Cisco Secure Firewall vs Waterfall Security comparison

The compared Cisco and Waterfall Security solutions aren't in the same category. Cisco is ranked #5 in Firewalls , with an average rating of 8.2, and holds a 7.6% mindshare in the category. Waterfall Security is ranked #14 in OT , and holds a 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Waterfall Security users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Waterfall Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

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

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall	7.6%
Fortinet FortiGate	16.0%
OPNsense	8.9%
Other	67.5%

Firewalls

Operational Technology (OT) Security Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Waterfall Security	2.1%
Nozomi Networks	16.5%
Claroty Platform	15.7%
Other	65.7%

Operational Technology (OT) Security

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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Phil Shiflett

Senior Manager, Network Engineering at TTi Power Equipment

Unified policies streamline network management but complex licensing requires attention

Cisco Secure Firewall has some growth opportunities in terms of visibility and control capabilities regarding managing encrypted traffic. It has the ability to analyze encrypted traffic, and there is potential for more integration with APIs and AI to enhance these capabilities. Cisco Secure Firewall needs improvement in deployment time and the capability to access the CLI during support calls. I often encounter issues when technical support uses a CLI that is not familiar to me while troubleshooting through the GUI. My ongoing complaint for the last six years has been the lack of CLI functionality, which hinders my ability to work on the firewall, alongside concerns regarding deployment time. For the next release, they should look at the features offered by competitors such as Fortinet, including the ability to perform packet capture directly from the interface. If they enhanced their troubleshooting efficiency related to packet capture for each specific rule, it would simplify the process significantly.

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Iulian PAVALOAIA

SCADA & ICT SME/CConsultant at DNS

Cyber security solution used for data transmission that requires training to make use of all of its powerful features

We use this solution to manage auto operations, technology networks and information technology within our infrastructure. The SCADA controls the power network and does not interfere with accounting system. This solution is used predominantly for data transmission. This is a professional solution…

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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 the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."

"There is a tool called FSSO, which is a single sign-on user ID agent that works perfectly."

"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable for an SME."

"The ability to set up remote systems is the most valuable feature."

"If you use this solution, within three years, you will get your investment back."

"I think Fortinet is a cheaper, stable, scalable, and reliable device."

"The firewalls are valuable for threat prevention."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"I really like this product, Cisco is one of my favorite brands, and I always think Cisco solutions are very reliable, easy to configure, and very secure."

"The ASAs are very stable firewalls, and they've been very good at protecting our assets here at the bank."

"The feature of Cisco Secure Firewall that I prefer the most is the use of ASDM where we visually are able to see all of our traffic when it comes through the firewall."

"Cisco ASA provides us with very good application visibility and control."

"Signature-based detection; user-defined signatures with regular expressions; integrated URL and content filtering; custom URL categories filtering."

"Cisco Secure Firewall is one of the best and most stable solutions I have encountered, with no crashes and a powerful, stable system that shows no degradation in performance."

"Clustering architecture which offers zero downtime upgrades, keeping uptime close to 99.999%."

"I have found the stability of this solution really good. This is why I use it."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pros

"This is a professional solution which has been the most valuable aspect of its use."

Cons

"The union with the two technologies, endpoint, and firewall, doesn't work well."

"The built-in logging and reporting is limited without FortiAnalyzer."

"One drawback of Fortinet FortiGate is that they provide two types of models: one with a hard disk and another without. The model without a hard disk has very low ROM where you can store very few logs, after which you need to upload it to the cloud or purchase a firewall with SSD."

"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters."

"In the balance between links feature normally you can just choose one option to balance. It would be better for the solution to have more than one option, preferably three."

"There is a need for enhancement with the signature management, improving the datasheet numbers, and scalability issues."

"Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas."

"The improvement is related to logs. Instead of the CLI, we should be able to have more insights into the logs of the firewall in the GUI."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"I would like to see the inclusion of a protocol that can be used to protect databases."

"If there is old hardware, or old appliances, it does not necessarily work with the new Cisco generation firewalls."

"I would like for the user interface to be easier for the admin and network admin."

"I have worked with the new FTD models and they have more features than the ASA line."

"I think the ASA layer is thin; it's always a Layer 3 or Layer 4 source controller and doesn't control the Layer 7 traffic at all, so you'll need an additional firewall."

"The scalability is a bit limiting, to be honest. In terms of when you look to changing landscape in terms of threats, I think to me, my personal it's a bit limiting."

"Multiple WAN connections: Even though you can implement more than one interface to outside connections, it is lacking on load balances, etc."

"Antivirus features must be integrated for end user security."

More Cisco Secure Firewall cons

"The interface of this solution could be more user friendly. The initial set up could also be made more simple."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."

"Fortinet FortiGate is reasonably priced."

"It is not expensive as compared to Cisco."

"When I look around at other products, such as Sophos, Fortinet FortiGate is 20% to 30% more expensive with our current cost."

"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."

"When comparing this solution to others, I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of pricing. However, the issue of requiring a separate license for redundancy is a drawback, and I would rate it a nine out of ten."

"The price is high compared to some of the other solutions."

"It is cheaper and more competitive compared to other options. For example, when comparing Palo Alto products to others, Palo Alto tends to be more expensive. If you compare Cisco's platform, including Cisco Meraki, with Fortinet products, you'll notice that Cisco's offerings are generally higher priced than Fortinet's firewall solutions."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"This solution might be expensive, but it is economical in the long run."

"Cisco's pricing is high, at times, for what they provide."

"It is expensive. There is a cost for everything. There is per year license cost and support cost. There is also a cost for any training, any application, and any resource. Things are very costly to do with Cisco. Other brands are cheaper. They are also more flexible in terms of training, subscription, and licensing. They give lots and lots of years free. They provide more than Cisco."

