Ivanti Connect Secure vs SonicWall Netextender comparison

Ivanti and SonicWall are both solutions in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category. Ivanti is ranked #9 with an average rating of 6.8, while SonicWall is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.0. Ivanti holds a 5.4% mindshare in EIV, compared to SonicWall’s 3.3% mindshare. Additionally, 79% of Ivanti users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 70% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

Ivanti Connect Secure

Read 29 Ivanti Connect Secure reviews

3,726 Views
3,130 Comparison Views

79% willing to recommend

SonicWall Netextender

Read 14 SonicWall Netextender reviews

2,514 Views
2,514 Comparison Views

70% willing to recommend

Ivanti Connect Secure

SonicWall Netextender

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 6, 2024

Ivanti Connect Secure and SonicWall NetExtender are competing secure remote access solutions. Ivanti Connect Secure has advantages in pricing and support, while SonicWall NetExtender excels in features.

Features: Ivanti Connect Secure offers robust security, comprehensive management capabilities, and detailed reporting and diagnostics. SonicWall NetExtender includes advanced features, seamless integration with other SonicWall products, and standout scalability and cross-platform support.

Room for Improvement: Ivanti Connect Secure could enhance mobile support, streamline the installation process, and focus on agility. SonicWall NetExtender could improve interface intuitiveness, performance optimization, and refine usability and speed.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Ivanti Connect Secure benefits from straightforward deployment and robust customer service. SonicWall NetExtender's complex deployment is balanced by highly responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Ivanti Connect Secure is cost-efficient with a favorable ROI, making it appealing to budget-conscious buyers. SonicWall NetExtender, although pricier, justifies its cost with extensive features and long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

December 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 881,082 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

Ivanti Connect Secure

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

9th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

SSL VPN (1st)

SonicWall Netextender

Ranking in Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

13th

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Enterprise Infrastructure VPN category, the mindshare of Ivanti Connect Secure is 5.4%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SonicWall Netextender is 3.3%, down from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Ivanti Connect Secure	5.4%
SonicWall Netextender	3.3%
Other	91.3%

Enterprise Infrastructure VPN

Featured Reviews

Kaushlendra Singh

Manager - IT Infrastructure and Network at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Provides secure and simple remote access but needs improved reporting capabilities

Ivanti Connect Secure is simple and secure, making it valuable for our organization. Ivanti Connect Secure's access control feature provides global protect, which allows country-wise blocking. There are many access controls available, and policies can be created on a host basis and on the MAC address of assets that will connect. Firewall versions and OS versions can be defined, and only devices meeting these criteria can connect to the VPN. These features are effective, along with MFA. Ivanti Connect Secure is a client-based, agent-based solution, so if the agent is installed, users are able to connect to the network. Ivanti Connect Secure utilizes identity-based LDAP authentication. Ivanti Connect Secure is very effective for remote access for remote workers.

Read full review

Rich Darress

Chief Operating Officer at Darress Tech

Has provided secure remote access to multiple client networks with consistent performance

When buying the appliance itself, there is one downside that isn't exclusive to SonicWall. When you apply all the security settings, many people have one gig connections for internet ISP. If you're bringing in a one gig connection, you have to have a more robust SonicWall to handle that throughput with all your security settings turned on. It gets pretty pricey upfront if you're bringing in a one gig connection. If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious. However, this issue exists with pretty much any appliance.

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

"Ivanti Connect Secure provides the feature to check and ensure that employee devices are compliant before allowing them to access the VPN."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"The stability of the product is its most valuable feature."

"The most valuable feature is being able to securely connect and use virtual desktops."

"This is a very secure and stable tool."

"Ivanti Connect Secure is simple and secure, making it valuable for our organization."

"The new UI that they are providing right now is very good."

"Pulse Connect Secure is a stable solution."

More Ivanti Connect Secure pros

"The most valuable feature for the Netextender is the ease with which we can integrate it with SAML."

"I found nothing of value in this solution."

"The solution provides high availability."

"It can support multifactor authentication. Also, it is a very basic application."

"The initial setup is pretty easy."

"My company opted for this solution because it can individually perform. Basically, we don't require load balancers and all those additional feature sets or additional devices that might be required. The solution can handle the certificate, DNS queries, and all that stuff individually."

"The product has two-factor authentication."

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."

More SonicWall Netextender pros

Cons

"An area for improvement in Pulse Connect Secure is the concurrent connections, particularly needing a license if you want to use Pulse Connect Secure with your Microsoft or Windows machine."

"The most valuable features of Pulse Connect Secure are the user-friendly connection and interconnecting."

"The user experience has room for improvement."

"The solution must be more user-friendly."

"The support team of the product needs improvement. Sometimes we have issues with multiple authentications, but there is no help from the support team."

"I would like the solution to be more secure and compatible. It also needs to improve integration with other systems."

"Pulse Connect Secure could improve the reporting, it is lacking in detail and should take the report automatically."

"The product could use additional dashboards."

More Ivanti Connect Secure cons

"Sometimes you can get bounced around through the departments until you find the right one. Sometimes if you don't have the most current support contract or your license is out of date, they won't even talk to you."

"The initial setup of SonicWall Netextender is straightforward. The only issue we encountered was with relocating the VPN appliance. If we needed to move it from an on-premise to an on-cloud architecture, we had to start over and redeploy it from scratch. Unfortunately, it is not portable and any changes to its physical location often result in the need for a fresh deployment to ensure everything functions properly."

"The solution takes up a lot of bandwidth."

"SonicWall can be difficult for some people, but I don't find it difficult. Some companies provide a VPN client for free, but you have to pay for NetExtender."

