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Check Point NGFW vs Sophos XGS comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
318
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point NGFW
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
305
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Sophos XGS
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point NGFW is 3.0%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XGS is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable
In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.
Manikandan Kannan - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined management through dual-interface configuration capabilities with excellent support
We use Check Point NGFW for security purposes. Our clients use it for security reasons, as mentioned during the call The most valuable feature is the availability of two consoles. In the normal GA login, I can create interfaces and configure interface IPs, while in the SmartConsole, I manage the…
Jaffar Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Has provided stability, security, ease of management, and better reporting options
People use Sophos XGS because the overall channel support is very good, so they don't face issues. Additionally, it is competitive in pricing against Fortinet in some cases, especially when considering high availability, email subscriptions, and gateways Sophos XGS has provided stability,…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"The solution is stable."
"Using this product makes the VPN seamless and almost invisible to me in the sense that I don't have to think about it."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"Web filtering and two-factor authentication are great features."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"The Anti-Spoofing has the ability to monitor the interfaces. Suppose any spoofed IP addresses are coming from an external interface, it won't allow them. It will drop that traffic. You have two options with the Anti-Spoofing: prevent or detect. If any kind of spoof traffic is coming through the external interface, we can prevent that."
"I like the Next-Generation Firewall."
"The console or the single interface on the blades is most valuable."
"It has allowed us to grow in a safe way and in accordance with our particular needs."
"The threat emulation blade and user identity awareness feature has helped us a lot in terms of perimeter security and have given us granular visibility of user access."
"Its functionality is highly satisfactory."
"The support offers the best services I have experienced. It's better than any other IT vendor."
"The solution is easy to administer thanks to its dashboards. The monitoring is really useful."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS for me are XGS IPS, SD-WAN, VPN setup, email protection, and integration with endpoint security."
"There are good KCL rules and policies as well as NATing rules."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS are a set of functionalities that are quite commendable, they call it synchronized security, where all the solutions share defense lines with each other."
"The most valuable features in Sophos XGS are identity and VPN. It is a very good solution that is able to detect and prevent a lot of malicious activity."
"I have no issues with the stability of the product and love using it."
"In this solution, the most valuable feature is that it's a security device. Maintaining security is very valuable for us. The other feature that we did not find in other products is that it works well with thin client environments."
"Sophos offers a centralized system available to everyone, even for their smaller models."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
 

Cons

"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"​It needs to improve its ISP load balancing.​"
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"The initial setup is a bit complex."
"Check Point could offer a cloud-managed approach similar to that of Cisco Meraki."
"The VPN setup could be simplified. We had to engage professional services for that. That's not a problem, but compared to other products we've used, it was a little more complex."
"Check Point is not a cheap solution and it's always painful to see exactly how much we need to spend on this."
"During my initial level implementation of check Point NGFW, I faced issues troubleshooting. The problem was with its command line."
"The upgrade is something we would like to be improved in the future as the frequency of hotfixes is too much, and by the time we finish the one round, we already have the new version released and are required to upgrade."
"They need to offer quicker resolution and maintenance during downtime."
"The current model is predominantly hardware appliance-based, which can incur substantial costs"
"In Sophos, the user portal is not user-friendly."
"The customer service response time can be improved."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having a Network Access Control(NAC). This feature is a basic function in other firewalls and should be added, such as Palo Alto."
"The functionality of SD-WAN compared to other boxes is lacking."
"Sophos XGS could improve the price."
"When it comes to different interfaces there is some speed issue that can be improved in Sophos XGS."
"A feature that could be improved in Sophos XGS is the ability to perform internal vulnerability checks."
"The threat detection system could be more GUI-based or provide templates for common threats."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."
"If you purchase a one-year subscription with the hardware and then you want to renew for the second year, it is very costly."
"It is expensive. You need to pay for the subscription every year, which is very expensive. The subscription includes technical support and hardware exchange in case of failure."
"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."
"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."
"​We saved a bundle by not needing all the past appliances from an NGFW.​"
"Fortinet FortiGate has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. Services included would depend on the license model. Licenses can be renewed annually."
"It is a good product from a price perspective versus functionality."
"The price could be better. I think Palo Alto pricing is high, and Check Point isn't much better. FortiGate is cheaper. I think when I implemented this solution, I recommended buying a yearly subscription."
"The price of Check Point is lower than Palo Alto but higher than Cisco ASA."
"It may be considered relatively expensive, but the investment is justified when compared to other competitors."
"They sell it in one box. In that one box, they sell Antivirus and Threat Prevention. They have everything, so we are not required to purchase additional IPS hardware for it."
"Check Point is a little more expensive than FortiGate."
"It is more expensive than Cisco ASA but cheaper than Palo Alto."
"The pricing falls in the middle, meaning it's neither cheap nor expensive."
"Comparatively, Check Point pricing is a little high. However, if you have that budget, I would recommend anybody to go with Check Point."
"Once you pay for the Sophos XGS hardware there is no license required. There are additional costs if you want the support. We have purchased support for three years."
"The price of Sophos XGS depends on the type of license. However, the licensing cost is approximately 60 percent of the total cost."
"We paid around 17,000 pounds for a three-year package."
"The licensing is reasonable. Comparing the cost of Sophos XGS with that of Fortinet or Palto Alto firewalls, for instance, it's not that expensive. However, the overall cost depends on the hardware you're using in addition to the licensing cost."
"Sophos XGS is a cost-effective solution."
"Sophos XGS is competitively priced."
"It's highly effective and well-suited for medium and small companies. The pricing is attractive, and our customers find it suitable for regular license renewals."
"We pay about $150."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
59%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
3%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Educational Organization
5%
 

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...
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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
What do you like most about Sophos XGS?
The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos XGS?
The pricing is justified, and the solution is considered budget-friendly compared to other vendors.
What needs improvement with Sophos XGS?
Hardware stability needs improvement. I have experienced multiple hardware complaints, particularly during firmware u...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
No data available
 

Overview

 

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
Control Southern, Optimal Media
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. Sophos XGS and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
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