Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs. Smoothwall SWG

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
Smoothwall SWG
Score 6.9 out of 10
N/A
Smoothwall SWG is the web security gateway and content filtering from UK company Smoothwall.N/A
Pricing
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Considered Both Products
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
Chose Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
We already use Smoothwall for our main web filtering and felt it would be more robust to have a failover service in case of hardware failure. Pricewise the 2 were comparable and both would have been an upgrade on the no longer supported Microsoft Threat Management gateway. We …
Smoothwall SWG

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
9.1
11 Ratings
7% above category average
Smoothwall SWG
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies9.410 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection8.89 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.111 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.211 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.711 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN9.410 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability9.79 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection9.58 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server9.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Check Point Quantum Security Gateway
Check Point Quantum Security Gateway
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway
Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway
Score 6.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(14 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
5.5
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Barracuda CloudGen FirewallSmoothwall SWG
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.
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Smoothwall
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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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.
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Smoothwall
  • 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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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.
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Smoothwall
  • 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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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.
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Smoothwall
No answers on this topic
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.
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Smoothwall
No answers on this topic
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!
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Smoothwall
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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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.
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Smoothwall
  • 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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ScreenShots

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Screenshots

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