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Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Sophos UTM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Organizations report quick ROI from WildFire, enhancing security, reducing false positives, and lowering costs by 25-30%.
Sentiment score
5.7
Sophos UTM offers quick returns, efficient network management, and cost savings, benefiting managed service providers and ensuring data protection.
The service generates a low rate of false positives, reducing the overhead of managing false positive events.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
I have seen a return on investment with Sophos UTM, and I can share that the price is around thirty percent better, especially if you count in the employee time.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Customer service is mixed, with large companies excelling, slow response times for some, and premium tiers offering better support.
Sentiment score
6.7
Sophos UTM's customer service receives mixed reviews for response times but is praised for expertise and community resources.
There is a lack of SLA adherence, and third-party partners do not provide prompt responses.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
We have had some open tickets for months, maybe half a year, and there is no real answer.
IT Security Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The service response times are aligned with standards, responding within a few hours based on the problem's criticality.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
The technical support by Sophos is amazing, especially when I pay for the enhanced support.
Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP
I would rate the technical support by Sophos a 10.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
I would rate the technical support with Sophos a seven because sometimes the time of the first resolution is not ideal.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Palo Alto Networks WildFire offers scalable, adaptable integration for various networks, seamlessly accommodating growth, though on-premises scaling may incur costs.
Sentiment score
6.0
Sophos UTM is highly scalable, supporting growth via licenses, hardware, and clustering, adaptable to varying deployment sizes.
Wildfire is highly scalable.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is scalable, and I give it a nine for scalability.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
The on-premises version is expensive to scale as it might need an additional device to be installed in the setup.
IT Security Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
You can have high availability clusters, so very, very scalable in my opinion.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.5
Palo Alto Networks WildFire is highly reliable, scalable, and integrates seamlessly, offering robust malware filtering and network compatibility.
Sentiment score
7.5
Sophos UTM is praised for stability and reliability, with few issues occurring mainly during updates or resource demands.
It performs filtering, malware blocking, and scanning.
Engineer at Taalumgroup
The solution is scalable and stable.
Technical Manager at PSR
 

Room For Improvement

Users seek improvements in functionality, user interface, support, pricing, deployment complexity, automation, integration, and advanced capabilities.
Sophos UTM needs enhancements in reporting, UI, threat protection, VPN, technical support, scalability, pricing, and configuration simplicity.
It should be easier to establish the Palo Alto Networks WildFire cluster between the devices.
IT Security Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The dashboard should provide better visibility, especially in showing how many files are sent to Wildfire and their findings.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
It is a very good product.
Engineer at Taalumgroup
If you want to really implement some rules that are a little bit more difficult, Sophos always recommends getting the dedicated WAF, or web application firewall, but I would prefer to have more features on the web application firewall in the firewall itself because it would make more sense.
System Engineer SDDC / VCF at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I would prefer to see additional features in the next release of Sophos UTM because cyber crime increases every day, so we also need to improve our game to prevent any chances for intrusion.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
It would make my work much simpler because it makes decision-making much easier.
IT Manager at Vegol
 

Setup Cost

Palo Alto Networks WildFire is an enterprise-focused, costly solution with robust threat prevention, offering various pricing tiers and a free trial.
Sophos UTM offers flexible pricing with incentives, praised for its features and value despite some regional variances.
I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of affordability.
Presale Engineer at Westcon-Comstor
Pricing has become expensive recently due to the dollar hike and naira value changes in Nigeria.
Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP
The value between what I receive and what I pay is the best in the industry.
System Administrator at a training & coaching company with 11-50 employees
The pricing would be more economical if sold directly to the user compared to going through a partner, as they need to take their percentage.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
 

Valuable Features

Palo Alto Networks WildFire offers advanced malware detection, effective sandboxing, and robust integration with next-gen firewalls for threat protection.
Sophos UTM excels in configuration ease, real-time reporting, cost-effectiveness, and flexible security features, benefiting efficient management.
Integrating Palo Alto Networks WildFire with various security protocols similar to a firewall has significantly improved the overall threat detection capabilities in our organization.
Content Specialist at PeerSpot
The most valuable feature of Wildfire is its sandboxing capability for examining suspicious files or locations.
Technical Superintendent at Indian Institute Of Technology, Patna
The integration and working with third-party solutions was very seamless and smooth.
IT Security Specialist at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
The zero-day protection and firewall rules are some of the most effective features for threat management.
Associate Director - Management Support Services at CIHP
It helps us quite a lot, especially because since we use Sophos UTM, malware intrusions are not rampant.
Network and Infrastructure Manager at Sonysugar
Sophos UTM's valuable features include the cost, which is very competitive when compared with other vendors, balanced with the features that it delivers.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Palo Alto Networks WildFire
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Palo Alto Networks WildFire is designed for Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) and holds a mindshare of 7.5%, down 11.6% compared to last year.
Sophos UTM, on the other hand, focuses on Unified Threat Management (UTM), holds 8.2% mindshare, up 6.6% since last year.
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks WildFire7.5%
Microsoft Defender for Office 3657.6%
Microsoft Defender for Endpoint5.5%
Other79.4%
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
Unified Threat Management (UTM) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Sophos UTM8.2%
Fortinet FortiGate30.5%
WatchGuard Firebox9.2%
Other52.099999999999994%
Unified Threat Management (UTM)
 

Featured Reviews

RK
Engineer at Taalumgroup
Achieve effective threat prevention and seamless integration with powerful technical support
Integration with third-party products is possible. For example, connecting a mail gateway with Palo Alto Networks WildFire allows them to handle prevention. Palo Alto Networks WildFire is a cloud-based sandboxing solution. The firewall is connected to WildFire, and XDR performs sandboxing from the cloud. WildFire conducts malware scanning and emulation, then informs the firewall to block threats based on the response. It also generates reports regarding malware and other issues. The sandboxing process involves sending sample files to the cloud for scanning, checking file authenticity, certificates, and detecting malicious code. WildFire performs multiple checks and informs the XDR agent about file status. This automatic process occurs within minutes or seconds. For unknown or suspicious files, immediate blocking occurs while samples are sent to WildFire for identification. I rate Palo Alto Networks WildFire a 9 out of 10.
Bashir Bashir - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Vegol
Firewall management has become simpler and now provides real-time visibility and bandwidth control
The features I have found most valuable in Sophos UTM are that it is much easier to configure, I appreciate the reporting side of it, and the rules are very straightforward to work with. Sophos UTM's real-time insights into network health help my organization because I get real-time reports on what is happening on my network, what is trying to access me, the destination, and all that. I can then be reactive or proactive, and for zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier. The use of Sophos UTM's intuitive management console has impacted my security policy enforcement in that it is much easier to configure; I configure with information rather than with presumptions.
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884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees
Jan 3, 2016
Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate
I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Educational Organization
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business37
Midsize Enterprise16
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise27
 

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...
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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
What do you like most about Sophos UTM?
The most valuable feature of Sophos UTM is the endpoint protection feature.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos UTM?
I have no declaration regarding my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Sophos UTM.
 

Also Known As

No data available
Astaro
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Novamedia, Nexon Asia Pacific, Lenovo, Samsonite, IOOF, Sinogrid, SanDisk Corporation
One Housing Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Palo Alto Networks, Microsoft, Proofpoint and others in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Updated: February 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.