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Peplink SpeedFusion vs SonicWall SMA comparison

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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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
589
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Peplink SpeedFusion
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (12th), WAN Edge (15th)
SonicWall SMA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.6
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
Universal Access Gateways (2nd), SSL VPN (6th), Enterprise Infrastructure VPN (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Peplink SpeedFusion3.9%
Fortinet FortiGate11.1%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN10.0%
Other75.0%
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
Universal Access Gateways Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SonicWall SMA42.2%
Citrix Gateway42.2%
Other15.599999999999994%
Universal Access Gateways
 

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd
Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches
Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.
MJ
IT Officer at Department of Education - Philippines
Helps to connect remote systems and offers collaborative features
In the Philippines, VPN usage may not be widely known, but we leverage VPN effectively within my organization. I've shared our in-house systems with other district offices, as I cover fifteen municipalities and cater to the entire province. This platform is a valuable tool for us, enabling collaborative work, and allowing us to update our services remotely.
BA
Owner at ThinkEzIT
Security enhances through autonomous protection and strong support while multi-factor authentication secures access
I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need to. I don't know where they can focus their energy on continuous improvements, as I haven't been looking at what they're releasing. We're a small shop, so we drop stuff in and manage it and do what we need to do to maintain it. If we run into an issue, we contact support. There's a learning curve, but it comes down to getting support to train you on the product, and then once you have the training you need, you're able to make the changes and updates that you need to.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me."
"There are many features packed and significant flexibility from Fortinet FortiGate in being able to do numerous things."
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"FortiGate has a very strong unified threat management system."
"When I survey FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is good to use, and most importantly, the pricing, and the customer especially likes the discount when they trade up or something like that."
"The security for endpoints is the most valuable. It is very secure for our workers. It allows us to secure a transaction and enable security for a specific segment in the workflow."
"It is a very stable product."
"The solution has four key features, that maybe the other competitors don't have yet."
"It allowed us to be able to use both ISP connections at pretty much double the bandwidth, and it also provided us the high availability because if one ISP goes down, it is usually transparent so the users don't notice."
"With this technology, we were able to reduce expenses from 0.43$ million to 0.23$ million per year, and the speed was increased (x5) by changing expensive MPLS to a simple, low-price connection like ADSL and using the cellular data network as a backup connection."
"I have been using Peplink SpeedFusion for more than ten years."
"In the Philippines, VPN usage may not be widely known, but we leverage VPN effectively within my organization. I've shared our in-house systems with other district offices, as I cover fifteen municipalities and cater to the entire province. This platform is a valuable tool for us, enabling collaborative work, and allowing us to update our services remotely."
"The valuable feature is that, after reading about its capabilities and using it for a while, Peplink SpeedFusion employs eight technologies within its SD-WAN profile, addressing issues like packet loss and latency. The solution is highly stable. I rate it a nine out of ten. The support team gives quick response and efficient local support."
"Our customers find it to be an interesting and tempting solution."
"The solution is reliable and has good overall performance."
"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is they have IT consultants that know SonicWall."
"The advanced threat protection and the endpoint control features of SonicWall SMA have helped improve security measures tremendously."
"SonicWall SMA allows us to provide CML-based access to any user."
"I am very satisfied with the technical support."
"Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security."
"I like the load balancing capability, it is very fast and it has a simple interface."
 

