Sophos XGS vs Untangle NG Firewall comparison

Sophos and Untangle are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Sophos is ranked #15 with an average rating of 8.4, while Untangle is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.0. Sophos holds a 2.0% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Untangle’s 1.2% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Sophos users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Untangle users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Untangle NG Firewall and Sophos XGS are robust network security solutions in the tech buyer category. Sophos XGS seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced threat protection features and sophisticated security capabilities.

Features: Untangle NG Firewall offers intuitive configuration, robust web filtering, and easy management. Sophos XGS provides advanced threat protection with deep learning policies, synchronized security for improved visibility and response, and comprehensive network protection.

Room for Improvement: Untangle NG Firewall could improve its reporting capabilities, modernize its interface, and enhance its mobile support. Sophos XGS would benefit from simplifying its initial setup, providing more detailed logging options, and minimizing the complexity of its advanced features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Untangle NG Firewall is straightforward to deploy and offers responsive customer support, making it suitable for quick, seamless starts. Sophos XGS requires a more complex deployment process but includes extensive documentation and professional support services to facilitate in-depth configuration.

Pricing and ROI: Untangle NG Firewall offers competitive pricing with a strong ROI, featuring transparent setup costs and effective subscription models. Sophos XGS is initially more expensive but is considered worthwhile for its advanced features and long-term protection benefits, justifying the higher initial investment with superior security performance.

To learn more, read our detailed Sophos XGS vs. Untangle NG Firewall Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XGS vs. Untangle NG Firewall

January 2025

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos XGS is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Untangle NG Firewall is 1.2%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

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.

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Jaffar Ali

Director Technical Services at TechnoBIZ

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,…

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MatthewSmith3

Service Delivery Manager at CasCom

Thorough with all-in-one security functions and good affordability

The all-in-one gateway security functions and the ability to install it on generic equipment stand out. The centralized management console is great. I can template my installations and configurations. My ability to monetize it as a gateway security appliance to offer enhanced service offerings allows me to increase our price point. I provide it as a managed device to many of our clients. I take on the initial costs and charge them a monthly fee. They have threat detection.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The network security and cloud security are most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."

"Using this product makes the VPN seamless and almost invisible to me in the sense that I don't have to think about it."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution."

"FortiGate's ability to perform as expected and fulfil our needs has been the most compelling feature for network security."

"FortiGate is very simple to manage and easy to use."

"We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."

"Fortinet FortiGate meets all the security demands of my industry. It covers endpoint security, including web interface, DNS security, and ELP. I'm currently using the latest version. The features that have most improved our network security are Web Control, filtering, application control, IDS, IPS policies, and Deep SSL inspection."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The UI for Sophos is very simple."

"Sophos XGS is profound as a firewall and security product."

"Sophos has a centralized management system where I can manage and control all the Sophos firewalls at the same time."

"The most effective feature in enhancing our network security is the threat intelligence capability."

"Easy to set up firewall product, that's also easy to manage and scale."

"The solution offers more antimalware and antivirus feeds than others."

"Sophos XGS' best features are simplicity and its built-in reporting tool."

"It increases productivity in our company. Everything is protected."

More Sophos XGS pros

"NG Firewalls allow us to permit or deny applications we don't want to run. We also use content filtering, SSL inspection, and all the other things we run on the firewall to keep our clients protected and ensure they're not going where they shouldn't. It's a great firewall that works as intended."

"Web filtering is very reliable."

"The product helps small and medium enterprises secure their networks from intrusions. It also has features like DNS blocking."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"Web Filter is effective, Web Cache offers bandwidth savings, and the VPN setup is easy."

"The most valuable features are IPS, MAPI, NAT, and VPN."

"Application Control and filtering features are valuable."

"It is not attached to an appliance, meaning if you get a good PC/server, then you can already run a firewall."

More Untangle NG Firewall pros

Cons

"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."

"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."

"I would like to see a more intuitive dashboard."

"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."

"The UI could be improved."

"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."

"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."

"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"They need intelligent reporting, not just your simple, standard reports."

"VPN setup could be improved."

"The functionality of SD-WAN compared to other boxes is lacking."

"There could be improvements for IPsec VPN setup."

"All the security features could be better."

