Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Hillstone E-Series comparison

Check Point Software Technologies and Hillstone Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Check Point Software Technologies is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.4, while Hillstone Networks is ranked #38 with an average rating of 8.0. Check Point Software Technologies holds a 2.1% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Hillstone Networks’s 0.6% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Hillstone Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 15, 2026

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security and Hillstone E-Series compete in the network security category, with CloudGuard having a notable advantage in multi-cloud environments due to its comprehensive feature set.

Features: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is known for advanced threat prevention, identity awareness, and user application control, providing a unified security management across hybrid clouds. Hillstone E-Series is recognized for its user-friendliness, solid hardware performance, and innovative virtual switching and routing, offering a flexible deployment structure.

Room for Improvement: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security could improve in API integration, support case resolution, and documentation, along with management protocol enhancements. Hillstone E-Series needs to address its reporting capabilities, licensing complexity, and active directory integration to bolster its offerings.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security offers strong multi-cloud integration but may present setup complexity and variable support responsiveness. Hillstone E-Series is straightforward in on-premise and public cloud deployment with praised support, though there's a call for more readily available direct support.

Pricing and ROI: Check Point CloudGuard Network Security tends to have a higher price point, but its features deliver positive ROI through efficiency and security compliance. Hillstone E-Series offers competitive pricing attractive to budget-conscious buyers, though its licensing complexity might require attention.

To learn more, read our detailed Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Hillstone E-Series Report (Updated: April 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Hillstone E-Series

April 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 May 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 16.0%, down from 21.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is 2.1%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	16.0%
Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)	2.1%
Hillstone E-Series	0.6%
Other	81.3%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Abhinandan Yadav

Network Security Engineer at Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd

Unified security and sd-wan have improved uptime and cut wan costs for multi-site branches

Users report stability issues in certain versions, which requires regular updates. Real-world attacks have also highlighted the need for urgent patching of vulnerabilities.Fortinet FortiGate, while a powerful and feature-rich web firewall, could improve in areas like firmware stability, documentation, and ease of use. The learning curve can be steep for some users. For beginners, support quality can vary, and frequent updates with occasional vulnerabilities call for careful patch management. However, once Fortinet FortiGate is configured, it remains highly reliable and efficient. Customer support needs improvement, as I find it very slow, with reports from other users reflecting that customer support is inadequate.

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Viral Shaa

IT Security Analyst at Eos Energy Enterprises, Inc.

Cloud security has unified hybrid policies and now protects critical energy workloads continuously

I would say Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) is valuable due to its hybrid cloud security features. It offers granular policy management across the on-premises and cloud environments, giving administrators consistent control for configuration drift. We need to change the policy and the inbound and outbound traffic settings, indicating what traffic must be blocked or allowed, and this capability with Check Point provides significant input into our security strategy. Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) provides unified security management across both hybrid clouds and on-premises environments. Unified security management affects my security operations positively, as we maintain critical systems on the cloud that require strong security and air gap networks. This cloud-native routing and policy installation helps close gaps in protecting critical applications and environments from exposure to the public cloud. From an administrator's perspective, Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) enhances our organization with clearer and more intuitive logging, making decisions easier to understand without deep investigation. In the CloudGuard UI, I can see which threats have triggered alerts, and this information is available on the unified dashboard that provides details of the threat analysis upon alert. As a small team, we log into the console to check specific alerts for high or low network usage or machine shutdowns. If needed, I tune the configuration policy, and the visualizing tools with reporting functionality simplify tracking changes made on the firewall, including the relevant source IP or device names. We ingest logs into our SIEM for detailed oversight, which allows us to monitor any administrative changes. Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) has significantly reduced our organizational risk. We clearly understand our threat landscape and the associated risks. Onboarding the CloudGuard solution directly into our cloud environment has significantly lowered the risks throughout the network and it is easy to launch. When we assess our security posture with third-party assessments, we gain granular visibility into our network pre- and post-CloudGuard installation, showing how we have addressed significant risks and secured vulnerabilities.

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TahirMahmood

IT Manager at Zubair Feeds

Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.

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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

"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."

"I appreciate FortiGate for its reliable, powerful, and flexible setups."

"All in all, it's quite a good product, of course, a very good product."

"The stability is great; there are no issues with crashing or freezing, and there are no bugs or glitches."

"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."

