Sophos Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security comparison

Sophos and Stormshield are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 93% of Sophos users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Stormshield users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Sophos Firewall and Stormshield Network Security based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls.

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: May 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

May 2026

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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

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S

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.

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Ashutosh Jha

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.

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Zsolt Jónás

System Administrator at NaxoNet

Advanced GUI and layered security have supported compliance and simplified intrusion prevention

I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability solution would be beneficial because currently, if you build a high availability solution with Stormshield Network Security, you have a main device and another one is a backup device. The HA can switch between them, but it would be good to have a master-master solution, not just a master-slave one. I could set a URL that I can call to update the DNS record. Currently, Stormshield Network Security devices support DynDNS, which is not a usual feature request from a server environment. I have my own solution instead of DynDNS because I don't prefer it, so I have my own service for that. However, the GUI does not support using a custom service instead of DynDNS. I had to solve it in the console on Stormshield Network Security device, but it would be much better if it was reachable on the GUI. I had to figure out a trick for the IPsec configuration. In the IPsec config, we have to provide the remote side's IP address, but it's always changing. This means that an office, for example a company that has an office but without a fixed IP address, cannot be used with IPsec VPN.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to replace all the firewalls in other locations, as around 90% of our company operates on Fortinet."

"The solution provides good threat intelligence feeds."

"The firewalls are valuable for threat prevention."

"Fortinet FortiGate has many excellent functions and good security."

"Fortinet solutions are very easy to implement, proven, certified and tested."

"The reporting and monitoring are very good."

"The solution is user-friendly."

"The initial setup is very easy."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Valuable features include: the ease of setting up the VPN connection; the fact they have the cloud management option, so I can manage the firewall on a cloud platform from anywhere I am; the user interface is very user-friendly, so it's very easy for the administrator to make any policy changes."

"Excellent product, meets most of the security needs of companies of various sizes. You can buy it without fear."

"I would highly encourage others to evaluate Sophos and adopt it."

"We switched to Sophos for the easy interface and user-friendliness."

"The stability of Sophos XG is great!"

"We have started seeing ROI using this solution because one of their products helps you to prevent ransomware."

"The VPN is the best feature."

"The most valuable feature, according to the setup we have at our work place here, is the flexibility of the system or the firmware that's running the appliance. It's so flexible, performing multiple rules with different configurations. According to the set up here, we need to implement several firewalls with different access levels, because we have a variety of users. For this requirement, it's very flexible and very easy to use."

More Sophos Firewall pros

"I can see what traffic is going on. I can easily block any programs from attacks."

"The most valuable features of this solution are the URL filtering database, which is great and contains all internet categories, the highly scalable interface that I can turn into what I want including hybrid, bridge, or router mode, the security with no back doors that is more secure than other solutions, and the hardware performance that is also better than others."

"The solution has improved my organization because I can see what traffic is happening and I can use it to block and prevent attacks."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page."

"Fortinet, Dell SonicWall and Check Point because these products offer a wide range of features that are not available with Netasq."

"Our organization's main concern is stability, and this is a stable solution."

"This solution is quick and easy to configure."

"Stormshield is pretty robust, compared to other products like Fortinet, as you get more security with Stormshield and spend less money."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

Cons

"The web process often has a memory leak."

"FortiGate's reporting features could provide a better picture of what is happening in the box."

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."

"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."

"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."

"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."

"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."

"What could be improved in Fortinet FortiGate SWG is its pricing because it's a bit higher. If it's cheaper, my company could pitch it to customers and engage with customers better about it. What I'd like to see in the next release of Fortinet FortiGate SWG is an improvement in its dashboard or GUI. I'd like it to be more user-friendly."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The price should be cheaper."

"It is a very basic and entry-level firewall. It doesn't give very granular control over the traffic. It should have more granular control over the traffic. This feature should be there similar to Palo Alto and Cisco. It should have such advanced features."

"Software updates always come with issues. For example, I just upgraded to the next version, 80.5, and it came with VPN issues."

"There are issues with some designs being able to work on high availability."

"We are not very happy with the customer support they provide — it's quite slow."

"I can't use the product's application control feature, making it a disadvantage of the solution where improvements are required."

"Sophos XG lacks link load balancing options like ratio and spill over, both useful in some scenarios."

"There should be web caching to improve bandwidth utilization. It should have a very good caching feature. That's because we are in a very poor continent, and the connectivity cost is very high. We have low bandwidth, and the intensive usage of bandwidth is not easy here in Africa. If they improve services for web caching, it would be better."

More Sophos Firewall cons

"Support is always an issue because they're constantly busy."

"This solution has a big problem with web filtering and it needs to be improved."

"It could be better if it were more user-friendly. It's too complicated for us to use it. The price could be better as well."

"A more user-friendly interface would be helpful."

"One thing, though, is that not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."

"An application firewall like other next generation firewalls have."

"I don’t recommend this product at all."

"Improvement is also needed in terms of the technical support of the manufacturer, they're not very responsive when it comes to technical support."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of FortiGate is good."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

"The solution is very expensive so pricing is rated a one out of ten."

"The price is okay, so far so good."

"It was pretty affordable. We did go a little bit above MSRP, but the service pack that was included was quite worth the additional costs. It is competitively priced compared to other major players in the market. It is significantly cheaper than Check Point, which is a primary competitor. Additionally, its pricing is comparable to that of Cisco's ASA and a few other vendors."

