We performed a comparison between Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Sophos UTM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"The stability and scalability of this solution are satisfactory. Its SD-WAN, VPN, and URL filtering features are very useful."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access."
"It offers the same robust features and functionality in virtual, on-premise, and traditional data center environments."
"The support is good. We don't have any issues with the technical support."
"It handles our current load with ease, and I think it can handle a bit more. It definitely can handle a lot more capacity than we currently use."
"It's a very simple solution to manage."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is easy to operate."
"The most valuable feature is the WAN optimization."
"The solution integrates well with other Fortinet products."
"The standard features, including the filtering, are quite good. All the basic features are pretty useful for us."
"Efficient and effective - it's easy to separate rules."
"Sophos UTM provides security for our network here and access through a VPN connection for our remote users. It also offers the flexibility to create different tools for accessibility."
"The three most important features for us are web protection, web server protection, and network protection."
"It has helped by identifying threats within the company. If there are computers or servers that are compromised, then we are able to identify them right away in the system."
"It's a stable solution."
"Sophos SG UTM had all the basic functionality that you needed. It is user-friendly and easy to manage for any integrator."
"The packet filtering's great. You get out what you put into it. It works great as long as you know your security and configure everything adequately. If you just pop one in and it's not configured, then it's basically wide open. It kind of depends on the admin skill, but it's an excellent product."
"It improved bandwidth utilization and provided link load balancing features for internet and intranet lease lines."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"The stability of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Compatibility and integration with other products or vendors such as Cisco SD-WAN products need improvement."
"The performance could be better. Some features need to have quality control when the switch is working. The dedicated bandwidth for some users is not reliable."
"To improve FortiGate-VM, Fortinet needs to harden it more. For example, if you are using Hyper-V, then you need guidelines for hardening FortiGate-VM that are specific to the Hyper-V environment. If it's VMware, there should be at least a guideline on how to harden the firewall."
"The price model is not transparent by any means and should be made more clear. What's included in the packages is often not very obvious."
"In terms of improvement, there have been some problems with the bandwidth of the security layer."
"The log settings and filters could use some improvement."
"The product does not have a good graphical interface."
"I would like some features that are available in other brands. For example, I sometimes a person is using too much bandwidth, and it isn't easy to find this information in Sophos. Also, we have to switch connections manually when we are using a VPN and lose the MPLS connection. It isn't automatic."
"It would be nice if it had basic features, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention)."
"VPN needs IKEv2, but it’s in the roadmap. Also, all new, cool features will only come to the new Sophos XG Firewall."
"Reporting: We have had to work manually in many of our reports."
"The virus updates will always depend on new viruses that are discovered. Maybe they can send a notification or a reminder for update time."
"I don't really have any notes for improvements."
"The support could be better."
"We had some problems with the configuration. They had provided a CloudFormation template, and we had to go several rounds to make it work."
Fortinet FortiGate-VM is ranked 9th in Firewalls with 113 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 110 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate-VM is rated 8.4, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate-VM writes "An easy-to-manage and configure tool that provides ample documentation to help with the setup phase". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "It's a highly stable platform with very few hardware issues". Fortinet FortiGate-VM is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and H3C SecPath Firewalls, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs. Sophos UTM report.
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