Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls provides a wide range of security and connectivity features, including web filtering, NAC and SSL VPN and other features for remote access, as well as protection as edge devices and IoT security.N/A
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers a threat-focused next-generation firewall (NGFW), the ASA 5500-X Series. The ASA 5500 Series platforms can run either the Cisco ASA Firewall or Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). The series features appliances in a variety of form factors, including standalone options for small and midsize businesses, ruggedized appliances for extreme environments, midsize appliances for security at the Internet edge, and high-performance appliances for enterprise data centers.N/A
Pricing
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—Cisco ASA 5500-X pricing starts at ~$400 and scales up to $20,000 for higher capacity appliances.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Considered Both Products
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Chose Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
There really is no comparison. Juniper and Sonicwall are the closest competitors, however, in terms of features versus price Barracuda wins every time. Cisco does not allow the ASA to do certain things it should be allowed to do, it is design flaws but they have no intention of …
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
9.2
11 Ratings
8% above category average
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
9.1
30 Ratings
7% above category average
Identification Technologies9.410 Ratings9.228 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.010 Ratings9.124 Ratings
Content Inspection8.99 Ratings9.129 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.610 Ratings9.828 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.211 Ratings9.829 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.311 Ratings9.230 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.711 Ratings8.829 Ratings
VPN9.410 Ratings9.830 Ratings
High Availability9.79 Ratings9.828 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.58 Ratings8.14 Ratings
Proxy Server9.04 Ratings7.23 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(14 ratings)
9.4
(30 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(3 ratings)
Usability
5.5
(1 ratings)
7.2
(2 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(26 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(4 ratings)
9.6
(29 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallCisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Likelihood to Recommend
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I would say a small business with a basic firewall and security needs would be a perfect fit for the Barracuda CloudGen firewall. I know that they soon end up leaving the NG models and are moving forward with the F series firewall. I think the F series is a much more difficult to manage device and doesn’t offer simplistic configuration or use and lacks cloud control so I don’t understand the move on Barracuda’s part to nix a great easy to manage the firewall. I do think that the NG line is maybe too simple for bigger businesses and would lack some main features that they would require.
Read full review
Cisco
This firewall is best suited for the network edge/perimeter deployment. The next gen features works very well and the remote access VPN is also very much suitable for the organizations which have a huge user base working remotely. The Remote Access VPN is very much customizable and the authentication integration option like LDAP and RADIUS provides and addon.
Read full review
Pros
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • The management software is excellent. It make it much easier to manage the firewalls than some of the other vendors.
  • Watching real-time traffic is easy to do when trying to troubleshoot a users issues getting to a particular service.
  • Support from Barracuda has been excellent. We rate their phone and online remote support as being the best in the business.
  • We like the QoS and Traffic shaping of the NG Firewalls. They help is manage our limited bandwidth, so that business critical resources are available over lesser critical resources.
  • Integration with Active Directory makes it easy to identify users activities in logs.
Read full review
Cisco
  • The Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services model works perfectly for network edge protection scenarios.
  • It allows for the creation and connection of sites through site-to-site VPN configuration.
  • It enables remote connection and home office with remote SSL or IPSEC VPN.
  • It has layer 7 traffic protection and visibility.
  • It has anti-malware protection from start to finish.
  • The configuration is easy to perform.
Read full review
Cons
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • Very complex and steep learning curve to get up to speed.
  • Multiple ways to configure for the same service or feature. Takes time to determine "your" customized build.
  • Interface can sometimes be clunky when trying to determine how it's organized or arranged. Again, steep learning curve.
