Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services vs. Sophos Firewall

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Score 7.5 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
Sophos Firewall
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Sophos XG Firewall provides comprehensive next-generation firewall protection powered by deep learning and Synchronized Security. Sophos Firewall supplies insights and exposes hidden user, application, and threat risks on the network, and say the product is differentiated by its ability to respond automatically to security incidents by isolating compromised systems, with Security Heartbeat™.N/A
Pricing
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCisco ASA 5500-X pricing starts at ~$400 and scales up to $20,000 for higher capacity appliances.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Considered Both Products
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Chose Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Cisco ASA FirePOWER provides us lots of features like sandboxing and advanced malware protection which provides us more security. But lots of options are missing and more complicated in Sophos XG Firewall. You will face lots of issues during implementation in existing …
Chose Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Cisco has been industry for a long time and it's a trustworthy name. Cisco ASA 5500-X FirePOWER has the best Customer Support and robust hardware, user friendly configurations, [and] configuration documentations [are] available openly on internet. Cisco has also [been] named a …
Sophos Firewall
Chose Sophos Firewall
We selected the Sophos Firewall because of its comprehensive security, ease of use, Scalability and increase the productivity.
Features
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
8.4
32 Ratings
3% below category average
Sophos Firewall
9.1
14 Ratings
5% above category average
Identification Technologies6.630 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.025 Ratings8.814 Ratings
Content Inspection7.131 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.130 Ratings9.214 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP10.030 Ratings9.113 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.032 Ratings9.514 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.431 Ratings8.814 Ratings
VPN10.032 Ratings8.814 Ratings
High Availability10.030 Ratings9.214 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.14 Ratings9.014 Ratings
Proxy Server7.23 Ratings9.511 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 8.8 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.2 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(32 ratings)
9.2
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.2
(2 ratings)
9.7
(5 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(28 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(30 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesSophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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Sophos
It is well-suited for small, medium, and large organizations looking for comprehensive cybersecurity protection. It will not only safeguard their network from cyberattacks but also provide them with many advanced features like deep packet inspection, centralized management, web filtering, application control, etc. in one place. It will help them optimize bandwidth and ensure continued connectivity.
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Pros
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.
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Sophos
  • Web filtering. This allows us to monitor web usage and block certain categories from being access at the perimeter.
  • Application Control. With application control we can block certain applications that get categorized from working accessing the Internet.
  • Synchronized Security. When utilizing the Sophos Endpoint product you can use Synchronized Security to minimize Lateral Movement in a network. If a machine is shows a Red status you can auto-isolate it and it is unable to communicate with anything else on the network.
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Cons
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
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Sophos
  • If using Endpoint security and the Firewall it would be nice to have an easier back and forth between the portals rather than have two separate tabs open. Especially if using more than one in multiple locations.
  • If dealing with different revisions options are moved around and sometimes in places that doesn't normally seem like they should be there.
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Likelihood to Renew
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
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Sophos
No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
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Sophos
Because this is a user-friendly interface, and anyone can use it there are multiple articles and guidelines available, it has advanced-level security features. they provide VPN solutions all the features are very practical, SSID MAC-based authentications web control, Firewall rules segregation of the rules and policies, On-premises Active directory single sign-on feature is also available.
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Reliability and Availability
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
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Sophos
No answers on this topic
Performance
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.
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Sophos
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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.
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Sophos
As we are all addicted to graphics-oriented interfaces for all our life products. Easy to manage and access as a good way of using anything
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Implementation Rating
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
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Sophos
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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
Sophos
I was a big fan of Cisco ASA products, but when I saw all of the security feature differences between both firewalls, I moved to Sophos devices. Its sandbox, IPS, and many more features are really advanced. Cisco does not provide features like this.
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Return on Investment
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)
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Sophos
  • True UTM device.
  • Very Active customer help for any help.
  • Easy license and cost effective.
  • Should [do] more work on logging and reporting.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Sophos Firewall Screenshots

Screenshot of Sophos Firewall v17.5 Control Center