Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] vs Sophos UTM comparison

Check Point Software Technologies and Sophos are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 84% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Sophos users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] and Sophos UTM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Firewalls

May 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

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S

Solution Architect at airtel

Enables customers to manage security effortlessly with intuitive features and easy integration

In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.

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William Cambronero

Consultant at ITQS

Great firewalls, VPN, and Intrusion prevention capabilities

Some features that could be improved are advanced threat protection, sandboxing, and vulnerability management. Another point is to improve the technical support provided by Check Point UTM-1. Although the company offers different standards, including basic and premium, by mail and by telephone, they present a very large deficiency in the time it takes to comply with the provisions of the SLA. Coordinating a meeting is complicated by the schedules. The documentation should also be improved by having it unified.

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Bashir Bashir

IT Manager at Vegol

Firewall management has become simpler and now provides real-time visibility and bandwidth control

The features I have found most valuable in Sophos UTM are that it is much easier to configure, I appreciate the reporting side of it, and the rules are very straightforward to work with. Sophos UTM's real-time insights into network health help my organization because I get real-time reports on what is happening on my network, what is trying to access me, the destination, and all that. I can then be reactive or proactive, and for zero-day, I think it is beneficial because it can learn what my network does. If anything goes outside what it expects, it sends a report on Sophos Central, so I find zero-day makes my work a bit easier. The use of Sophos UTM's intuitive management console has impacted my security policy enforcement in that it is much easier to configure; I configure with information rather than with presumptions.

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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

"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."

"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration can be done using the GUI, and when we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policies are very easy to understand."

"The solution has improved my organization significantly, with impactful capabilities such as sandboxing and cloud solutions, such as XDR, MDR, and EDR."

"The user interface is intuitive; anyone can configure the firewall with little knowledge of the product, and the back-end is robust with good security."

"With Fortinet, we're able to control how users utilize resources and pull back on certain things while allowing more access in others, which has led to fewer expenses, less time wasted addressing issues related to reporting, and more order and better analysis of exactly what is going on in the network."

"Easy to use support and licensing portal as well as activation process."

"Fortinet FortiGate offers several valuable features, particularly as an interface-based solution. Its design makes it easy to understand both incoming and outgoing network traffic through its interface."

"The security features are valuable, particularly the ransomware attack protection features. Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Firewalls help us a lot in controlling traffic on our network and preventing unauthorized access."

"The databases and its signatures are its most important features."

"The ability to create a central database for objects (sources, destinations, services, etc.), which can be used in several different policies, and the possibility of browsing all logs (FW, IPs, identity awareness, etc.) from all the gateways from a unique screen are big pluses."

"Check Point has been in the security industry for so long that it has evolved different solutions and technologies."

"The filtering was very good."

"This product is very good for the investment."

"The solution is very robust."

"The most important features are performance and ease of management."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] pros

"The firewall itself is very strong and provides great security."

"The isolation of infected machines is a big feature. Also, the ability to detect external sources that change files on a file server is really big."

"The initial setup has been fine."

"The overall visibility of the console is what I find most valuable, plus it's very user-friendly."

"What I like about Sophos UTM is that it improves my company's security. The solution is easy to set up, which I like, and it's very stable."

"The stability of the product is quite good; we haven't had any issues with bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze on us, and we trust its reliability."

"Installing Sophos UTM is straightforward. The deployment itself doesn't take long, but you have to spend some time planning and waiting for the hardware to be delivered."

"It has made our organization more secure, because we are using a VPN."

More Sophos UTM pros

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve their documentation on forward error correction and failover technologies."

"They could simplify their deployment process, especially when customers have existing devices."

"Regarding stability, I have experienced performance issues with Fortinet FortiGate. Sometimes it does not work correctly in certain situations, such as DNS or URL categories, where it might block incorrectly."

"Technical support for this solution can be improved."

"I'm not sure if it's something that they already have or are developing something, however, we need some dedicated features for container security."

"FortiOS is not simple."

"Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features."

"The captive portal could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Some features that could be improved are advanced threat protection, sandboxing, and vulnerability management."

"Specifically on the user experience, sometimes the set up of things, such as the VPN SSL, takes a lot of time to load and a lot of time to get up and running on every session."

"The physical memory is insufficient for installing policies and some other operations."

"Memory and processing power: These devices are strictly for small business applications."

"Yes, about once a year we have a catastrophic failure. It's pretty random."

"While the technical support is good, the Indian level technical support could use an upgrade."

"The solution should be more user-friendly."

"The interface needs improvement."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] cons

"Reporting: We have had to work manually in many of our reports."

"We didn’t find any issues but I know there have been some in the last few years."

"It's stable, but the reaction time of the GUI is terrible; however, in my opinion, UTM is more stable than XG."

"Anti-phishing functionality should be improved."

"The customer support has been good to mediocre, but not very good."

