Hillstone E-Series vs Sophos XG comparison

Hillstone Networks and Sophos are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Hillstone Networks is ranked #39 with an average rating of 8.0, while Sophos is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2. Hillstone Networks holds a 0.4% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sophos’s 8.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 19, 2025

Sophos XG and Hillstone E-Series compete in the network security solutions category. Based on the provided data, Sophos XG seems to have the upper hand due to its strong feature set and pricing options that are appealing for small to medium businesses.

Features: Sophos XG is known for its web and application filtering, email protection with encryption, and customizable reporting. Additionally, it offers sandboxing and synchronized security. Hillstone E-Series provides ransomware protection, user-friendly management, and integrates virtual switching and routing, which reduces the need for additional hardware.

Room for Improvement: Sophos XG users noted a lack of advanced DNS filtering and limited link load balancing options. They also desire enhancements in RAM capacity and centralized management interfaces. Hillstone E-Series could benefit from improved reporting capabilities and quicker response times for support, as well as better switching capacity and memory performance.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sophos XG is versatile across hybrid, on-premises, and public cloud environments, but technical support can be inconsistent. Hillstone E-Series supports on-premises and public cloud, with a noted preference for localized support and streamlined ticketing processes.

Pricing and ROI: Sophos XG offers competitive pricing with bundled licenses, cost-effective for small to medium businesses, though some advanced features come with additional costs. Hillstone E-Series has economical pricing, though a simplified licensing model would improve satisfaction.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos XG Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos XG

December 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 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.7%, down from 20.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XG is 8.4%, down from 10.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	18.7%
Sophos XG	8.4%
Hillstone E-Series	0.4%
Other	72.5%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

Read full review

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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TarunPanchal

IT Manager , SAP HANA Administrator at Tara Paints & Chemicals

Decades of expertise lead to seamless installations and robust security

I typically use the Sophos XG Firewall to enhance my cybersecurity by using all layers. The intrusion prevention system impacts my security posture effectively, as we have not faced any ransomware or cyber threats. I have more than 800 servers live from Sophos. The synchronized security feature has proven to be very beneficial, and I have not encountered any issues. Sophos XG Firewall has contributed to reducing overall costs because it helps save money. We purchased endpoint security for the first time last year, and even without endpoint security, it provides comprehensive security. Sophos XG uses AI effectively to enhance threat detection and response, securing from AI at the packet level.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can expand easily."

"The payment function for applications is good."

"The multi-threat protection feature helps us secure our organization."

"LinkGreat firewall capabilities"

"Provides good VPN capabilities."

"I would rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) as a solution a 10 out of 10."

"Fortinet FortiGate has helped me reduce Mean Time To Respond, or MTTR, and helped my organization consolidate all of the tools in one application."

"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Five out of five ROI."

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

"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."

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

"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."

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

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

"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

"The initial setup is very straightforward and the solution is extremely user-friendly."

"In terms of the functionality, I think it's pretty straightforward. It's easy to pick up. It's also user-friendly."

"The solution is more cost-effective than FortiGate, Cisco and Palo Alto, which have very expensive licenses."

"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."

"It gives me a very good, stable connection in all tunnels."

"Sophos Control Center is a good feature. We can monitor everything from the control panel."

"One feature of Sophos XG that I found incredibly beneficial for threat prevention is its endpoint protection."

"The initial setup is pretty simple."

More Sophos XG pros

Cons

"I would like to see improvements in Fortinet FortiGate regarding the active-active scenario. The active-active scenario is supported but not recommended, whereas other vendors are implementing active-active without issues. Perhaps in the future, we could effectively use both firewalls to increase the throughput. If there are two boxes, they both should be able to work."

"With the standard support subscription, if the device goes down, the customer has to first ship the box, and then Fortinet sends the replacement. With the higher support, the customer has to ship the device after they have the replacement. It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription."

"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."

"It's one of the more expensive brands."

"They have not yet extended to the cloud."

"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."

"In an incident, after a restart, Fortinet FortiGate did not connect to FortiGuard servers. Due to that reason, on the customer end, all websites got blocked. I don't know why this happened. The firewall of a bank in Sri Lanka rebooted yesterday, and after that, FortiGuard servers did not connect properly, blocking all customer environment websites."

"A disadvantage exists when we are collecting the logs, as it sometimes becomes very difficult to interpret the logs that are generated from the firewall."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

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

"The current usage reporting is very basic."

"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."

"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."

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

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

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

"The tool needs to improve its price."

More Hillstone E-Series cons

"The firewall could be made more robust, particularly by simplifying two-factor authentication."

"Sophos needs improvements made to the console, such as host entry or defining rules directly from it."

"Sophos XG's user interface has some room for improvement."

