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Barracuda CloudGen Firewall vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN comparison

Barracuda Networks and Riverbed are both solutions in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category. Barracuda Networks is ranked #14 with an average rating of 8.3, while Riverbed is ranked #26. Barracuda Networks holds a 2.3% mindshare in SDW, compared to Riverbed’s 0.8% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Barracuda Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 50% of Riverbed users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Barracuda CloudGen Firewall and SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Check Point Software Technologies and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Report (Updated: January 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 13.2%, down from 19.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is 2.3%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN is 0.8%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	13.2%
Barracuda CloudGen Firewall	2.3%
SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN	0.8%
Other	83.7%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Sonal Ankita

Senior Data Engineer at Foodics

Remote work security has improved and web filtering now protects users from risky sites

The best features Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers in my opinion are flexibility in deployment, basic SD-WAN, edge firewall, and application visibility and web filtering. Out of flexibility in deployment, SD-WAN, edge firewall, application visibility, and web filtering, the one that has had the biggest impact for my team is basic web filtering to back up on devices. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall offers a cost-effective SD-WAN for our small organization, even for the smaller sites. Barracuda CloudGen Firewall has positively impacted my organization by serving as both our primary edge firewalls and our SD-WAN concentrator and endpoints. We have noticed some return on investments, especially since it is very cost-effective for any type of organization. It prevents IBR attacks and has helped us during this pandemic. It has a good, easy-to-use interface.

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Jason Best

Data center network architect at Cloudwire

Analytics feature is very granular and comprehensive, although complicated to use

It's like an SD-WAN project basically. You really need to make sure that the product matches the needs of what the customer's trying to achieve and their overall strategy to meet their core business requirements. I think a certain customer made a mistake in choosing this solution because a large part of their network was Cisco and they had firewalls that were from Fortinet. I think they would have been better off and it would have been better from a CAPEX, OPEX point of view. It would've been more advantageous for them to have maybe chosen a Cisco or Fortinet solution based on their existing environment. Make sure you understand your network correctly before you try to implement any SD-WAN solution. That was one of the good lessons I learned about SD-WANs with this specific product. I wouldn't say it was a fault of the product. I would say it's more a fault of the CTO who tries to do things quickly without taking into account the existing environment or give the internal faculties the time to provide real low-level design implementation. It was more of a management mistake than from their technical team. In the next release, I would like to see things like integrated security but with local internet breakout instead of using third party solutions like NetScaler or Palo Alto. I would also like to see the integration of things like a VPN so that if you have remote sites where you might have remote workers that need to access the site from home or something, there's a VPN solution. Those are two key features and hotspots in the sort of global crisis. I would rate Riverbed a seven out of ten. I could never give any solution a 10 cause they all have good and bad points. To get any solution to a ten is pretty much impossible. If I was to rate it against others like Fortinet, I would probably give Fortinet an eight or nine. Again, I think you have to be careful because it's very subjective. I think it really depends on the type of environment, the type of customer you're deploying the SD-WAN solution for, and from which perspective you're looking at like if you an operator, if you're a large enterprise, if you're looking for a plug and play type solution. If you're looking for more of a security solution, I would go for Fortinet. It's kind of tough to say. I'd probably put the clouds a little bit ahead of the game because it does what it's supposed to do and easily. It's a little more of a plug and play type solution. Fortinet, for example, is more complex. I put it in a close second place, it's better from a security perspective. It has integration with FortiGuard. After that, I would put Riverbed in third place.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Customers keep on improving their licenses. The solution remains scalable and flexible. On-premises deployments may have some limitations. However, cloud deployments offer a high degree of flexibility."

"The performance is very good and the solution is simple to manage."

"A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside."

"It's very fast and easy to configure."

"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are its SD-WAN capabilities, such as dynamic routing, and other features, including security options such as antivirus, IPS, and IDS—all integrated into one device."

"I like FortiGate's zero-trust capabilities and protection against zero-day threats. Zero-day threat protection is critical because we're seeing constant changes in the threat landscape. The sandboxing and web access controls are also robust."

"I haven't configured or experienced any stability issues."

"FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"We enjoy the reduction in terms of labor."

"Scalability is good; the company wants to be able to handle large customers."

"Single device, multiple functions - I do not need to purchase a web application firewall, a proxy server, a VPN device and so many others because these are all built in to this one device."

"Their GPS possibilities and the security that it has, especially the SD-WAN functionality, is very good."

"The interface is very user-friendly and it is quite easy to use."

"The technical support from Barracuda is very good. I would rate it nine out of ten."

"Enables us to define user application-level access, so our customers can work anytime from anywhere."

"Single sign-on is also good. If you are accessing your corporate firewall from your home, during that time there is integration with AD. You can use your AD password to access your SSL VPN. It's not like if you buy an additional SSL VPN... You can directly integrate with your AD. If you change your password on the AD side, your client-to-VPN password also gets changed. You can integrate all your passwords from a single console. It's not like admin has to change your password, it's a single sign-on."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pros

"The analytics is the most valuable feature because it was very granular and very comprehensive, although a little complicated to use. If you're really interested in knowing what's happening on your network, it's a very good solution. That was the .NET Profiler part of the solution."

Cons

"They have not yet extended to the cloud."

"Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective."

"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."

"For improving sectors, they need to focus on technical support and work on the technical part."

"The documentation available for Fortinet FortiGate should be improved"

"Though the tool's GUI is user-friendly, it can be considered as an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."

"The people we are working with are not able to configure MFA. They are having some technical issues. Fortinet needs to ensure that its partners are well-trained."

"The reporting was limited."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"If you experience an attack it can take a very long time to find a solution."

"The interface of Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is not as user-friendly as others."

"It's a little bit complex in terms of handling. If you implement a change, there is a specific point where you have to commit it. It's not like you just push a button and it's always committed. If you don't know to check whether your commit command has been executed or not... that is something Barracuda needs to work on."

"While using Barracuda CloudGen Firewall, we encounter issues with VPN profiles for Windows."

"The technical manuals, at times, have images that don't match the actual screens and are not always as clear as they could be on the configuration."

"The analytics are weak."

"Can be underpowered if you choose to use all available add-on features. Just be careful when sizing your unit. Make sure you take into account what features you will be turning on, and work with your sales rep to get the model that can handle that load."

"Sometimes we have a need for detailed reports. Barracuda NG Firewall does not have a reports module and uses a satellite application."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall cons

"The routing scalability needs improvement. We have run into a lot of limitations and also primarily from a routine perspective, things like RSPs line support. It was supportive but not really supportive."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate could improve, it is expensive."

"I would rate pricing to be about four or five out of ten, it is reasonable."

"Currently, we are paying about $1,500 a month for three sites."

"Fortinet's pricing is more straightforward than other solutions. If Fortinet doesn't stick out when you're searching for a solution, you are a glutton for punishment. You only need to know two things when purchasing a Fortinet solution: your total bandwidth and bandwidth at the site. You need to estimate the future bandwidth with other solutions if your customer plans to upgrade."

"I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive."

"A year or two years back, its price was competitive and reasonable. That was one of the reasons that people easily switched to Fortinet. Over the last two years, the prices have increased drastically. However, the prices of others have also increased. An advantage is there from the price point but not as much as it was previously."

"It is cost-effective, and provides a good value for your money. The pricing, and license renewal, is very reasonable for us."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The 600 series is about USD $10,000 a year and the 80 is USD $400 a year."

"Purchasing through AWS Marketplace was good. We did it because it was easy."

"Its licensing is on a yearly basis. There is an upfront purchase price, and there is also an annual maintenance fee. There are no additional fees."

"It would be nice if the pricing and licensing offered for less."

"It is a product with a very transparent model of licensing. In the sense of hidden expenses, they do not exist with this model. "

"We evaluated a lot of different options. We concluded that Barracuda NG Firewall provided the most features for an exemplary price. "

"In general, it tends to be cheaper than most solutions."

"We pay around 150 to 200 Euros per year and there are no additional costs."

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Marketing Services Firm

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	357
Midsize Enterprise	133
Large Enterprise	189

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	30
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	6

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

Our experience with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall pricing and licensing has been reasonable and transparent. The setup ...

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What needs improvement with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

Overall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is very effective, but there is always room for improvement. One area that could...

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What is your primary use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall?

My main use case for Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is for our network security and network traffic management. I rely o...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 14% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

More Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Competitors

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 32% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 27% of the time

Steelhead vs SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN

Compared 24% of the time

More SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

February 2026

Download Barracuda CloudGen Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 2026

SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN report

Download SteelConnect EX Enterprise SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Barracuda NextGen Firewall, Barracuda CloudGen Firewalls

SteelConnect, Riverbed SteelConnect

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall is a comprehensive network security solution that provides advanced protection for organizations of all sizes. It offers next-generation firewall capabilities, including application control, intrusion prevention, and web filtering.

With its integrated VPN functionality, it ensures secure remote access for employees. CloudGen Firewall also includes advanced threat intelligence, leveraging real-time updates to detect and block emerging threats. Its centralized management console simplifies administration and provides visibility into network traffic.

CloudGen Firewall can easily adapt to changing business needs based on its scalable architecture.

Barracuda Networks

Accelerate business velocity with enterprise-class SD-WAN. As enterprises and organizations adopt more cloud and SaaS applications to support an increasingly distributed workforce, the hybrid networks connecting it all have been more complex, less predictable and less secure.

Riverbed SteelConnect EX is a powerful enterprise SD-WAN solution that integrates best-in-class routing, application acceleration, network visibility, and security services – a flexible and complete WAN Edge platform that gives you what you need to modernize your network and propel your business in the digital age.

Riverbed

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

ARZ, Bauer, CBCX Technologies, Diamant-groep, Eissmann Group Automotive, European Youth Olympics, Exalo Drilling, FineLine Technologies, Geocell, Grimaldi, Infront Sports & Media, Odlo, Schenker Deutschland AG, Tilak, Verbandsgeneinde Zell, Conservas El Cidacos S.A., Institute for Emergency Medicine and Medicine Management, Erwin Muller GmbH, Info-Tech: NGF is Champion, Schoellerbank, IZB Informatik-Zentrum, RHI AG, Berglandmilch, Antenne Bayern, Sanochemia

Roxtec, Software Solutions Company, Rignet

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

January 2026

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