Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

Palo Alto Networks and Sangfor are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Palo Alto Networks is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.7, while Sangfor is ranked #19 with an average rating of 7.9. Palo Alto Networks holds a 3.4% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Sangfor’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Palo Alto Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sangfor users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 6, 2025

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Sangfor NGAF are competitors in the network security market. Palo Alto has an advantage due to its advanced threat prevention features and visibility tools.

Features: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer WildFire for sophisticated threat prevention and enhanced application-level control with app-ID and user-ID, providing insights into network activities. Sangfor NGAF delivers application control and is noted for its simplicity and ease of deployment, catering to smaller enterprises.

Room for Improvement: Palo Alto could improve its pricing, user-friendliness, and support, as well as enhance machine learning integration. Sangfor NGAF could expand its feature set with SD-WAN capabilities and improve international support and user interface.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Palo Alto's NG Firewalls are lauded for technical documentation but criticized for cost and configuration complexity. Support experiences are varied. Sangfor NGAF is praised for straightforward deployment and competitive pricing, though support access and training opportunities can improve.

Pricing and ROI: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are a premium solution with high costs, justified by security capabilities and performance, but challenging for budget-conscious organizations. Sangfor NGAF offers cost-effective, competitive pricing, suitable for small to medium enterprises, providing essential security features and simple licensing.

To learn more, read our detailed Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sangfor NGAF Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sangfor NGAF

April 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 April 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.1%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is 3.4%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.3%, 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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AmjadKhan1

Head of data centers at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees

Provides inline protection with a unified view and anti-spyware capabilities

I would rate Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls ten out of ten because it is the best. Our disaster recovery site utilizes Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls. We are also in the process of upgrading the firewalls at our 365 sites in Pakistan to Palo Alto Networks firewalls. While budget firewalls may advertise comparable features, they often fall short of effectively detecting viruses, threats, and ransomware. In contrast, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, combined with Cortex XDR, provide comprehensive threat intelligence and detection capabilities, ensuring superior security coverage. I recommend conducting a proof of concept before selecting a firewall. This will allow you to evaluate different options and determine which best suits your needs. While Palo Alto offers robust firewall solutions, it's essential to compare them with other vendors to ensure you make an informed decision.

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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

"I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud."

"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."

"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."

"There are great templates, so you don't have to customize them if you don't want to. You do have the option to custom create some folders and some reports, however, with what is there, you don't really need to go through extra effort, as they already give you a lot of predefined views of reports and so forth."

"The solution is very user friendly. The user interface in particular is quite nice."

"Security, SD-WAN, and Streetscape are valuable features."

"The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with."

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

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls' single-path architecture offers a valuable feature, ensuring stable performance for our customers."

"One of the most valuable features of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is application symmetries."

"Provision of quality training material and the reporting is very good."

"It helps the organization function better by virtue of cleaner and more predictive Internet access and usage being conducted by the employees and constituents of the company. It helps ensure that they have a stronger security posture. It is preventive medicine If you have DNS Security in place. You will be happy you had it. If you don't have it, you may never need it. However, if you did need it, and didn't have it, you will wish that you did. It is one of those things, like insurance."

"The best feature is the packet inspection; compared to solutions like Cisco and FortiGate, Palo Alto's packet inspection is much less CPU intensive, allowing it to detect threats embedded within packages more quickly and efficiently."

"Application control, IPS, and sandboxing towards the cloud are the most valuable features. It is a very user-friendly product with a very easy-to-use interface."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the network protection."

"Comments have some delay, but overall, it's a good product."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls pros

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

"The top functionality is the reporting feature."

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

"It offers application control features."

"You might try Sangfor if you are on a tight budget. The price is affordable, and Sangfor offers a lot of features. We don't have any complaints about Sangfor."

"The most valuable features are the WAN optimization, the internet access gateway (IAG), and the central console, which allows us to implement on their firewall."

"We can utilize our own network rather than paying for a private one."

"The absolute best part of Sangfor NGAF is their support. It's a 24/7 support channel, and the last time I requested their assistance I got a reply within three minutes. They helped solve the problem immediately."

More Sangfor NGAF pros

Cons

"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."

"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."

"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."

"The performance and speed are aspects of the solution that could always be improved upon."

"The logging details need to be improved."

"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."

"It does not have key authentication for admin access."

"Technical support needs to be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Palo Alto Firewalls could improve by introducing more features, particularly in load balancing."

"The configuration framework for Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation firewalls should be simplified, particularly for applications like ASG authentication."

"There is a bit of limitation with its next-generation capabilities. They could be better. In terms of logs, I feel like I am a bit limited as an administrator. While I see a lot of logs, and that is good, it could be better."

"The price is high and has room for improvement."

"Palo Alto's various products need better integration to ensure they work harmoniously."

"Palo Alto recently introduced a security analyzer in version ten, but this feature could be enhanced, and the URL filtering improved."

"The cloud could be improved. I would like to have more visibility of the vulnerabilities of the network as well."

"I would like them to bring in some features that would encourage traffic shaping or bandwidth routing, like other UTM firewalls, because the solution should be capable of limiting the bandwidth for rules."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls cons

"The interface and user experience are horrible."

"The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup."

"The tool is expensive."

"Sangfor need greater exposer in the market because the market is mainly saturated by Fortinet. The user experience of Fortinet is quite different compared to NGAF. If we want to switch our users from Fortinet to NGAF, we have to convince them that the user experience will be much easier once once they start to use it."

"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."

"The tool's support is an area of concern where improvements are required."

"There is room for improvement in dependency on certain infrastructure, like the DNS dependency on the current DNS server that the company has. It should be standalone. It should not depend on any other DNS server."

"They need to increase the number of ports in the firewall."

More Sangfor NGAF cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."

"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."

"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."

"The pricing depends on the FortiGate model we are using, ranging from $3,000 to $20,000 US dollars."

"Fortigate's pricing is competitive."

"It is too expensive for us. My organization is very small, and we have a total of ten users. We have three internal users and seven external users. The FortiGate 100D series is too expensive for renewing the licenses."

"If the customer is looking for SD-WAN, it comes free with FortiGate."

"Each feature costs money, so it is important to study your needs."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"We are on an annual license for this solution. I am happy with the price and when comparing it to other solutions it is priced competitively."

"We pay for the licensing annually and the price could be cheaper."

"The product is expensive. With one being the cheapest and ten being the most expensive, I give it an eight."

"The solution is worth the price, as it can be utilized without the need for high-processing CPUs and resources, thus saving us overall."

"There is an advantage to going with the high availability pair licensing model versus the standalone. It gives you a high availability pair, but the pricing is only a slight increase over a single system. It makes sense to take a look at your add-on functionality, like the Applications and Threats subscription and URL protection subscription. On the user side, I might want everything. However, on the server side, I might not need very much. I might want the Applications and Threats subscription and not much else. So, you don't have to buy all the bells and whistles for every firewall. Depending on what the function is, there are ways around it."

"The solution is expensive."

"The price of this product should be reduced."

"Compared to other firewall solutions, this is an expensive solution."

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls pricing and cost advice

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

"Sangfor is cheaper than competing vendors."

"In my opinion, the price of the tool is good in the Pakistani market. We can easily get discounts if needed."

"Price-wise, I would not consider Sangfor NGAF to be a cheap product. It is an expensive firewall solution, though not as expensive as something like Palo Alto, which is costly. However, the higher price point is justifiable given the feature set the tool provides that other firewalls may not offer in a single dedicated appliance."

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

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

"Sangfor NGAF price is reasonable and there is an annual license. However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."

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

More Sangfor NGAF pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

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 is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...

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Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls

In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it...

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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...

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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...

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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 22% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 10% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Azure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 11% of the time

Sophos XG vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 10% of the time

Meraki MX vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

Compared 9% of the time

More Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls Competitors

Sophos XG vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 16% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 4% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Sangfor NGAF

Compared 3% of the time

More Sangfor NGAF Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls

March 2025

Download Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls product report

Buyer's Guide

Sangfor NGAF

March 2025

Download Sangfor NGAF product report

Also Known As

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

Palo Alto NGFW, Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall

Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform

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.

Fortinet

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls offer comprehensive security, including application control, traffic shaping, threat prevention, and load balancing, designed to secure internal networks, perimeter protection, VPN services, and cloud environments.

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls are a key choice for managing and protecting data centers, securing remote access, network segmentation, malware prevention, and ensuring high availability and performance for business-critical applications. Known for stability and strong security, these firewalls use application-aware identifiers and IPS/IDS subscriptions to offer advanced threat protection. The unified platform facilitates seamless integration, while GlobalProtect and centralized management via Panorama enhance ease of use. However, there are areas for improvement, including pricing strategies, training, user support, and integration with third-party applications.

What are the essential features?

Stability: Reliable performance in different environments.
Application Control: Identifies applications to manage traffic.
Advanced Threat Protection: Includes DNS security, WildFire, and machine learning.
GlobalProtect: Secure remote access for users.
Centralized Management: Managed via the Panorama platform.

What benefits or ROI should users expect?

Security: Protects against threats with robust features.
User-Friendly: Simplified interface and easy configuration.
High Availability: Ensures performance for critical applications.
Integration: Seamless with existing systems and applications.
Support: Reliable technical support and resources.

In industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls secure sensitive data and meet regulatory requirements. These firewalls help manage large-scale networks in these sectors, providing essential security features and maintaining high-performance standards. They are implemented to ensure compliance, protect patient information, secure financial transactions, and safeguard customer data.

Palo Alto Networks

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.

Sangfor

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

SkiStar AB, Ada County, Global IT Services PSF, Southern Cross Hospitals, Verge Health, University of Portsmouth, Austrian Airlines, The Heinz Endowments

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

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sangfor NGAF

April 2025

Free Report: Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sangfor NGAF

Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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