These products won a Top Rated award for having excellent customer satisfaction ratings. The list is based purely on reviews; there is no paid placement, and analyst opinions do not influence the rankings. Read more about the Top Rated criteria.
TrustMaps are two-dimensional charts that compare products based on trScore and research frequency by prospective buyers. Products must have 10 or more ratings to appear on this TrustMap.
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The list of products below is based purely on reviews (sorted from most to least). There is no paid placement and analyst opinions do not influence their rankings. Here is our Promise to Buyers to ensure information on our site is reliable, useful, and worthy of your trust.
WatchGuard Network Security is a network security and firewall software. WatchGuard includes secure Wi-Fi, multi-factor authentication, and network intelligence products and services designed for SMB’s.
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the core OS for the ASA suite. It provides firewall functionality, as well as integration with context-specific Cisco security modules. It is scaled for enterprise-level traffic and connections.
Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls is a combined UTM and Software-Defined WAN solution. Meraki is managed via the cloud, and provides core firewall services, including site-to-site VPN, plus network monitoring.
FortiNet FortiGate is a firewall option with high integrability. It offers a variety of deployment options and next-gen firewall capabilities, including integration with IaaS cloud platforms and public cloud environments.
Palo Alto next-generation firewalls classify all traffic, including encrypted and internal traffic, based on application, application function, user and content. Users can create security policies to enable only authorized users to run sanctioned applications.
The Cisco Firepower® 1000 Series for small to medium-size businesses and branch offices is a family of four threat-focused Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) security platforms designed to deliver business resiliency through superior threat defense. The vendor provides that they offers…
Cisco offers a threat-focused next-generation firewall (NGFW), the ASA 5500-X Series. The ASA 5500 Series platforms can run either the Cisco ASA Firewall or Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). The series features appliances in a variety of form factors, including standalone options…
pfSense is a firewall and load management product available through the open source pfSense Community Edition, as well as a the licensed edition, pfSense Plus (formerly known as pfSense Enterprise). The solution provides combined firewall, VPN, and router functionality, and can be…
Zscaler Internet Access is delivered as a security stack as a service from the cloud, and is designed to eliminate the cost and complexity of traditional secure web gateway approaches, and provide easily scaled protection to all offices or users, regardless of location, and minimize…
Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Cisco Firepower NGFW) is a firewall product that integrates with other Cisco security offerings. It provides Advanced Malware protection, including sandboxing environments and DDoS mitigation. Cisco also offers a Next Generation Intrusion Prevention…
SonicWall TZ is a NGFW for small to mid-sized companies. It is a Unified Threat Management solution, with additional native decryption and deep-packet inspection capabilities.
Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls provides a wide range of security and connectivity features, including web filtering, NAC and SSL VPN and other features for remote access, as well as protection as edge devices and IoT security.
Sophos UTM provides core firewall features, plus sandboxing and AI threat detection for advanced network security. It has customizable deployment options.
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.
Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams.
Juniper SRX is a firewall offering. It provides a variety of modular features, scaled for enterprise-level use, based on a 3-in-1 OS that enables routing, switching, and security in each product.
Sophos XG Firewall provides comprehensive next-generation firewall protection powered by deep learning and Synchronized Security. The vendor states XG Firewall supplies unmatched insights and exposes hidden user, application, and threat risks on the network, and say the product is…
The Check Point Quantum Security Gateway Next Generation Firewall is a tiered firewall product. The base model includes the core firewall services, and can be upgraded to include anti-bot/virus/spam and sandboxing capabilities.
Trustwave Firewall is a managed NGFW service. It provides core firewall services, as well as modularized add-ons like application control.
WatchGuard XTM is a firewall option, from WatchGuard Technologies.
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 and
RackFoundry was a firewall solution with VPN, SIEM, automated vulnerability scanning and log management features scaled for SME’s. It has been discontinued and is no longer available.
The SonicWall NSA Series is the company's mid-range next generation firewall (NGFW).
Sophos’s Cyberoam offers UTM and NGFW products. Cyberoam provides the full suite of modularized firewall services, as well as real-time reporting, for enterprise-level use.
Check Point’s 4000-series appliances is a legacy firewall offering. It also provides IPsec VPN access and intrusion prevention within the offering.
Firewall software are filters that stand between a computer or computer network and the Internet. Each firewall can be programmed to keep specific traffic in or out. All messages passing through the firewall software are examined. Those messages that do not meet pre-defined security criteria are blocked.
For example, on the outbound side, firewall software can be configured to prevent employees from transmitting sensitive data outside the network. On the inbound side, firewalls can be configured to prevent access to certain kinds of websites, like social media sites.
Firewalls use several methods to control traffic flowing in and out of a network:
There are also more specific firewall software beyond network-level firewalls. For instance, Web Application Firewalls sit between externally-facing applications and the web portal that end-users connect to the application through.
Firewall software should have most or all of these features:
Firewall vendors are beginning to bundle firewall offerings with other security or privacy features, although this is not a universal practice. The most common example is support for Virtual Private Networks (VPN), and load-management is often featured as well.
To compare different Firewall software, you likely want to consider evaluating these aspects of the software:
The cost of firewalls can vary from free (for personal use) to significant sums of money for enterprise firewalls. Firewalls are often on-premise appliances, but can also be purchased as software which must be installed on a server, or as a cloud service. The range of pricing models is broad making it difficult to compare across vendors. However, an enterprise firewall may cost upwards of $30,000, depending on capability and type.
Cisco ASA 5500-X Starting Price: $400.00 / Maximum Price: $20,000.00
SonicWall TZ Starting Price: $300.00 / Maximum Price: $2,300.00
Fortinet Fortigate Starting Price: $250.00 / Maximum Price: $300,000.00
pfSense Starting Price: $179.00 / Maximum Price: $2,649.00
Cisco Firepower Starting Price: $500.00 / Maximum Price: $200,000.00
Cisco Meraki MX Starting Price:$595.00 / Maximum Price: $19,995.00
The following firewalls offer award-winning customer relationships, feature sets, and value for price. Learn more about our Best Of Awards methodology here.
There are four major types.