses. For an essential license, a user pays only 30 USD per month. For an enterprise version, the prices can be negotiated with the company."

"The product is reasonably priced."

"I would rate Harmony Connect's pricing at six out of ten. It wasn't particularly expensive, but it wasn't super cheap either."

"The pricing is good, especially when you compare it to other firewall or UTM solutions from FortiGate or SonicWall, where you would have to invest about four hundred thousand rupees for 100 users over a three-year period."

"Overall I am very happy with the solution’s flexibility and pricing."

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) pricing and cost advice

"You cannot really say that the solution is expensive, given the protection it gives."

"This solution is less expensive than FortiGate."

"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace is pretty straightforward. Because were entirely on AWS and don't have anything anywhere else. It made the most sense for us as a one stop shop."

"The price of the license for Sophos UTM is approximately $5,500. The solution is less expensive than competitors."

"There was an up-front charge of around $70,000, to purchase the hub and license. Beyond the initial cost, licenses are charged for annually, but they are good value for the service we receive."

"The price is comparable to other products of this kind."

"It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget."

"It is necessary to pay for a licence to use the solution, but it is not very expensive."

More Sophos UTM pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jan 3, 2016

Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate

I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…

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

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

21%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Computer Software Company

18%

Government

Educational Organization

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

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...

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 ...

What do you like most about Perimeter 81?

Even after restarting, it tries to quickly reestablish connection which is very helpful.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Perimeter 81?

It's essential to consider the organization's specific requirements and budget. Here are some general recommendations...

What needs improvement with Perimeter 81?

In terms of improvement, Perimeter 81 could enhance its reporting and analytics capabilities to provide more detailed...

What Is The Biggest Difference Between Sophos UTM and Sophos XG?

The Sophos UTM is a UTM and Sophos XG is the NGFW. First, you must know about the difference between a UTM and NGFW. ...

What do you like most about Sophos UTM?

The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the endpoint protection feature.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?

The product pricing and licensing are higher, but they offer good value for the features and stability provided.

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

Compared 22% of the time

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Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

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Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 16% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 13% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Umbrella vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 6% of the time

Cloudflare SASE & SSE Platform vs Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Compared 6% of the time

More Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 17% of the time

OPNsense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 14% of the time

Sophos XG vs Sophos UTM

Compared 12% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sophos UTM

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

More Sophos UTM Competitors

Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81)

Download Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) product report

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) report

Download Sophos UTM product report

Sophos UTM

August 2024

Also Known As

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

Check Point Quantum SASE

Astaro

Learn More

Fortinet

Check Point Software Technologies

Sophos

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate enhances network security, prevents unauthorized access, and offers robust firewall protection. Valued features include advanced threat protection, reliable performance, and a user-friendly interface. It improves efficiency, streamlines processes, and boosts collaboration, providing valuable insights for informed decision-making and growth.

Perimeter 81 is a cloud-based network security and software-defined perimeter (SDP) solution designed to provide secure access to resources in the cloud, data centers, and on-premises environments. It offers a unified platform for organizations to manage and secure their network infrastructure, regardless of the location or type of resources.

Perimeter 81 Benefits:

Easy to use
Flexible access policies
Strong encryption and authentication protocols
Scalable
Compatible with various devices and platforms

Perimeter 81 Features:

Secure Network Access: Perimeter 81 provides secure access to internal resources and cloud-based applications through its client applications and gateways.
Software-Defined Perimeter (SDP): SDP is a security framework that focuses on dynamically creating secure connections between users and resources on a need-to-know basis.
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA): Perimeter 81 follows the Zero Trust security model, which assumes that no user or device can be inherently trusted.
Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud Support: Perimeter 81 is designed to secure access to resources across multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments.
User and Device Management: The solution offers centralized user and device management capabilities, allowing administrators to define access policies, manage user roles, and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for enhanced security.
Network Segmentation: Perimeter 81 enables organizations to segment their network resources, creating isolated environments based on logical groupings.
Centralized Management and Analytics: Perimeter 81 provides a centralized management console where administrators can configure and monitor their network security settings.

Reviews from Real Users

PeerSpot user, Frontend Developer at Limelight Networks, states that "We use some VPN solutions, and Perimeter 81 has the best user experience for desktop or mobile".

Daniel Goldfeld, Vice President of Customer Success at Mine - The All-in-One Privacy Suite, says that Perimeter 81 has "Great SAML and SCIM support with the ability to deploy site-2-site tunnels with specific IP restrictions".

Another PeerSpot user, Accounts Payable Specialist at Simera, writes that "The feature that I have found to be most valuable is the reputation that the company has regarding privacy. Nowadays, this is critical, especially when you do all of your work online."

Sophos UTM is a unified threat management platform designed to protect your businesses from known and emerging malware including viruses, rootkits and spyware. The solution provides a complete network security package with everything your organization needs in a single modular appliance.

Sophos UTM Features

Sophos UTM has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Web and Email Filtering
General Management
Network Protection
Network Routing and Services
Advanced Threat Protection
Authentication
Email Encryption and DLP
Web Policy
End-User Portal
VPN IPsec Client, VPN SSL Client, and Clientless VPN
Web Application Firewall Protection
UTM Endpoint Protection and Management
SEC Endpoint Integration
Logging and Reporting

Sophos UTM Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Sophos UTM. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple point solutions
Intuitive interface to help you quickly create policies to control security risks
Provides clear, detailed reports to give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection
Complete control to block, allow, shape and prioritize applications
Two-factor authentication with one-time password (OTP)
Integrated wireless controller
Allows you to connect remote offices with easy VPN and Wi-Fi

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by PeerSpot users currently using the Sophos UTM solution.

PeerSpot user Dana B., Network Administrator at a manufacturing company, says “The web and email filtering are the two biggest and most valuable aspects of the solution for us. The solution overall has just been a good, cost-effective solution for us. The solution offers a lot of functionality. The solution scales well. We've found the technical support to be helpful. The stability and performance are quite good.”

A Technical Director at a security firm mentions, "Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."

Marek M., Senior Network Engineer at a computer software company, comments, “Sophos UTM is the simplest of these products to set up. If you follow the instructions using the wizard, which is just a few steps, then you will have a firewall to protect you and your customer.”

A Software Sales Manager at a tech services company explains, “The overall visibility of the console is what I find most valuable, plus it's very user-friendly. It can be integrated with other solutions such as SOAR, SIEM, etc., even when you have an existing firewall. I really like that the console can be integrated. You'll see everything on the same window, and the single window feature of the machine is so good. These are the features I really like.”

James D., IT Manager at Manual Workers Union, states, “The fact that it's on the cloud means we don't have to administer it on our network or deal with a physical machine, which saves us money. The solution has many great features. From the console, we can start different scannings on different machines. We enjoy the centralized reporting part of it. The initial setup is simple. We enjoy its general stability. The solution can scale. So far, the solution has been problem-free.”

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

Aqua Security, Cognito, Multipoint, Kustomer, Postman, Meredith

One Housing Group

Check Point Harmony SASE (formerly Perimeter 81) vs. Sophos UTM