"We are happy with its price. Licensing is on a yearly basis for technical support. There is one license for technical support. There is another license for IP Version 2 VPN and IPS."

"The pricing and licensing are getting more complicated, and I'd like that to be simpler."

"We paid about $7,000 for the Cisco firewall, plus another small Cisco router and the lead switch. It was under the combined license. It's a final agreement."

"It is more expensive than the other solutions."

"The pricing of Cisco's boxes is pretty good."

More Cisco Secure Firewall pricing and cost advice

"This is an expensive solution."

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Comparison Review

it_user206346

Security Consultant at Webernetz.net - Network Security Consulting

Mar 11, 2015

Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto Networks

Cisco ASA vs. Palo Alto: Management Goodies You often have comparisons of both firewalls concerning security components. Of course, a firewall must block attacks, scan for viruses, build VPNs, etc. However, in this post I am discussing the advantages and disadvantages from both vendors concerning…

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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

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

Energy/Utilities Company

15%

Educational Organization

11%

Comms Service Provider

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

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	190
Midsize Enterprise	129
Large Enterprise	232

No data available

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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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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Which is better - Fortinet FortiGate or Cisco ASA Firewall?

One of our favorite things about Fortinet Fortigate is that you can deploy on the cloud or on premises. Fortinet Fort...

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How does Cisco's ASA firewall compare with the Firepower NGFW?

It is easy to integrate Cisco ASA with other Cisco products and also other NAC solutions. When you understand the Cis...

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Which is better - Meraki MX or Cisco ASA Firewall?

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) software is the operating software for the Cisco ASA suite. It supports netw...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 18% 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

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks WildFire vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Cisco Secure Firewall

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Secure Firewall Competitors

OPSWAT MetaDefender OT Security vs Waterfall Security

Compared 25% of the time

Owl Cyber Defense vs Waterfall Security

Compared 20% of the time

PT Industrial Cybersecurity Suite vs Waterfall Security

Compared 11% of the time

Nozomi Networks vs Waterfall Security

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet OT Security Platform vs Waterfall Security

Compared 10% of the time

More Waterfall Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

May 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Firewall

May 2026

Download Cisco Secure Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Operational Technology (OT) Security

May 2026

Download Waterfall Security product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Firewall, Cisco ASA NGFW, Adaptive Security Appliance, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls, Cisco ASAv, Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall, Cisco Secure Firewall ASA Virtual - BYOL

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

Cisco Secure Firewall provides comprehensive network security with advanced features such as application visibility, URL filtering, and malware protection. It combines a user-friendly interface with robust VPN capabilities, making it a reliable choice for varying network environments and industry applications.

Cisco Secure Firewall offers exceptional protection with its integration into Cisco's broader ecosystem, ensuring enhanced threat detection and policy unification. Despite its complexity in command-line interfaces and management, Cisco Secure Firewall remains a potent tool for safeguarding data. It is widely adopted for edge security, VPN services, perimeter defense, and traffic segmentation, especially in hybrid settings. Essential sectors like banking and telecom benefit from its stable connectivity and centralized security management. Though there are challenges with costs and support for third-party APIs, the firewall's scalability and high availability provide comprehensive support for protecting network assets.

What are the key features of Cisco Secure Firewall?

Application Visibility: Offers in-depth visibility of application traffic to monitor and protect against threats.
Advanced Malware Protection: Protects against known and emerging malware threats with powerful detection capabilities.
URL Filtering: Manages and restricts access to websites, enhancing organizational data security.
VPN Capabilities: Ensures secure remote access and encrypted communication through strong VPN features.
Integration with Cisco Ecosystem: Enhances security measures with seamless integration with Cisco's suite of security tools.

What benefits and ROI should be expected from Cisco Secure Firewall?

Comprehensive Protection: Offers multi-layered security for diverse network environments, increasing overall data protection.
Performance Efficiency: High availability and scalability lead to improved network performance and resource management.
Management Simplification: Centralized security management streamlines policy deployment across networks.
Enhanced Threat Detection: Integration capabilities improve threat detection and mitigation for better security posture.

Cisco Secure Firewall is widely implemented across sectors like banking, education, ISPs, and telecoms. It fortifies data centers and network edge security, delivering strong protection for client access, hybrid environments, and intrusion prevention. In these industries, firewall solutions ensure secure connectivity and manage RTU traffic effectively, leveraging centralized management and integration with Cisco's security tools.

Cisco

Waterfall Security offers robust cybersecurity solutions designed to protect industrial control systems from external threats, ensuring the integrity and safety of operations in critical infrastructures.

Waterfall Security sets the standard in industrial cybersecurity by providing unidirectional security gateways that physically prevent cyber attacks from reaching protected networks. It is widely implemented in utilities, manufacturing, oil and gas, and transportation sectors. With a focus on high performance and reliability, the solution enhances compliance with security regulations and reduces operational risks. Its comprehensive defense mechanisms ensure seamless data transmission and secure communications without relying on traditional firewalls.

What are the key features of Waterfall Security?

Unidirectional Gateways: These gateways create a physical barrier against cyber threats.
High Performance: Ensures efficient data transfer without latency.
Compliance Support: Assists in meeting stringent industry regulations.
Seamless Integration: Easily integrates with existing systems.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Waterfall Security?

Increased Safety: Minimizes risks of cyber attacks.
Regulatory Compliance: Supports adherence to industry standards.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces costs associated with cyber incidents.
Operational Continuity: Ensures uninterrupted operations.

Waterfall Security is widely implemented across industries such as power utilities, where it protects SCADA systems. In oil and gas, it secures critical data flow between sites. The manufacturing sector uses it to maintain plant floor operations, while transportation systems leverage its reliable security measures to protect infrastructure from cyber threats.

Waterfall Security

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

There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow.

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