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Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs Juniper Session Smart Router comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

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

Forcepoint Next Generation ...
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (25th), WAN Edge (11th)
Juniper Session Smart Router
Ranking in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Routers (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions category, the mindshare of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is 2.4%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Juniper Session Smart Router is 2.2%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Juniper Session Smart Router2.2%
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall2.4%
Other95.4%
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
 

Featured Reviews

Ajit Pratap Kundan - PeerSpot reviewer
MANAGER SOLUTION CONSULTING at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Unified security management has improved traffic control and simplified remote workforce access
Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall does help in vulnerability identification and response by providing a single unified console through which I am able to monitor and manage infrastructure. The URL filtering capability of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall helps in blocking malicious sites. We have to take care of both known threats and unknown threats. The firewall takes care of known threats, and we protect ourselves from unknown threats such as malicious code and malware that we cannot create firewall rules for. With these routing capabilities and policies, only whitelisted things get processed or passed. The biggest advantages of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall, especially as a partner, service provider, and integrator, are that it is very easy to integrate these APIs with our solution, and most of the features I am getting in the clientless mode. Even with the client mode, it is easy to integrate with our client, allowing the customer to get a single client to address all the features of the firewall as well as the GTNA perspective. The flexibility of deployment, especially for the government and defense sectors, is that they want an on-premises solution, while the rest of the PSUs or enterprise segment are comfortable with the cloud offering, which is the SaaS offering and the way to go in the future.
Vinitha Kundawad - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Implementation Engineer at Cisco
Session-based routing has transformed branch failover and now optimizes application paths
Juniper Session Smart Router is a very good cloud integration router, with very strong application visibility, and WAN path optimization is also present. It has very good simplified branch connectivity, particularly strong automation and API support, and better SaaS performance. Session-based routing instead of tunnel-heavy architecture is one of the best features. Session-based routing and API support in Juniper Session Smart Router have helped me in my work. It helps in session-based routing changes from route-based packets only on destination IP to application session awareness. This can help with a better application experience, and voice or video traffic automatically takes the best WAN path based on latency, jitter, and packet loss. Faster failover occurs; instead of waiting for routing protocol convergence, sessions can dynamically move to healthier links. Additionally, there is improved SaaS performance. In terms of APIs, I have had a very good experience integrating it with automation platforms like Terraform and Ansible. It has reduced manual errors, and my team has been using the API to automate deployment and dozens of other tasks with branch SSR devices. Another feature I can think of regarding Juniper Session Smart Router is that there is no traditional overlay tunnel overhead in many scenarios, which is one of the best features. Dynamic path selection based on latency and jitter makes this one of the standout features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution offers sandboxing, which can be integrated at any time."
"We like the scalability of Forcepoint because with the Forcepoint NGFW solution, we can scale anything. The solution has central management, so we can manage all the branches and devices centrally in one controller."
"It is a scalable product. I know a customer who has deployed more than 4,000 firewalls in a single deployment."
"Forcepoint has great security functionality."
"Overall, it is an excellent product, highly reliable, and among the top contenders; Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is well known."
"Previously, it was very difficult to handle all traffic because multiple locations experienced downtime, firewalls went down, and internet connectivity issues occurred, but after Forcepoint SD-WAN solutions were deployed across different locations, all traffic goes through Wi-Fi solutions, which are directly connected to Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall, making it very easy, time-saving, and improving security."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall are the advanced threat protection, including features like IPS and DDoS prevention, which help avoid internal DDoS attacks."
"Because we are talking directly to engineers in the US, the support is usually the best you can possibly get."
"For telecom companies, I think zero-trust segmentation is the way to go because if you allow anything that you do not understand, then it becomes a problem."
"As compared to the other major vendors in the SD-WAN market, such as VeloCloud, Cisco, and others, the tunnel-free and secure vector routing technology is its major USP, which gives plenty of room to discuss with the customer why IPSec from 1998 is a bit outdated."
"They provided us with a customized product according to our requirements."
"Juniper Session Smart Router has positively impacted my organization because we have multi-cloud solutions that are extremely useful for our M365, Teams communication, Zoom communication, SAP applications, and Oracle-based applications."
"The most valuable feature of Juniper Session Smart Router is its unique SDR channel."
"The biggest advantage of Juniper Session Smart Router that really stands out is its reliability and performance."
"The best feature is the easiest way to deploy configuration and also back up them, and also to roll back quickly if there's an incident."
 

Cons

"Next Generation Firewall's configuration could be improved."
"They need to increase the local support here. There are also some bugs or fixes on which they need to work. They very well know about these bugs. In terms of licensing, I would like them to either increase the number of features in a single license or make licensing more flexible."
"My team is looking for more throughput and better integration with our security framework."
"The negative side of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is that the ZTNA part is missing."
"The capacity for reading the users in a domain and the capacity to integrate the solution with the active directory or any kind of directory services need improvement."
"This solution would be improved with the inclusion of custom reporting."
"I would probably not recommend the product to customers because it is not top of the line."
"In larger companies with extensive infrastructure, retrieving logs for a longer period of time can sometimes take a bit longer than desired."
"I found some weaknesses on their hardware. They are sometimes breaking very often."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could improve its documentation to become more competitive. It has very little documentation, and you have to rely mainly so much on support to do something, which I feel should not be that way."
"Juniper Session Smart Router could be better in several areas such as the steep learning curve because the session-based model is different from traditional networking."
"One area for improvement that I have observed is related to the VPN, where I frequently notice VPN flaps or disconnections between Juniper Session Smart Router and the SD-WAN hub device in the data center, which should be addressed to prevent users from experiencing any downtime."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can improve the integration for Wi-Fi devices and add additional Sassy deployments."
"Juniper Session Smart Router can be improved by simplifying onboarding for traditional network teams and providing better documentation for complex deployments, as well as improving the GUI for operational workflows and better migration tooling."
"A key area for improvement in Juniper Session Smart Router is its security stack, which is not as robust as Fortinet."
"The UI of the SSR conductor is the main part where improvements can be done. Today, for every configuration step, you have to do a series of clicks."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have found the price could be reduced. It is a little expensive."
"The training that they offer to their end-customers. It's quite expensive, I believe it costs roughly $11,000"
"We have just a subscription for the cloud, and this license is great. The license is so good."
"Next Generation Firewall is moderately priced."
"The solution is expensive."
"The pricing of the solution is normally competitive with other products."
"I consider Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall's price to be good."
"Forcepoint is very expensive but it's really secure."
"It is a simple bandwidth-based license and the orchestration comes bundled with the solution by default."
"We are currently renegotiating the offer for the licenses and the license bundle model. The license for an ISP has to be different from the license for an end customer. This is something we are currently renegotiating with Juniper, but, of course, the pricing for the licensing is always an issue when you want to get more customers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
In terms of price, I would say Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is not expensive. It is very much comparable to other vendors, and pricing is not a problem, especially for the Asian market, with...
What needs improvement with Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
The negative side of Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall is that the ZTNA part is missing. For that, we have to integrate a third-party component with Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall to complet...
What is your primary use case for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall?
The major use cases for Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall are in government turnkey projects where we require a lot of traffic coming from the public domain. That is why we are putting these fire...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper Session Smart Router?
Pricing for Juniper Session Smart Router is premium but is usually justified for enterprises needing advanced WAN optimization and application-aware routing. Some challenges arise from initial lice...
What needs improvement with Juniper Session Smart Router?
Juniper Session Smart Router can be improved by simplifying onboarding for traditional network teams and providing better documentation for complex deployments, as well as improving the GUI for ope...
What is your primary use case for Juniper Session Smart Router?
My main use case for Juniper Session Smart Router in the lab environment where I've tried learning about Juniper networks is basically SD-WAN and application-aware routing for enterprise WAN transf...
 

Also Known As

Forcepoint NGFW, Stonesoft Next Generation Firewall, McAfee Network Security Platform, Intel Security Network Security Platform
128T Networking Platform, 128 Technology SD-WAN, Juniper SSR Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
Revation Systems
Find out what your peers are saying about Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall vs. Juniper Session Smart Router and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.