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

Check Point SandBlast Network vs Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Symantec Advanced Threat Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Check Point SandBlast Network is 6.6%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks WildFire is 13.2%, up from 11.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is 2.3%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

GaneshKhutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides advanced threat prevention and utilizes geographic-based policies to mitigate attacks
Check Point offers three types of support: Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. The level of support you receive should be based on the criticality of the issue, not solely on your client's support tier. While there are established support levels, I have experienced instances where the support provided was not categorized as Gold, Platinum, or Diamond but rather a standard support level. In such cases, the response times were slower, and getting support personnel on the call was more difficult.
AjayKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced cybersecurity with advanced sandboxing and effective in controlling DNS issues
Improvements are needed in the UI part. The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings. This information should be integrated with the Dashboard so that system admins can see what is happening. Furthermore, technical support needs a lot of improvement, particularly in terms of responsiveness and adhering to service level agreements.
Dennis O'Reilly - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides end-to-end antivirus protection and has good stability
Symantec Endpoint Protection provides end-to-end protection. Along with antivirus protection, it has a lot of key areas, including intrusive prevention, firewall features, and application and device control. It can integrate with other Broadcom solutions, such as Symantec Messaging Gateway and Symantec DLP. If you want to send an email, it gets scanned through endpoint protection and DLP. We get all Symantec functionality in a single pane.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Threat Emulation gives networks the necessary protection against unknown threats in files that are attached to emails. The Threat Emulation engine picks up malware at the exploit phase before it enters the network. It quickly quarantines and runs the files in a virtual sandbox, which imitates a standard operating system, to discover malicious behavior before hackers can apply evasion techniques to bypass the sandbox."
"The Check Point SandBlast Network uses caching and static analysis to actually reduce the time it takes to scan and isolate the same file for incoming data compromises."
"SandBlast has opened us up to a lot more opportunities where we can offer this service to clients, that way they don't have to go to a third-party to get this specific solution. It comes in the Check Point Infinity Package so it has helped us a lot."
"The solution can detect and prevent attacks that may be encrypted."
"We didn't really have any IPS before. So, Check Point has improved our security posture. People get used to doing things certain ways, which might not be the best or most secure way, and they can't do that now, which just requires more education of the user base. With the endpoint client, we've started to use Check Point for remote access."
"It saves time with us trying to do the analysis. We use it to try to find out how something got into the network. We use it to stop something before it ever gets in."
"The main feature of the solution is that it protects against malicious threats from the outside."
"Threat extraction can help us to remove malicious content from documents by converting them to PDF."
"I value the massive usage of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies."
"With this product, we receive the best monitoring and reports.​"
"A good tool for file scanning and email threat detection, especially when it comes to attachments and communications."
"The most valuable feature is the Automatic Verdict, to recognize whether something is a threat, or not."
"There are multiple features like management, intrusion prevention (IPS), URL filtering, anti-spam, and antivirus."
"It catches modified signatures of known viruses."
"WildFire's application encryption is useful."
"I absolutely recommend WildFire because it dramatically reduces response times against zero-day attacks."
"The product integrates well with our systems, and we have not encountered any problems."
"Technical support has been helpful and responsive."
"It has certainly helped out our audit efforts because we each stay compliant in terms of various security standards."
"What I like most about Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is its notification capability."
"They manage to solve detection quite nicely. There is some rather elaborate detection compared to other providers."
"The most valuable feature is NetFlow threat protection."
"The incident management on the solution is very good. You get a lot of detailed information about an incident. You also get a lot of documentation in connection with the CVI or integration."
"The technical support services are excellent."
 

