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Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 1, 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

Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SonicWall Capture Advanced ...
Ranking in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
30th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) category, the mindshare of Palo Alto Networks WildFire is 12.5%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
 

Featured Reviews

AjayKumar17 - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced cybersecurity with advanced sandboxing and effective in controlling DNS issues
Improvements are needed in the UI part. The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings. This information should be integrated with the Dashboard so that system admins can see what is happening. Furthermore, technical support needs a lot of improvement, particularly in terms of responsiveness and adhering to service level agreements.
MG
When compared to other solutions, it is cheaper and more economical
The most valuable feature is the alerting system. For a small to medium customer, it is a cost-effective value. It does all the basic requirements. It fulfills all of our requirements. We get alert messages whenever there is a new threat. We are notified at the firewall level that things are blocked, which keeps us in our comfort zone.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are multiple features like management, intrusion prevention (IPS), URL filtering, anti-spam, and antivirus."
"The most effective feature of WildFire for threat analysis is its collaboration with other security profiles on our Palo Alto firewall."
"WildFire has default licenses for threat prevention. It updates its cloud-based database in real-time, and its dedicated team analyzes threats to provide remediation and prevention measures."
"It helps us when segmenting and securing the network and all sort of technologies, all sort of next generation needs. It's next generation phases of firewall like anti-virus, sandboxing, wifi, and VPN."
"The threat intelligence from WildFire supports our proactive defense strategies."
"The reporting feature helps our performance."
"It is the best device in comparison to other network products in the marketplace."
"You have better control because you define apps. You just don't define ports. You define apps, and the apps are monitored in the traffic. It is more specific than the Cisco firewall when it comes to our needs."
"Provides good protection and security."
"The stability of the solution is good. We haven't had any breaches or crashes. It's been very stable for us."
"We get alert messages whenever there is a new threat. We are notified at the firewall level that things are blocked, which keeps us in our comfort zone."
"They have a large database of commonly known things that they can catch automatically, then they have anything which is questionable go to the sandbox and be examined there before going into our network."
"I like this setup for a firewall. You can set things up very easily and you can automate items as well. It's a very robust firewall solution for enterprise as well as small businesses."
"We use it for protection against viruses and ransomware attacks."
"It also has an easy configuration. The feedback that we get from our customers is that it's a good product."
"The reporting that you get from it is the most valuable feature. You can see it via the appliance itself, and also via the MySonicWall account for the registered device. You are able to select the file if it's malicious, and you can select it in the reporting and see what triggered it, and things like that. I found that to be quite useful."
 

Cons

"If Wi-Fi can be improved to offer real-time security profiling and updates, it can prevent traits unrelated to Wi-Fi."
"The size of Palo Alto's cloud is big but it could be easier to use from a product management perspective."
"There are more specialized solutions that compete with Wildfire. Therefore, they need to work on their machine learning and AI to be more competitive."
"Improving detection on non-Windows formats would be beneficial as there are many samples, such as Linux or ransomware for macOS."
"One area for improvement is the expansion of the sandbox environment to include a broader range of platforms, such as Linux, macOS, and mobile operating systems."
"It would be nice if there was an easier way to install and deploy it, such as through the inclusion of wizards."
"They should make their user interface a little more user-friendly."
"When comparing this solution to others it is not as good overall."
"If anything at all, it would be some very minor updates that need to be done, but in terms of changes, nothing comes to mind."
"It does fare well against enterprise products."
"I would say the solution needs a much simpler user interface, but the functionality of the firewall is quite extensive. You need the user interface to be that way. However, if there was a way to make the user interface a little easier, that would be great."
"SonicWall should promote their roadmap and improve their marketing to customers."
"Could provide online training to allow customers to learn more about the product."
"The setup needs improvement. It needs to be made more user-friendly."
"I would like to have better documentation before starting with deployment because the deployment is a bit complex."
"We would like to get immediate alerts from the alerting system without using third-parties."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For the last three years, the price of Palo Alto in Vietnam has been very high."
"The pricing is highly expensive."
"It's comparable to what the competition is. It is probably a little lesser than what the competition is because, as a state government, we go for whatever the lowest cost is."
"The physical appliance is around €3,000 or €4,000, and then, you have the licensing for a year for around €3,000."
"This is an expensive product and the market for Palo Alto in Poland could be much bigger if the pricing was comparable to Fortinet."
"I think they should lower the price of this solution"
"It's pretty expensive but with respect to value for money, it's okay."
"There are different types of licenses."
"It's thirty dollars per user and we have 30 users."
"When you compare it with other solutions, they are cheaper and more economical."
"The best deal from SonicWall is to buy the HA pair. When you buy the initial one, you receive the second one at a significant discount. If there is an event and something happens to one firewall, then you have the second firewall to roll into. For the price, it's pretty to tough to beat and not a lot of other firewall vendors offer it. You battle for a discount on both. Where with SonicWall, if you buy one, the second one is at half price. It's pretty straightforward."
"We get our value for our money."
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Comparison Review

it_user206346 - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 11, 2015
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks
Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
9%
Real Estate/Law Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

How does Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks Wildfire?
The Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall is a very powerful and very complex piece of anti-viral software. When one considers that fact, it is all the more impressive that the setup is a fairly straightf...
Which is better - Wildfire or FortiGate?
FortiGate has a lot going for it and I consider it to be the best, most user-friendly firewall out there. What I like the most about it is that it has an attractive web dashboard with very easy nav...
How does Cisco ASA Firewall compare with Palo Alto's WildFire?
When looking to change our ASA Firewall, we looked into Palo Alto’s WildFire. It works especially in preventing advanced malware and zero-day exploits with real-time intelligence. The sandbox featu...
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
Wonder Cement, Foster Clark Products
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs. SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.