Stormshield Network Security vs WatchGuard Firebox comparison

Stormshield and WatchGuard are both solutions in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category. Stormshield is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.0, while WatchGuard is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.6. Stormshield holds a 3.7% mindshare in UTMU, compared to WatchGuard’s 10.9% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Stormshield users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WatchGuard users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 5, 2025

Stormshield Network Security and WatchGuard Firebox are network security solutions. WatchGuard appears to have the upper hand due to its customizable policy management and advanced reporting capabilities in highly customizable environments.

Features: Stormshield Network Security stands out with its integrated VPN, flexible firewall settings, and advanced threat detection capabilities. WatchGuard Firebox distinguishes itself with its granular policy management, advanced reporting options, and robust cloud integration support.

Room for Improvement: Stormshield could enhance its user interface for more streamlined management and reduce the complexity of its deployment process. The adaptability of its solutions to various network environments may also need refinement. WatchGuard could improve by enhancing its technical support responsiveness and simplifying some of its advanced features to make them more approachable for new users. Additionally, updating its user documentation could lead to an even better user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WatchGuard Firebox provides a smooth deployment process and offers robust customer service, including comprehensive documentation and reliable technical support. Stormshield, while offering supportive customer service, may pose challenges during deployment for users unfamiliar with its configuration, resulting in a steeper learning curve.

Pricing and ROI: Stormshield Network Security provides a cost-effective solution with a strong return on investment due to its comprehensive baseline security features. WatchGuard Firebox, while potentially more expensive at the outset, promises a significant return on investment by aligning with evolving security demands, particularly for businesses with complex security needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Stormshield Network Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox

September 2025

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Unified Threat Management (UTM) category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 35.1%, down from 39.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Stormshield Network Security is 3.7%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WatchGuard Firebox is 10.9%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Unified Threat Management (UTM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	35.1%
WatchGuard Firebox	10.9%
Stormshield Network Security	3.7%
Other	50.3%

Unified Threat Management (UTM)

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.

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Benjamin

Network Engineer at ACS2I

The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats

The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed.

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ScottEastman

Project Consultant at SEVERN HOSPICE LIMITED

Reduces the risks of sending data where it shouldn't be going

We use the solution to ensure that no data breach, such as credit card details and national insurance numbers, leaves the company. However, we have to allow some information to go through because we send a lot of information to the National Healthcare Service If we don't want specific data sent…

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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

"The best features of Fortinet FortiGate are that it does the job effectively and protects our environment."

"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."

"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."

"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."

"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."

"The security features are valuable, particularly the ransomware attack protection features. Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"You have access to CLI in case you have no web access."

"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

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

"It's an easy, straightforward management platform to use."

"A very robust product."

"This solution is quick and easy to configure."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its dashboard, which helps you manage different aspects of a single page. The intrusion detection system helps our organization by automatically detecting and responding to potential threats. It operates similarly to Darktrace, which detects and responds automatically based on the security rules you apply. Initially, you configure everything to block, and then you can whitelist specific items as needed."

"I like that it works fine. Stormshield is a very good solution."

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

"I like how you can configure the rules. There is the task for the rules and a task for the network configuration. It also provides SMD filtering, and it can be integrated with the active directory for the users, their mission, and the VPN configuration. We are here in Sudan, and Stormshield didn't work in Sudan for more than a decade. Stormshield is a very strong firewall and very easy to configure and maintain. I am just working with the firewall solution, and we don't have any other solutions like endpoint solutions or something like that."

More Stormshield Network Security pros

"I have found the DNS Watch feature for intrusion and prevention response and APT Locker most valuable to me."

"Firebox's best feature is the access portal."

"Their support is excellent, and the stability is very good."

"They've done a lot of work with their SD-WAN, which we do use, to have our old internet service with our new internet service. If anything goes down on a particular interface, I can have different rules applied. Most of my users don't even know when our primary internet goes down anymore... I don't have to be here to do anything to switch it to our backup internet or to switch it back."

"We have received a good return on investment."

"It's pretty simple to use. It's pretty simple to understand, and there's plenty of documentation. It does a pretty good job of what it is meant to do."

"The solution has a useful traffic monitor."

"The most valuable feature of WatchGuard Firebox is the VPN. It's easy to connect to the VPN."

More WatchGuard Firebox pros

Cons

"I see room to explore its integration with Secure Service Automation for a more comprehensive security view."

"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."

"From a pricing perspective, I would rate them a six."

"It needs more available central management."

"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."

"Deploying FortiGate is hard."

"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."

"It's one of the more expensive brands."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The biggest issue was their support department was not able to help us, then everything stops. This is a no-go area for me."

"The filtering configuration could be better. We have some difficulties with the filtering configuration and the filter extension. It's not that easy. It's not that straightforward. In the next release, I would like to see a reporting system. Stormshield doesn't have any tutorials on how to do the configuration and things like that. They just have documentation on the website. If you want to configure, for example, Cisco or Fortinet, you can find tutorials on YouTube. They show you how to configure the features, and so on. In Stormshield, there is nothing on social media or the internet on how to configure different things. The lack of documentation or the lack of material makes it difficult for others to adopt this solution."

"Stormshield Network Security is quite expensive."

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

"Not all the fields are activated yet and we were informed that it will take at least one month."

"This is not a next-generation firewall."

"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."

More Stormshield Network Security cons

"This product needs to be fully integrated with the firewall. Currently, it only sends logs to the cloud and asks the firewall to correlate them."