Read full review
Cisco
  • URL Filtering feature could be easier to utilize for beginners
  • I'd like to see a visual of VPN networks setup and show the functioning or malfunctioning status to assist in making troubleshooting easier
  • Recommendations on ACLs for beginners based on their account creation date
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Cisco
Ever since we installed Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services we have never had to deal with an attack. We can see in the logs almost every day hackers attempting to break into our networks and failing. We also have the ability to blacklist every IP address that attempts to break into our firewalls
Read full review
Usability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Easy enough to use and configure using the management UI. Reporting from the web filter is a little clunky, and not very user friendly. To be perfectly honest, once it's set up and running, there isn't a lot to do from the day-to-day side of things, which is not a bad thing.
Read full review
Cisco
Cisco firepower provides automatation for an organisations security operations to detect and stop the most advanced threats fast. It also assists in preventing attacks in using intelligence and innovative solutions.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Cisco
We have never had an outage caused by firewall failure. We have had a few outages caused by the internet failing or cloud applications going offline but never a firewall breaking down. When making changes we have a very strong change control, major software updates are always carried out out of working hours. At places where we have two firewalls in HA, we are able to do upgrades in working ours and the users will never know that an upgrade is taking place, that how great these firewalls are
Read full review
Performance
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Cisco
The Cisco ASA 5500X with Firepower performance needs consideration before deploying. Although the solution is Pay as you grow, adding additional features to the system has a negative impact on overall throughput. I would more like now only to deploy the Cisco FPR units as they have better performance and will last the test of time.
Read full review
Support Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
I could go on and on about how good Barracuda's support really is. I have yet to have a problem they didn't help me fix and I always learn something when talking with them. The story that best describes my overall experience with Barracuda's support is this: When I first put in the xSeries they had a problem with a policy route. There was a bug in the code and in the one situation I was it, it just would not work. I went up the levels of support and they couldn't fix it. Well, next thing I know I am on the phone with 2 of the guys that programmed the thing and they work out the solution in no time and get me going. That is support. That is what I have come to expect from Barracuda. If the tech on the phone doesn't know the answer, they do not stop until they find it. Grant it, I also have to admit I do not call support with every problem, I try to work it out on my own first as that is how I learn best, so when I do call support it is going to be complicated.
Read full review
Cisco
I would recommend the purchase of the Smartnet 24x7 service in the case of a unit and the Smartnet 8x5NBD in the case of only one appliance installed on site. This service is important to always have the latest firmware updates, corrective updates and especially the hardware warranty and maintenance service in case of problems. The service is done by phone or on the official Cisco website and I can say that it is very good and efficient.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
No answers on this topic
Cisco
We implemented a centralized management of all our Cisco ASA 5500-x with FirePOWER Services so that we can have a holistic view of all our sites in London and other European countries. This also helps when making changes, instead of login on to each firewall we can use Firepower Management Center (FMC) to central deploy changes across all devices
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
Our Cisco firewall was always difficult to make any changes against. It had no user-friendly GUI interface. We were calling technical support most of the time whenever we needed to make any changes. The Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has a GUI interface which we are looking forward to getting better acquainted with as we move off of our old Cisco. Of course, Barracuda's technical support is always there and is top notch!
Read full review
Cisco
Previous],] I was using the [pfSense] in my organization but when i switched to [Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services] I realized there are lots of issue and missing security features in [pfSense]. The deployment and configuration is very easy as compare to [pfSense]. I highly recommend this product to everyone.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Barracuda Networks, Inc.
  • We saved multiple thousands of dollars the first year out with the firewall in maintenance fees. We paid for the firewall and 3 years of service and still saved money.
  • The ease of management allows me to do my job more efficiently. I save a lot of time when doing my day to day job because I can get to my firewall virtually anywhere.
  • I feel a lot safer and my business more secure knowing that I have configured things the way they need to be and it was simple and not overly complicated.
Read full review
Cisco
  • Working of remote workforce made easy
  • Security was enhanced on the data traffic shared with the vendors due to the use of VPNs
  • Inbound attacks were mostly blocked on the edge and saved a lot of resources (which could had been used in case of attacks getting successful on the application servers)
Read full review
ScreenShots

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of