I have deployed a couple of Sophos firewalls for our clients recently. We are customers of Sophos.
Founder/Director at Augesys Solutions Pvt Ltd
Very efficient at virus protection with good functional and mechanical reliability
Pros and Cons
- "The solution can block a virus attack and prevent it from moving across the system."
- "The solution lacks direct connectivity to Azure AD."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The solution has the intelligence to block a virus attack and prevent it from moving across the system. It's easy to use and a very reliable firewall, functionally and mechanically.
What needs improvement?
The solution lacks connectivity to Azure AD so it can connect to the regular internal Windows AD server but there's no direct connection to Azure AD. That would be a product improvement that needs to be implemented given that almost everyone is now on the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for nine years.
Buyer's Guide
Sophos SafeGuard
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Sophos SafeGuard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,210 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
From what I have seen, this is a very scalable product. It's a major plus point for them.
How are customer service and support?
I've had a very good experience with customer service, particularly recently as I've also been managing other Sophos firewalls for customers.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
It's worth taking the time to figure out how the solution can fit your needs. Sophos satisfies a large number of requirements and gives you unified security. It's something that has become a standard function with all other solutions in the market including with Palo Alto, SonicWall. I think Sophos leads in that space and if you're looking at a unified security function, then I recommend Sophos because of the protection from the endpoint to the gateway. It's a strong and capable system.
I rate this solution nine out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Head of IT at Digital Oak LTD
It's a user-friendly solution for protecting our clients' systems from external attacks
Pros and Cons
- "It's easy to use. You have to pay extra for additional, but the basic product is fantastic. It will be a good solution for you, depending on your requirements."
- "You have to pay extra for some additional features, like data extraction. It would be nice if everything was available in one bundle."
What is our primary use case?
I use SafeGuard to protect the end-user's system from any external algorithms. Users have to be ready for any attack, whether it's coming from within or outside the network.
What needs improvement?
You have to pay extra for some additional features, like data extraction. It would be nice if everything was available in one bundle.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos SafeGuard for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SafeGuard is extremely stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
SafeGuard is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I rate Sophos support seven out of 10. Sometimes, it takes them time to respond.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
Setting up SafeGuard is straightforward except the bandwidth and sync. It takes around five minutes to deploy one module, depending on your network environment. Sometimes, a client needs a strictly on-premises deployment instead of on the cloud.
What about the implementation team?
I performed the installation by myself.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Sophos SafeGuard 10 out of 10. It's easy to use. You have to pay extra for additional, but the basic product is fantastic. It will be a good solution for you, depending on your requirements.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Sophos SafeGuard
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Sophos SafeGuard. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
849,210 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Secures the network, defends it from attacks, and is easy to install
Pros and Cons
- "The Intercept X feature is the most valuable feature. You can't find this feature in other firewalls because Intercept X works as if it has an interaction between the endpoint and the firewall."
- "Sophos SafeGuard is a German product. Sophos isn't really active in Europe. The Middle East, Africa, South Africa works with Sophos but their primary users aren't in Europe. They should market and push this solution to the European market."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of this solution is for security and VPN connection.
The uses can vary per customer. For example, one customer wanted to protect their network, with VPN connectivity. Sophos has good features that customers know and like. It is also less expensive than other firewalls. Other customers, for example, wanted to publish their websites and their servers. They wanted to protect their servers and publish them on the internet. Another customer needs to have security because they were attacked by ransomware.
What is most valuable?
The Intercept X feature is the most valuable feature. You can't find this feature in other firewalls because Intercept X works as if it has an interaction between the endpoint and the firewall. It makes a connection between the endpoint protection and the firewall. If Intercept X finds some behavior that's not right, it separates it and it secures the network to defend it from this attack. This is a good feature and development that Sophos implemented around five years ago.
What needs improvement?
Sophos SafeGuard is a German product. Sophos isn't really active in Europe. The Middle East, Africa, South Africa works with Sophos but their primary users aren't in Europe. They should market and push this solution to the European market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years. It's been at my company for around eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This product is stable but we have had some complaints from other customers. There is a loop on the internet. Once we deploy Sophos in our topology or in our infrastructure, the behavior or their action creates a loop on the internet. Otherwise, it's easy to install and offers good security.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. If you compare the price of Sophos to Fortinet or Cisco, it's as expensive.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would rate their technical support eight out of ten. There's a bit of a delay in their response time to tickets.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is very easy because you just need to make the arrangements for your interfaces and your network port. After that, you can make your policy and can publish the servers. You might need more technical support for the security and for the firewall. If you come from an advanced organization, it might be more difficult and not as easy at first.
