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IPFire vs Sophos UTM comparison

 

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

IPFire
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (29th)
Sophos UTM
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

AE
Chief Technology Officer at Agileware Limited
Firewall deployment has secured mission-critical public apps and simplifies Linux-based management
The best features IPFire offers include its very intuitive nature because, even though it has a Linux back-end, in terms of configuration, it has a very rich GUI interface. The GUI and configuration features of IPFire have made my work easier and more efficient because their positioning and the sequence with which I follow is easy. In terms of all the processes, what you need to do at first and the next thing that you need to do is clear. The GUI is well arranged in sequential order, so you can follow that from whatever you want to do until you get the target objective. IPFire includes features with a very robust and rich community that is very much valid in terms of content. IPFire has positively impacted my organization by giving us some mileage. At least, a lot of organizations now know that we have a solution that can deliver the same value.
HR
CEO at iSource GmbH
Integrated security tools have supported critical infrastructure and improved network performance
Regarding Secureworks Taegis VDR Vulnerability Management, I do not have all these shortcuts in my head. Perhaps I have to ask my technicians, but we are in full stress because we have to change this entire firewall equipment, also the entire access points, because of the end of life. We also have the full product in for XDR and extensions. We are also part of the webinars from Sophos. It would be better if there were also some important webinars in German. Everything needs improvement, because also the wireless, also RED box and so on. The handling was much easier on the old equipment than on the new XGS. I think there should also be a little more automatic for SD-WAN routing and so on. Because we have to learn some things from the basic completely new because it is different than Sophos UTM, the XGS. The features that could be improved about Sophos UTM include the new features we have in XGS with a simpler interface. For example, in Sophos UTM, we could define IP hosts and use this IP host. We did not have to insert on every, for example, for wide area networks, we had to put the IP addresses from the other side by hand. In Sophos UTM, we could define it under definitions and then use this IP host where we needed it. In the new XGS, if there is a change in the IP address, we have to do it on all, for example, site-to-site VPN tunnels and so on. We have much more work and it is not so easy because we have to check all the definitions. It is also, for example, some of the male technicians like me, we have a biology handicap. For example, male technicians in Europe also have a red-green problem. So we use these light colors on the interface. In some cases, it is not easy to see the, for example, letters or numbers because of the contrast.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate the stability as ten out of ten for IPFire."
"Regarding IPFire's AI capabilities, I think they are quite focused; in all the deployments I have done, I have not had any incidents or breaches."
"IPFire has prevented any kind of hacking and enables us to comply with customer requirements."
"We use Sophos UTM as our main firewall with all its features included. Mainly, it controls all of our network perimeter security: firewall, IDS/IPS, and web application firewall (including VoIP)."
"For the features, how well it works, and how easy it is to use, I would give Sophos a ten out of ten."
"We highly recommend this solution for SMBs for its reasonable pricing and wide range of network services."
"The most valuable features are Web Protection - Protects you against problems originating from the internet, Advanced protection (Sophos Sandstorm) - Protects against crypto viruses in real-time, Email Protection - Really strong anti-spam, and REDs (Remote Ethernet Device) - Connects you from a remote workplace to your source network."
"We used several vendor products before UTM, and now it is all in one box - firewall, proxy, and VPN, and Sophos is much easier to manage and configure."
"Technical support is very knowledgeable and responds immediately to issues."
"We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers."
"It has made our organization more secure, because we are using a VPN."
 

Cons

"Accessing the internet was a bit complicated."
"The graphical interface could be much better."
"I would rate IPFire 8 out of 10 because I do not think there is any solution anywhere in the world that is 100 percent efficient."
"They could definitely improve on the support, especially in other countries."
"The lack of import/export functions for network and service options drives me mad."
"Sophos UTM could improve if there was no limitation on users."
"There can be a delay when it comes to reaching out to technical support."
"Some with the IPS function (snort). In my case, when restarting the system (because of an update), I doubt that snort starts correctly and do a manual restart of the IPS function."
"We'd like to see them offer their services on mobile devices like tablets. I'm not sure if that's an option or not."
"I do not see why email protection has to be paid for separately with Sophos UTM."
"Anti-phishing functionality should be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The licensing model is very straightforward, it's a bit pricey, but for what you get, it's well worth it."
"The prices can be better, they could make it a lot cheaper."
"Sophos UTM has very reasonable pricing."
"Compared to the current market offerings, like FortiGate or SonicWall, Sophos offers its solution at a good price."
"Unless you are in the United States, or you have to use Sophos, you can't contact Sophos directly. You have to use a third-party ​company, and they all have different ways of how they explain their licensing."
"The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive. As I said, we looked at Webroot, which is a big alternative, and Sophos was almost three times the price of Webroot. That's a pretty big difference."
"It is the cheapest product available. It's good if you have a low budget."
"It will cost approximately $67 US per device. We have 300 devices in our organization."
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Comparison Review

it_user216600 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
20%
Computer Software Company
9%
University
8%
Government
7%
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business75
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise27
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with IPFire?
IPFire can be improved, but so far, there are no functionalities that have not been able to meet my needs. I wish IPFire could do more, but so far, I am happy with the solution. If there are other ...
What is your primary use case for IPFire?
My main use case for IPFire is usually for security, functioning as a firewall for organizations that run public-facing applications. I will give you a typical example: there is an agency of the fe...
What advice do you have for others considering IPFire?
I would rate IPFire 8 out of 10 because I do not think there is any solution anywhere in the world that is 100 percent efficient. In elementary physics, we are told that no machine can be 100 perce...
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 good. The most valuable features for me are their web and email filtering. I wou...
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 different sites I wanted to connect, and instead of doing site-to-site, the RED...
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 is software called Fastvue that breaks down everything in the firewall and whate...
 

Comparisons

 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

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Find out what your peers are saying about IPFire vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
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