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Smoothwall Firewall vs Sophos Firewall comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 19, 2026

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
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
592
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Smoothwall Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
42nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.3
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Sophos Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
304
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 15.1%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smoothwall Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sophos Firewall is 7.1%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate15.1%
Sophos Firewall7.1%
Smoothwall Firewall0.4%
Other77.4%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at airtel
Enables customers to manage security effortlessly with intuitive features and easy integration
In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.
Himanshu-Sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Qualic
Offers good scalability and monitoring features
There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages. For example, if we're creating a rule, we should be able to do everything on the same page. Just a drop-down thing or something. This would improve productivity.
Ashutosh Jha - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Engineer at IT Solution
Robust protection has blocked external threats and provides clear visibility into user activity
Sophos Firewall offers multiple features, including IPS, IDS, ATP, NDR, XOps, web protection, application protection, web server protection, and many more. Out of all those features, I find web protection and application protection to be very helpful and valuable in my daily work. Sophos Firewall has positively impacted my organization by preventing outside threats, allowing me to easily monitor my users, and configuring any rule for any user regarding what they need to use and what I am restricting for the particular user. I can share that it has improved productivity because if anyone could ransom my network, they could demand money to decrypt the files, thus saving us money, time, and providing reliability.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Mainly the FortiGate reporting system is very good. It guides us through all the expectations of security. Fortinet provides us all that we need for security. Also, Fortinet FortiGate is a next-generation firewall. It is much more advanced than others."
"It's comprehensive and time-saving. It covers several areas regarding security."
"SSL VPN, Site to Site VPN, UTM features and web override are nice features."
"I find Fortinet FortiGate to be quite stable, as I have never heard of any issues where they broke or malfunctioned; they are always working."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate IPS are firewall and filtering."
"The GUI configuration is its most valuable feature"
"The stability is great; there are no issues with crashing or freezing, and there are no bugs or glitches."
"Once installed it will do its job efficiently and effectively for several years."
"It was easy to initially deploy it."
"Sophos offers strong features such as IPS and application control that are particularly valuable."
"The solution is easy to implement, however, if you do decide on this solution, I would make sure that you have someone that has experience with this kind of solution or to hire someone to implement the solution properly."
"The two most valuable feature of Sophos XG is, one the option to filter according to different applications and two, the integration with the Active Directory."
"The solution is stable."
"Owing to the fast and adequate response time we get, we do not have complaints about the stability."
"It’s popular because it’s easy to manage, the cloud console is excellent, and it supports VPNs. It can also integrate with endpoints, though this is optional. Regarding threat intelligence, customers in Central Europe often prefer managing their threat hunting rather than using the more expensive service from Sophos. This feature is handy for large international companies with many employees. Threat intelligence requires separate licensing and is optional. Customers can either manage it themselves or purchase the additional service from Sophos, which includes further actions and is more expensive. Smaller companies often don’t have the budget for this."
"What I like about his program, is that it is easy to use and easy to manage."
"The initial setup is very user-friendly because they have graphical user interface options and command line interface options. I would give the initial setup a rating of five out of five."
 

Cons

"During a recent upgrade from old devices to the latest ones, corporate IT faced challenges as there was no straightforward migration process, requiring many manual steps."
"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."
"We would like to see a better training platform implemented."
"The room for improvement is about the global delivery time period. Usually I need to wait for almost one month to deliver it overseas. So if you can shorten the deliver time it'd be great."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"There are mainly two areas of improvement in Fortinet FortiGate— the licensing cost and the timing of upgrading licenses for boxes."
"There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."
"Application management can be improved."
"There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages."
"I would like to next release to be able to support on-premise deployment. The construction of the rules within the firewall could also use some improvement."
"The security of Sophos XG could be improved."
"They could work on their SD-WAN solution. I have seen it. It's not that competitive compared to other vendors."
"The support service offered by Sophos is an area of concern where certain improvements are required."
"They have the worst technical support I have ever seen in my whole life."
"It has recently started to suddenly block and crash."
"There is not much flexibility or scalability with this solution."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a need to pay for a license for the product."
"I give the pricing of the solution a six out of ten."
"Price-wise, it's at a good price point for our market."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."
"The price is high compared to some of the other solutions."
"Fortinet has more device options that are affordable for small businesses than Palo Alto, and its enterprise-level models are also cheaper. Palo Alto also has a separate license for VPN connections and SD-WAN, but FortiGate offers these features standard."
"The pricing for the product is alright."
Information not available
"I rate Sophos XG’s pricing a seven out of ten."
"Sophos XGS is competitively priced."
"The price can be a bit steep but for the number of features, it is worth it."
"The issue of a recurring license is a hassle because every year, we have to subscribe."
"We must purchase separate web server licenses, as they are not included in the regular device license. I would rate the product an eight out of ten in terms of price. It's relatively affordable."
"I live in Bolivia and the price of Sophos XGS is high. However, they have adjusted their price a little over the past while but the price could still be less expensive to be affordable."
"XGS' price could be lower, though it's moderately priced in the market."
"We paid around 17,000 pounds for a three-year package."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
University
16%
Comms Service Provider
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business370
Midsize Enterprise138
Large Enterprise195
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business209
Midsize Enterprise61
Large Enterprise53
 

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...
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...
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 ...
Ask a question
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Which is better - Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls or Sophos XG?
Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have both great features and performance. I like that Palo Alto has regular threat si...
What are the main differences in features between Sophos XG and FortiGate 80F?
Hi Arvind P , The Sophos XG firewall has a number of models right from XG86 to XG135w under the 1U Desktop Form Fact...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos XG?
The pricing is a little higher compared to Chinese products like Huawei. For those on a limited budget, I sometimes p...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
Sophos XG, Sophos XGS
 

Overview

 

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
Information Not Available
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Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: May 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.