Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series pros and cons

Vendor: Palo Alto Networks

4.3 out of 5

33 reviews
100% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series offers seamless application-based policy enforcement with App-ID for accurate identification and robust security. It integrates with services like WildFire and Cortex, ensuring reliable scalability and cloud compatibility. Despite its high pricing and complicated configuration, it excels in stability, yet faces challenges in data security for remote work and limited AI integration. Configuration complexities and technical support issues further highlight areas for improvement, impacting buyer experience.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series offers robust security and web filtering features, with the ability to block new threats effectively.

Comprehensive logging and monitoring make it easy to troubleshoot and analyze connections and TCP resets.

Stability and scalability are top-rated, with reduced deployment time leading to quicker deployment and minimal downtime.

Integration with Cortex and the use of machine learning AI enhance advanced threat prevention and detection capabilities.

Highly customizable, Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is considered a powerful security engine with predefined applications accessible at the application level.

CONS

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series support is often inadequate, with a slow response time and the need for escalation to higher-level engineers.

The cost of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is high, necessitating improvements in pricing and flexibility.

Updates for Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are too frequent, leading to user difficulties and giving an impression of instability.

There are missing features in Palo Alto Networks PA-Series such as a Security Heartbeat and effective SD-WAN capabilities.

Integration of artificial intelligence for threat detection and improvement in threat hunting capabilities are needed in Palo Alto Networks PA-Series.

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Pros review quotes

Associate Process Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 10, 2023

It is scalable. But that depends on what model you are using.

Read full review

Senior Network Engineer at Just In Time Group (Sri Lanka)

Apr 26, 2024

Palo Alto has predefined applications that you can control at the application level.

Read full review

Director of Sales at S4E Serbia

Mar 11, 2024

Comprehensive logging is essential for monitoring and analysis purposes. For remote users, the firewall can be configured as a VPN concentrator, with VPN policies defined within the firewall settings.

Read full review

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Free Report: Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.

860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer2279679

Senior Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Sep 19, 2023

It has its own logging system. You can go to monitoring and check the logs to see if a connection is getting blocked. You can use multiple types of logs to check if a file or a port is getting blocked or if there are any TCP resets from the source or destination. It's easy to troubleshoot with the monitoring and logging it provides.

Read full review

SM

Technical Manager at PSR

Dec 28, 2023

It is a scalable solution.

Read full review

Cyber Security Solutions Technology Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 5, 2024

It offers application-based policy enforcement. Palo Alto Networks firewalls help us recognize protocol anomalies, contrasting with other vendors that may require policies based on port numbers. With Palo Alto Networks, the port number isn't a constraint because their devices handle protocol traffic at Layer 7, allowing for accurate identification of protocol usage and port numbers. They can identify which protocol actually uses which port.

Read full review

Lead Frontend And Mobile Developer at INTIS

Jun 30, 2023

It is stable when you set up something and put it into production. Once it works, you don't have other tasks or actions to perform.

Read full review

BK

Bryan Kenneth De La Cruz

Team Lead, