We performed a comparison between SonicWall NSa and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: SonicWall TZ has an edge in this comparison. Unlike SonicWall NSa, its reviewers mention seeing an ROI.
"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"The main reason why I purchased the particular unit was that it had good reviews and what other people were saying as far as its completeness and its leading capabilities in terms of endpoint security was very good."
"We were looking for the VPN feature and controlling the inflow and outflow of all the traffic within the site and across the sites. We are also using it for the VPN and VLANs."
"The next-generation firewall is great."
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"This product is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"The most valuable feature is the Global Management System."
"It has excellent stability."
"The most valuable feature I've found is VPN and web protection, particularly with navigation assessment. We use the application control feature to create rules controlling specific application navigation."
"User friendly and intuitive."
"SonicWall's technical support is very good."
"Since SonicWall is a UTM, we have enabled all the features: antivirus, IPS, URL filtering, and content filtering. All of these features are working fine."
"This product has kept us safe and we haven't had any breaches."
"It is very user-friendly, and there is no problem in using its interface."
"The solution boasts good performance and is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is content filtering and app control."
"We like their interface very much. It's pretty easy to use."
"The most valuable feature is the user-friendly navigation."
"The solution is stable."
"The performance has been very good. Overall, the solution is quite stable."
"The scalability of SonicWall TZ is good and easy to add users."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"Technical support could be better. You don't always get the level of help you need right away."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"We would like to see an upgrade to the VPN feature, we are using the VPN from outside of our office and there is a limitation to 10 connections, more connections would be suitable."
"Technical support is good but the response time could be faster."
"Some of the configurations could be better."
"Port forwarding could use streamlining."
"A room for improvement in SonicWall NSa is the log server because it could be more user-friendly compared to Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks. My company has many rule sets up for review, so sometimes, my team needs to use Excel for filtering, but the UI cannot support the Excel function."
"It only has a single power interface, which has limitations in terms of high availability."
"The web interface administration of SonicWall NSa could be improved. Compared to Sophos and FortiGate, making rules is easier with those systems."
"I would like to see better integration."
"The implementation for VLANs is a little bit cumbersome. It would be good to make that a little bit easier."
"They are not ready for managed security services. Their Cloud GMS product is weak, barely out of beta (buggy)."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
"The areas we would like to see improvement include more features available similar to the equivalent FortiGate appliance, e.g. SSL encryption and inspection. Two-factor authentication capability would be another additional feature that could be included in the next release."
"It needs more robust self-help documentation along with examples and things to watch out for."
"The VPN that is available in the new version is a bit bulky and slower in speed."
"In general, the company needs to think contingently and integrate more security options."
"Full monitoring obviously needs to be improved. We need full monitoring covered under the security licensing."
"The market seems to be going to a cloud-supported, new generation of firewall products. I think that's probably going to be important to us, the next time around."
"The products' reporting can be improved."
SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". SonicWall NSa is most compared with Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, WatchGuard Firebox and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our SonicWall NSa vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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Basically, the main difference is that the TZ series is intended for a Branch office since it has fewer ports and the speed is around 1 GB.
The NSA series has more processor power and more port where you can create subnets and zones (like DMZ). Also, it has ports with 10 Gb and a processor to support the demand.
I have read that an approximate number of users in the highest TZ series (TZ 670) is around 150 to 200 but that is just an estimate.
Hope this helps. You can get more details in SonicWall datasheets where you will find the speed, throughput and more technical specifications to select the one that fits your requirements.
In simple words,
TZ is for small businesses (less than 100, maximum 150 users).
TZ has fewer ports.
NSA is for medium and large enterprises: > 150 Users,
NSA has many ports to support large networks