"It's one of the more expensive brands. The 100 series costs around $4,000. They are similar in pricing to what you might get from Cisco solutions and probably other similar ones. They're not more expensive than other similar solutions, but they're certainly not cheaper either."

"As far as I'm aware, in our case, it's just a yearly pricing arrangement with no additional licensing costs."

"The value is the capability of having multiple services with one unique license, not having the limitation per user licensing schema, like other vendors."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"It's approximately $6,000 for each device."

"The pricing is flexible. Sophos looks at a country's economy and offers flexible pricing. This is how they have managed to penetrate the market."

"We pay licensing fees of approximately $2,000. We have a contract for three years."

"When compared to other products, Sophos licensing is very affordable."

"I paid for a license for the solution for three years costing approximately $11,000. Additionally, I received the Web Appliance fee for paying for the full licencing."

"There is no license required to use this solution."

"The price of Sophos XG is reasonable."

"The solution is not expensive since one pays as he goes."

More Sophos Firewall pricing and cost advice

"We chose Stormshield for its price, as the Azure firewall was too expensive."

"The pricing could be better."

"For mid-sized companies, they sell their appliances for good prices."

"The SN200 series costs between $500 USD and $600 USD per year, whereas the SN700 series costs approximately $1,000 annually."

"I think the price is good."

"The price of this solution and the price of support are ok."

"We bought a three-year license, and we renew it whenever it expires. The price could be better. It's always very expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

10%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

Construction Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	370
Midsize Enterprise	138
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	209
Midsize Enterprise	61
Large Enterprise	53

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	5
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...

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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...

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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 ...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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What needs improvement with Stormshield Network Security?

I haven't had a task that I couldn't solve with Stormshield Network Security. The active-active high availability sol...

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What is your primary use case for Stormshield Network Security?

I already use Stormshield Network Security, and I am now looking for a new solution. I am already working with Storms...

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What advice do you have for others considering Stormshield Network Security?

The pricing is increasing, and I would say it is a bit expensive. Palo Alto and others are much more expensive, but S...

See all answers

Comparisons

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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OPNsense vs Sophos Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Sophos Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Sophos Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Sophos Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Sophos Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

More Sophos Firewall Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 11% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 8% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 4% of the time

More Stormshield Network Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Sophos Firewall

May 2026

Download Sophos Firewall product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

May 2026

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Sophos XG, Sophos XGS

NETASQ Firewalls

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Sophos Firewall provides comprehensive network security with web filtering, VPN capabilities, and cloud integration. Users highlight its effective threat prevention and flexibility for customizable policies, enhancing network visibility and management.

Renowned for its robust security, Sophos Firewall simplifies network protection through advanced features like intrusion prevention and endpoint protection integration. Its user-friendly interface allows seamless remote management and tailored rule creation, making it ideal for varied environments like healthcare and education. While the system excels in threat detection, areas such as interface navigation, support response times, and VPN integration face challenges. Enhanced reporting and bandwidth management are essential for improved performance.

What are the standout features of Sophos Firewall?

Web and Application Filter: Secure browsing with advanced filtering options.
VPN Capabilities: Facilitates secure remote access and connectivity.
Cloud Integration: Seamless collaboration with cloud platforms.
Intrusion Prevention: Robust threat detection and prevention features.
Comprehensive Reporting: Detailed insights into network activities.

What benefits and ROI should users expect in reviews?

Enhanced Security: Comprehensive protection against diverse cyber threats.
Increased Flexibility: Tailor rules and policies to meet specific organizational criteria.
Improved Network Visibility: Better oversight and threat detection across networks.
Efficient Management: Simplifies remote and centralized firewall administration.

Industries such as healthcare, education, and finance implement Sophos Firewall for secure VPNs, improved threat management, and effective traffic monitoring. Its load balancing and email security features support compliance and governance, ensuring robust protection tailored to sector-specific requirements.

Sophos

Stormshield Network Security offers comprehensive protection with features like backup inspection, scalable interface, and load balancing, suitable for network security management.

Stormshield Network Security is designed for organizations requiring reliable IT infrastructure protection, providing firewall capabilities, intrusion detection, and application control. Users find VPN support, URL filtering, and UTM functions beneficial for network management. Models like SN200 and SN910 are used globally in clustered configurations, addressing different demands. Challenges include pricing, interface friendliness, filtering configurations, and technical support.

What are the key features of Stormshield Network Security?

Backup Inspection: Enhances reliability and recovery options.
Antivirus Controls: Provides robust virus protection.
Intrusion Detection: Alerts on potential threats.
Load Balancing: Distributes network traffic efficiently.
URL Filtering: Blocks malicious websites for safe browsing.

What benefits should users seek in reviews?

Scalability: Adapts to each organization's growing needs.
Reliability: Supports clustered configurations for uptime.
Management Ease: Intuitive dashboard aids network oversight.
Performance: High throughput with efficient clustering.

Stormshield Network Security is widely implemented in industries needing IT infrastructure protection, like finance or healthcare. Organizations deploy it in data centers or branch offices, benefiting from features ensuring safety and performance. The tool supports environments that demand high security levels and robust network monitoring.

Stormshield

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

ACESUR group, Ministry of Education Oman, Anios Laboratories, Zain, DLM Location

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: May 2026.

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