Peplink SpeedFusion vs SonicWall SMA comparison

The compared Peplink and SonicWall solutions aren't in the same category. Peplink is ranked #8 in SDW , with an average rating of 9.5, and holds a 6.7% mindshare in the category. SonicWall is ranked #2 in UAG , with an average rating of 9.5, and holds a 47.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Peplink users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of SonicWall users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Peplink SpeedFusion and SonicWall SMA based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Broadcom and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 868,759 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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Peplink SpeedFusion	6.7%
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN	14.6%
Other	60.4%

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

Universal Access Gateways Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
SonicWall SMA	47.7%
Citrix Gateway	47.7%
Other	4.599999999999994%

Universal Access Gateways

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

Read full review

Samuel Romero

Field data engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees

User-friendly, easy to install, and scalable

Peplink SpeedFusion needs a thin rail model for industrial solutions. The stability has room for improvement. Peplink SpeedFusion needs to have a heavy-duty heat sink on the case to perform better. Generally, what I found is that devices that have a heat sink on a case or, more weight on a case to absorb the heat, perform a little better. I get some areas where I'm right at the hundred and fifty degrees. So I've had a few failures not many, but I found more failures than a Cisco ISO eleven or a Moxa router. Those solutions have more mass to absorb the heat. Most failures have a lot to do with the case. That's why a lot of people have a hard time pushing Peplink SpeedFusion, and they want to move to Cradlepoint because they have a much more ruggedized case.

Read full review

Mayur_Patel

Chief Commercial Officer at InnovAge Home Care

Easy-to-manage product with efficient features for network security

SonicWall SMA facilitates and protects remote workforce access to corporate resources from any location Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface. We have been using SonicWall…

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

"The product is user-friendly and not complex."

"I am content with its user interface and functionalities."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics."

"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."

"The technical support is good."

"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."

"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."

"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Our customers find it to be an interesting and tempting solution."

"The valuable feature is that, after reading about its capabilities and using it for a while, Peplink SpeedFusion employs eight technologies within its SD-WAN profile, addressing issues like packet loss and latency. The solution is highly stable. I rate it a nine out of ten. The support team gives quick response and efficient local support."

"It is a very stable product."

"In the Philippines, VPN usage may not be widely known, but we leverage VPN effectively within my organization. I've shared our in-house systems with other district offices, as I cover fifteen municipalities and cater to the entire province. This platform is a valuable tool for us, enabling collaborative work, and allowing us to update our services remotely."

"The SpeedFusion feature is good. It allowed us to move away from IPsec between the sites. It is also a really easy product to deploy."

"The SpeedFusion feature is the most valuable."

"The most valuable feature is the virtual VPN concentrator."

"I think they ask for a fair price."

"Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security."

"The management and the dashboard are the solution's most valuable features."

"The solution is reliable and has good overall performance."

"The performance is good."

"I like the load balancing capability."

"This solution has many options for remote desktop and access."

"It is faster than other security options when using remote connections."

More SonicWall SMA pros

Cons

"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."

"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."

"They have recently acquired a CNAP solution which should be integrated into FortiGate boxes natively for protection at any application layer. Since Fortinet FortiGate has Layer 7 protection, they should integrate that as soon as they can for threat detection and network detection."

"Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services."

"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."

"There should be some open-source training or free training for decision makers, or some webinars should be available. These would help understand the new product line and the existing product line features."

"The licensing model and pricing need improvement."

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The product needs to aggregate the bandwidth of different ISPs. It needs to improve scalability as well."

"I believe there could be some enhancements in the enterprise segment, offering greater options or something similar."

"Its pricing is the main issue. The pricing could be improved. I would like to see an outbound policy based on the application. It is a very good feature, and most of the customers are looking for that. They can also include stronger firewall features. This would help the customers in choosing this product as the only device for the SD network."

"There is room for improvement in enhancing security features, such as incorporating intrusion detection blocking capabilities and integrating artificial intelligence to bolster security aspects on the device."

"They don't have next generation firewall, UTM, like the other competitors."

"The stability has room for improvement."

"Their hardware support isn't the greatest. We've had one unit go down, and it took a while for them to replace it. It was in the Caribbeans, so it might be a location-related issue."

"This is an expensive solution and I think that the price could be improved."

"Enhancing live tracking capabilities could improve the product, particularly in monitoring user activity and request statuses in real-time on the web interface."

"SonicWall's reporting isn't good. Reports should be part of a data plan. The login mechanism should be improved. It would be helpful if the client could use an agent to log in. An agent-server model would improve the performance of the RDB, which consumes a lot of bandwidth."

"The product itself is very good, but Dell needs to work on product visibility in their advertising."

"The timed synchronization between the network appliance needs improvement."

"The solution has 2FA, it will generate a token and send it to an email, but multifactor authentication is not available. I would suggest that there should be MFA integration and provided with the appliance."

"The solution could integrate better with other platforms."

"I'd like to see the product maybe polish keyboards in Bookmark."

More SonicWall SMA cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think price-wise, the solution is totally reasonable since it has many products to serve, starting from small homes to massive scale sites."

"The price of FortiGate is reasonable as I plan to buy new switches. The initial gadgets are already booted, and the pricing seems normal on the market. As for additional costs, I haven't subscribed to many extra features, so I'm only using what I need. Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us."

"The tool is a bit pricey for small businesses, but it is still bearable in terms of cost."

"Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support."

"The solution is more expensive than Sophos. It could be cheaper. The licensing is on a yearly basis. We have had it for about three years. We must only pay extra for the license, additional requirements, and the hardware box."

"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."

"Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."

