Cisco AnyConnect vs. Sophos SG Firewall Appliances

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco AnyConnect
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers an SSL VPN solution via AnyConnect.N/A
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances are designed to provide optimal protection for organizations of all sixes from small remote offices, to global organizations requiring high-availability andN/A
Pricing
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Considered Both Products
Cisco AnyConnect
Chose Cisco AnyConnect
Even though we have a FortiGate firewall on our network, we prefer Cisco AnyConnect as it is one tool for multiple solutions. We are using ISE which by default needs Cisco AnyConnect to be installed on the user's side, so we can use it also to connect through our VPN.
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances

No answer on this topic

Features
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Virtual Private Network
Comparison of Virtual Private Network features of Product A and Product B
Cisco AnyConnect
9.0
13 Ratings
0% below category average
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
-
Ratings
AES 256-bit Encryption9.513 Ratings00 Ratings
Kill Switch8.89 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Platform Support9.213 Ratings00 Ratings
Split Tunneling9.511 Ratings00 Ratings
IP Address Masking9.012 Ratings00 Ratings
No-Logs Policy8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Server Locations8.611 Ratings00 Ratings
Automatic Wi-Fi Protection9.210 Ratings00 Ratings
Simultaneous Connections9.010 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Support Services8.512 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco AnyConnect
-
Ratings
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
9.1
9 Ratings
5% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.29 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings8.29 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings9.29 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings9.89 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings9.47 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Small Businesses
Norton 360
Norton 360
Score 6.7 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.5 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(103 ratings)
8.6
(9 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.9
(12 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(81 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(86 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco AnyConnectSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco AnyConnect has allowed me to connect to the network when I am not at the office. For example, in an international digital campaign, it was possible to access readily important files and work on other collaborative working spaces without any violation of security measures. I noticed that there was a slight lag whenever several members of the team logged in at the same time during the weekend.
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Sophos
Great for securing our Datacenter as well as smaller branches. They have a great selection of Firewalls for all sizing requirements. We place them in locations with hundreds of employees or just a handful. They all work together great and the SD-WAN feature is good for connecting branches together. Couple this with MTR/MDR and you have a solid security foundation where packets can be analyzed from the firewall to the endpoints.
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Pros
Cisco
  • It provides you an exceptional hybrid work experience. It enables your employees to work seamlessly from home, office, and other branches.
  • It enables your employees to access corporate applications anytime, even after office hours.
  • It helps your team to maintain a healthy work-life balance and boosts your productivity.
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Sophos
  • It helps you to protect your corporate network and data from external cyber threats.
  • It provides you with with advanced features like load balancing, web and app access, etc., to optimize bandwidth uses.
  • It enables you to configure an IPsec VPN to access organization resources remotely.
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Cons
Cisco
  • Cisco AnyConnect can use the system resources as long as the program is being run.
  • Account activation may be very difficult when connecting from areas requiring captive portal login, if certain settings are not allowed.
  • By default, it is possible to request the user to authenticate again at specific intervals.
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Sophos
  • We would like more feature reach port blocking. This could be reorganized to make it easier on Network Admins to add or change ports.
  • I would like easier access to the CLI
  • I would like it to perform faster
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
It is perhaps the second most functional tool we have, it will definitely be renewed every year. Our network is stable, which ensures that there is less for our technicians to troubleshoot, which frees them up to ensure other parts of the company are maintained. This keeps our costs low and our downtime at a minimum.
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Sophos
I rated Sophos SG Firewall a 9 out of 10 because it has consistently provided strong and reliable security for our organization over the past five years. Its unified features like IPS, VPN, web filtering, and reporting make it easy to manage and highly effective in protecting our network. The interface is user-friendly, and support from Sophos has been timely and helpful. I deducted one point only because deeper cloud-native integration and more advanced analytics would further enhance its future readiness.
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Usability
Cisco
It has many advantages and uses other than other common VPNs but it's very important to understand the problems and issues which till not solved yet. The major issue is there is no support system or no body is doing hypercare for clients or client organizations. Speed is good, but making a connection is worse, and nobody cares about it.
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Sophos
It does the job well, but is not easy to learn if you are not an IT person (but it can be done!)
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
I have been using Cisco AnyConnect for past two years and thus I can say very firmly that I have never seen the outage from the Cisco AnyConnect services either It is VPN, System Scans or the Network Connectivity. Talking about the errors likewise major errors I have faced throughout my period of use.
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Sophos
I rated the availability of Sophos SG Firewall a 10 because, in our experience, it has been highly reliable and available whenever we needed it. We have not faced any significant application errors or unplanned outages. The system has been robust, ensuring continuous protection and minimal downtime, even during firmware updates or configuration changes. Its stability and uptime have been consistent, allowing us to trust it as a critical part of our network security infrastructure.
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Performance
Cisco
Absolutely no speed issues, and I see no evidence of slowdowns across any of the multiple platforms I use daily. It's operation is completely invisible most of the time, except where there is a loss of connection due to server issues or a loss of power. Everything loads quickly and accurately.
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Sophos
I rated the performance of Sophos SG Firewall a 10 because it consistently delivers fast and reliable results. Pages load quickly, reports are generated within a reasonable time frame, even for complex queries, and overall system responsiveness is excellent. Additionally, the firewall integrates seamlessly with other software and systems without causing any noticeable slowdowns or performance degradation. Its optimized performance has contributed to smooth network operations and minimal disruption to other services, making it a highly reliable solution for our needs.
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Support Rating
Cisco
Because whenever I log the case with Cisco support, yes they have come back with valid technical data. So this is what has happened and we could fix it in this way. That support will detail what happened and how to get it overcome very quickly. That's what I like. The support level we get is really good for the product
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Sophos
The biggest selling point for sophos is their vendor support. Those guys put a smile on our faces. There are multiple ways you can contact their support like chat, or telephone or email. They are very responsive and they do have very knowledgable and patient support staff. We have raised tickets at all odd hours and they have been addressed correctly
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In-Person Training
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Sophos
I rated the in-person training a 10 because the sessions were thorough, engaging, and well-structured. The trainers had a deep understanding of the Sophos SG Firewall and were able to clearly explain both basic and advanced features. The hands-on approach allowed us to directly apply what we were learning, which made the training highly practical and valuable. Additionally, the trainers were available to address specific questions and provide real-time troubleshooting during the sessions, making it an overall positive experience.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
Our Managed Services vendor helped us with the implementation. When we initially setup our AnyConnect using MFA for remote connectivity, the setup was easy and straight forward and worked just fine. After a year, we decided to change to an "always on" feature and use machine and user based security certificates instead of MFA. We had to open a ticket with Cisco support and have their assistance getting this feature to work. Turned out they had a small bug in the code for that version of AnyConnect and it has since been corrected. We have had no issues with the upgrades since that time. The deployment of the software to the user machines was done with SCCM and was straight forward. The user machine upgrades are easy - when the user machine connects and sees a new version available, it upgrades itself! What could be easier?
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Sophos
I was very satisfied with the implementation of the Sophos SG Firewall, giving it a rating of 9. One key insight from the implementation process is that while the setup was relatively straightforward, it’s crucial to carefully plan the network configuration in advance, especially for high availability (HA) and VPN setups. Ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructure and performing thorough testing before going live can significantly reduce issues later on. Additionally, leveraging the built-in wizards and configuration guides helped streamline the process, but hands-on testing was essential to ensure everything worked as expected in our specific environment.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
Cisco is one of our core partners besides Microsoft and SAP. And so yes, we are utilizing very many projects from Cisco. I would mention the whole networking equipment, the routing equipment, the wireless LAN, and also when it comes to infrastructure to compute infrastructure, we are utilizing Cisco servers within our converged infrastructure Flex spot. So we have been running a flex bot from Cisco, NetApp, and VMware for 12 years, and we are still very satisfied with the product. We are looking forward to upgrading to the newest blades and fabric interconnect to continue this journey.
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Sophos
It certainly stacks up well as it is very competitive in the pricing segment while having all the features that an ideal NGFW should possess. Basic functionalities like Network Firewall, Proxy and VPN work flawlessly while advanced features like IPS perform reasonably well. The detection content is very relevant and performs well.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Sophos
I rated the contract terms and pricing structure a 9 because, overall, they were fair and competitive. The unit pricing for the Sophos SG Firewall was reasonable considering the features and performance offered, and the billing frequency was flexible, allowing us to align it with our budget cycles. However, one area that could be improved is the pricing for multi-year commitments—there could be more significant discounts or additional incentives for long-term agreements. Overall, the structure worked well for our needs, but some adjustments could make it even more cost-effective.
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Scalability
Cisco
Cisco AnyConnect has been a speedy, reliable, and efficient tool for the creation of your own VPN whatever location that you've brought your laptop. Customer support is consistently top-notch, coming up with quick fixes to whatever difficulties are thrown your way. I would not hesitate to reccommend Cisco AnyConnect to any business that needs connected employees throught the world.
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Sophos
I rated the product's scalability a 9 because Sophos SG Firewall offers excellent flexibility and can be easily scaled across multiple departments and sites. It provides the ability to add more firewalls, manage them centrally, and integrate with other security solutions as our network grows. However, the only reason I didn’t give it a perfect score is that, in some complex environments, managing a large-scale deployment with many firewalls can become a bit challenging, especially in terms of centralized management and monitoring. Despite this, the overall scalability is highly effective for most use cases.
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Professional Services
Cisco
No answers on this topic
Sophos
I rated the professional services a 10 because the support we received was outstanding. The team was highly skilled, responsive, and provided tailored solutions to meet our specific needs. They guided us through the entire implementation process, from setup to optimization, ensuring that the firewall was configured efficiently and securely. Their expertise helped us avoid potential pitfalls and ensured a smooth deployment, which greatly contributed to the success of our project.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • We are able to seamlessly work on multiple clients daily, and it allows us to quickly handle more projects at the same time.
  • Cisco AnyConnect has allowed our own company's coworkers to remotely connect back to the corporate network, easily assisting work schedules and processes, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being forced to work remotely, meant our processes still happened quickly and efficiently, by being able to leverage and use Cisco AnyConnect VPN.
  • Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have worked 100% remotely for a few years now. This was always due to the reliable connectivity and ease of use with Cisco AnyConnect VPN. I live 2+ hours from our nearest corporate office, and even further from some of my client locations, and I have always been able to connect to any of my multiple Cisco AnyConnect VPN connections, within seconds.
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Sophos
  • Positive. We are able to expand our network by using the Flexi Port Modules that are available.
  • Positive. We are able to boast that our network is more secure than other businesses of the same model.
  • Negative. The VPN needs to be updated to use OVPN configs and then it would be perfect.
  • Negative. The home license needs to have the IP restriction removed for folks who work from home and need to access on-site terminals.
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