"Its price should be improved. Its features are pretty okay, but the price is the area where we have to fight more. They should do something about the price structure."

"Sophos can definitely improve with the interoperability between solutions."

"Sophos XG could improve the policies, they are a bit confusing when creating them. There are many options that make it confusing and it could be simplified."

"The product's technical support services could be better."

"Technical support could be improved. They aren't as responsive as they could be."

More Sophos XG cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I'll rate FortiGate's pricing a five out of ten since it is moderately priced."

"I pay €1,200 per year for the license along with Fortinet's 81E firewall appliance. I would rate this pricing as 3/5 stars, and I believe the price is reasonably similar to its competitors in the market, being somewhere in the middle."

"I think that the pricing is fair."

"Fortinet FortiGate has different licensing models, depending on what you're going to do. Services included would depend on the license model. Licenses can be renewed annually."

"The licensing scheme of Fortinet is better than Cisco. It is more logical."

"It was worth the money overall. It's good value."

"Fortinet FortiGate IPS' licensing is quite simple to understand."

"It is somewhat expensive compared to other solutions such as Sophos."

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

"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."

"Currently, we have a contract for three years. It would be good if its price is reduced before we renew the contract. We will buy the equipment if it is cheaper."

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"The tool's pricing is cheaper compared to other alternative products."

"The price for the firewall is reasonable."

"There is a license required for this solution that is priced well and all the features are included."

"For every firewall, you will need to pay the license for the following year. If they don't pay for the license renewal, they basically won't get the support from Sophos."

"When compared to other products, Sophos licensing is very affordable."

"Its price should be better. Initially, the clients have to pay for the appliance. Then, they have to pay for the software that is installed on the appliance. Depending on whether they have a one-year, two-year, or three-year license, they just have to renew the license of the software after it expires. They don't have to renew the appliance license. So, they have to pay for the appliance only once, and after that, they just renew the software license. That's all."

More Sophos XG pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	188

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	141
Midsize Enterprise	52
Large Enterprise	35

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 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...

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What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?

I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features w...

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What advice do you have for others considering Hillstone E-Series?

Our company did not use the tool's micro-segmentation features. There were no issues while integrating the tool. I ha...

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Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...

See all answers

What are the main differences in features between Sophos XG and FortiGate 80F?

Hi Arvind P , The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Fact...

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What do you like most about Sophos XG?

IPS works smoothly.

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 6% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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OpenVPN Access Server vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 19% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 11% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 7% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder CFW vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Aruba Remote Access Points vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 4% of the time

More Hillstone E-Series Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos XG

Compared 9% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos XG

Compared 6% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Sophos XG

Compared 3% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sophos XG

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Sophos XG

Compared 3% of the time

More Sophos XG Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

January 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

January 2026

Download Hillstone E-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XG

December 2025

Download Sophos XG product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

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.

Hillstone Networks

Sophos XG provides robust security capabilities, offering features like web filtering, VPN, and user-friendly management. Its intuitive setup and policy adjustments enhance security while synchronized endpoint protection ensures comprehensive defense.

Sophos XG is a network security solution with web and application filtering, VPN features, and a management interface that simplifies configuration. It offers email protection, threat prevention, and reporting capabilities, all contributing to a comprehensive defense strategy. Synchronized security with endpoints enhances protection, and advanced threat protection with efficient bandwidth management supports secure remote work environments. However, users suggest improvements in log interfaces for real-time actions and better email protection. Enhancements in link load balancing, RAM, VPN stability, and central management are needed. HTTPS filtering, certificate management, technical support, and scalability of the SD-WAN feature can see advances.

What are the key features of Sophos XG?

Web and application filtering: Blocks inappropriate content and apps, maintaining network security.
VPN features: Secure remote access and connectivity for remote work.
Intuitive management: Simplifies setup and policy changes for efficient security management.
Threat prevention: Protects against intrusions, malware, and malicious sites.
Reporting and dashboards: Enhance visibility and decision-making ability.
Synchronized security: Integrates with endpoint protection for a cohesive defense.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Enhanced security: Comprehensive features protect against network threats.
Remote work support: Secure VPN connectivity for remote and mobile employees.
Ease of management: Simple setup and configuration save time and resources.
Visibility: Detailed reports and dashboards aid continuous monitoring and analysis.
Scalability: Suitable for medium to large organizations with growing security needs.

In industries such as healthcare, education, and financial services, Sophos XG acts as a mainline defense for network security, VPN connectivity, and web filtering. It supports secure remote access, intrusion prevention, antivirus scanning, and secure web gateways integrated with endpoint systems, tailoring its extensive security capabilities to meet specific industry requirements.

Sophos

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

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Sophos XG

December 2025

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