Check Point NGFW vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall comparison

Check Point Software Technologies and Zscaler are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Check Point Software Technologies is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.6, while Zscaler is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.6. Check Point Software Technologies holds a 3.0% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Zscaler’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 96% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Zscaler users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 5, 2025

Check Point NGFW and Zscaler Cloud Firewall are both key players in the firewall competition category. Check Point appears to have an upper hand in terms of comprehensive security features, while Zscaler excels in seamless cloud application integration.

Features: Check Point NGFW boasts advanced logging capabilities, centralized management, and identity awareness. These features enhance its security protocols, making it a robust choice for businesses requiring detailed oversight. Zscaler Cloud Firewall emphasizes its cloud-centric architecture, with strong URL filtering and endpoint mitigation, ensuring optimal web security and integration with cloud applications.

Room for Improvement: Check Point users highlight stability issues, complex licensing, and a need for better support and integration with third-party solutions. On the other hand, Zscaler, while appreciated for its cloud focus, lacks features like web browser isolation and granular rule-setting, areas users wish to see improved upon.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Check Point NGFW primarily operates on-premises, offering hybrid configuration flexibility. Users value its management but require skilled IT teams for deployment. Its technical support, while generally responsive, is sometimes inconsistent. Zscaler Cloud Firewall, being cloud-based, simplifies deployment and integrates smoothly with existing infrastructure. Its support is satisfactory, although improvements in tech support responsiveness are desired.

Pricing and ROI: Check Point is considered expensive, with complex licensing, yet users note the investment is justified by its security features, offering good long-term ROI. Zscaler presents flexible subscription models and competitive pricing for cloud services but is seen as costly for smaller businesses, although its feature set provides value despite the higher expense.

To learn more, read our detailed Check Point NGFW vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Check Point NGFW vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

March 2025

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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 April 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 21.1%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point NGFW is 3.0%, down from 3.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zscaler Cloud Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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Manikandan Kannan

Head of Technology at Techfruits

Streamlined management through dual-interface configuration capabilities with excellent support

We use Check Point NGFW for security purposes. Our clients use it for security reasons, as mentioned during the call The most valuable feature is the availability of two consoles. In the normal GA login, I can create interfaces and configure interface IPs, while in the SmartConsole, I manage the…

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Bhaskar Rao

Network manager admin at Yamaha

Though it helps deal with web traffic or any malicious traffic, it needs to work on its DC performance issues

The product's initial setup phase is moderate in level, so it is neither very complex nor very easy. For the deployment, my company first needs to gather all the requirements of the users and the domain names and consider how many users there are in the company. In the implementation and planning part, my company needs to consider what kind of policies we will create while ensuring that the policies are created based on the requirements of the users. There is a need to segregate the users' requirements since there are separate departments in the company, like the HR department, sales department, IT department, and manufacturing department, so that our company can create policies depending on their requirements. On-site, if you want a GRE tunnel, our company can handle GRE tunnel traffic routing and Zscaler Cloud Firewall, after which Zscaler will take action based on the policies created by our organization. For the deployments and maintenance, a team of five members consisting of two managers and three engineers is required.

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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

"The most valuable features are that it is very simple to configure and to manage."

"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."

"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."

"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."

"The solution is scalable."

"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."

"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."

"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The packet inspection capabilities are great."

"It offers services like navigation, control, and filtering, which ensure that all users stay connected to business applications."

"The packet inspections have been a strong point. Our identity collectors have also been helpful. In many ways, Check Point has been a step up from our SonicWalls that we had in-house before that. There's a lot of additional flexibility that we didn't have before."

"The management platform and the dashboard, the graphical user interface, is one of the best, if not the best, in the business. It's the most intuitive and it's really user-friendly in day-to-day operations."

"The firewall scanning, like antivirus scanning and malware scanning, are very good. Blocking the user is also very easy."

"I use it as well as a VM. We use it a lot because we have all fiber optic connections, so we could use almost all of that. The federation is beautiful because I can transfer all traffic to my main site where I can use just one link to the internet, and I can use it as a proxy as well. It is good to keep control and security."

"Check Point helps a lot with automatization which definitely reduces the effort to maintain the environment."

