What users are saying about

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs Smoothwall SWG

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
31 Ratings
Smoothwall SWG
3 Ratings

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

31 Ratings
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Score 8.7 out of 100

Based on 31 reviews and ratings

Smoothwall SWG

3 Ratings
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Score 4 out of 100

Based on 3 reviews and ratings

Feature Set Ratings

    Firewall

    8.1

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    81%

    Smoothwall SWG

    Feature Set Not Supported
    N/A
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall (formerly NG Firewalls) ranks higher in 11/11 features
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall (formerly NG Firewalls) ranks higher in 11/11 features

    Identification Technologies

    7.7
    77%
    7 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Visualization Tools

    7.6
    76%
    7 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Content Inspection

    8.2
    82%
    6 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Policy-based Controls

    7.8
    78%
    7 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Active Directory and LDAP

    8.0
    80%
    8 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Firewall Management Console

    8.2
    82%
    8 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Reporting and Logging

    7.8
    78%
    8 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    VPN

    9.1
    91%
    7 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    High Availability

    7.7
    77%
    7 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Stateful Inspection

    8.2
    82%
    6 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Proxy Server

    8.9
    89%
    3 Ratings
    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Attribute Ratings

    • Smoothwall SWG is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend

    Likelihood to Recommend

    6.5

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    65%
    11 Ratings
    9.0

    Smoothwall SWG

    90%
    1 Rating

    Usability

    5.5

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    55%
    1 Rating

    Smoothwall SWG

    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Support Rating

    6.6

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    66%
    6 Ratings

    Smoothwall SWG

    N/A
    0 Ratings

    Likelihood to Recommend

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    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.

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    Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Verified User
    View all 11 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    Smoothwall SWG is very suitable in companies where there is a lot of staff and power to distribute the bandwidth by areas and give priority to the staff that requires better service. It's also well suited for business that require protection of their data and services as it is constantly monitoring the network and does not let them enter dangerous sites.

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    germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
    germary zambrano
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Pros

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    • 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.

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    Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Verified User
    View all 11 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    • Real-time IP filtering is very favorable. That helps limit and restrict prohibited content.
    • Elaboration of personalized reports of the activities or pages that users visit to make new blocking rules to the pages most visited by users that may damage the functioning of the servers.

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    germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
    germary zambrano
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Cons

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    • 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.

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    Derek Schroeder | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Derek Schroeder
    View all 11 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    • It is necessary for them to have more material or a community that can help expand knowledge about this software so users can use 100% of their tools.

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    germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
    germary zambrano
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Pricing Details

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    General

    Free Trial
    Yes
    Free/Freemium Version
    —
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    —
    Entry-level set up fee?
    No

    Starting Price

    —

    Smoothwall SWG

    General

    Free Trial
    —
    Free/Freemium Version
    —
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    —
    Entry-level set up fee?
    No

    Starting Price

    —

    Usability

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall 5.5
    Based on 1 answer
    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.

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    Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Verified User
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    No score
    No answers yet
    No answers on this topic

    Support Rating

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall 6.6
    Based on 6 answers
    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.

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    Paul Metzger | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Paul Metzger
    View all 6 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    No score
    No answers yet
    No answers on this topic

    Alternatives Considered

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    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!

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    Jay Glatt | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Jay Glatt
    View all 11 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    Smoothwall SWG has many tools similar to pfSense but in my opinion I like the graphical environment of smoothwall swg more. It is more didactic and simple to use for new users. Also pfSense lacks the tools for monitoring in real time and the elaboration of reports that helps to perform statistics on sites visited.

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    germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
    germary zambrano
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Return on Investment

    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

    • 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.

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    Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
    Verified User
    View all 11 answers on this topic

    Smoothwall SWG

    • This software helps a lot and is very economical, since it is free and it can be installed in equipment with low performance. That is of importance to companies with little budget or who are just starting out in the market.

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    germary zambrano | TrustRadius Reviewer
    germary zambrano
    View all 1 answers on this topic

    Screenshots

    Smoothwall SWG

    —

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