Sophos XGS Reviews

I am using the Sophos firewall, such as the XG series 2300. Some other branches have Sophos and Fortinet. There is an additional failover feature for site to site vpn in Sophos.

Sophos firewall has failover facilities for site to site vpn. When one active tunnel goes down, backup tunnel goes up automatically. It helps my organization to keep the service up always.

Sophos has a centralized management system where I can manage and control all the Sophos firewalls at the same time. They have introduced MDA threats in their latest version. Sophos firewall is a little bit cheaper than Fortinet. Some features are free. There is a central management system, which is a free service from Sophos.

There is no option for right-clicking on any feature after logging into the firewall. I am unable to open a feature in a new tab. In FortiGate, I can do it; in Sophos, I cannot.

I have been working with Sophos for around one and a half years.

When Sophos introduced firmware version twenty, there was a bug in DHCP server. Later, they removed it, and a bug-fix firmware was introduced. Now, the latest firmware version of the firewall is stable

I am satisfied with the support team.

Positive

Before using Sophos, I was working with Cisco ASA Firewall and Fortinet.

It's really easy to configure the firewall.

I will recommend both Sophos and Fortinet. 

Overall, I rate Sophos firewall nine out of ten. There is no option for right-clicking on any feature after logging into the firewall. It would be helpful if there is right-click option here.

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, security, and ease of management. It also offers better reporting options.

Sophos XGS has very good reporting capabilities and effective IPS signatures based on the latest versions. The threat detection capabilities are effective, especially against CNC and certain viruses not coming through emails.

In previous versions, NAT rules were easier to create. After version 18.5, creating a NAT rule has become more complex, requiring the creation of a separate policy and an additional component. 

Reducing the complexity of creating rules would make it easier for administrators, especially when troubleshooting and managing.

I have been working with Sophos XGS since it was released, approximately for the last three years. Additionally, I have been working with Sophos for six to seven years.

The stability of Sophos XGS is very high. It is rated at nine out of ten for stability and is very reliable.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is rated eight out of ten.

The response time from Sophos technical support can be slow in most cases, which can be challenging. However, in some cases, they perform well.

Neutral

The initial setup is very straightforward, simple, and easy to understand. It clearly defines outgoing policies, sources, and destinations while applying web controls or IPS rules.

On the pricing side, pricing is rated eight out of ten, indicating that it may be relatively expensive.

Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend Sophos XGS to others.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Our primary use case is focused on renewing outdated firewalls and providing VPN capabilities without additional licensing costs.

The firewall helped by providing VPN licensing for free, unlike other vendors that charge for VPN.

The application filtering, especially cloud filtering, is valuable. It's able to detect cloud applications like Zoom or Microsoft Teams and allows traffic shaping based on the application.

VPN setup could be improved. Fixing some bugs would also be beneficial.

I have been working with Sophos XGS firewall for approximately two years and one month.

The solution is very stable as long as there's no power outage or similar interruption.

The firewall is quite scalable. I would rate its scalability seven out of ten since modules can be added.

Customer support is generally good. There may be delays with standard support due to inexperienced first-level support. Overall, I would rate it seven out of ten.

Neutral

The initial setup for the XGS firewall can be rated as seven out of ten due to VPN setup challenges.

Sophos XGS is quite expensive, potentially a nine out of ten in terms of cost, making it much pricier than other firewalls.

I recommend it for its user-friendly interface. Even novice users can catch up quickly without confusion.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

I use Sophos XGS for networking purposes, particularly for wireless LAN and security. It is used as a firewall.

Sophos XGS is cost effective and provides all necessary security features and throughput. It includes internal control policy and security features comparable to other brands like Cisco but at a more affordable price.

The user interface has improved significantly over the past few years, and having a more competitive price model could make it a preferable choice for customers. It would be beneficial if Sophos XGS offered an end-to-end solution with competitive pricing.

I have been using Sophos products for more than four years, specifically using the XGS product for about two years.

I have no issues with the stability of the product and love using it.

Scalability is possible with Sophos XGS, and I would rate it an eight out of ten for scalability.

Technical support from Sophos is always available and not a challenge.

Positive

For technical people like me and my team, setting up Sophos XGS is not difficult. The setup process is manageable for those who know the basics and core of the technology.

If the pricing model is more flexible or lower, it would be highly preferable, making it a more competitive option for users.

Palo Alto and Fortinet are some of the competitors. However, Sophos is preferred due to its cost-effectiveness and comprehensive feature set.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The major support that my company gets from Sophos is in the areas of web and content filtering. Users are able to filter out the web traffic, so they can consume whatever they need, and they can stop at the gateway level whatever they don't need. If social networking websites are not required for my company's developers, I can stop them right away. The categorization of the websites is pretty good, and people are very happy when they can do the customization. If users need to have some kind of exceptions, they can go for the exceptions very easily without any disturbance to the other end users. The best part of the product is associated with its web and content filtering features.