"The different hardware models focus on a wide spectrum of the market, so any company can choose a model that makes sense for them from the range."

More Check Point NGFW pros

"It helps a lot of companies to reduce their downtime. Also, It helps businesses in terms of being secured and protected from any threats."

"Zscaler provides effective protection against various cyber threats ensuring a safe environment"

"The solution is scalable."

"The visibility and log availability offered are highly valued for troubleshooting purposes, and this is a key factor driving customer interest in the firewall module."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"Zscaler is still a very good product."

"If malicious traffic attacks our on-premises servers, then it gets blocked by Zscaler Cloud Firewall."

"I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pros

Cons

"The cloud management and automation capability could be improved."

"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."

"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."

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

"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."

"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."

"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"It will be good if the product is rack-mounted."

"The complexity involved in the solution's initial setup phase and deployment process is an area of concern where improvement is required."

"The presentation of the reports need to be more user-friendly."

"Sometimes, the firewall doesn't pick up on certain things. If an attacker is clever and uses a low-profile indicator, the firewall might flag an anomaly but not give enough information to decide if it's worth investigating. The threat intelligence component also has challenges. It doesn't always tie alerts to active campaigns or threat actor groups. We often have to do extra work and use other products to figure these out."

"I recommend developing a management console that can more efficiently handle multiple Check Point devices, as we have multiple appliances across different sites."

"VMware is not supported by the platform."

"This solution requires management software that is sold separately; it's actually a different appliance altogether."

"With the version we're on, it's a bit time-consuming if you have multiple IP addresses to add. But in the later versions, which we're moving to, it makes it a lot easier to add IP addresses with dynamic objects, as they call it."

More Check Point NGFW cons

"There are some areas it could improve when it comes to blocking, we have to block some things manually. For example, if we block a top-level domain we have seen that the new IPs come through, the IPs are not blocked. There should be some more granular way of doing it. My only request is if you're blocking something at a top level, the sub-level sub-domains and all those other IPs should be blocked too automatically."

"It would be better if they improved their policy, package visibility, and flexibility while we're creating rules for inspection. It could also be cheaper or more things could be included in the basic package. In the next release, I would like better coverage in the Asia Pacific region and better quality of service."

"When it comes to customer support, there is room for improvement in Zscaler's service."

"They do not provide a few components that are fundamental to differentiate the products"

"It would be nice to have some sort of a form factor, a physical form factor perhaps, or virtual machine that you could install on devices or on a cloud, and have some cloud computing."

"I don't have the visibility of a control dashboard or a network management system."

"We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee."

"Instead of the standard license, they should certainly provide customers with the visibility to access and view the logs."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"These boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive. Fortinet licensing is straightforward and less confusing compared to Cisco."

"The price is fair compared to the other competitors."

"For our organization, the licensing costs are approximately $7,000 per year."

"Pricing is good. They offer a lot of things, the most important is the support. Every time you upgrade your license, you also get insurance for the equipment. If you have any problem with equipment, they send in new equipment."

"This is not a cheap solution but it isn't expensive, either. It's a good solution for the right price."

"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."

"The price range is quite acceptable and normal."

"The pricing is very reasonable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"An annual technical support fee is paid to maintain the equipment with the most updated licenses and versions and thus avoid vulnerabilities"

"The solution is expensive."

"The pricing and licensing are pretty steep. They know that they are good, so they are pricey."

"Check Point NGFW is expensive."

"Licensing is on a yearly basis and I am happy with the pricing."

"Pricing is a little high compared to competitive firewalls, but it is easy to go through the licensing steps."

"The product is not that expensive for what it is offering, but it could be cheaper."

"For the firewall, there is a limitation on the license. We are facing some problems with mobile access. We have a license for 450 licenses of VPN users. We would like Check Point to have more than that, e.g., if the organization gets bigger and there are more users, then that will be a problem."

More Check Point NGFW pricing and cost advice

"There is an annual license required for the use of the Zscaler Cloud Firewall."

"There are different subscription models available."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The product is a bit expensive compared to the solutions offered by its competitors, like Palo Alto. There is a need to make yearly payments towards the license in charges associated with the product."