"I'm not really impressed with the reporting side of it. It may be something I just haven't figured out very well, but it's hard to filter down on reporting of the actual valuable information that you would want. There is a lot of information out there so you have to have some kind of tool capture it and then filter through. So far, I haven't found the reporting side of the WatchGuard to be that user-friendly."

"I haven’t dug deeply into the reporting features yet or if they are working well. However, I have generated several reports and there was too much unnecessary information, in comparison with the reporting features in the Sophos firewall. Sophos' reporting is more readable and easier to configure."

"We were able to take from an older configuration, build a new one quickly, and get it up and running, which didn't take long, but there was some pain around it."

"In terms of what could be improved, I would say their web blocker feature. It is still quite a confusing setup, especially when you want to filter out a particular category for granularity. For example, you do not want to filter Facebook but you do want to filter Facebook games only. It can be done, but the process to do it is very confusing."

"I would like to see the devices made more flexible by adding modules to increase the ports that we can use."

"The level of support from WatchGuard is not as good."

"This is a great product and offers great protection but they don't hear the customers' needs. They don't make improvements as per the customers' requests."

More WatchGuard Firebox cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."

"Pricing is lower than Cisco."

"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."

"I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a five out of ten for pricing."

"We pay for the license of Fortinet FortiGate IPS annually. There are not any extra costs."

"FortiGate SWG is a cost-effective solution well-suited for organisations of all sizes."

"Its licenses cost the same for different subscription plans."

"It has a competitive price."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"I think the price is good."

"The pricing could be better."

"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."

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

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

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

"The price of WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service is pretty reasonable compared to similar solutions."

"It has a very good price. It is not the most expensive one, and it is also not the cheapest one. It is just spot-on in terms of price."

"I would rate the pricing at seven out of ten. As for the licensing costs, we typically have yearly licenses for our clients, but there are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."

"The pricing of WatchGuard is probably a little higher than the SonicWall, but it makes up for it in dependability. It's worth it to me, especially since it's not much higher. For just a little bit higher price you get the dependability of the firewall with the WatchGuard brand."

"I haven't seen the pricing since 2017, but it was competitive. SonicWall, Barracuda, and WatchGuard were all about the same price when we did our last pricing."

"I usually tell people that it's really affordable as well, particularly compared to Cisco."

"Firebox is priced reasonably."

"It costs me about $800 a year."

More WatchGuard Firebox pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

19%

Comms Service Provider

18%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

11%

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	9
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	2

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	91
Midsize Enterprise	25
Large Enterprise	15

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

The tool is like a firewall and works well. I don't have any issue with it. I rate it an eight out of ten.

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What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We are providing our services to all WatchGuard customers in the region.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We just use it as a secondary WiFi device. We're a small office and we needed to set up a WiFi device for a few of ou...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for WatchGuard Firebox?

We're a hospital and we use it for developing our incoming and outgoing policies, and we also use it for VPN.

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

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 13% of the time

OPNsense vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Stormshield Network Security

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XGS 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

OPNsense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 7% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos XGS vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 4% of the time

CrowdStrike Falcon vs WatchGuard Firebox

Compared 2% of the time

More WatchGuard Firebox Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

September 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security

September 2025

Download Stormshield Network Security product report

Buyer's Guide

WatchGuard Firebox

September 2025

Download WatchGuard Firebox product report

Also Known As

No data available

NETASQ Firewalls

WatchGuard Threat Detection and Response, WatchGuard Application Control, WatchGuard Data Loss Prevention, WatchGuard Gateway AntiVirus, WatchGuard Intrusion Prevention Service

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

NETASQ's integrated intrusion prevention engine uses protocol conformity analysis, application filtering and antivirus analysis to inspect authorized traffic flows and strengthen application security. NETASQ enables you to establish and configure user-based security policies, giving you greater control over which network resources each user is authorized to access.

Stormshield

WatchGuard Firebox is a high-performance firewall known for its ease of setup, offering robust security with layered protection and centralized management capabilities.

WatchGuard Firebox stands out for its intuitive management and high throughput, addressing security needs with features like VPN, web filtering, and threat detection. Its centralized control and reporting abilities, along with Active Directory integration, make it popular among varied organizations. Its user-friendly interface and ongoing updates enhance usability and reliability. However, there's a call for better cloud-based administration, scalability, and improved integration with third-party vendors.

What are the key features of WatchGuard Firebox?

Ease of Setup: Quick and straightforward installation process.
GUI: User-friendly graphical interface for simplified navigation.
VPN Features: Secure and efficient virtual private network management.
Web Filtering: Advanced filtering for safer browsing experiences.
Threat Detection: Proactive monitoring and detection of cyber threats.

What benefits or ROI should be evaluated?

Centralized Control: Streamlined management from a single point.
High Throughput: Efficient data handling and processing capacity.
Stable Performance: Consistent and reliable operational functionality.
Active Directory Integration: Seamless connection with user directories.
Customer Service: Strong support service for customer inquiries.

WatchGuard Firebox is implemented across industries to secure internet gateways and protect data in multi-site businesses. Its applications span from Unified Threat Management (UTM) and intrusion prevention to compliance support in business environments requiring secure connectivity through VPNs.

WatchGuard

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

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

Ellips, Diecutstickers.com, Clarke Energy, NCR, Wrest Park, Homeslice Pizza, Fortessa Tableware Solutions, The Phoenix Residence

Buyer's Guide

Stormshield Network Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox

September 2025

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