SonicWall NSA Series vs. Sophos UTM

This is a higher-end firewall, built for a medium to large business. It handles traffic and scanning and protection well but it would be a bit of a budget-buster and probably overkill for a small to (barely) medium sized business. SonicWall makes SoHo devices for those use cases and they would be more appropriate.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Firewall Protection. The protection is unmatched, setup it a little daunting, but once set up it pretty much runs itself.
• Site-to-site VPN. Super easy to deploy so we are able to network all our sites together.
• The DHCP server function is actually really nice, I prefer using it over the traditional way of using a DC for DHCP.

Incentivized

• Ideal with smaller businesses. Would have to examine for more complex needs of larger businesses.
• Scalability might be an issue for super large organizations.

• Better standard support, it used to be great, now, not so much (for paying customers, that only aquired the Hardware)
• Better wireless solution, there is always room for that, now that everybody needs robust wifi, even at home!
• Faster and more robust wireless Access Points, or different vendor-like compatibility.

Incentivized

There is room for improvement when it comes to learning the UI, but the UI is overall pretty good. It doesn't take long to learn if you are famaliar with firewalls.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized