Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs SonicWall SMA comparison

Cisco and SonicWall are both solutions in the SSL VPN category. Cisco is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6, while SonicWall is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.5. Cisco holds a 9.1% mindshare in SV, compared to SonicWall’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Read 49 Cisco IOS SSL VPN reviews

1,052 Views
579 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SonicWall SMA

Read 15 SonicWall SMA reviews

988 Views
296 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

SonicWall SMA

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

SonicWall SMA and Cisco IOS SSL VPN are competing in the secure remote access solutions category. Cisco IOS SSL VPN seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced feature set compared to SonicWall SMA's focus on cost benefits and customer service.

Features: SonicWall SMA offers compatibility with a wide range of devices, strong security protocols, and valuable security technologies like Capture ATP. Cisco IOS SSL VPN provides extensive network integration capabilities, seamless scalability, and integrated multifactor authentication with Cisco Duo.

Room for Improvement: SonicWall SMA could enhance advanced feature sets and deeper network integration. Its scalability could also be improved. Cisco IOS SSL VPN has room to simplify its deployment process, reduce initial costs, and improve detailed device compatibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SonicWall SMA is known for a straightforward deployment process complemented by comprehensive customer support. Cisco IOS SSL VPN deployment is more complex, but the robust support and extensive resources available post-deployment compensate for this.

Pricing and ROI: SonicWall SMA's initial low setup cost often leads to a quicker ROI. Cisco IOS SSL VPN, despite its higher initial cost, promises long-term benefits and feature-rich implementation, which can justify the investment through extended use and capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 868,759 peers since 2012

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

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Ranking in SSL VPN

4th

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SonicWall SMA

Ranking in SSL VPN

6th

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

17th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Universal Access Gateways (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the SSL VPN category, the mindshare of Cisco IOS SSL VPN is 9.1%, down from 9.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall SMA is 5.9%, up from 3.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

SSL VPN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco IOS SSL VPN	9.1%
SonicWall SMA	5.9%
Other	85.0%

SSL VPN

Featured Reviews

Rupesh Kolhapurkar

Manager at Reliance Industries Ltd

Offers easy setup phase but needs to improve connectivity

For our company's remote workforce connectivity, the tool was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In general, the VPN functionality offered by the product was very useful during the COVID-19 situation. In terms of the product's ability to secure third-party access, the tool works very well. The most valuable feature of the product in terms of network security stems from the fact that the tool provides access to the whole network, and even if users give access to some special applications, it is still really helpful. The clientless access feature is not available for clients. My company installed the product for its clients. If the product offers a clientless access feature, then it is okay and can be very helpful for our company. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. Cisco IOS SSL VPN is a reliable product. The product is very helpful for a work-from-home setup as the tool can be used to access our company's internal network, which Falls outside the network of our organization. I rate the tool a seven to eight out of ten.

Read full review

Mayur_Patel

Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care

Easy-to-manage product with efficient features for network security

SonicWall SMA facilitates and protects remote workforce access to corporate resources from any location Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface. We have been using SonicWall…

Read full review

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 of the solution are its ease of use, management, and support."

"The product is great because it is easy and simple."

"A reliable and stable solution for remote network access."

"The solution is very stable."

"The platform provides value and benefits to our organization through efficient and effective communication."

"The multicast feature is useful for us."

"The solution's environment is stable and doesn't get disconnected every now and then."

"It's a very stable solution and I'd say it works perfectly."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pros

"What I like best about SonicWall SMA is the relationship between its features and its price, because the solution is both affordable and functional."

"SonicWall SMA allows us to provide CML-based access to any user."

"SonicWall SMA has the most valuable feature of proprietary security technologies like Capture ATP."

"Secure Mobile Access (SMA) is easy to configure and the deployment is straightforward. However, this is mostly because of the AWS setup."

"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."

"The solution is reliable and has good overall performance."

"The performance is good."

"I am very satisfied with the technical support."

More SonicWall SMA pros

Cons

"I believe Cisco could support easier configuration and having tools that allow for easier management and configuration, as Linksys switches are a little bit easier to manage and set up compared to Cisco switches."

"The only issue with Cisco IOS SSL VPN is on the price point. Price is an area of the solution where improvements are required."

"It would be nice if we could use this not just on mobile, but on laptops and desktops as well."

