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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks WildFire comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 2, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
316
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (2nd), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Cisco Secure Firewall
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
406
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (5th), Cisco Security Portfolio (3rd)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
2.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

Firewalls
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 25, 2024
Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…
Daniel Going - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 26, 2022
Is intuitive in terms of troubleshooting, easy to consume, and stable
We use it for data center security for both the north-south and east-west. With Firepower, you get the next-generation functionality and the next-generation firewall features. Traditionally, when you have a layer three access list, it's really tricky to get the flexibility you need to allow staff…
Mario Lacroix - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 11, 2024
Provides seamless automation functionality and has a straightforward setup process
We use the product to enhance threat detection and response. We utilize it as part of a broader security ecosystem to monitor and block potential cyber threats. Our environment includes multiple financial clients and has tailored rules for specific needs, such as anti-fraud measures. The solution…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is very user friendly. We are utilizing most of the features, like content filtering. The firewall is powerful."
"The next-gen features, the unified threat management capabilities are something that just about everybody is interested in at this point."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"The initial setup is easy."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The IPsec tunnels are very easily created, and quite interoperable with devices from other vendors."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the rules and quality of service."
"One of the nice things about Firepower is that you can set it to discover the environment. If that is happening, then Firepower is learning about every device, software operating system, and application running inside or across your environment. Then, you can leverage the discovery intelligence to get Firepower to select the most appropriate intrusion prevention rules to use for your environment rather than picking one of the base policies that might have 50,000 IPS rules in it, which can put a lot of overhead on your firewall. If you choose the recommendations, as long as you update them regularly, you might be able to get your rule set down to only 1,000 or 1,500, which is a significant reduction in a base rule set. This means that the firewall will give you better performance because there are less rules being checked unnecessarily. That is really useful."
"We can shift traffic, block certain content, or redirect policies."
"The architecture of FTD is great because it has an in-depth coverage and because it uses the AVC, (Application, Visibility, and Control) and also rate limits. Also, the architecture of fast paths is great."
"I like all of the features."
"We have multiple secure internal networks linked with our plants. We are from a oil company, so we have multiple plant areas which need to have restricted network access. Therefore, we are using it for restricting access to the plant area."
"What I like about Cisco is the security zone. By default when you configure it, it gives you a security zone, which other firewalls don't have."
"The technical team is always available when we have problems."
"We found the initial setup to be easy."
"The solution handles DSD segregation and monitors the gateways"
"High availability with active-active and active-passive modes."
"The solution is easy to use and the Panorama feature is good. The software management or the malware blocking and some authentication management system are good."
"Whole team can use the firewall and understand it."
"It gives a more accurate assessment of a virus in terms of whether it's truly a virus, malware, or a false positive. We have some legacy software that could pop up as being something that is malware. WildFire goes through and inspects it, and then it comes back and lets us know if it's a false positive. Usually, when it finds out that it's not a virus, it lets us know that it's benign, and it can exclude it from that scan, which means I don't even have to worry about that one popping up anymore."
"With this product, we receive the best monitoring and reports.​"
"The backup is the best feature."
"The cloud-based services are a nice feature."
 

Cons

"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."
"It doesn't have Layer 7 security."
"I would like the ability to pick and choose different features of it to run in a packaged infrastructure or modules, therefore I would like to have more customizability over it."
"I would like to see improvement when you create policies on Snort 3 IPS on Cisco Firepower. On Snort 2, it was more like a UI page where you had some multiple choices where you could tweak your config. On Snort 3, the idea is more to build some rules on the text file or JSON file, then push it. So, I would like to see a lot of improvements here."
"I'm not a big fan of the FDM (Firepower Device Manager) that comes with Firepower. I found out that you need to use the Firepower Management Center, the FMC, to manage the firewalls a lot better. You can get a lot more granular with the configuration in the FMC, versus the FDM that comes out-of-the-box with it. FDM is like Firepower for dummies."
"In the past though, colleagues have had issues during the upgrade process. The failover didn't work and production was down."
"With the new FTD, there is a little bit of a learning curve."
"The inclusion of an autofill feature would improve the ease of commands."
"Changes you make in the GUI sometimes do not reflect in the command line and vice versa."
"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."
"The product fails to offer protection when dealing with high-severity vulnerabilities, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"There are some formats that the solution cannot support ."
"The product integration with third-party systems 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."
"If Wi-Fi can be improved to offer real-time security profiling and updates, it can prevent traits unrelated to Wi-Fi."
"​They provide a medium level of technical support."
"The cyber security visibility and forensics features to receive more information about incidents could improve in Palo Alto Networks WildFire."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."
"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."
"The price could be lower."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is affordable. Most of our customers are on a three-year license to use the solution. All the features and support are included in the price."
"I would say that all things considered, the pricing is pretty good."
"It is cost-effective, and provides a good value for your money. The pricing, and license renewal, is very reasonable for us."
"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."
"Price-wise, it's at a good price point for our market."
"The licensing is a bit off because the physical firewall is cheaper than the virtual one. We only have the physical ones as they are cheaper than the virtual ones. We only use the physical firewalls because of the price difference."
"With the Cisco ASA, you do get what you pay for. What would really be awesome is to see Cisco blow out a real cheap version where you can use the sandbox, but leave it step-wise and go to another product relatively easily, like getting you hooked on candy."
"We're using the smart license for this firewall. The models that we have require licensing for remote access."
"We bought a three-year license as a part of the enterprise agreement, which includes help with implementation and troubleshooting. We have a big data center with many applications, so implementation was not straightforward. We had to put effort into it. It wasn't an easy or straightforward implementation. The support that we got from Cisco engineers with the three-year premium license was helpful. The enterprise agreement helped to consume the licenses in a practical and faster way and streamline the implementation."
"The licensing package is good, but the licensing fee should be decreased."
"Pricing is why we had to go for a UTM. For us to achieve what we needed, if we had gone with the ASA, the cost would have been high compared to getting one box (UTM)."
"We are in the process of renewing our three-year license, which costs approximately $24,000 USD for the thirty-six months."
"Always plan ahead for three years. In other words, do not buy a firewall on what your needs are today, but try to predict where you will be three years from now in terms of bandwidth, security requirements, and changes in organizational design."
"This is an expensive product and the market for Palo Alto in Poland could be much bigger if the pricing was comparable to Fortinet."
"The physical appliance is around €3,000 or €4,000, and then, you have the licensing for a year for around €3,000."
"Palo Alto Networks WildFire is an expensive product."
"The price could be better."
"There are different types of licenses."
"We pay between $3,000 and $4,000 CAD ($2,200 - $3,000 USD) per year to maintain this solution."
"I think they should lower the price of this solution"
"The solution is overpriced."
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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
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
32%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
Cisco ASA Firewall, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Cisco ASA, Adaptive Security Appliance, ASA, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv, Cisco Firepower NGFW 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
There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow.
Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls. Updated: November 2024.
815,597 professionals have used our research since 2012.