CrowdSec vs. WatchGuard Network Security

Since I've only used CrowdSec in a homelab/small-medium sized business setup, that's really the only market I can safely recommend it and say it's well suited for, because I don't know how much it would cost to run it in an enterprise environment. I've heard some pricing and how they plan on rolling out a subscription model, but it's still in talks. Either way, if you have publicly exposed web applications hosted locally or on a virtual private server, then CrowdSec should be part of every virtual machine and/or network. Even with the lmited number of filter you get out of the free subscription, it provides a nice layer of constantly updated data,

Incentivized

Watchguard is well suited for small businesses without significantly complex networks and infrastructure. WatchGuard firewalls perform well on IPv4 networks and offer basic security features that match other vendors that target the small business market. WatchGuard firewalls are less appropriate for mid-sized business and larger. There is limited IPv6 support, and the firmware often lacks some or all of more advanced features that businesses that size often need.

Incentivized

• Provides great integrations with tools you already use, such as fail2ban, Cloudflare, WordPress, NGINX, Linux Firewalls, etc.
• Lightweight agents can run on individual servers and report to a main security engine so that if there's an attack on one server and a block is implemented, the entire network can be protected
• There are a lot of ways to receive alerts and store logs
• CrowdSec Central API is a nice way to manage everything externally

Incentivized

• Incoming Torrent attempts were blocked, but outgoing (by a user) were permitted. Similarly, other direct attempts were summarily blocked.
• provides full administrative support for analysis of usage and scope.
• strong Wi-Fi support and security - area wi-fi maps
• They think of all the things secure and I don't have to worry about it.
• I have not identified anything else that needs improvement - I am well satisfied.

Incentivized

• Getting CrowdSec to run on OPNsense can be a challenge, but that's also a limitation of the OS
• You can only subscribe to a couple of feeds before paying an unknown amount of money that's part of their "Enterprise" package. So, there could be better transparency.

Incentivized

• Better integration with VoIP services, such as templates for policies handling traffic for Bria or Asterisk endponts and servers.
• Get webblocker to work without breaking secure websites.
• Lower cost on endpoint agents for antivirus and include application control and webblocker with the agents.
• Make the cost per endpoint with TDR and Netowrk access control lower than the cost of Antivirus licensing that is not integrated.
• Make it easier to set up network access control and VLAN assignment by device, perhaps with templates.
• Get webblocker and application control working with QUIC.

Incentivized

I'm giving this note to WatchGuard Network Security due to its ease of daily support (after acquiring necessary knowledge in the solution), which allows agility in configuration changes, its integration of several reliable security features (such as SSL VPN, VPN Virtual Interfaces between companies, and others) and functional and stability in operation, with no downtime in the equipment due to problems or malfunctions

Incentivized

Although it might take some time to figure out, we have been able to use WatchGuard's online reference library and tech support to create/implement/modify all of our filtering rules and exceptions needed. There really has not been a shortcoming other than perhaps a learning curve.

Incentivized

Availability has always been a strong point of this product, it is rare that watchguard does not have a solution for customers' network monitoring needs.

Incentivized

The performance of WatchGuard Network Security is very good, in the years that we have used the solution we have only had a single error and Watchguard itself was able to solve it. Furthermore, when purchasing any product, the partner always evaluates the capacity of the solution to recommend the most appropriate product for our needs.

Incentivized

We have only had to contact them once during the initial set up to help bring the internet back on line. After that for the most part our systems have been automated, and could easily be checked form their online FAQ and Knowledge base that they provide. Everything else is easily handled from their browser based interface

Incentivized

We participate to a in person training and the three days of learning was really useful and complete to gain skill to solve the major part of the problem we encounter during our life. And more the in person training give us the opportunity to create a network with other WatchGuard partner.

Incentivized

Online training is good for learning how to use the product. It does not teach security strategy because that is not its intent.

Incentivized

I had my key information for setting up the firewall, and they assisted me in finding the settings and appropriate places to enter data. They also helped troubleshoot when I didn't understand some of their feature concepts, and we got it running.

Incentivized

I think the solutions are comparable, but the cloud management piece is critical for MSPs these days. We need to be able to schedule and push out updates as soon as they are stable and ready. Insurance companies and government regulations mandate this.

Incentivized

This product is very scalable since previously everything related to Watchguard was on premises but that has now changed with the inclusion of watchguard cloud. Now the product has evolved to have full control of firewalls at the cloud level.

Incentivized

• It flat-out blocks malicious IPs from accessing any PC on my network.
• It's free-tier makes this a no brainer to implement

Incentivized

• at least 3-5X a year (that I know of), this device has single-handedly prevented members of our staff from inadvertently connecting to services they did not intend and could have resulted in security disruption
• although you can never rule out human-behaviour-engineered threat, it's helpful to know that our network has a higher level, enterprise-class control and monitoring behind it
• any time our network might be showing signs of abnormal performance, the WatchGuard control panel is the first place I turn to help identify the level of concern. It can quickly set my mind at ease and help to identify the specific device that might be out of compliance

Incentivized