Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series vs. SonicWall NSA Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
The VM-Series is a virtualized form of Palo Alto next-generation firewall that can be deployed in a range of cloud environments. The VM-Series natively analyzes all traffic in a single pass to determine the application identity, the content within, and the user identity.N/A
SonicWall NSA Series
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
The SonicWall NSA Series is the company's mid-range next generation firewall (NGFW).N/A
Pricing
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
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
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
9.5
6 Ratings
11% above category average
SonicWall NSA Series
7.1
4 Ratings
18% below category average
Identification Technologies9.76 Ratings5.04 Ratings
Visualization Tools9.56 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Content Inspection10.06 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.56 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.56 Ratings4.03 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.46 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Reporting and Logging9.36 Ratings7.04 Ratings
VPN9.26 Ratings9.04 Ratings
High Availability8.85 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Stateful Inspection10.06 Ratings8.03 Ratings
Proxy Server9.44 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(8 ratings)
8.0
(4 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM SeriesSonicWall NSA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
Palo Alto Networks
PaloAlto VM-200 is a virtualized firewall with high processing power and network edge protection. The great advantage is being able to implement in a VMware environment without worrying about hardware, rack space, physical network connections and others. It can be easily managed via the web and remotely to create protection, access and reporting rules. The VM-200 firewall can be used by any company, small or large because it has several models available according to the real needs of each one.
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SonicWall
SonicWall NSA is best suited for small to mid-size companies or small to medium K-12 school districts. It's less appropriate for larger businesses and schools. This is due to their ease of use and well-rounded feature set but lacks in advanced configuration, performance, and reliability.
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Pros
Palo Alto Networks
  • Decrypt internet traffic
  • daily reporting of top internet users
  • classify internet traffic in real-time to allow us to understand the organization needs.
  • Strong AI capabilities
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SonicWall
  • Relatively inexpensive compared to some of the higher-end products, like Palo Alto Networks.
  • Easy to set up, as the SonicWall NSA interface is consistent across all models.
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Cons
Palo Alto Networks
  • High Availability can be improved to allow active-active deployment
  • All command line documentation to provide and support automation
  • It will be nice to have link aggregation just like in the hardware firewall models.
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SonicWall
  • Ideal with smaller businesses. Would have to examine for more complex needs of larger businesses.
  • Scalability might be an issue for super large organizations.
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Support Rating
Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto VM series are best selling and industry's top-selling security product which customers prefer while securing their public cloud environment
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SonicWall
Most of the time, calling SonicWall NSA Support, you get an expert who can help resolve your issues. RMAs are pretty easy once they determine there is an issue with the hardware. Support is available 24x7, which makes emergency calls easy. The only downside is the support engineers may have thick accents; however, their expertise more than makes up for any language barriers.
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Alternatives Considered
Palo Alto Networks
palo alto firewalls are application-oriented systems. They can beat other product which are based on layer 3/4 inspection. Vm series are also quickly available and could be useful in urgent deployment needs . other vendors like Fortinet and cisco could take much more time to provide the VM and in some cases installation and license validation are complicated
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SonicWall
We compared the FortiGate to Sonicwall and continued with Sonicwall as we were a mid-size school where the Sonicwall was performing adequately, and the learning curve was steep to switch platforms. The Sonicwall offered everything the FortiGate did, and was not as costly, both in the appliance and in licensing.
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Return on Investment
Palo Alto Networks
  • ROI has been achieved quickly through lack of security incidents.
  • Inline filtering happens at line rate, unline Sourcefire from Cisco.
  • Great incentives from PAN to switch made a difference in the choice to change.
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SonicWall
  • Was affordable, allowing for advanced routing and security.
  • Enabled us to build VPNs without purchasing additional services
  • Was simple enough to manage in house without external support.
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ScreenShots