The amount of time it will take will vary per customer. If they ask for network protection features it will take, for example, a maximum of one hour. But if your customer has a topology in his network and he needs to make certain policies and synchronization with Active Directory, that will take time. The deployment can take a few days. It depends on the customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing costs depend on the series. For example, XG 85 can be around $200. If you go to ACC or to a four or five-year enterprise solution, you will find these devices can cost $10,000. It depends on the series.
What other advice do I have?
Working with this solution will depend on your budget. If you purchase Sophos your data and your network will be secured. It's not more expensive than similar products. I recommend going with Sophos.
I would rate Sophos a 7.5 out of ten because there are better firewalls out there.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Presales Manager at provad
Good central management of encrypted devices, and strong anti-theft protection against data leakage
Pros and Cons
- "Policy deployment is easy and quick to do."
- "Having a DLP integrated with the encryption engine would be very good."
What is our primary use case?
We use this solution for encrypting our laptops.
This is an anti-theft solution because I can even encrypt the boot sector, which means that the user has to enter a password to unlock the operating system. If the laptop is stolen then everything is encrypted.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution helps us to improve security, especially for sensitive data. It helps to prevent the leakage of data from the laptops.
What is most valuable?
This solution allows us to easily manage devices from Sophos Central cloud.
Policy deployment is easy and quick to do.
This solution integrates well with the antivirus solution.
What needs improvement?
I would like to have more control over the files in the Sophos encryption system.
This solution needs to have more data loss prevention techniques. Having a DLP integrated with the encryption engine would be very good.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution. We have had no issues with it.
This solution is used on a daily basis.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The cloud version is easy to scale. I just add a new license with the number of users. It is already deployed, and there is no more configuration.
We have about ten technical people, including admins, and about seventy-five end-users. As the company grows, so will our use of this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
The Sophos technical support is very helpful. We can open a chat or email them. They have a knowledge base for all cases of deployment.
Sometimes we have issues that take a long time to solve. They have a lot of teams, so once in a while, we open the case with one person but somebody else completes the ticket. This does not happen for the majority of the time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use another solution prior to this one.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of this solution depends on the deployment model.
The cloud version is very straightforward to set up. Just select the package you want and send it to the client.
The on-premises version is very complicated. You have to first create the policy, then apply it and integrate your Active Directory, then install it on the machines. It's a very complicated process.
For the on-premises version, it takes about fifteen minutes to deploy after the initial setup and configuration. The initial configuration takes perhaps two days. It involves setting the policies for each of the users.
What about the implementation team?
Our in-house team performed the implementation. There were five people involved.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing for this solution is on a yearly basis. They tell you from day one how much it costs and what features you get. One of the great things about Sophos is if we have any added features that they send out, it will be included in the pricing. The price will not increase.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other encryption solutions and we found that this was the easiest one to use, especially with cloud management.
Another reason that we chose this solution is that it is a standalone package. Kaspersky have an encryption solution, but it is part of a bundle with their endpoint solution. The advantage to standalone is that you can use it even if you don't have any Sophos endpoints.
What other advice do I have?
We are using the cloud version of this solution because the on-premises version does not have anti-ransomware or machine learning capability.
My advice for anybody who is implementing this solution is to also use the cloud version, rather than the on-premises edition. This is especially true if they have teleworkers or mobile users that are often off-premises.
The security of our data is important. One of our teams has a person who lost their laptop, and the team was not using this solution so it was not encrypted. We consider that to be data leakage.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Easy to deploy, good performance and monitoring capability
Pros and Cons
- "The monitoring features are easy to use."
- "I would like to see a support-cloud, where Sophos creates a single package that contains all of its products."
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution integrator, and this is one of the products that we supply to our clients.
The primary use of this solution is to protect data, and we have clients such as hotels who use it.
How has it helped my organization?
When our clients know that they have the ability to monitor their network security, they are satisfied.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the cloud-based supervision that is offered by Sophos Central.
The performance of this solution is good.
The monitoring features are easy to use.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see a support-cloud, where Sophos creates a single package that contains all of its products.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is very stable. To this point, we have had no problem with any of our clients.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is a scalable solution.