"Fortinet FortiGate is very stable."

"I prefer FortiGate because it has a lot of other solutions embedded within it and is the easiest for our technicians to operate."

"The solution is used in my company since its management is very comfortable"

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most valuable feature is the automation and the APIs, making our life much easier for integration."

"I find it really useful that CloudGuard supports all the main players on the Public Clouds market including AWS, GCP, and Azure, as well as some exotic ones like Alibaba Cloud, Oracle Cloud, and IBM Cloud."

"The versatility is the solution's most valuable feature."

"It really is a pretty complete solution."

"We find all the features valuable, particularly the firewall, application control, URL filtering, and HTTPS detection."

"The SSL spectrum proved to be the most valuable for our incoming connections."

"I think one of the valuable features is the auto-scaling, which is based on traffic and automatically spins one more firewall and adds it to the management server."

"Scale Set is highly beneficial. It is easy to upgrade and maintain."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) pros

"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."

"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option."

"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."

"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients secure connectivity from a remote location to their offices or their servers."

"With Hillstone, TCO and ROI are very good, it's an easy sale."

"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

Cons

"The user interface of the Fortinet FortiGate management console could be more intuitive and user-friendly, and the log analysis and reporting features could be enhanced to provide more flexibility and customizable insights."

"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good. I hope that their technical support will be better in the future."

"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."

"From a pricing perspective, I would rate them a six."

"For our organization, the initial setup was not straightforward. It was pretty complex."

"The prevention mechanisms and implementation are not easy."

"FortiManager has not been my favorite. I don't use it and cannot say I really care for FortiManager for managing the firewalls."

"The area that Fortinet may improve is customer support."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"We are at the place where we are looking at better integration with the management system. We use an MDS today, and it is self-deployed. We want to get to the Smart-1 Cloud, but we do not know what that looks like today because it does not support a multi-domain setup. Smart-1 should either be able to do multi-domain or there should be some form of taking a multi-domain environment and putting it in Smart-1."

"The initial setup is difficult. It took me three tries to get it right. The setup took two or three hours."

"If you compare the GUI with the Palo Alto and Cisco, they're very easy. Check Point, due to its design, is a little bit complex."

"Check Point Virtual Systems is a complete solution, but pricing can be better."

"The management console can be simplified because at the moment, it is a bit of a challenge to use."

"We are having issues with updatable objects in the Scale Set solution. It needs to be fixed by Check Point."

"The memory and hard disk capability could be strengthened."

"Our biggest complaint concerns the high resource usage for IDP/IPS, as we cannot turn on all of the features even with new hardware."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) cons

"The current usage reporting is very basic. I would like to be able to access more granular data."

"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

"The tool only had some memory-related problems."

"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."

"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."

"The room for improvement would be the SSL VPN license cost."

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."

More Hillstone E-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is better compared to other solutions like Check Point, Arista, or Cisco."

"The product is not very expensive."

"When you look at these end security systems and firewalls, these firewalls even five years ago were $50,000 or perhaps $25,000 to implement in some types of customer sites. Now we're talking about tools that are $1,000. In this case, it might have been $500 or something like that."

"We have the full version of Fortinet FortiGate and we are on a three-year contract with a commitment of five years."

"Their licensing costs are annual. The UTM feature license along with their support is called FortiCare. We include that as a part of the annual maintenance cost. Palo Alto or Juniper also have an annual subscription charge for UTM. Price, of course, can always be more competitive, but it is not the most expensive product. The price-performance ratio is quite high for FortiGate."

"If we have an older version, the support costs get quite high."

"It's very competitive."

"The price of the license and warranty can be better because it is very expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Licensing is simply by the number of hosts that you are looking to protect within your environment. It makes it much easier to ensure that you are covering your environment."

"The tool's pricing is not cheap."

"We are using our BYOL. We are using our existing Check Point discounts to work with licensing. Overall, it is very competitive. Its pricing is reasonable to me."

"I do not have too much to compare to, but if I compare it with Azure Firewall, Scale Set is quite good. It has quite a good price."

"The price could be better."

"We have a pretty good partnership with Check Point. We have a global subscription and agreement. They give us a pretty good corporate discount."

"The pricing is pretty high, not just for your capital, for what you have to pay upfront, but for what you pay for your annual software renewals as well, compared to a lot of other vendors. Check Point is near the top, as far as how much it's going to cost you."

