GFI KerioControl vs. Sophos SG Firewall Appliances

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
GFI KerioControl
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Kerio Control is a next-gen firewall for SMBs, from Aurea SMB Solutions (formerly GFI Software).N/A
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
Score 8.4 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
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GFI KerioControlSophos 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
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Features
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
GFI KerioControl
8.6
1 Ratings
1% below category average
Sophos SG Firewall Appliances
9.2
9 Ratings
6% above category average
Identification Technologies8.01 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Visualization Tools7.01 Ratings8.29 Ratings
Content Inspection10.01 Ratings9.69 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.01 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.01 Ratings9.29 Ratings
Firewall Management Console10.01 Ratings8.29 Ratings
Reporting and Logging7.01 Ratings9.49 Ratings
VPN9.01 Ratings9.89 Ratings
High Availability8.01 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Stateful Inspection10.01 Ratings9.49 Ratings
Proxy Server9.01 Ratings9.47 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
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 9.1 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.6
(9 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.8
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
5.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
GFI KerioControlSophos SG Firewall Appliances
Likelihood to Recommend
GFI Software
IT works very well in the non-profit and small business space when there is a need for remote access or connecting several sites in a point to point VPN, user management and rule creation are very easy. The use of the MyKerio website for remote management also makes it easy to troubleshoot problems and make changes if technical staff are not onsite.
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Sophos
It is well-suited for all sizes of organizations. It will help them to safeguard their network from various cyber threats like ransomware, phishing, malware, etc. It will provide them with many features like deep packet inspection, web filtering, application control, etc. in one place. It will also help them optimize bandwidth usage
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Pros
GFI Software
  • VPN for Remote Employees
  • Point to point VPNs
  • Scanning of traffic
  • Ease of management
  • Website filtering by both sites and key words
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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
GFI Software
  • Support can take longer to respond that it should
  • Could work better with resellers
  • Spend more effort on adding new features
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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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Usability
GFI Software
Very easy to use and manage, user training takes less then 10 minutes. Technicians can perform basic tasks with less then an hour of training and can master it in under a year.
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Sophos
Management could use some improvements. Sophos management and workflows has always been designed by Engineers for Engineers. They do not always follow logical workflows in the real world. Once you figure this out it is easier to use but no where as smooth as many other products on the market.
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Support Rating
GFI Software
Support is very slow to respond and it takes a long time to convince level 1 techs that you need to be moved up to someone more senior. I believe support is outsourced and they are graded on how few tickets they need to escalate to higher tiers so they will try to figure out a solution even if it is detrimental to the overall support experience.
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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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Alternatives Considered
GFI Software
We found Kerio Control to provide the most features and easiest management of all the solutions we looked at, while cost was not the lowest the value was by far the best when you considered all the factors, costs, and manhours involved in deployment and management.
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Sophos
We use Sophos in conjunction with WatchGuard, for an extra added level of security. Sophos is a little more sophisticated and complicated but they work well together as added layers of protection against most cyber threats.
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Return on Investment
GFI Software
  • Easy to use makes it easy to train, reducing employee time and IT staff costs.
  • Statefull inspection and web filtering greatly reduce malware incursions.
  • Fact it can run on standard PC hardware greatly reduces cost to implement and makes scaling much less expensive.
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Sophos
  • Positive ROI due to the competitiveness of the product.
  • Positive impact as the device is fully functional and easy to operate.
  • Negative impact when it comes to log integration as it does not support industry logging standards.
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