Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software vs. Norton

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.N/A
Norton
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
The Norton products, including Norton 360, Norton Antivirus, and Norton Security, are consumer antivirus and privacy protection products, and are now a product line of NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec) after the enterprise security division of Symantec was acquired and is now part of Broadcom.N/A
Pricing
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
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 Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
8.0
49 Ratings
6% below category average
Norton
-
Ratings
Identification Technologies7.332 Ratings00 Ratings
Visualization Tools6.830 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Inspection8.032 Ratings00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.045 Ratings00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP8.147 Ratings00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console8.147 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging5.648 Ratings00 Ratings
VPN9.248 Ratings00 Ratings
High Availability9.347 Ratings00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.646 Ratings00 Ratings
Proxy Server8.031 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
SentinelOne Singularity
SentinelOne Singularity
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
SentinelOne Singularity
SentinelOne Singularity
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
SentinelOne Singularity
SentinelOne Singularity
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(87 ratings)
9.0
(16 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.1
(4 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
7.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(8 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
8.5
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) SoftwareNorton
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
Cisco ASA's are great for internal network connected access between a firewall and the central management server. And, for complex networks where high security requirements with overly strict compliance are necessary. For networks with limited connectivity to the core or for poor network connectivity these are not the best solution. There are other more stand-alone firewall's that do this better. These firewall's are a little more complex to set up to start with so significant knowledge of these devices is required to set them up and ensure they are best practice installed.
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
For a stand-alone business this should do the trick, but if using across multiple clients (multi-tenancy not an option). Default settings within the program will cause performance issues if not tweaked, meaning someone with networking experience may be necessary. Not ideal for MSP's unless they only have a few clients, as the manageability must be done within "the walls" of each company.
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Pros
Cisco
  • ASA is our VPN concentrator. The client and server are very stable and very easy to use
  • ASA also offers Intrusion Prevention, to an extent. This is also very useful for an improved security posture for a small company
  • ASA allowed us to scale very quickly. We could onboard clients, partners, and consultants and give them a great onboarding experience as well
  • Administrative costs with ASA are low. It's very easy to administer.
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
  • Norton works quite quickly and is efficient enough to detect threats
  • It is very easy and simple to install and is without any complications and irrelevant inquiries.
  • Norton is available at a very reasonable price in the market and is not heavy on pocket.
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Cons
Cisco
  • The ASDM software is at times a nightmare to install because of different java versions[.]
  • [The firewall] could do with a power button, just to be able to do a hard reboot when needed[.]
  • It would be nice to manage the firewall via the web on port 443[.]
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
  • Cost could be an issue. They could perform a free trial at the beginning for people to check.
  • It would be good if you can do an online free check of your computer.
  • While the updates are good sometimes your computer is attacked by a virus they did not expect.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
To be honest there has been now great products out in the market compared to Cisco ASA. I beleieve Cisco has to do a lot of improvement in this area. The other defeiniete factors is the cost when it comes to renewals which is always a premium on Cisco products
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
I did renew it before because support is great and cost is great. I believe that Norton has a very long experience in what they do and they are doing a great job with all the updates they provide and the work they are doing. Moreover Norton is going in the right direction for sure.
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Usability
Cisco
No answers on this topic
NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
Well organised interface.
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Reliability and Availability
Cisco
I generally have not noticed the outages, however since it's a machine it can malfunction, we need to implement the firewall infrastructure in such a way that it is highly available with device failure, region failure etc. Else any solution will be having the issues if they are not build with resiliency.
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
The support is usually very good and gets back to you very quickly. However I had some instances of when two engineers will give me wildly different answers to what I thought was a simple question. Overall however I do rate the support highly and they are generally always very good.
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
Security software with very good features that works in the background.
Price suitable for companies of any size and easy to install and use.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
It was quite a good one, how ever requires an expertise to deploy hence the SMB segment would be finding it difficult to implement this product. The one good reason is that there are lot of ASA certified engineers in compared to the other certified engineers. Hence this resembles positively on the deployment as you have quite a lot of experienced engineer on your deployment
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
Would like a manual or online version that is simple to understand and explains in detail what choices we have and why to make these choices.
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
We were using [pfSense] before in our environment but we regularly facing difficulties over it due to software bugs & downtime. After implementing Cisco ASA, it resolved our availability issue & provides us a reliable solution with the best security features & easy to understand GUI.
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
User-friendly interface (it's not just AV and users who were interacting with the product), performance, resource usage (most of the computers were not very fresh and that factor was very critical), efficiency, it shouldn't be just sitting on a PC - it should protect it, what was perfectly done with that product.
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Most network engineers have worked with ASA, so there is no need for re-training when adding or turning over staff
  • Current configs from older devices plug in easily, and are operational on larger devices if an upgrade is required
  • Many support options available
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NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec)
  • Poor performance against Spyware and other threats despite claiming to act against them (recognizes very few and eliminates less) It is limited to viruses.
  • Regular blocking of incoming scripts (in front of other antivirus)
  • Little or almost no compatibility with the Windows XP Firewall, but they are involved.
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ScreenShots