Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) vs Sophos UTM

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are already using [a] Cisco product like the Cisco ASA Series and you need more security on layer 7 then you can upgrade with firepower. This is well suited for middle and big organizations. If your company deals with credit card information then you should buy this firewall. It provides you all the features to stop any type of advanced attack on your organization

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Anjali Nair

project lead

DashClicksInformation Technology & Services, 51-200 employees

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UTM works great if you want a solid, obvious firewall. There's not a lot of second-guessing as to what you are about to do with every change you make. If you incorporate their wireless access points and RED (remote ethernet device) for remote users or small offices, it's considerably much easier to set up than other comparable solutions. If you are looking to manage your firewalls via the cloud, you are out of luck.

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Paul Cheng

IT Manager

Handel ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Sophos UTM

Identification Technologies

Visualization Tools

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Pros

Updates with the HA Pair are incredibly easy and automated
FMC with Firepowers provide a single place to view information about devices and connections
Tedious policy changes can be staged during the working hours and then deployed in one click after hours

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 201-500 employees

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Enhanced network security at a good price.
Flexibility of access to the internet and collaboration in remote and secure work.
Connectivity between branches with site-to-site VPN with easy deployment and configuration of routes.
Protection against malware of all types.
Affordable and efficient support and warranty.
Great reporting features

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Ana Cristina

Analista TI

GerdauMining & Metals, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

The UI in Cisco Firepower formerly Sourcefire) is complicated and entirely redundant. A lot of these features are not useful, and therefore, it can be removed from the main window.
The interface is very slow, with each operation taking a lot of time. Searching through the logs takes too much time.

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Kuntal Das

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Colorado DenverHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees

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The UI is a bit dated albeit, it is very functional and everything is right at my fingertips.
Better documentation. This hardware and software solution is amazing, but as I said previously, it can be a little daunting to set up.

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Matthew James

Systems Administrator | POS Programming Specialist

AIKG LLCEntertainment, 501-1000 employees

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Usability

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) 8.0

Based on 1 answer

It's overall very great, however the Management Console needs updating to fix the slowness of policy and rule deployments.

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Kenneth Ma

AVP Network Security Team Lead

East West BankFinancial Services, 1001-5000 employees

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Sophos UTM 10.0

Based on 1 answer

The interface is no non-sense and easy to understand. No need for any consultants to help implement this solution. The performance is consistent and solid. Paired with a good amount of firmware and definitions, it's hard to find any fault in this product. It's interoperability with other Sophos products make a compelling argument to invest in more Sophos products.

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Paul Cheng

IT Manager

Handel ArchitectsArchitecture & Planning, 51-200 employees

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Support Rating

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) 7.9

Based on 6 answers

Cisco support is not at all suitable for this product, at least. It takes a long for them to help us with our server issues. A lot of the time, the customer support person keeps on redirecting calls to another person. They need to be well versed with the terminologies of the product they are supporting us with. Support needs a lot of improvement. Cisco Fire Linux OS, the operating system behind Cisco Firepower NGFW (formerly Sourcefire), also doesn't receive regular patches. In short, average customer service.

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Kuntal Das

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Colorado DenverHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees

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Sophos UTM 7.6

Based on 3 answers

I find the support fair. The wait can be frustrating when dealing with fire. The pandemic has not helped with this. Although the wait can be long, the support reps are knowledgeable and was able to resolve the issues I was facing.

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Michael Cattano

Sr. Systems Engineer

Amoeba NetworksInformation Technology & Services, 11-50 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Cisco Firepower is a costlier solution but you get what you pay for, with the added costs Cisco provides a full feature solution to be configured in any scenario. The setup can be complex but sometimes this is needed for challenging setups. This is the full featured standard for enterprise security solutions.

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Victor Lau

Network Architect

BSSTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

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I would rate Sophos second on this list right below Webroot. Webroot has an easier user interface and policy builder. However, Sophos would be on top of its UI would be improved. I would rank CrowStrike third and McAfee last. Sophos is great for complex environments that have multiple needs.

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Nate Binkley

Network System Administrator

Land of Lincoln Credit UnionFinancial Services, 51-200 employees

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Return on Investment

this product is great for inspection and normal firewall controls
if there's a bug in it, it can take a lot of resource time to chase it and work around it
deciphering which data is useful has taken a bit of time and trimming

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Tom Erdman

Network Systems Administrator

Johnson County LibraryLibraries, 201-500 employees

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Sophos has provided a secure Firewall for us.
Integration with Sophos Central makes it easier to manage both.
Site to site VPN Failover groups has caused more trouble than it's worth.
High availability doesn't recognize when you are restarting for an update.

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Verified User

Supervisor in Information Technology

Pharmaceuticals Company, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Rating Summary

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Sophos UTM

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Sophos UTM

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Sophos UTM