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Citrix Gateway vs SonicWall Netextender comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

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

Citrix Gateway
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Universal Access Gateways (1st), SSL VPN (1st)
SonicWall Netextender
Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
11th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Citrix Gateway is 3.5%, up from 3.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Netextender is 2.9%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Citrix Gateway3.5%
SonicWall Netextender2.9%
Other93.6%
Enterprise Infrastructure VPN
 

Featured Reviews

SK
Enterprise Architect at Wipro Limited
Strong security and versatile features drive positive experience, but support responsiveness can improve
The main purpose of Citrix Gateway is to enforce the appropriate level of access to the correct user on the proper device under the correct conditions. This is enabled through Citrix Gateway combined with endpoint analysis and optional Citrix analytics for security. Regarding improvements, implementing adaptive access policies on Citrix Gateway could be enhanced, particularly in security posture. Although it enforces real-time contextual access control based on device, user network risk, certain aspects can be improved. Other areas for improvement include BYOD access control and risk-based decision-making. Additionally, there is potential for reducing administrative overhead by applying policies dynamically based on context rather than static rules. Incident response speed is another area that could be enhanced.
Rich Darress - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Operating Officer at Darress Tech
Has provided secure remote access to multiple client networks with consistent performance
When buying the appliance itself, there is one downside that isn't exclusive to SonicWall. When you apply all the security settings, many people have one gig connections for internet ISP. If you're bringing in a one gig connection, you have to have a more robust SonicWall to handle that throughput with all your security settings turned on. It gets pretty pricey upfront if you're bringing in a one gig connection. If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious. However, this issue exists with pretty much any appliance.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product enables us to collect logs from the systems."
"Overall, this is a good solution that is stable, but I would like to see improvements to the logging capability."
"For the use cases we have, the solution is perfect."
"The session monitoring capability is good."
"Just creating that gateway to the storefront for Citrix is the most valuable aspect of the solution for us."
"The initial setup is simple. Normally with all setups, it's not very complicated. It really depends on the customer."
"I didn't have any hiccups or issues with it."
"We haven't received any complaints or performance issues so far."
"Employees can have access to the network from home."
"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."
"NetExtender works very well. I never had an issue with it, and it has been working well for me. In terms of management, you have good control over the destination. You can use NetExtender to set the policy and the static route for a client. You can modify it based on what your client needs or can access. You have good control over routing."
"The best features of the SonicWall Netextender were its ease of use."
"The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML."
"The product has two-factor authentication."
"Overall, it's a really good product."
"I found nothing of value in this solution."
 

Cons

"I'd like to be able to access Citrix Gateway through a mobile device."
"The product should be more secure."
"Stability and security could be enhanced."
"Its interface could be made a lot easier. It is very kludgy."
"Technical support could be improved."
"I would like to see better configuration of repairs and downloading certification."
"Lacks access through a mobile device."
"As an organization, our initiative is to move to the cloud, Citrix Gateway needs to improve its cloud capabilities and make the cloud solution more robust."
"Sometimes you can get bounced around through the departments until you find the right one. Sometimes if you don't have the most current support contract or your license is out of date, they won't even talk to you."
"I am rolling out the new Netextender because I am having some issues with the older version."
"There must be a multi-factor authentication enabled or integrated by default with it in order to be integrated with NetExtender."
"If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious."
"The UI could be a little better."
"The solution takes more bandwidth these days and it would be helpful if that was reduced."
"The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly."
"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive and requires proper planning with strategy."
"Usually with Citrix the issue is the pricing, especially for the African region. We believe it's really expensive."
"There is a license to use Citrix Gateway and it is less expensive to use when compared to other solutions."
"I consider Citrix Gateway to be an expensive solution, generally ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 yearly, depending on the model."
"I believe the pricing is comparable to SaaS"
"Pricing is very high if you do a comparison with what is available in the market."
"The price could be lower."
"There is a need to make yearly payments for licensing purposes. Also, it is not an expensive one."
"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."
"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."
"The solution has a pretty good price."
"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."
"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."
"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."
"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Citrix Gateway?
The price is one aspect, but technically it is complete. Technically, it is really complete.
What needs improvement with Citrix Gateway?
I see room for improvement in several areas. The monitoring site could be much better because monitoring NetScaler and Citrix Gateway is too difficult with just SNMP traps available. Improving the ...
What is your primary use case for Citrix Gateway?
I am on the customer side using Citrix products, specifically Citrix CVAD for Virtual and Desktop virtualization. I am using Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service. We are using Citrix Gateway an...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall Netextender?
The pricing for my experience with the setup cost and licensing of SonicWall Netextender is fair. The Netextender itself has no cost. It's the SSL licensing that is attached to the SonicWall. It us...
What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?
SonicWall Netextender has not helped with compliance, as it is not applicable for what I'm doing. I've put several feature requests in over the years and they've implemented them all, so it current...
What is your primary use case for SonicWall Netextender?
Getting to local resources on a customer's network is my main use case with SonicWall Netextender or SonicWall SSL-VPN. As a managed service provider, all my customers have SonicWalls and I get int...
 

Also Known As

Citrix NetScaler Unified Gateway
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Aeronamic, Avianca, Bechtel Corporation, Betfair UK, Catholic University Leuven (K.U. Leuven), Centene Corporation, Cerner, Charityshare, City of High Point, Clark Builders
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Citrix Gateway vs. SonicWall Netextender and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
886,077 professionals have used our research since 2012.