Sophos XGS Reviews

We work with two clients with Sophos XGS. One of our clients was replacing old firewalls, and they choose Sophos XGS. The other client has a new project that he's planning to move his endpoint solution to Sophos XGS.

One of the main advantages of Sophos XGS is the processor. You don't have to wait a long time for when you are managing the firewall and the traffic is faster now.

Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory.

I have been using Sophos XGS for approximately one year.

Sophos XGS is stable.

I have found Sophos XGS to be scalable.

The technical support is good. However, they should provide quicker support in other languages, such as Spanish.

The initial setup is easy.

We do the implementation of the solution and the number of people we need depends on the project. However, typically we have two people that handle the implementation. 

Since COVID we have been trying to work remotely as much as possible. After the initial setup, the solution can be managed remotely.

Sophos XGS is a good investment because these solutions work for a long time.

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.

I have evaluated other solutions, such as Fortinet.

I rate Sophos XGS a nine out of ten.

The best use case of Sophos XGS is for customers who use CMGs that manage the gateway of Microsoft, which was made obsolete years ago. Clients want to replace their proxy with some solution, and Sophos is one of the best bets.

The solution is good for web filtering. It's also possible to use it as a load balancer and a destination firewall and site-to-site channeling. Remote users can gain access via Sophos. It solves for a variety of uses that the client needs. 

In our market, they offer a web filter SSL VPN and they are very useful for the customer.

The initial setup is very simple. 

It's stable and reliable. 

We can scale the product.

Some firewall names like Palo Alto and FortiGate are very famous for security. People find them very secure. While Sophos is fairly secure, they aren't known for their security, and it's not an obvious selling point. Unfortunately, on Gartner, Magic Quadrant, and Forrester, Sophos doesn't have a good presence. They need to get better at marketing their abilities and expanding what they can do.

I would like to see them in third-party evaluation reports like Gartner, Magic Quadrant, or Forrester to make it easier for us to show our customers that Sophos is a leader in the market. It will be easier for us to sell them. Our market depends on what products are currently in Gartner and Forrester, and these platforms. 

We've been working with the solution for five to six years. 

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

The product is scalable. 

We have more than 100 clients on Sophos. 

Technical support is good and above average. 

Neutral

It is easy to set up the solution. It's not a complex process. 

While it depends on the magnitude of the customer's environment, normally the deployment only takes a day or two.

We do not require any outside assistance. We can handle the setup ourselves. 

If the client needs us to, we can deploy the solution for them. Since we sell the solution, we have a good understanding of the process. We have been doing implementations for years. 

The pricing is moderate. It's not overly expensive. They offer good licensing. 

We are using and selling the solution. We are deploying it for different customers.

When the customer wants to buy an appliance, definitely it's an on-prem solution. However, when it comes to an endpoint or a firewall as a service, they offer cloud solutions as well.

I'd recommend the solution to others. 

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

This solution is like our gateway to the internet. We use it for access control. 

This solution is very simple to manage. It's user-friendly and quite easy to configure. It's easy to communicate with the Sophos support team.

I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time. Right now, I know they have something where you can see the live bandwidth utilization when you go to reports. However, there is not a history where you can go back and say, "I want to see what was consumed during the last month." You can't get that history. I know there are other third-party tools that do that, but if Sophos could have it integrated into its file device, that would be cool. 

I would like to see them reduce the price.

I have had experience with this tool for about three years now.

This is a stable product. 

This solution is scalable. There are currently 250 systems connected to this solution. 

My experience with the Sophos technical team has been fantastic. I was trying to set up a VPN tunnel through a SAP X server, so I was having some challenges, and our consultant tried and then he just decided to set up an appointment with the Sophos technical team. Within a short period of time, we were able to pinpoint where the problem was coming from and we got the problem solved. I would rate the technical support as a five out of five.

Positive

The initial setup is quite easy. It's not a challenge. On a scale of one to five, where one is difficult and five is easy, I would give it a four. 

It was done in-house but we consulted a third party that is more experienced with Sophos.

The price of this solution is quite high. Currently in my country, in Nigeria, we are facing a lot of problems with products. The value of the naira and the dollar keep heating up, and it's not good for us here Nigeria, so the Sophos price is not friendly. I think the price needs to be worked on so that it can at least be commercially available to us here in Nigeria. I would rate the pricing as a three out of five.

Sophos is always my preferred solution. I've worked with Sophos, Fortinet, and MikroTik in terms of configuring VPN access to the routers. I find it very, very easy to do it on Sophos, so I prefer to use it instead of the other two solutions. 

I would rate this solution as a nine out of ten.

We normally use physical appliances for office and virtual appliances for datacenter.

XGS is similar to XG series but adds new Xstream Flow processors that are used to accelerate various functionalities that are normally done in x86 CPU.

Sophos will soon release SFOS v19 software which will utilize Xstream for even more functionalities like IPsec, SSLVPN, SDWAN and etc.

What I found most valuable in Sophos XGS is that it's very easy to manage.

Authentication with Azure AD needs improvement. It would be better if it could work directly without using local AD server. For comparison Fortinet FortiGate allows to use SAML authentication with Azure AD and does not require any local server. It is currently unknown to me, if or when it will be implemented on Sophos.

Local DHCP service also needs improvement. Windows DHCP service offers more functionality and is more flexible and easier to use. SFOS v18.5.3 added DHCP option functionality in the GUI - which previously worked only from CLI. 