Cons

"I would like to see some speed improvements, e.g., how quickly you can get through all the menus. It crashes sometimes because we push so much through it. Therefore, I would like to see more small things behind the scenes, such as, back-end stability in terms of the management application."
"The file types that can be scanned are limited, which means that if the file type is not listed or enabled for the sandbox, they are bypassed and it can lead to a security issue."
"The response times were slower, and getting support personnel on the call was more difficult."
"We have noticed a slight performance hit when the Threat Emulation and Extraction features were enabled, but the protection trade-off is worth it for us."
"I am very leery right now about the stability. We've had three outages in the last month because of Check Point, not because of something that the customer has done, but because of changes on the Check Point side."
"There is a limit on the number of files that can be scanned in real-time, which could lead to us being found with our guard down on a high-traffic day."
"Most of the time stability is okay, but sometimes, we're not able to contact the cloud. It won't last for long. The product could be faster."
"We have found a need for the application to be a bit more elastic, bringing it to SAS services and not IAS."
"It's not really their problem, it's a problem across the board. There will always be problems with interrupted traffic. We have to set it up where we're playing a middle man game where we're stripping it out, looking at it, and then putting it back together and sending it on its way. That requires CPU cycles. And there's some overhead with that."
"​The VPN and decryption need improvement."
"The threat intelligence that we receiving in the reporting was not as expected. We were expecting more. Additionally, we should be able to whitelist a specific file based on a variety of attributes."
"When you contact support, there is no guarantee that they will be available to help you tackle the issue that you are facing."
"The system uptime data is unavailable"
"The system performance degrades after the solution has been deployed for some time. The data that it gives us becomes a little bit slow. When you try to get some data for troubleshooting, it seems like it's working hard to extract that data."
"I don't think it needs to improve anything, except maybe the speed to deploy the changes."
"The global product feature needs improvement, the VPN, and we need some enhanced features."
"The support for new OSs and older OSs could be a little tighter. They need to be more upfront about what protection services they're going to provide on new OSs. I haven't seen the Windows 11 version out yet. It is either already released in Beta, or the Beta will be released soon. There could be a little bit more advanced updates on what they're doing to help protect Windows 11 environments. They can let us know in advance so that we know it is going to be protected. We can't roll out the new OS without putting end-point protection on it. So, they should tell us what is their support model for that, and what are they doing to protect Windows 11. They're not telling me, and that's a criticism. The same issue is applicable to all the other antivirus tools. It is not just Symantec; all of them have this problem."
"There are some ‎features that would add value to this product. One of them would be a graphical presentation of threats that the system has encountered."
"The security features need to be improved."
"The product's support services need improvement."
"One area for improvement could be the pricing model."
"An improvement could be made on the reporting because then it would be easier to collect information and submit it for compliance."
"Not ideal for advanced threat protection."
"It also needs network-based threat protection for shared folders and files."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have seen ROI."
"Choosing the correct set of licenses is essential because, without the additional software blade licenses, the Check Point gateways are just a stateful firewall."
"The pricing is quite effective, not excessively high. On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the highest price, I rate the pricing a nine."
"The cost of Check Point SandBlast Network is annually, and there is only a standard license."
"We would like to try the Threat Extraction blade, but you need to buy a license. Check Point is expensive. I would like to buy things, but I would need the funding."
"I think the overall cost for introducing Check Point with SandBlast was reasonable and competitive in the market."
"The cost is not significantly high and it can be negotiated during any purchase of NGFW."
"The product's cost is high."
"For the last three years, the price of Palo Alto in Vietnam has been very high."
"The price of the Palo Alto Networks WildFire license is expensive. When it came time to renew the solution the price doubled."
"The pricing is affordable and fixed."
"Palo Alto Networks solutions are typically on the higher end of pricing, but considering the value and integration with our existing infrastructure, it is worth the investment."
"The price is a bit higher than the other products such as TrendMicro, or FireEye."
"The pricing is OK, it is not too expensive."
"It's not particularly cheap, but it is absolutely worth it."
"Palo Alto Networks WildFire is a product with a high price."
"Symantec Endpoint Protection has an average price."
"The pricing of this solution is inexpensive and affordable."
"The price is quite expensive."
"Symantec Advanced Threat Protection's pricing is comparable."
"Pricing is good. It is nice to have a great product at a fair price."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) solutions are best for your needs.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
12%
Energy/Utilities Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
77%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Computer Software Company
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Check Point SandBlast Network?
The solution can detect and prevent attacks that may be encrypted.
What needs improvement with Check Point SandBlast Network?
The cost is a little bit high-end, and you need to get precise performance metrics in order to get the correct size. ...
How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one conside...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advan...
What do you like most about Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
Symantec Endpoint Protection provides end-to-end protection. Along with antivirus protection, it has a lot of key are...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
The price is quite expensive because a different entity has taken over the company.
What needs improvement with Symantec Advanced Threat Protection?
One area for improvement could be the pricing model. Future releases could further enhance integration capabilities w...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Edenred, State Transport Leasing Company (STLC), Edel AG, Laurenty, Conseil Départemental du Val de Marne, Koch Media
Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
ECI
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and others in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Updated: January 2025.
831,997 professionals have used our research since 2012.