"The pricing is a stumbling block to scaling our utilization of Cisco products and we would prefer to use more of them."

"Enhancing the client certificate deployment process could be a valuable improvement, ensuring smoother and more reliable certificate renewal experiences in the future."

"It can be difficult to find service and at times we cannot connect with the internet easily."

"The product’s dashboard is not good enough."

"The flexibility of configurations could be improved."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN cons

"User interface could be improved."

"I'd like to see the product maybe polish keyboards in Bookmark."

"This is an expensive solution and I think that the price could be improved."

"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available. I would suggest that there should be MFA integration and provided with the appliance."

"The solution could integrate better with other platforms."

"The timed synchronization between the network appliance needs improvement."

"The only thing that they could try to improve is the support for enterprise customers. Normally enterprises and SMBs can create a ticket, but for enterprises, SonicWall SMA needs to provide a global view, and this is what's currently missing. It's not even a question of timing. It's a question of the global vision because currently, it's lacking. They concentrate on the topic, but not on the means and not on the global picture. In most cases, there's something wrong with the integration of SonicWall SMA with other products, so that could also be improved."

"The product itself is very good, but Dell needs to work on product visibility in their advertising."

More SonicWall SMA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing cost of the solution is on a yearly basis, and it is expensive compared to other solutions in the market."

"Price flexibility could be improved in comparison to other vendors."

"The pricing of the solution is reasonable"

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN is more expensive than the Aruba VPN, but it is worth the money."

"The platform is expensive."

"Cisco IOS SSL VPN comes with a cost-effective subscription."

"With Cisco, there is a free solution or a licensed version of the solution with a set of endpoint services."

"The product costs less."

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN pricing and cost advice

"The platform has medium pricing."

"All the costs are included in a bundled license."

"The cost of the licensing is based on the maximum number of concurrent users, and it costs a lot to add them."

"This solution is priced well and we currently have the maximum number of licenses allowed."

"I don't know about the pricing of the SSL-VPN box. I know the SSL-VPN software is free. Global VPN client, by comparison, is licensed for around $150 or something like that. But the SSL-VPN software is free. It is already built-in with the box."

"Our licenses are stackable and can be anywhere from five users to a million users."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which SSL VPN solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

23%

Educational Organization

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	23
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	24

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

The solution is pretty fast.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

The pricing for Cisco IOS SSL VPN is based on per user. For more than one hundred users, it costs about $60 per seat.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco IOS SSL VPN?

It's hard for me to say how Linksys could be improved. I can't think of any specific improvements needed. I believe Cisco could support easier configuration and having tools that allow for easier m...

See all answers

What do you like most about SonicWall SMA?

Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SonicWall SMA?

The pricing for the solution could be a lot less.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall SMA?

I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need to. I don't know where they can focus their energy on continuous improvements, a...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenVPN Access Server vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 35% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 21% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 16% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Cisco IOS SSL VPN

Compared 9% of the time

More Cisco IOS SSL VPN Competitors

SonicWall Netextender vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 19% of the time

Peplink SpeedFusion vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 15% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 12% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 11% of the time

OpenVPN Access Server vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 10% of the time

More SonicWall SMA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN

September 2025

Download Cisco IOS SSL VPN product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall SMA

September 2025

Download SonicWall SMA product report

Also Known As

Cisco SSL VPN

SonicWall Aventail, SonicWall SMA SSL-VPN, SonicWall Secure Mobile Access

Overview

Cisco SSL VPN solutions help you easily and securely extend the network to users who have access to the Internet and a web browser. You can customize access and extend the reach of your corporate network to individuals based on their roles, including teleworker contractors and business partners.

Cisco

SonicWall SMA is a unified secure access gateway that enables organizations to provide anytime, anywhere and any device access to mission critical corporate resources. SMA's granular access control policy engine, context aware device authorization, application level VPN and advanced authentication with single sign-on empowers organizations to embrace BYOD and mobility in a hybrid IT environment.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

MST Systems

UnitedStack, Newport City Homes, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Celtic Manor Resort

Buyer's Guide

Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA

September 2025

Free Report: Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Cisco IOS SSL VPN vs. SonicWall SMA report.

See our list of best SSL VPN vendors and best Enterprise Infrastructure VPN vendors.

We monitor all SSL VPN reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.