SonicWall NSA Series vs. Sophos Firewall

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Sophos Firewall
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Sophos XG Firewall provides comprehensive next-generation firewall protection powered by deep learning and Synchronized Security. Sophos Firewall supplies insights and exposes hidden user, application, and threat risks on the network, and say the product is differentiated by its ability to respond automatically to security incidents by isolating compromised systems, with Security Heartbeat™.N/A
Pricing
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Features
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
SonicWall NSA Series
8.3
Ratings
4% below category average
Sophos Firewall
9.4
Ratings
9% above category average
Identification Technologies8.80 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.90 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Content Inspection5.10 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.90 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP6.80 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.90 Ratings9.50 Ratings
VPN9.90 Ratings9.70 Ratings
High Availability9.80 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Stateful Inspection7.10 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Proxy Server7.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
User Ratings
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
SonicWall NSA SeriesSophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
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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It is well-suited for small, medium, and large organizations looking for comprehensive cybersecurity protection. It will not only safeguard their network from cyberattacks but also provide them with many advanced features like deep packet inspection, centralized management, web filtering, application control, etc. in one place. It will help them optimize bandwidth and ensure continued connectivity.
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Pros
  • 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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  • Web filtering. This allows us to monitor web usage and block certain categories from being access at the perimeter.
  • Application Control. With application control we can block certain applications that get categorized from working accessing the Internet.
  • Synchronized Security. When utilizing the Sophos Endpoint product you can use Synchronized Security to minimize Lateral Movement in a network. If a machine is shows a Red status you can auto-isolate it and it is unable to communicate with anything else on the network.
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Cons
  • 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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  • If using Endpoint security and the Firewall it would be nice to have an easier back and forth between the portals rather than have two separate tabs open. Especially if using more than one in multiple locations.
  • If dealing with different revisions options are moved around and sometimes in places that doesn't normally seem like they should be there.
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Usability
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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Because this is a user-friendly interface, and anyone can use it there are multiple articles and guidelines available, it has advanced-level security features. they provide VPN solutions all the features are very practical, SSID MAC-based authentications web control, Firewall rules segregation of the rules and policies, On-premises Active directory single sign-on feature is also available.
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Support Rating
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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As we are all addicted to graphics-oriented interfaces for all our life products. Easy to manage and access as a good way of using anything
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Alternatives Considered
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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I was a big fan of Cisco ASA products, but when I saw all of the security feature differences between both firewalls, I moved to Sophos devices. Its sandbox, IPS, and many more features are really advanced. Cisco does not provide features like this.
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Return on Investment
  • 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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  • True UTM device.
  • Very Active customer help for any help.
  • Easy license and cost effective.
  • Should [do] more work on logging and reporting.
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ScreenShots

Sophos Firewall Screenshots

Screenshot of Sophos Firewall v17.5 Control Center