Cons

"The solution could improve the integration."
"Scalability is one of the disadvantages. When it comes to scalability, you have to actually change the box. If you want to upgrade it, you need to actually change the existing box and probably you take the system off to other sites."
"FortGate's IPS reporting could be made better by giving more details regarding the source and destination of network traffic when it comes to the overview section. This would allow me to more easily follow the flow of traffic based on IP addresses, without having to integrate the IPS with other products that perform more sophisticated traffic analysis."
"They can do more tests before they release new versions because I would like to be more assured. We had some experiences where they release something new and great, but some of the old features are disabled or they don't work well, which impacts the product satisfaction. The manufacturer should be able to prove that everything works or not only that it might work. This is applicable to most of the other services, software, and hardware companies. They all should work on this. We cannot trust every new release, such as a beta release, on the first day. We wait for some comments on the forums and from other companies that we know. We always wait a few weeks before we use the updated version. They should also extend the VPN client application, especially for Linux versions. Currently, it has an application for Linux devices, but it doesn't work the way we want to connect to the VPN. They use only the old connection, not the new one. They have VPN client applications for Windows and Mac, but they can add more useful features to better manage the devices and monitor the current health of each device. Such features would be helpful for our company."
"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."
"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."
"One issue is that they have retired SSL VPN for existing devices. This causes significant effort for us to change customer setups."
"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas."
"There is room for improvement in enhancing security features, such as incorporating intrusion detection blocking capabilities and integrating artificial intelligence to bolster security aspects on the device."
"Its pricing is the main issue. The pricing could be improved."
"The product needs to aggregate the bandwidth of different ISPs. It needs to improve scalability as well."
"They don't have next generation firewall, UTM, like the other competitors."
"Their hardware support isn't the greatest. We've had one unit go down, and it took a while for them to replace it. It was in the Caribbeans, so it might be a location-related issue."
"Its pricing is the main issue. The pricing could be improved. I would like to see an outbound policy based on the application. It is a very good feature, and most of the customers are looking for that. They can also include stronger firewall features. This would help the customers in choosing this product as the only device for the SD network."
"A disadvantage for Peplink maybe the features are not as strong as those of their competitors."
"The stability has room for improvement."
"SonicWall SMA is difficult to use and it does not provide easy access to different parts of the network."
"SonicWall's reporting isn't good. Reports should be part of a data plan."
"The user interface could be improved."
"Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface."
"This is an expensive solution and I think that the price could be improved."
"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available."
"There are some features that are available on Palo Alto or Cisco that don't exist. The solution could integrate better with other platforms."
"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available. I would suggest that there should be MFA integration and provided with the appliance."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is not a very costly product if you compare it with other products. The return on investment is also good. If you compare the return of investment and money that you are spending on this product with Palo Alto, Cisco, Check Point, and other solutions, the investment is very less. We are happy with this solution. The optional licenses are there, and you can choose which one you want and which one to avoid."
"Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."
"The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."
"It is a cost-effective solution that meets the user's needs."
"I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."
"Its pricing is good. The advantages of Fortinet FortiGate over its competitors include good pricing and meeting our requirements at a lower cost."
"Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an affordable solution."
"Cost-wise, there is not much difference from Sophos, but feature-wise, we get more features."
"It has lifetime licensing. Its pricing is high for most of the markets."
"It's not cheap, but it is highly competitive."
"Its licensing fee is on a yearly basis. For the price, it is actually pretty good value."
"Perpetual licensing, which is good for customers that don't want any annual or subscription based license."
"I rate Peplink SpeedFusion's pricing an eight out of ten."
"The cost is in the middle, a five out of ten."
"Our licenses are stackable and can be anywhere from five users to a million users."
"The platform has medium pricing."
"All the costs are included in a bundled license."
"The cost of the licensing is based on the maximum number of concurrent users, and it costs a lot to add them."
"I don't know about the pricing of the SSL-VPN box. I know the SSL-VPN software is free. Global VPN client, by comparison, is licensed for around $150 or something like that. But the SSL-VPN software is free. It is already built-in with the box."
"This solution is priced well and we currently have the maximum number of licenses allowed."
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Top Industries

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

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business365
Midsize Enterprise135
Large Enterprise191
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

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 ...
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What do you like most about SonicWall SMA?
Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security.
What needs improvement with SonicWall SMA?
I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need ...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
SonicWall Aventail, SonicWall SMA SSL-VPN, SonicWall Secure Mobile Access
 

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
MIT Robotics Team, Intel, Apple, Google, Hootsuite, Northrop Gruman, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Avocent, GE, VW, Marriott, Renaissance, WSI, Union /Pacific
UnitedStack, Newport City Homes, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Celtic Manor Resort
Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: April 2026.
886,468 professionals have used our research since 2012.