"Generally, it has been fine for me. I can find my way around the price list, and it is pretty simple."

More Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) pricing and cost advice

"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."

"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."

"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

14%

Construction Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	367
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	193

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	68
Midsize Enterprise	41
Large Enterprise	77

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	1

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...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

The tool's most valuable feature is its management console.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Although I do not know much about the pricing or setup costs, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is very cost-ef...

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What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security could be improved with faster policy propagation across large multi-cloud env...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the fire...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?

I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features w...

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Hillstone E-Series?

Our company did not use the tool's micro-segmentation features. There were no issues while integrating the tool. I ha...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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Azure Firewall vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Compared 6% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Compared 5% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

Compared 4% of the time

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OpenVPN Access Server vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 16% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

More Hillstone E-Series Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security)

May 2026

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) report

Download Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

April 2026

Download Hillstone E-Series product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security

No data available

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

Check Point Cloud Firewall delivers advanced threat prevention and administration ease with centralized management of hybrid clouds. It offers seamless cloud platform integration, maintaining consistent security policies and enhancing efficiency.

Check Point Cloud Firewall is designed for comprehensive cloud security, ensuring perimeter protection, traffic inspection, and threat prevention. It is often used for safeguarding workloads and applications in public cloud settings like AWS and Azure. The firewall effectively controls both east-west and north-south traffic and supports hybrid cloud setups. Utilizing features like VPN, IPS, and URL filtering, it secures environments across multiple platforms, helping manage compliance effectively while addressing latency, API integration, and onboarding challenges.

What are the key features?

Advanced Threat Prevention: Defends against cyber threats across hybrid clouds.
Auto-Scaling: Automatically adjusts resources to meet demand.
Unified Security Management: Centralizes management for consistent security.
REST API Automation: Enables seamless integration with existing workflows.
Robust VPN Capabilities: Ensures secure data transmission across networks.

What benefits to expect in reviews?

Ease of Administration: Simplified management processes across environments.
Operational Efficiency: Enhances productivity by reducing risk and complexity.
Consistent Security Policies: Maintains a uniform security posture between clouds.
User-Friendly Interface: Streamlines user interactions and task completion.

Check Point Cloud Firewall sees frequent use in sectors needing robust perimeter protection, such as finance and healthcare, where compliance is critical. Its capabilities suit businesses utilizing public cloud infrastructures, managing complex hybrid models, or requiring strong VPN services and traffic control.

Check Point Software Technologies

Hillstone E-Series is known for user-friendliness and advanced security features, offering high-performance threat protection with virtual switching and routing to support significant data volumes without third-party hardware. It provides top-notch firewall capabilities tailored to educational and energy sectors.

Hillstone E-Series delivers comprehensive network security with threat intelligence, ransomware protection, and state-of-the-art hardware innovation. Its 64-bit call processor facilitates handling large data volumes efficiently. Capabilities such as SSL VPN, integrated IPS, and application filtering make it a valuable choice for network protection. While further integration with a web proxy and enhanced usage reporting can enhance its offerings, enhancements in pricing models, support systems, and updates align with evolving user expectations for improved regional support and detailed analytics.

What are the standout features of Hillstone E-Series?

User-Friendliness: Intuitive setup and management for all users.
Threat Intelligence: Advanced protection against modern cyber threats.
Ransomware Protection: Strong defenses to mitigate ransomware attacks.
Hardware Innovation: Virtual switching/routing for seamless operations.
64-Bit Call Processor: Efficient performance with high data volumes.

What benefits should users expect when evaluating Hillstone E-Series?

Comprehensive Capability: Addresses complex network security needs.
Impressive Throughput: Maintains high performance under load.
Easy Policy Management: Simplifies network security rule application.
Robust Security Features: Offers extensive filtering and blocking options.

The Hillstone E-Series is implemented extensively across industries like educational institutions and energy companies to safeguard local networks against gateway-level threats. Many organizations benefit from features such as antivirus, integrated IPS, site-to-site VPN, SSL VPN, and policy management, enhancing remote work security and simplifying network management tasks.

Hillstone Networks

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

Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO

Buyer's Guide

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Hillstone E-Series

April 2026

Free Report: Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs. Hillstone E-Series

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