"Zscaler is priced too high compared to the cost of Fortinet."

"It is not the most budget-friendly solution, but it's important to consider its overall value."

"There are licensing costs, and I would not say that it's a cheap vendor."

"The licensing is on a yearly basis. It is somewhere around 30 or 40 pounds per user for our organization."

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

59%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

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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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How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?

I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...

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Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?

Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...

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What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?

Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...

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Which lesser known firewall product has the best chance at unseating the market leaders?

Netscope, Zscaler if they continue route they are on now. FIrewalls needs great deal of automation on each end, datac...

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What do you like most about Zscaler Cloud Firewall?

The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zscaler Cloud Firewall?

The product is a bit expensive compared to the solutions offered by its competitors, like Palo Alto. There is a need ...

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 23% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 10% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Fortinet FortiOS vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 2% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Check Point NGFW

Compared 13% of the time

Sophos XG vs Check Point NGFW

Compared 10% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Check Point NGFW

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point NGFW

Compared 6% of the time

Sophos XGS vs Check Point NGFW

Compared 5% of the time

More Check Point NGFW Competitors

Azure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 18% of the time

OPNsense vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Multicloud Defense vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

More Zscaler Cloud Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point NGFW

March 2025

Download Check Point NGFW product report

Buyer's Guide

Zscaler Cloud Firewall

March 2025

Download Zscaler Cloud Firewall product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Check Point NGFW provides comprehensive firewall protection, managing VPNs, and securing network perimeters with advanced threat prevention techniques. It's widely used to protect businesses, data centers, and ensure secure traffic management.

Check Point NGFW offers robust security for companies, delivering security features like threat prevention, URL filtering, and intrusion prevention across both layer 3 and layer 7. It supports remote access, web filtering, application control, and safeguards against malware, botnets, and zero-day attacks. With its intuitive management console, deep packet inspection, centralized management capabilities, and sophisticated threat detection, Check Point NGFW enhances network security and productivity. The system integrates seamlessly with other technologies and provides real-time monitoring, detailed reporting, and automated policy management. Additionally, its setup is straightforward, it scales well, and offers comprehensive logging.

What are the key features?

VPN capabilities: Ensures secure remote access and encrypted communications.
Intuitive management console: Simplifies administration with an easy-to-use interface.
Application control: Provides extensive control over applications running on the network.
Deep packet inspection: Examines data packets in detail to detect and prevent threats.
Intrusion prevention system: Protects against unauthorized access and attacks.
Centralized management: Manages all security policies and devices from one location.
Automated policy management: Reduces administrative tasks through automation.
Advanced threat detection: Identifies sophisticated threats in real-time.
Real-time monitoring: Continuously monitors network traffic and security events.
Easy setup and scalability: Simplifies deployment and scales with business needs.

What are the benefits?

Enhanced security: Provides comprehensive protection against a range of cyber threats.
Increased productivity: Simplifies security management, allowing IT teams to focus on other tasks.
Improved visibility: Detailed reporting and monitoring provide insights into network activity.
Reduced risk: Automated threat detection and policy management mitigate potential risks.
Cost efficiency: Consolidates multiple security functions, reducing the need for additional solutions.

Check Point NGFW is implemented in industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where protecting sensitive data and ensuring compliance are critical. Its advanced security features and ease of management make it suitable for large enterprises and data centers, ensuring reliable and secure network operations.

Check Point Software Technologies

Zscaler enables the world’s leading organizations to securely transform their networks and applications for a mobile and cloud first world. Its flagship services, Zscaler Internet Access and Zscaler Private Access, create fast, secure connections between users and applications, regardless of device, location, or network. Zscaler services are 100% cloud-delivered and offer the simplicity, enhanced security, and improved user experience that traditional appliances or hybrid solutions are unable to match. Used in more than 185 countries, Zscaler operates the world’s largest cloud security platform, protecting thousands of enterprises and government agencies from cyberattacks and data loss.

Check more details: https://www.zscaler.com/produc...

Zscaler

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

Control Southern, Optimal Media

Zenith Live, Azure, Carlsberg Group

Buyer's Guide

Check Point NGFW vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

March 2025

Free Report: Check Point NGFW vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall

Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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