APF Software Firewall vs. SonicWall NSA Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
APF Software Firewall
Score 0.0 out of 10
N/A
Advanced Policy Firewall (APF) is a free and open-source iptables(netfilter) based firewall system designed around the Internet 's deployed servers and the unique needs of custom deployed Linux installations. The configuration of APF is designed to be informative and present the user with an easy to follow process, from top to bottom of the configuration file.N/A
SonicWall NSA Series
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
The SonicWall NSA Series is the company's mid-range next generation firewall (NGFW).N/A
Pricing
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Features
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
APF Software Firewall
-
Ratings
SonicWall NSA Series
8.3
Ratings
4% below category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings8.90 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
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Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
APF Software FirewallSonicWall NSA Series
Likelihood to Recommend
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
  • 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
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  • 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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Usability
No answers on this topic
The usability takes a bit of training, like any firewall, but I've found that showing even Tier 1 helpdesk how to do basic things has been easy. We have entry-level IT technicians performing white-listing, IP entries, VPN access and LDAP functions, to name a few tasks. The menus in the GUI are pretty straight forward.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
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
No answers on this topic
The SonicWall NSA is a lot more fluid and much less clunky than a Watchguard firewall. The Watchguard is ok for a small business-- you can buy them at retail outlets. But as you can see above, this model of Watchguard Firebox has been discontinued. The NSA classes are a more high-end and functional business-class firewall.
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Return on Investment
No answers on this topic
  • It is a firewall appliance at an affordable price compared to other firewall vendors.
  • It is reliable and thus, allows our business to operate without any hiccups.
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