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Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs Sophos XGS comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
318
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Palo Alto Networks PA-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
15th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
32
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sophos XGS
Ranking in Firewalls
14th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
82
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XGS is 2.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

EhabAli - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Deminda Dilan - PeerSpot reviewer
Good for enterprise-level businesses and offers many features like URL filtering and antivirus capabilities
Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7. Currently, I don't think it's available. If they can improve that, it would be better. We wouldn't need to purchase a separate WAF solution because they already have advanced URL filtering. But I don't think that advanced URL filtering has the same features as a dedicated WAF, like F5 or other solutions. That is an area for improvement. If they can improve the WAF feature, customers won't have to buy a separate WAF solution. They could do it with the same Palo Alto firewall, perhaps through a subscription-based model. So the web application firewall feature has to be improved.
Jaffar Ali - PeerSpot reviewer
Has provided stability, security, ease of management, and better reporting options
People use Sophos XGS because the overall channel support is very good, so they don't face issues. Additionally, it is competitive in pricing against Fortinet in some cases, especially when considering high availability, email subscriptions, and gateways Sophos XGS has provided stability,…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"The solution is very easy to understand. It's not overly complex."
"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."
"I'm looking forward to FortiGate's dashboard features, insights, application oversight, and monitoring, which could help us significantly."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced. It is almost 90% faster compared to other solutions."
"It is a scalable solution."
"App-ID is a really good feature."
"It offers a seamless transition from one option to another, making it exceptionally versatile and user-friendly in an enterprise setting."
"Palo Alto Networks firewalls offer single-mode panel processing with live scanning."
"Palo Alto has predefined applications that you can control at the application level."
"The direct profiles is a valuable feature."
"It is stable when you set up something and put it into production. Once it works, you don't have other tasks or actions to perform."
"The centralized security is very good."
"The security heartbeat feature and MDR are the best for customer security."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"It is extremely easy to deploy and fast to learn."
"It’s popular because it’s easy to manage, the cloud console is excellent, and it supports VPNs. It can also integrate with endpoints, though this is optional. Regarding threat intelligence, customers in Central Europe often prefer managing their threat hunting rather than using the more expensive service from Sophos. This feature is handy for large international companies with many employees. Threat intelligence requires separate licensing and is optional. Customers can either manage it themselves or purchase the additional service from Sophos, which includes further actions and is more expensive. Smaller companies often don’t have the budget for this."
"The threat management system and VPN are most valuable."
"The solution is very user-friendly, and the GUI is so good that I don't have to use the CLI. This eliminates the need for typing; clicking allows me to get to what I'm looking for."
"The most effective feature in enhancing our network security is the threat intelligence capability."
 

Cons

"The scalability could be better."
"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."
"The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall."
"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."
"Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas."
"The SD-WAN functionality is a bit overly complicated and not fully documented."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"The solution's licensing price could be improved."
"I had opened a case before with the tool because I could not create a wildcard for the security address. We can create wildcards for security addresses in Fortinet, but this feature doesn't exist in the product."
"The solution’s pricing could be improved because it is an expensive solution."
"The product's gateway services can be improved."
"The support has been shaky. Initially, it took one or two hours to get a Palo Alto engineer, which is quite slow. I expect faster response times."
"Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet."
"With Palo Alto Networks PA-Series, I find that the support team takes a long time to resolve the issues that a user may face during the use of the product."
"The SD-WAN feature of Palo Alto Networks is not good compared to FortiGate."
"I recommend Sophos increase the user capacity of the firewall by 1.5 times. For example, say the firewall can accommodate 1,000 users now, then it should handle a load of 1,500 users."
"Areas for improvement in Sophos XGS include better balance when handling high availability configurations, smoother firmware upgrades without the need for turning off devices, and simplified configuration after firmware updates."
"The solution could have a bit more functionality."
"Sophos should work on its marketing strategy as it seems to lag behind Fortinet."
"It would be good if we could do dual customization."
"VPN setup could be improved."
"In my view, Sophos operates effectively in a reactive mode, focusing on static detection and forwarding traffic. However, Fortinet takes a more proactive approach, blocking both connection and route connections. While Sophos forwards any connection in both inbound and outbound traffic, I believe this is a positive aspect, especially in a country with various sizing considerations. This is my perspective, emphasizing the significance of Sophos XGS in software work."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is fair for what we get with FortiGate."
"I do not have first-hand experience with the rice of Fortinet FortiGate, but I have heard the price was reasonable."
"I think that the pricing is fair."
"Setup costs and pricing depends on many variables, but it's mostly affordable."
"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."
"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."
"Easy to understand licensing requirements."
"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."
"With Palo Alto, even when you enable all the modules, it still provides the exact throughput they advertise."
"The solution's pricing is high compared to that of Cisco and Fortinet."
"The pricing is fair."
"The prices are pretty high, definitely on the upper end."
"The cost varies depending on the device model, with entry-level firewalls priced around $1,300 to $1,500, while higher-end models can reach prices of several hundred thousand dollars."
"From my perspective, managing the price is important, especially because we're a small business. For larger organizations like Barclays, we provide our requirements to the client, and they place the order on BigFix. It's their responsibility to consider their budget and make decisions accordingly. We appreciate the features we get, but the cost-sharing still depends on the client."
"While other firewalls may come with a higher cost, when you consider the cost in relation to the services and features that Palo Alto offers, it is clear that Palo Alto is delivering excellent value."
"We have to pay a yearly licensing fee for the solution."
"The cost of Sophos XGS is based on per unit, per appliance, and capacity."
"The pricing for Sophos is much better compared to that of Fortinet and Check Point. On a scale from one to five with one being expensive and five being competitive, I would rate Sophos' pricing at four. The pricing can be for the hardware appliance and the license, or it can be subscription-based. It can be around 3000 USD up to 25,000 USD per year depending on the model or series of the hardware you choose to buy."
"It is roughly around $4,000."
"We must purchase separate web server licenses, as they are not included in the regular device license. I would rate the product an eight out of ten in terms of price. It's relatively affordable."
"The price of Sophos XGS is average compared to other offers from other OEMs."
"Sophos XGS costs around $6,000 for a basic license."
"Sophos XGS costs around $75,000 for fifty units."
"I would like to see them reduce the price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
13%
University
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Educational Organization
6%
 

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...
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...
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 ...
What do you like most about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
The firewall is expensive for every company, but the cost is worth it to ensure maximum security. However, I do not h...
What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks PA-Series?
I experienced some problems with AWS cloud parameters connected to Palo Alto firewall. However, I haven't thought of ...
What do you like most about Sophos XGS?
The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos XGS?
The pricing is justified, and the solution is considered budget-friendly compared to other vendors.
What needs improvement with Sophos XGS?
Hardware stability needs improvement. I have experienced multiple hardware complaints, particularly during firmware u...
 

Also Known As

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

 

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
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Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series vs. Sophos XGS and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.