"Reporting could be improved. The structure could be better because most of the reports aren't detailed."

"A feature that could be improved in Sophos XGS is the ability to perform internal vulnerability checks."

"Their marketing strategy is quite low, and they need to enhance engagement with partners."

More Sophos XGS cons

"We have a minor issue when assigning IP addresses in the ARP tables. You should be able to go into the ARP tables, look at the IP address and say, "Nope, they need to be on this side on this IP address." The ability to set a DHP reservation from the ARP tables would be great. It's no big deal, but it would be nice to have."

"For the web filter, I think they can do better especially on the free model."

"Whenever there are a large number of endpoint VPN clients, connectivity becomes slow."

"The product must improve its reporting features."

"The common center facility that Untangle provides should be available on-premises. There are great corporations here in Mexico that like the Untangle solution, but they don't like the fact that the monitoring and access to the appliance are in the cloud. They request for the common center facility to be available and installed on-premises."

"The web content filtering needs improvement."

"There is room for improvement in the logs. Like with Cisco, I can do almost everything and know almost anything about what's running. Untangle works very much out of the box. It's very user-friendly, but it's not engineer-friendly. So, it's good for a home user. For something fairly easy, but at the same time, with good technology to have at home, because at home, I'm not a millionaire or anything like that. So it's not like I'm worried to get hacked. I didn't want something like a Cisco firewall; it would be a bit overkill to have at home. So that's why I went for Untangle. But it lacks a few features. It's just a tick-box kind of thing. So they have apps and turn on and off the apps. The VPN's configuration is all very ticked. They have a few custom configurations, but it's not that much."

"On their low-end appliance, they could have more memory and the largest storage space. The low-end appliance comes with a too-small hard drive, and it could use a little extra room. It only comes with about 4 gigs or 8 gigs of memory, and the hardware space is only 40 gigs, which is really small."

More Untangle NG Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one being cheap and ten being expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

"It is an inexpensive solution."

"We find the most valuable aspect of this solution is the price. It is affordable, and cheaper than other firewalls."

"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."

"Our licensing costs are on a yearly basis."

"Easy to understand licensing requirements."

"Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Sophos XGS costs around $6,000 for a basic license."

"There are additional costs involved apart from the licenses."

"Sophos XGS is a cost-effective solution."

"The price of Sophos XGS depends on the type of license. However, the licensing cost is approximately 60 percent of the total cost."

"I live in Bolivia and the price of Sophos XGS is high. However, they have adjusted their price a little over the past while but the price could still be less expensive to be affordable."

"Once you pay for the Sophos XGS hardware there is no license required. There are additional costs if you want the support. We have purchased support for three years."

"Sophos XGS is competitively priced."

"The price of Sophos XGS is average compared to other offers from other OEMs."

More Sophos XGS pricing and cost advice

"The solution is fairly priced."

"This is not an expensive product. It is affordable and there are different packages available depending on the features that you need, or the sector that you are in."

"The pricing model is better than with SonicWall."

"It is the most cost-effective to use."

"It is not expensive. It is cheaper than Fortinet."

"The setup cost is about $2000 to $3000 per year."

"We pay $350 USD per year for the solution. There are no additional costs. As long as you're not using a physical appliance, that's all you need."

"Untangle is open-source software. So, you can get it for free. That has been a benefit, especially for the residential users because it is free. The license costs start at $25 a month for some additional features, including higher tiers of security intrusion prevention. The free version comes with intrusion detection, and then the license version has intrusion prevention. It also has some additional things for active directory connectors, etc. It starts at $25 a month to cover 12 devices. Then it goes up from $25 to $50 a month for 12 to 25 devices. That's where it really doesn't scale out per site. If you have a site that has more than 50 devices on it, then Untangle quickly becomes cost prohibitive in comparison to several other competitors."

More Untangle NG Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Government

Healthcare Company

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...

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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...

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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 Sophos XGS?

The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic.

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sophos XGS?

Hardware stability needs improvement. I have experienced multiple hardware complaints, particularly during firmware u...

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What do you like most about Untangle NG Firewall?

The product helps small and medium enterprises secure their networks from intrusions. It also has features like DNS b...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Untangle NG Firewall?

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Untangle NG Firewall?