"In future releases, introductions of AI features would be really helpful."

"If the customer starts with a two, three, four, or 500 meg connection and has a small unit, they have to replace the whole box when upgrading to a gig, so scalability there is atrocious."

"The Netextender application itself doesn't really look pretty, however, we can still use it. We don't care what it looks like. That said, if they did a cosmetic update, that would be fine."

"The product does not work well."

More SonicWall Netextender cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing for Pulse Connect Secure is not low and not high, so it's good. It's a six out of ten for me, price-wise."

"I rate the product price a six to seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"A license is required for you to use Pulse Connect Secure, but I'm not aware of how much it costs."

"Pulse Connect Secure is relatively cost-effective."

"The pricing is quite nominal. We pay on a yearly basis."

"The price of Pulse Connect Secure is expensive."

"The cost of the product is high, but worth it because of the utility and great product support."

"The solution is cheap itself, not too costly."

"The solution has a pretty good price."

"After a certain number of users, you require extra licensing."

"Compared to others, it is cheaper. When we compare it with Palo Alto, Check Point, or Fortinet, it is a little cheaper."

"You have to pay for its license. There are some other companies that provide a VPN client for free. When you buy NetExtender, its license is available for one, three, or five years."

"Cost wise, it would be a few hundred dollars for the base appliance with the first five clients. Then from there, your cost per seat depends on how many you're getting. It's a one-time cost, and then you have a few hundred dollars a year for the maintenance contract once you get the one-time seat costs out of the way."

"The price of SonicWall Netextender is reasonable. Whether it's a small shop with only five users or a larger operation with 130 users, we have received no complaints or objections regarding cost from any of the clients we are looking to deploy it with."

See which vendors are best for you

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

See recommendations

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Outsourcing Company

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	19

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pulse Connect Secure?

From an end-user perspective, the setup phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pulse Connect Secure?

Ivanti has always been known to be pricey, making it a rather high-cost solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pulse Connect Secure?

The reporting capabilities of Ivanti Connect Secure are not strong; the format is simple, and obtaining a detailed report is difficult and requires manual work. Regarding points for improvement, th...

See all answers

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

The pricing for my experience with the setup cost and licensing of SonicWall Netextender is fair. The Netextender itself has no cost. It's the SSL licensing that is attached to the SonicWall. It us...

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall Netextender?

SonicWall Netextender has not helped with compliance, as it is not applicable for what I'm doing. I've put several feature requests in over the years and they've implemented them all, so it current...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for SonicWall Netextender?

Getting to local resources on a customer's network is my main use case with SonicWall Netextender or SonicWall SSL-VPN. As a managed service provider, all my customers have SonicWalls and I get int...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenVPN Access Server vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 14% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 11% of the time

Ivanti Secure Access vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 10% of the time

F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) vs Ivanti Connect Secure

Compared 6% of the time

More Ivanti Connect Secure Competitors

OpenVPN Access Server vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 30% of the time

SonicWall Connect Tunnel vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 16% of the time

SonicWall SMA vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 10% of the time

Fortinet FortiClient vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 10% of the time

SonicWall Mobile Connect vs SonicWall Netextender

Compared 9% of the time

More SonicWall Netextender Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure

January 2026

Download Ivanti Connect Secure product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall Netextender

January 2026

Download SonicWall Netextender product report

Also Known As

Pulse Connect Secure

No data available

Overview

Ivanti Connect Secure provides a seamless, cost-effective SSL VPN solution for remote and mobile users from any web-enabled device to corporate resources— anytime, anywhere.

Ivanti

SonicWall Netextender provides secure remote access, supporting remote work with valuable features like two-factor authentication, low latency, and integration with Microsoft identity management.

SonicWall Netextender facilitates secure client-to-site VPN connections for remote staff, integrating seamlessly with Microsoft identity management and using existing credentials like Active Directory. Its cost-effectiveness and detailed documentation attract enterprises in sectors such as insurance, healthcare, and education. Despite excellent control over routing, the intuitive setup could be improved, with users experiencing performance and licensing flexibility issues, especially with multi-factor authentication. While integration with SAML ensures seamless authentication, high bandwidth consumption and the outdated interface are mentioned for enhancement. Overall, SonicWall Netextender supports remote file transfers and access to Microsoft 365 portals, although additional features like automatic connection on startup and AI integration would address current user demands.

What features does SonicWall Netextender offer?

Remote Work Support: Facilitates secure connections for remote staff
Integration with Microsoft Identity Management: Connects effortlessly using existing credentials
Two-Factor Authentication: Enhances security during remote access
Low Latency and High Stability: Ensures uninterrupted remote connections
Cost-effectiveness: Attracts organizations with budget-friendly options

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Secure Access: Reliable protection for remote file transfers
Ease of Setup: Quick deployment with minimal IT disruption
Flexible Integration: Utilizes existing credentials for seamless user experience
Documentation: Comprehensive guides for efficient setup and use

Enterprises from insurance, healthcare, and education sectors benefit from SonicWall Netextender by enabling secure remote or hybrid work. Companies facilitate efficient management of remote work, providing access to corporate resources from any location. Challenges include the authentication setup, but its support for remote access to Microsoft 365 and secure file transfers offer substantial utility for these industries.

SonicWall

Sample Customers

Axcient, Baloise Group, Cygate, Catholic University of America, Datec Inc, Revlon, Santa Monica Networks, 7-Eleven

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

December 2025

Free Report: Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender

Find out what your peers are saying about Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SonicWall Netextender report.

See our list of best Enterprise Infrastructure VPN vendors.

We monitor all Enterprise Infrastructure 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.