"Pricing has become expensive recently due to the dollar hike and naira value changes in Nigeria. Even though it's expensive, I consider Sophos a major first line of protection, so I pay for it nonetheless."

"The support could be better."

"The documentation during the AWS integration was a little fuzzy on getting it to work with how the whole public exposure versus private exposure, then routing some of the traffic."

More Sophos UTM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I had to pay for the license for the firewall, but it is guaranteed to have updates. I expect a good service for it. It was about €1000 for a year, and there was no additional cost."

"I think the price of Fortinet FortiGate is very reasonable."

"The support subscription for the solution is annual. You are paying for support and there are two levels of support, professional and advanced."

"If you are looking for a quality product, it will come at a higher price. Expecting them to be significantly cheaper is unrealistic. In terms of pricing, it is a bit costly. However, the functionality and support offered are worth it."

"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."

"The pricing for the product is alright."

"The solution could be better priced."

"The pricing is reasonable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is too high."

"This cost is between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per year, so some other solutions are cheaper and the pricing should be improved."

"For under 50 users, MSP licensing is profitable."

"It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget."

"The solution is affordable compared to others, such as FortiGate. The price is important."

"I think the pricing of Sophos is very fair."

"Pricing for Sophos UTM is OK. Here in Egypt, many companies use the solution because of its price and features. My company pays the Sophos UTM license fee yearly."

"If you can afford it, go for a small Check Point, as it is easier to manage."

"Sophos UTM is moderately priced, but it could be improved."

"The appliance should be purchased and there is a fee for the license."

More Sophos UTM pricing and cost advice

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Comparison Review

it_user216600

Senior Technical Consultant with 51-200 employees

Jan 3, 2016

Sophos UTM vs. Fortinet FortiGate

I have used both Sophos and Fortinet products in production and I have found the Sophos UTM appliances (hardware and virtual) to be a better fit most of the time -- with a few caveats which I will touch on below. In both instances, the transition from TMG will be mostly straightforward. The main…

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Construction Company

12%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	370
Midsize Enterprise	138
Large Enterprise	195

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

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	75
Midsize Enterprise	28
Large Enterprise	27

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 Sophos UTM?

The pricing for Sophos UTM is reasonable; I do not have an issue with it, though I was considering RED because I have...

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What needs improvement with Sophos UTM?

I would like to improve Sophos UTM in that there is software I use that goes deeper in the reporting on usage. There ...

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What is your primary use case for Sophos UTM?

Sophos UTM is the primary product I work with, specifically the firewalls. I mainly use the application control featu...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% 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

SonicWall NSa vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 1% of the time

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Netgate pfSense vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 42% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 15% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] Competitors

OPNsense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 9% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos UTM

Compared 7% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos UTM

Compared 5% of the time

More Sophos UTM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

June 2026

Download Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos UTM

May 2026

Download Sophos UTM product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Astaro

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 UTM-1 delivers proven, best-in-class security ideal for use in industrial Ethernet and SCADA environments. Robust performance and central management provide unmatched value in a simple, all-in-one solution.

Check Point Software Technologies

Sophos UTM delivers comprehensive network security with features like firewall, intrusion prevention, and endpoint protection. Its user-friendly interface and scalable options make it ideal for businesses of varying sizes, ensuring seamless integration with AWS, cloud services, and other Sophos offerings.

With robust Advanced Threat Protection, Sophos UTM offers a holistic approach to security through its intuitive platform. It includes a centralized console for enhanced threat visibility, integrated web application firewall, and secure remote access via SSL VPN and RED device. Critiques focus on limited reporting capabilities, complex licensing, and requiring improvements in VPN and email protection, centralized management, and application control.

What are the key features of Sophos UTM?

Advanced Threat Protection: Protects against sophisticated attacks by integrating multiple security technologies.
Firewall and Web Protection: Provides core security measures with intrusion prevention and application control.
Integrated WAF: Shields applications from vulnerabilities, ensuring secure user interactions.
Scalable Deployment: Supports diverse setups from small businesses to large enterprises, including cloud integrations.

What benefits should users expect from Sophos UTM?

Unified Management: Simplifies security operations through a single management console for cohesive control.
Secure Remote Access: Extends network security to remote users without compromising protection quality.
Cost Efficiency: Offers scalable, cost-effective security solutions to adapt to growing business needs.

Sophos UTM sees implementations in industries needing strong perimeter protection and secure remote access, such as finance, healthcare, and education. It supports seamless network integration, ensuring businesses maintain compliance and safeguard their digital environments effectively.

Sophos

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

AccessIT Group Inc., Accuvant, Cadre Computer Resources Inc., Compuquip Technologies Inc, Dimension Data North America Inc., Forsythe Solutions Group, Gotham Technology Group LLC, GuidePoint Security LLC, Iovations, IPS

One Housing Group

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