As my company does not cater to the needs of customers with very large networks, I haven't faced any challenges with Sophos XGS and my company is happy with the solution till date.

When it comes to the telemetry data, which comes under what you call the tool's service part, better known as MDR, I feel Sophos should add more telemetry data to its products. The tool should support multiple vendors and multiple OEMs. Right now, I think there are only less than a dozen vendors or OEMs supported by Sophos. I feel Sophos should support tools from more vendors.

I have been using Sophos XGS for four years.

When it comes to the process of scaling up, it is okay upto 5,000 users that I manage. Sophos has the appliances to cater to the requirements of 5,000 user networks and I know it because it is the customer range in which I deal. I don't go to a customer or a client that has more than 5,000 user networks.

The solution's technical support is excellent. I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

My company does deal with other vendors in the market, but we feel that Sophos XGS is much more customizable and a readily available solution. A good thing about my company is that we have very good hands-on expertise, especially in areas like pre-sales and post-sales, where we have tech teams that are well-versed in areas like technologies, training, and modules while also ensuring that they stay up-to-date so that the team has all the sufficient knowledge to support themselves and also our customers' networks.

The product's initial setup phase is very straightforward. The GUI and everything else associated with the product are very straightforward.

The solution can be implemented in a couple of hours.

Only very large enterprise customers will have an edge with a tool similar to Sophos XGS because they have that kind of device and hardware, which can cater to around 10,000 or 20,000 user networks. My company does not deal with any large enterprise-sized customers, and so we are happy with Sophos.

Speaking about how the tool is deployed in our company's customers' network environment, I would say that it is done at the gateway level. With the gateway-level firewall, my company protects the network of our customers by applying the firewall, as well as the endpoint security, both provided by Sophos.

Speaking about the tool's threat intelligence capabilities on security posture, I would say that after content filtering, it obviously comes to threat monitoring. Sophos has SophosLabs, and it always gets updated. Users need not worry about the new threats or new landscapes coming in, as Sophos will take care of the aforementioned areas by default. Users need not depend on any third party for threat intelligence as the tool is sufficient to manage any kind of threat.

Sophos XGS has contributed to the reduction of the overall security costs of our company's customers. The biggest good point about the tool is related to the area of sizing. Sophos offers firewall tools for each and every size of the network. Irrespective of whether I have a small network in a branch office or a large network, I can get the appliances from Sophos to fit any size. I need not worry even if I am a company with just 25 users, as I need not spend lakhs of rupees. If I have a large network, even then, my hardware will be sufficient enough, and the cost offered by Sophos is obviously very competitive compared to the solutions offered by competitors in the markets.

Considering the sales, support, and post-sales services, I rate the tool a nine out of ten.

We use Sophos XGS in 15 locations with 15 firewalls for the XG. We dedicate one person to maintain the solution.

The most valuable feature of Sophos is the VPN solution. I also value their threat management, IPS, IDS, and login features with single sign-on.

Sophos XGS needs improvement with the threshold values. Other solutions have the capacity to handle more users.

I would like to see virtualization security included in the next release.

We have been using Sophos XGS for more than two years.

Sophos XGS is stable as long as the capacity is not exceeded, then it becomes slow.

Scalability needs to be improved by increasing the threshold value. The bulk capacity can handle 300 users, if you have more users, it does not work well.

Technical support is okay. They are responsive but limited with knowledge and need to escalate to the upper levels. It takes time to resolve issues.

Positive

The initial setup of the solution was straightforward. It is easy to use and convenient.

The license for Sophos XGS is for three years, paid on a yearly basis. Everything is included with the license; there are no additional fees.

Sophos SGS is a nice solution. I would rate this solution an 8 out of 10.

The solution provides firewall protection.

The solution is easy to use and configure, once you know how to apply the policies.

The customer service response time can be improved.

I am currently using the solution.

The stability is good. I have not had any problems with it.

The scalability of the solution is good.

The customer service response time is slow and could use improvement.

The setup is straightforward if you know how to do iOS.

The cost is around $50 per endpoint, and there is a one-time purchase fee for the firewalls of $2,500, plus services. It is roughly around $4,000.

I am currently evaluating CrowdStrike. I like it better.

I give this solution seven out of ten.

If you are looking for a low-cost solution, cheaper than Cisco I recommend this solution. You should also look at Fortinet.

XGS' most valuable feature is ransomware protection. 

In the next release, XGS should include mobile features like two-factor authorization.

I've been using XGS for seven years.

XGS is stable.

XGS is scalable.

Sophos' technical support has degraded in the last couple of years. They seem to need to ask a lot of questions, even with simple problems, and take a long time to provide solutions.

Neutral

The initial setup is simple.

XGS' price could be lower, though it's moderately priced in the market.

I also evaluated SonicWall and FortiGate.

XGS is a perfect product for small and medium businesses. I would rate it as eight out of ten.