I've been working with Sophos XGS since they came out. I cannot remember exactly the year and date, but it hasn't been so long, e.g. just one year.

It is very stable - have not had any issues.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is good. Normally we suggest the clients to use firewall as a service, since it gives more flexibility both for client and us, since usually we manage the client's firewall. There is a virtual version of the firewall which scales even more, since it can be upgraded to a license that offers more RAM and CPU cores. For us, it scales very well, e.g. I'm giving it the maximum score: ten out of ten.

If a client is looking for a new firewall, then we normally need to consider as much information as possible (user count, weight per user, LAN throughput, WAN throughput, functionalities and etc). If a client wants to pick a solution for larger environment, then we also ask recommendation from Sophos to get the most optimal solution.

Positive

The initial setup for Sophos XGS is very easy. From cloud it can be deployed even faster, since it allows to create configuration templates.

The ratio of price and functionality is good.

Licensing cost depends on particular model and required functionality:
- It is possible to use the firewall without any license, but then it will work only as port based firewall.
- Normally we suggest to use at least Standard License.
- Licensing cost for single appliance or active/passive HA cluster is the same - only 1 license.
- Active/Active cluster requires 2 licenses and performance gain is very small. It is better to use more powerful appliance. 

We are Sophos Gold partner and mainly like to use Sophos XGS firewalls.
If it a requirement by client, then we can also offer non-Sophos firewall solutions.

There are multiple models of Sophos XGS that we use, e.g. we use both desktop  and 1U sized models.

Sophos XGS can be fully cloud managed, and it's possible to deploy it directly from the cloud, that you installed the hardware, and maybe I have to use an ESB key, though I'm not sure. We haven't tried deploying it that way yet.

The only difference between Sophos XGS and Sophos XG is the software version that is supported on the hardware. The difference will be when the version 19 software comes up, as it will not work on Sophos XG.

I recommend Sophos XGS to others who are thinking of implementing it. I recommend for them to use it. Sophos firewall can be also used without additional firewall, but we strongly suggest using Standard license, which offers application filtering and IDS/IPS.

We use Sophos XGS primarily for VPN and security with clients and supplies.

Sophos XGS has some rules and intelligence to scan all vulnerabilities in our network.

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

The technical support could be improved as it is currently not competent and pretty slow.

I have been working with Sophos XGS for three years.

The technical support is rated three out of ten, indicating it needs significant improvement.

Negative

The pricing of Sophos XGS is okay. It is approximately two thousand and a half per year.

I would rate it an eight out of ten.

Mainly, we use it as our internet gateway firewall for scanning internet traffic that comes to our network from WAN and for internet distribution such as thin client. We have a thin client environment. It also works as a distribution layer for internet users, especially in thin client environments. It scans the traffic that passes from this device.

In this solution, the most valuable feature is that it's a security device. Maintaining security is very valuable for us.

The other feature that we did not find in other products is that it works well with thin client environments.

Sometimes, we haven't received proper support. They couldn't find the solutions that we required.

One thing that we need is an NTP server facility. The Sophos XGS device does not have this capacity or this feature.

We've been using Sophos XGS for almost one year.

It's stable. We haven't had any issues with it.

I don't think it's scalable. It's a product that we bought with a specification, and we cannot improve that. We cannot upgrade; we can only upgrade its OS; nothing more.

Only the network administrator uses it, but we might set it up in another business unit next year.

I would rate technical support at six out of ten because we haven't received proper support sometimes.

Neutral

We worked with Cyberoam, and when it reached the end of life, we replaced it with Sophos.

The initial setup is easy, and I'd give it a two out of five.

Because this is a security appliance, we cannot calculate the ROI exactly. However, every time security devices work well and guard us from attacks, it is a good ROI. This device has a good ROI.

The licensing cost is in the normal range and is not very costly.

Overall, we have had a good experience with Sophos XGS and would rate it at six on a scale from one to ten.

When it comes to different interfaces there is some speed issue that can be improved in Sophos XGS.

I have been using Sophos XGS for approximately seven years.

Sophos XGS is a stable solution. It has a very good operating system.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is very good.

The support of Sophos XGS needs to be improved. Support is very poor. The approach they use needs to improve. We have to call and raise a ticket, but they don't resolve quickly. There are times when their technical support people, are not the right people for the right ticket. It wastes a lot of time. Since this is a business-critical device, there needs to be quicker support. There should be quicker support from the company. 

I have used Fortinet previously. When you compare Sophos XGS with Fortinet, Fortinet is a  better device. However, if their country has good support for Sophos XGS, then it's fine. Sophos XGS is more economical than Fortinet and they have similar features. For a business-critical solution, Fortinet would be much better because of its stability.

This solution would not have a return on investment for larger companies. However, for smaller businesses using this solution, it is better and faster.

Sophos XGS is priced lower than some of its competitors, such as Fortinet

I rate Sophos XGS a seven out of ten.

We are using it as a unified threat management system.

We use it on a daily basis. There are about 600 people using this solution in our organization.

The solution is deployed on-prem.

The threat management system and VPN are most valuable.

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

It's stable for now.

It's scalable.

Initial setup was easy. I would rate it 4 out of 5.

Setup was done in-house.

I would rate this solution 9 out of 10.