I would recommend getting 2FA with an SSL VPN type of setup without having to go through a lot of hoops. The solution...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 23% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Sophos XG vs Sophos XGS

Compared 29% of the time

OPNsense vs Sophos XGS

Compared 16% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos XGS

Compared 7% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos XGS

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point NGFW vs Sophos XGS

Compared 5% of the time

More Sophos XGS Competitors

OPNsense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 40% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Sophos XG vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

IPFire vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Untangle NG Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XGS

January 2025

Download Sophos XGS product report

Buyer's Guide

Untangle NG Firewall

January 2025

Download Untangle NG Firewall product report

Also Known As

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

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Sophos XGS is a comprehensive network security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats. It combines next-generation firewall capabilities with advanced threat protection, web filtering, and application control.

XGS has powerful deep learning technology and can detect and block even the most sophisticated malware and ransomware attacks. It also offers granular control over web access, allowing organizations to enforce policies and prevent access to malicious or inappropriate websites. Additionally, XGS provides application control features, enabling organizations to manage and prioritize network traffic based on specific applications or user groups.

With its intuitive management interface and centralized reporting, XGS offers easy deployment and monitoring of network security.

Sophos

Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform that helps keep networks safe while accessing the internet. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams. The solution also has a cloud-based management console for remote management that can either be deployed on premises or as SaaS, and virtualized or cloud-based. It also has flexible deployment options, including third-party hardware, as a virtual machine, or as a turnkey appliance. Untangle NG Firewall is ideal for small IT teams with limited budgets.

Untangle NG Firewall Features

Untangle NG Firewall has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Intrusion protection
Threat prevention
Virus blocker
Virus scanner
App control
SSL inspection
Bandwidth control
Reporting
Logs
VPN
Web filter
IDS/IPS
Access controls
Location control
Proxy
Active Directory/LDAP connections

Untangle NG Firewall Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Untangle NG Firewall. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Simplified network security: Untangle NG Firewall has a single, modular, software platform which simplifies security for all networks and ensures every device is adequately protected.

Visibility: The solution provides a browser-based, responsive, and intuitive interface enabling users to gain visibility quickly into the traffic on the network.

Deep analysis and insights: With the solution, users can see a network’s status at a glance on the dashboard, ensure compliance with full event logs, and get notifications of network anomalies or unusual user behavior with alert rules. In addition, users can gain insights in real time from database-driven reports.

Next-generation filtering: Untangle NG Firewall makes it easy to manage every rogue application, encrypted web request, malware distribution point, and drive-by malvertising attempt.

Connectivity and performance: The solution helps your organization maintain visibility and control over remote workers, branch offices, and guest Wi-Fi to keep users connected and data safe regardless of location or level of access.

Policy creation: Users can create policies by user, group, device, and time in order to control access.

Additional apps: Untangle NG Firewall offers additional apps, allowing organizations to create complete configuration backups to protect against network disruptions.

Reviews from Real Users

Untangle NG Firewall is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is easy to use, has good features, including VPN, reporting, alerting, and filtering, and can be installed on existing hardware.

“It is very easy to use. The user interface is very straightforward. It may not be as fancy as some of the ones I've seen, but it's very straightforward. It's very easy to find what you need, and it's very easy to get things done,” says Josh E., CEO at DragonTech IT Services, Inc.

Barry A., Owner at ThinkEzIT, says, “It has good VPN features, helpful reporting and alerting, built-in content filtering, and excellent support.”

PeerSpot user Victor O., Director at Kisii County Government, explains, “What I like about this product, which is the reason that we continue to use it, is that you can install the software version on your own hardware. In case there is a problem with the hardware, we can just install the firewall in another machine and restore the configuration.”

Untangle

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

Information Not Available

North American Stamping Group, Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey (CPNJ), Brown County Schools, IN, City of Bridgeton, MO, Lancaster County, SC, Vision Charter School, Clay County Sheriff’s Department, NC, Breakwater School, Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, NH, Admiral Farragut Academy, Flow Companies, No Ordinary Hotel, KECdesign,

Buyer's Guide

Sophos XGS vs. Untangle NG Firewall

January 2025

Free Report: Sophos XGS vs. Untangle NG Firewall

Find out what your peers are saying about Sophos XGS vs. Untangle NG Firewall and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.

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