Hillstone E-Series vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Hillstone Networks and Sangfor are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Hillstone Networks is ranked #33 with an average rating of 9.3, while Sangfor is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.9. Hillstone Networks holds a 0.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sangfor’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

The Hillstone E-Series and Sangfor NGAF compete in the cybersecurity space, delivering protection and threat management. Sangfor NGAF seems to have an edge with its broader feature set and system capabilities, providing better value despite higher costs.

Features: Hillstone E-Series offers advanced threat detection and prevention, comprehensive data security, and intelligent threat analysis. Sangfor NGAF provides powerful network traffic monitoring, integrated security for centralized management, and a simplified approach to security. It combines these features for an all-encompassing security solution.

Room for Improvement: Hillstone E-Series could enhance its user interface, provide more flexible deployment options, and improve scalability for large enterprises. Sangfor NGAF can work on further optimizing its setup processes, enhancing features for better integration into diverse IT environments, and reducing the complexity of its extensive capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Hillstone E-Series is straightforward to deploy, with significant customer support for quick integration into systems. Sangfor NGAF also provides efficient deployment and stands out with excellent customer service and personalized support, enhancing the customer experience.

Pricing and ROI: Sangfor NGAF incurs a higher initial setup cost but offers significant long-term ROI through its comprehensive security features. Hillstone E-Series provides more cost-effective pricing, offering moderate ROI, appealing to budget-conscious buyers. Sangfor’s higher price is justified by advanced security management benefits, making it worthwhile for extensive security coverage.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone E-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

January 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.3%, up from 17.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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TahirMahmood

IT Manager at Zubair Feeds

Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.

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Zaid Farooqui

CIO at Indus Motor Company

Enhanced threat detection with integrated security features and good support

We are using application firewalling, WAF, and SD-WAN. The capabilities are mostly within the box. For example, you will get web application firewall WAF as part and parcel of this. SD-WAN is also bundled. It integrates with their SIEM and SOAR solutions very nicely. Lastly, the pricing point is very cost-efficient as well.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and there are several operating systems that can include the hardware capacities. In the newer releases, the resources were more useful because they were included in the operating system."

"The inspection and web security features are most valuable."

"The web filtering feature and the intrusion protection system are the most valuable. It is a resilient appliance. I never had an issue with it in terms of any security breaches."

"FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime."

"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 strengths of Fortinet FortiGate include network security, VPN, site-to-site tunnels, client VPN solutions, two-factor authentication for VPN clients, and SD-WAN for branch level. We have implemented these solutions for various customers."

"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Five out of five ROI."

"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."

"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."

"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."

"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."

"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

"The built-in features function as intended, providing exceptional value."

"Sangfor NGAF works accordingly with our customers. The solution has good performance, easy to use, and integrates well with the endpoints."

"In our hospital, Sangfor NGAF works well for us in terms of ensuring confidentiality and availability, which are crucial in the healthcare industry."

"Sangfor's tech features and technologies are more powerful than those of the other solution providers in terms of security. They also have big solutions in terms of cybersecurity."

"Technical support is very good."

"The product is very fast and reliable."

"In four steps one can configure the entire firewall."

"We've found the technical support to be helpful."

More Sangfor NGAF pros

Cons

"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."

"Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why."

"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."

"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."

"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."

"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."

"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."

"The current usage reporting is very basic."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."

"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."

"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."

"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."

"The tool only had some memory-related problems."

More Hillstone E-Series cons

"The web interface needs to be improved, making it more user-friendly."

"It has an issue with the Sangfor Cloud Platform rather than the firewall. When we run a virtual machine, the window tabs display Chinese characters."

"The GUI needs to be improved, lacks logic in some areas."

"An area for improvement would be the number of ports defined on the box. In the next release, I would like them to develop their provisioning stage of enrolling end devices."

"The support for YouTube or the Internet is not enough."

"The firewall system needs gradual improvements because there are more threats and challenges every day."

"Sangfor could improve their interface capacity on the 5100 series model and upgrade their hardware from one gig to 10 gig. This would improve the overall throughput."

"The support offered by the product has certain shortcomings where improvements are required. The knowledge levels and response time of the support team need improvement."

More Sangfor NGAF cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"Work through partners for the best pricing."

"The pricing is fair."

"Fortinet FortiGate's price can be reduced."

"These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."

"The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced."

"Pricing is good. They offer a lot of things, the most important is the support. Every time you upgrade your license, you also get insurance for the equipment. If you have any problem with equipment, they send in new equipment."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."

"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."

"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."

"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."

"The solution has a TCO that is 32% to 50% less than Sophos, Fortinet, and SonicWall."

"When it comes to the price of firewall solutions, Sangfor NGAF takes the cake."

"Sangfor NGAF is a cheaply priced product, especially if I consider the previous product that was used in my company."

"We purchased one year technical support and return to factory support, and we also purchased one-year technical support services. So those were additional."

"The license of Sangfor NGAF can be purchased at different interval lengths, such as annually or three years. They offer a range of packages to choose from, such as combo or hybrid packages. We are using the complete solution package which includes IM, NGF and SSL VPN, and WAF."

"Sangfor is cheaper than competing vendors."

"If one is very cheap and ten is very expensive, I rate the tool's price as three out of ten."

More Sangfor NGAF pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Comms Service Provider

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Real Estate/Law Firm

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

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...

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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...

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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 ...

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What do you like most about Hillstone E-Series?

The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Hillstone E-Series?

Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the fire...

See all answers

What do you like most about Sangfor NGAF?

I think Sangfor NGAF is more valuable than Cisco products because of its simplicity and ease of management. If I comp...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?

The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?

The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardwa...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 23% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

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Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 10% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 9% of the time

OpenVPN Access Server vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos XG vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 5% of the time

More Hillstone E-Series Competitors

Sophos XG vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 16% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 3% of the time

More Sangfor NGAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

January 2025

Download Hillstone E-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor NGAF

December 2024

Download Sangfor NGAF product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

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Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform

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Fortinet

Hillstone Networks

Sangfor

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Hillstone E-Series is a comprehensive network security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats. It offers a range of features including a firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), virtual private network (VPN), and application control.

With its advanced threat intelligence capabilities, E-Series can detect and prevent sophisticated attacks, ensuring the security of critical data and systems. It also provides granular control over applications, allowing organizations to enforce policies and optimize network performance.

E-Series is easy to deploy and manage, with a user-friendly interface and centralized management console. It offers high-performance throughput and scalability, making it suitable for small businesses to large enterprises. With its robust security features and ease of use, Hillstone E-Series is an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their network security posture.

Sangfor Next Generation Firewall (also known as NGAF) is a converged security solution providing protection against advanced threat, malware, viruses, ransomware and web-based attacks using integrated security features like firewall, IPS, anti-virus, anti-malware, APT, URL filtering, Cloud Sandbox, and WAF. As the world's first AI-enabled and fully integrated Next Generation Firewall & Web Application Firewall (WAF), NGAF offering the security visibility, real-time detection and response, simplified operation and maintenance and high-performance application layer security needed to operate an enterprise network in total security. Tested and proven to provide cutting-edge network security by ICSA Labs and endorsed by Gartner Inc., NGAF harnesses the power of Sangfor’s Neural-X threat intelligence and analytics platform and Engine Zero’s innovative malware detection to provide next-generation protection for today’s enterprise.

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

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO

The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

January 2025

Free Report: Hillstone E-Series vs. Sangfor NGAF

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