One of our clients is a hotel and they have thirteen users.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support for this solution is good, but we rarely contact them because we rarely see problems.
How was the initial setup?
This solution is very easy to configure and deploy.
What about the implementation team?
I perform the deployment myself.
What other advice do I have?
Sophos has another cloud platform that supports firewall management, and it is very easy to deploy.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Administrator with 501-1,000 employees
Sophos SafeGuard: Custom Info Items for Absolute Manage
Whenever we implement new software, I try to include some tracking that can be used in Absolute Manage. Recently we’ve been working to get our Macs encrypted using Sophos SafeGuard full disk encryption. To make some reporting that is easy for our guys to use, I created two simple custom info items.
The first custom info item is for tracking the current encryption status of the Mac. This will list three different states of the drive including Not Installed, Encrypting, and Encrypted. This status will update in Absolute Manage every time inventory is taken of the machine, or you can force it by gathering inventory.
1 #!/bin/sh
2
3 #Check to see if SafeGuard is installed
4 if [ -f "/usr/bin/sgadmin" ]; then
5 /usr/bin/sgadmin --status | grep -A 3 "Volume info" | grep "| 0" | awk -F '|' '{print $5}'
6 else
7 echo "Not installed"
8 fi
9 exit 0
The second custom info item will show the last time the computer checked into the Enterprise console with it’s encryption status. We do our own tracking of the Macs using this field in Absolute Manage, but management does it’s tracking of both PCs and Macs in a separate central console.
1 #!/bin/sh
2
3 #Check to see if SafeGuard is installed
4 if [ -f "/usr/bin/sgadmin" ]; then
5 /usr/bin/sgadmin --status | grep "Last contact" | awk '{print $4, $5, $6, $7, $8}'
6 else
7 echo "Not installed"
8 fi
9 exit 0
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Owner at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
A reliable firewall for internet security
Pros and Cons
- "Security-wise, it's one of the best."
- "The integration could be a little better."
What is our primary use case?
Sophos SafeGuard is a firewall; we use it for filtering and internet security.
Sophos SafeGuard constantly updates, so I am always using the latest version.
Within our organization, there are slightly less than 10 Sophos SafeGuard users.
What is most valuable?
Security-wise, it's one of the best. I don't think there is much room for improvement.
What needs improvement?
The integration could be a little better.
I use this solution frequently and I can't think of anything I would change.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos SafeGuard for two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Sophos SafeGuard is both scalable and stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
I don't require any technical support so I don't have much experience with them.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was very simple, I did it by myself. It only took roughly one hour.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Very good user experience and stability with good reporting features
Pros and Cons
- "The user experience and the quality of the features are good."
- "The tutorials need to be simplified. The existing ones need to be easier to follow and we could use some tutorials for basic setups. They should aim to be more like Cisco, which offers very good tutorials and materials."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for file encryption.
What is most valuable?
The reporting and file encryption are the solution's most valuable features.
The user experience and the quality of the features are good.
What needs improvement?
The tutorials need to be simplified. The existing ones need to be easier to follow and we could use some tutorials for basic setups. They should aim to be more like Cisco, which offers very good tutorials and materials.
If there was a way to automate the configuration, that would be ideal.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for almost one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We haven't attempted to scale up yet, so I can't really comment on the scalability of the solution. Right now we have about 50 people using it.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've never needed to contact technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. When we deployed it, it was very fast. Even the configuration was easy. We had everything done within a week. It could have even been done faster, but the distributor was waiting on some information from the customer. We only needed two people for deployment.
What about the implementation team?
We had the assistance of a distributor for the implementation.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Buyer's Guide
Download our free Sophos SafeGuard Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Popular Comparisons
Microsoft BitLocker
ESET Endpoint Encryption
Symantec Endpoint Encryption
McAfee Complete Data Protection
Trend Micro Endpoint Encryption
WinMagic SecureDoc
Check Point Full Disk Encryption Software Blade
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Sophos SafeGuard Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Which full disk encryption software should we chose?
- What is the difference between "data protection in transit" vs "data protection at rest"?
- What is the best email encryption software for small enterprises using Office 365?
- When evaluating Endpoint Encryption, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- What should one take into account when replacing PGP with Microsoft BitLocker?
- Why do organizations need endpoint encryption?
- What are the main pros and cons of the various Endpoint Encryption solutions on the market?
- How can I tell if there is encryption on?
- What is the best endpoint encryption system?
- Why is Endpoint Encryption important for companies?