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Cisco Secure Firewall vs SonicWall NSa comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
316
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Cisco Secure Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
406
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (3rd)
SonicWall NSa
Ranking in Firewalls
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 19.8%, up from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall is 5.7%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall NSa is 1.5%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

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…
Swapnil Kulkarni - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 29, 2024
Good user interface, quick configuration modules but faced hardware issues
I use it for security purposes. To secure our network from outside the network. It is our gateway security solution where we can identify and filter out all the networks that come from outside of our network.  SonicWall NSa 3600 model has a very good user interface, and with its quick…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"Fortinet offers the latest versions to cater to the needs of enterprises."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"I like that they have given me a solution at a fair price."
"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."
"The solution is scalable."
"The most valuable features are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"The initial setup was not complex."
"The stability of the solution is very good. We can see that it gets even better with every release."
"The most valuable feature is the anti-malware protection. It protects the endpoints on my network."
"We get the Security Intelligence Feeds refreshed every hour from Talos, which from my understanding is that they're the largest intelligence Security Intelligence Group outside of the government."
"The remote access, VPN, and ACL features are valuable. We are using role-based access for individuals."
"The most valuable feature is IPS. It's a feature that's very interesting for tackling the most current attacks."
"This solution helped us to identify the key areas where we need to focus to block traffic that is malicious to our organization."
"They are easy to maintain."
"It has a very good user interface."
"The product is working okay. The product is working feature-wise."
"SonicWall NSa's most valuable features are the ease of configuration and the GUI."
"User friendly and intuitive."
"Since SonicWall is a UTM, we have enabled all the features: antivirus, IPS, URL filtering, and content filtering. All of these features are working fine."
"The prices are similar to other vendors and the support is good."
"The basic firewall rules of the solution are great."
"User-friendly with good security and application control."
 

Cons

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."
"The firewall engine is not so strong as of now, in my opinion... My second concern is that, while they have Zero-day vulnerability and anti-malware features, the threat engine needs to be strengthened, its efficiency can be increased."
"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."
"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it'd be great."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"We're getting support but there's a big delay until we get a response from their technical team. They're in the USA and we're in Africa, so that's the difficulty. When they're in the office, they respond."
"The solution could offer better control that would allow the ability to restrictions certain features from a website."
"The visibility for VPN is one big part. The policy administration could be improved in terms of customizations and flexibility for changing it to our needs."
"There are always vulnerabilities that come up and there was one in early 2018 but this was patched with software updates."
"I think the ASA layer is thin. It's always Layer 3 or Layer 4 source controller and doesn't control the Layer 7 traffic. It's important, and you'll need an additional firewall."
"They could improve by having more skilled, high-level engineers that are available around the clock. I know that's an easy thing to say and a hard thing to do."
"The most valuable features of the product are the VPN and the NextGen firewall features such as application control, URL filtering, etc."
"In the next release, I would like to see the VPN and UTM features included."
"The dashboard must be improved."
"We also need to increase the throughput because the other devices are slower. The throughput will become slow. Since we're using VoIP, it tends to affect the voice quality. Even if you're using a quality service, it tends to decrease."
"It is very modular and with native resources which are much lower than its competitors."
"I would like to have a built-in vulnerability scanner in the firewall. It would be great to have such functionality. Its price could also be better. It would also be good to have a local warehouse. It doesn't get damaged a lot, but if a customer needs a replacement, currently, it has to come from Miami or Mexico, which can take a few days. It would be better if they have a local warehouse from where we can just pick replacements and quickly solve a client's needs in terms of replacing equipment. It would be great to have it locally instead of waiting for it from Mexico or the USA."
"The tool needs to improve its reporting features."
"We still get phishing emails that manage to come through from time to time."
"It only has a single power interface, which has limitations in terms of high availability."
"Vendor support needs improvement. The frequency of time and support should be increased."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."
"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."
"The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars."
"The price depends on the size of the company. From the beginning, you just want to know the internet bandwidths, speed, and the number of users to be able to offer the right product and model. They have a lot of products in FortiGate according to the size of the company, like 200D and 300D."
"Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."
"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."
"Fortinet FortiGate gives you most of the features in one license."
"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."
"Pretty much everything is included in the price for what we are using."
"I like the Smart Licensing, because it is more dynamic and easier to keep track of where you are at. If we have a high availability firewall pair and they are deployed in active/standby rather than active/active, I would expect that we would only pay for one set of licenses because you are using only one firewall at any one time. The other is there just for resiliency. The licensing, from a Firepower perspective, still requires you to have two licenses, even if the firewalls are in active/standby, which means that you pay for the two licenses, even though you might only be using one firewall any one time. This is probably not the best way to do it and doesn't represent the best value for money. This could be looked at to see if it could be done in a fairer way."
"This solution might be expensive, but it is economical in the long run."
"I like its licensing because you buy the license once, and it is yours. We don't have to go for a subscription. So, I liked how they licensed Cisco ASA. Our clients are also very satisfied with its licensing model."
"They seem to be at the top end in terms of pricing, but they are worth the price. They are probably a little bit lower than Palo Alto. If the customers are relying on Cisco products and they are thinking more in terms of scaling to another layer in a year, it is pretty much in a good price range."
"The pricing of Cisco firewalls, in the security market, is fair."
"Its pricing is good and competitive. There is a maintenance cost. It includes SecureX that makes it cost-effective as compared to the other solutions where you have to pay for XDR and SOAR capabilities."
"We are partners with Cisco. They are always one call away, which is good. They know how to keep their customers happy."
"SonicWall still is only a dollar or Euro per gigabit. This means, of the IPsec, it's the cheapest solution."
"There are different pricing models for SonicWall NSa."
"The price is reasonable."
"The pricing is lower and better than other products."
"We paid about 10,000 in our currency for one packet of SonicWall NSa."
"Licensed features provide application control, content filtering, antivirus, and anti-malware all in a single appliance."
"The pricing is good and we are satisfied with the cost of this solution."
"The price of SonicWall NSa is expensive."
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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
31%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
5%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

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 ...
Which is better - Fortinet FortiGate or Cisco ASA Firewall?
One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. Fortinet Fort...
How does Cisco's ASA firewall compare with the Firepower NGFW?
It is easy to integrate Cisco ASA with other Cisco products and also other NAC solutions. When you understand the Cis...
Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...
What do you like most about SonicWall NSa?
The product blocks access when I visit unrecognized websites.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall NSa?
Pricing is reasonable. I would rate it seven out of ten.
What needs improvement with SonicWall NSa?
Certain features like SD-WAN are sometimes confusing to configure. One important feature that should be provided by d...
 

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
NSA 250M, NSA 2600, NSA 3600, NSA 4600, NSA 5600, Dell SonicWALL NSA
 

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.
Orange County Rescue Mission, First Source, Michaels & Taylor, Green Clinic Health System, Aspire Chiltern Skills and Enterprise Centre, UnitedStack, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, Celtic Manor Resort, Star Kay White, Air Works, Unimat Life, NHS Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support (YHCS), Hutt City Council, Mato Grosso do Sul, Nspyre
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall NSa and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.