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Cisco Secure Access vs Sangfor NGAF comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Secure Access
Ranking in Firewalls
12th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (4th), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), ZTNA (3rd), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (2nd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (2nd)
Sangfor NGAF
Ranking in Firewalls
31st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Access is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sangfor NGAF is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Access0.5%
Sangfor NGAF1.4%
Other98.1%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Secure access has unified zero trust and web protection while AI assistance automates tasks
From a feature perspective, I have not experienced any issues, drawbacks, or shortcomings. However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high. My clients usually prefer cheaper options if possible. Mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access. Additionally, there is a steep learning curve, as it is very intensive. Someone with significant knowledge can work on it, but a new professional would have to spend considerable time to get accustomed to it. It is hard to find engineers who can work on it. Overall, we get what we pay for, as it is a pretty good feature and service. The pricing of Cisco's products and licensing is higher than competitors. If they could be more reasonable, that would help. The support offered for two years also has higher costs. Overall, the client's IT budget gets affected. It was challenging to learn because, as mentioned, it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.
AK
Network Administrator at GC University Lahore
Leverage detailed reporting for effective attack management
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications hosted there, websites, FTP portals, making it quite comprehensive. Essentially, it performs all the…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature I like the most about Cisco Secure Access is the whole concept of zero trust, as it is exactly what we need and I believe that Cisco Secure Access is the future of cybersecurity."
"I consider the most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access to be that it merged everything into one dashboard, the Cisco Secure Access dashboard."
"Our security posture has improved significantly with Cisco Secure Access."
"We have a dedicated account team, so we've got all the people we need to engage with if there's an issue."
"Since I started using Cisco Secure Access, I have noticed positive impacts on my organization."
"The features I have mentioned benefit our company overall by giving us one single pane of glass, where we can see all the rule sets, and our end customers appreciate having one single control point of the network."
"Customers spend much less time troubleshooting VPNs because ZTNA works more stably, and therefore it has become a pretty good point of sales for us as a reseller to increase our revenue at the customer level, because it's an extra layer of security that you can add to an already existing networking solution."
"Cisco Secure Access provides application-level access, removes the dependency of VPN, and user authentications are continuously based on identity, device, and risk, which is an add-on there."
"It is a stable solution."
"It offers good value for money and is much cheaper compared to other firewalls."
"The capabilities are mostly within the box."
"The support from Sangfor NGAF here in Pakistan is great."
"The top functionality is the reporting feature."
"It seems to be a durable, stable product."
"In our hospital, Sangfor NGAF works well for us in terms of ensuring confidentiality and availability, which are crucial in the healthcare industry."
"We've found the technical support to be helpful."
 

Cons

"My experience with customer support for Cisco Secure Access has been okay, but it is not very fast."
"In general, I think features can be improved."
"The Talos database is insufficient because Cisco Secure Access web gateway database is not big enough to hold every URL, leading to numerous problems with URLs not being categorized correctly and a slow turnaround for recategorization requests."
"Cisco Secure Access is a strong platform, but there are a few areas that could be improved."
"Comparing Cisco Secure Access to something like Cloudflare One, in the future the cost can come down."
"There is one particular disadvantage of Cisco Secure Access, and the main thing is pricing."
"Throughout my experience with Cisco Secure Access, I have had some stability and reliability issues, including lagging when accessing the portal."
"The overall pricing of Cisco Secure Access has changed dramatically in the last half year, and I would say it is too high."
"I would be happy if Sangfor developed a firewall designed specifically for home use, as well as for small businesses such as clinics and so on. A household version of the Sangfor firewall for your personal computer or laptop would be ideal, in my opinion."
"I believe that IAM and NGFW need to merge into a single box, instead of there being two separate box solutions."
"Lacks consistency in terms of filtering certain websites and applications."
"However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"The solution should be able to work in a hybrid setup."
"The solution has too many bugs and these slow down the implementation."
"Sangfor could improve by providing better real-time reporting, as the current reports don't offer the level of detail we need, especially for runtime insights."
"Sangfor could improve their interface capacity on the 5100 series model and upgrade their hardware from one gig to 10 gig. This would improve the overall throughput."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For what you get, it's a fair price in comparison to other products."
"The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access have been very competitive compared to other platforms. I believe that if Cisco continues to improve costs or offers something similar to a Cisco credit, it would attract more customers."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
"If you know you have around 200+ computer users on your network, then the Sangfor NGAF 5200-F-I model would be the minimum recommended model for that amount of users. This model includes modules for packet filtering, deep packet inspection, malware scanning, DSCP filtration, and many other features."
"Sangfor NGAF price is reasonable and there is an annual license. However, the maintenance cost can be a bit high."
"It costs about 8 to 10 thousand dollars per year for 500 users, standard licensing fees included."
"Sangfor is cheaper than competing vendors."
"In my opinion, the price of the tool is good in the Pakistani market. We can easily get discounts if needed."
"For four to five physical appliances for a licensed firewall, it costs approximately $4,000."
"I rate the product price as one on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"We purchased one year technical support and return to factory support, and we also purchased one-year technical support services. So those were additional."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise41
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?
In my experience with the Experience Insights feature or Digital Experience Monitoring of Cisco Secure Access, ThousandEyes is a fine tool, but currently, my experience with our customer is that it...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?
We use Cisco SD-WAN in our own company for our own needs, and we are also selling this to our customers while performing operations for customer networks. My personal customer scope is the large en...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?
Currently, AI Supply Chain Risk Management is not really an issue for us today. I would rate Cisco Secure Access a seven out of ten overall.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sangfor NGAF?
The licensing cost is quite high compared to other available firewalls in the market.
What needs improvement with Sangfor NGAF?
The cost of licensing is very high compared to other firewalls available here. There should be improvements in hardware scalability, allowing for more storage and memory capacity. Making the soluti...
What is your primary use case for Sangfor NGAF?
We are hosting applications over the platform, including websites and NAT traffic from our side. Because it's deployed in our data center, which is fully operational, we have various applications h...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Sangfor NGAF Firewall Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Google 5. Apple 6. Cisco Systems 7. Oracle 8. Intel 9. HP Inc. 10. Dell Technologies 11. Verizon Communications 12. AT&T 13. Comcast 14. T-Mobile 15. Sprint 16. Vodafone 17. Orange 18. BT Group 19. Deutsche Telekom 20. Telefonica 21. Nokia 22. Ericsson 23. Samsung Electronics 24. Sony 25. Panasonic 26. LG Electronics 27. Siemens 28. General Electric 29. Ford Motor Company 30. General Motors 31. Toyota Motor Corporation 32. Volkswagen Group
The Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Indonesia), Lawson, Inc. (Philippines), Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Indonesia), TEK Automotive (Italy), etc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Access vs. Sangfor NGAF and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.