NetScaler vs. Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
NetScaler
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
NetScaler ADC is an application delivery controller.N/A
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Palo Alto Network’s Next-Generation Firewalls is a firewall option integrated with other Palo Alto security products. Released in late 2023, the PA-7500 ML-Powered NextGeneration Firewall (NGFW) enables enterprise-scale organizations and service providers to deploy security in high-performance environments.
$1.50
per hour per available zone
Pricing
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsUsers may also choose to pay per gigabyte of data used starting at .065/GB. Note that prices listed here reflect installations via Amazon Web Services. Pricing may differ if other service providers are used.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Considered Both Products
NetScaler

No answer on this topic

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Chose Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
I have used Cisco & Sonicwall primarily in most of my 23+ years of network security experience. Over the years all of these platforms have matured, but Palo Alto beats them all in terms of user interface. The ability to run reports, get access to data immediately, and have …
Features
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
NetScaler
-
Ratings
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
8.7
27 Ratings
0% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings9.127 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings7.626 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings9.527 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.727 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings8.827 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings8.327 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings8.727 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings8.826 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.026 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings7.413 Ratings
Best Alternatives
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Small Businesses
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Cloudflare
Cloudflare
Score 8.9 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
NGINX
NGINX
Score 9.8 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
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(26 ratings)
9.0
(43 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(6 ratings)
8.5
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(4 ratings)
8.4
(9 ratings)
User Testimonials
NetScalerPalo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
Citrix
Citrix Netscaler can be a powerful network appliance for environments that are fully committed and open to utilizing a network appliance that isn't made by a traditional network vendor. Administrator user experience has improved over the years and will continue to improve with the flexibility of virtual and physical appliances available for medium and large enterprises.
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Palo Alto Networks
It is well-suited for a company needing strong edge security with ease of administration. It comes standard with many features such as VPN, Application ID and "Day-1 Config" that make the networks it protects secure from the very start. Palo is definitely a premium product and is much more expensive than other firewalls, but the value is realized immediately. The robust options for firewall rules/policies allow the administrator to apply security in new and creative ways to hit the sweet spot between security and usability.
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Pros
Citrix
  • Flexibility. NetScaler assumes its admins know a bit about networking and in-depth details surrounding the applications they are configuring access for/to. This being so, the range of configuration options is very broad allowing various versions' combinations of protocol patterns, expressions, rules etc., all to the benefit of the admin.
  • Granularity. Having such a broad range of configuration options available, while still allowing simple options to be configured simply. The GUI is well-stylized and navigation has a good flow.
  • Ease of control. For load-balancing of simple services right out of the box, NetScaler makes it pretty easy, compared to the range of options available in the surrounding GUI and under the hood.
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Palo Alto Networks
  • The PA handles VPN connectivity without missing a beat. We have multiple VPN tunnels in use for redundancy to cloud-based services.
  • The PA has great functionality in supporting failover internet connections, again with the ability to have multiple paths out to our cloud-based services.
  • The PA is updated on the regular with various security updates, we are not concerned with the firewall's ability to see what packets are really flowing across the network. Being able to see beyond just IP and port requests lets you know things are locked down better than traditional firewalls.
  • It is a great overall kit, with URL filtering and other services that fill in the gaps between other solutions without breaking the bank.
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Cons
Citrix
  • The documentation could use an overhaul with specific examples related to the command line as well as GUI. Explanations in the documentation would also be helpful.
  • Being able to have more than just one routing table would allow the ability to leverage security.
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Palo Alto Networks
  • Setting up certain things can be somewhat complicated due to the numerous options and abstractions involved.
  • It would be nice to have somewhere to get simple canned reports easily.
  • It would be nice to be able to remove options we never use from various setup dialogs.
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Likelihood to Renew
Citrix
No answers on this topic
Palo Alto Networks
The PA5220s have far exceeded what we have expected out of them. It was a bit of a learning curve coming from another vendor, but everything falls into place now with ease. The capabilities of the solution still surprise us, allowing us to remove other costly hardware and providing a single point of management needed
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Usability
Citrix
I gave the NetScaler a 7 here because the system once configured and deployed is very easy to use. However, if you did not deploy the system and do not have the fundamental background knowledge then you will have trouble using the product in general. Overall it is a great product and service but does typically require professional services to be deployed.
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Palo Alto Networks
It can be a little tricky at first if you have never used the product or a firewall before. If you have experience with firewalls in general, it does not take long to learn the Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series interface. They offer great training resources and knowledge base articles to help get up to speed.
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Support Rating
Citrix
Overall, our organization's experience with Citrix support is that support can be hit or miss. Oftentimes it takes multiple attempts and much longer than desirable to obtain a viable solution for issues experienced with their products. It would be great to see Citrix invest time, effort, and almighty dollars into improving their support and bug fix process across the board.
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Palo Alto Networks
We've run into a couple undocumented bugs, but that seems to happen with every brand and technology. Any time we've had to engage Palo Alto support they've always been professional, knowledgeable and prompt. In almost all cases we've been able to resolve our issues without having to escalate our tickets.
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Alternatives Considered
Citrix
easy to use and setup and reliable. Once the configuration was setup and running this has been really useful and easy to maintain. The other solutions seemed overly complicated and difficult to configure and get up and running with the security that we required
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Palo Alto Networks
We are using Cisco ASA before in our environment but when it comes to deep scanning & layer 7 security it doesn't have that capability. After using Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall we are using sandboxing & advance malware protection that provides high-level end-user security. Also after implementing it we can easily monitor user-level traffic.
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Return on Investment
Citrix
  • We had this set up before COVID and it saved us. We just added user licenses and scaled out our citrix farm and IT sat back and just monitored users from home.
  • Scales up and out with ease
  • Challenging to find NetScaler experts for advanced features you want to enable and use
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Palo Alto Networks
  • We used to outsource our Firewall and it's management. Not only did we find their SLA's to be lacking, in general, but communication between us was horrible. Many times we could not understand them and that resulted in less than desirable rule creation or troubleshooting.
  • Since we no longer have to pay a company for 24/7 management (and SLOW SLA's) we are saving a ton of money each year. Also our fellow employee's are much happier that things can be resolved in a timely manner.
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