"Fortinet FortiGate is expensive."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"It has lifetime licensing. Its pricing is high for most of the markets."

"I rate Peplink SpeedFusion's pricing an eight out of ten."

"Its licensing fee is on a yearly basis. For the price, it is actually pretty good value."

"The cost is in the middle, a five out of ten."

"Perpetual licensing, which is good for customers that don't want any annual or subscription based license."

"It's not cheap, but it is highly competitive."

"This solution is priced well and we currently have the maximum number of licenses allowed."

"All the costs are included in a bundled license."

"The platform has medium pricing."

"The cost of the licensing is based on the maximum number of concurrent users, and it costs a lot to add them."

"Our licenses are stackable and can be anywhere from five users to a million users."

"I don't know about the pricing of the SSL-VPN box. I know the SSL-VPN software is free. Global VPN client, by comparison, is licensed for around $150 or something like that. But the SSL-VPN software is free. It is already built-in with the box."

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	350
Midsize Enterprise	130
Large Enterprise	187

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	1

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	2

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

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

See all answers

What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

See all answers

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 ...

See all answers

What do you like most about Peplink SpeedFusion?

In the Philippines, VPN usage may not be widely known, but we leverage VPN effectively within my organization. I've s...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Peplink SpeedFusion?

I rate Peplink SpeedFusion's pricing an eight out of ten.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Peplink SpeedFusion?

The product needs to aggregate the bandwidth of different ISPs. It needs to improve scalability as well.

See all answers

What do you like most about SonicWall SMA?

Blocklisting and allowlisting are the most beneficial features for network security.

See all answers

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

The pricing for the solution could be a lot less.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SonicWall SMA?

I haven't utilized the high availability and scalability features of SonicWall SMA yet because I've never had a need ...

See all answers

Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 17% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 9% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cradlepoint NetCloud vs Peplink SpeedFusion

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Peplink SpeedFusion

Compared 16% of the time

VMware VeloCloud SD-WAN vs Peplink SpeedFusion

Compared 11% of the time

Versa Unified Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) Platform vs Peplink SpeedFusion

Compared 6% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Peplink SpeedFusion

Compared 3% of the time

More Peplink SpeedFusion Competitors

SonicWall Netextender vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 19% of the time

Ivanti Connect Secure vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 12% of the time

Citrix Gateway vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 11% of the time

OpenVPN Access Server vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 10% of the time

Ivanti Secure Access vs SonicWall SMA

Compared 9% of the time

More SonicWall SMA Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

September 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Peplink SpeedFusion

September 2025

Download Peplink SpeedFusion product report

Buyer's Guide

SonicWall SMA

September 2025

Download SonicWall SMA product report

Also Known As

No data available

SonicWall Aventail, SonicWall SMA SSL-VPN, SonicWall Secure Mobile Access

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate excels in providing integrated VPN, firewalling, and Unified Threat Management (UTM) with centralized management and high availability. It supports remote access and comprehensive threat protection, making it a preferred choice for securing networks.

Fortinet FortiGate offers a robust security platform with features such as strong intrusion prevention, application control, and web filtering. Its integration with Active Directory and SD-WAN functionality provides scalable solutions for large networks. Users appreciate its ease of use through centralized management interfaces, ensuring robust security with flexible configurations. However, FortiGate could enhance its graphical interface and technical support responsiveness, address firmware bugs and costly licensing, improve logging, integrate better with third-party tools, and strengthen scalability and memory for log storage. Complexity in configuration and the need for intuitive features are noted challenges, and there's a demand for advanced security, zero-trust capabilities, and AI integration.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN: Secure remote access and connectivity.
Firewalling: Protects networks from unauthorized access and attacks.
UTM: Offers a comprehensive approach to threat management.
SD-WAN: Optimizes traffic routing for efficient network performance.
Web Filtering: Controls and monitors web access and ensures Internet security.

What benefits or ROI should be considered?

Centralized Management: Simplifies administration and monitoring.
High Availability: Ensures consistent security and network availability.
Scalability: Adapts to the needs of growing networks.
Comprehensive Threat Protection: Provides robust security measures.
Ease of Use: Minimizes the complexity of security management.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries like education, finance, and government. Companies use it for firewall protection, VPN, and SD-WAN capabilities, ensuring secure perimeter and data center security. It facilitates remote access management and traffic routing optimization, offering reliable security and connectivity solutions.

Fortinet

Peplink’s patent-pending SpeedFusion technology powers enterprise VPNs that tap into the bandwidth of up to 13 low-cost cable, DSL, 3G/4G/LTE, and other links connected anywhere on your corporate or institutional WAN. Whether you’re transferring a few documents or driving realtime POS data, video feeds, and VoIP conversations, SpeedFusion pumps all your data down a single fat datapipe that’s budget-friendly, ultra-fast, and easily configurable to suit any networking environment.

Peplink

SonicWall SMA is a unified secure access gateway that enables organizations to provide anytime, anywhere and any device access to mission critical corporate resources. SMA's granular access control policy engine, context aware device authorization, application level VPN and advanced authentication with single sign-on empowers organizations to embrace BYOD and mobility in a hybrid IT environment.

SonicWall

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

MIT Robotics Team, Intel, Apple, Google, Hootsuite, Northrop Gruman, Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, Avocent, GE, VW, Marriott, Renaissance, WSI, Union /Pacific

UnitedStack, Newport City Homes, Faith Lutheran College Redlands, PRIME aerostructures GmbH, Celtic Manor Resort

Buyer's Guide

Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions

September 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Broadcom and others in Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions. Updated: September 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.

We monitor all Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions 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.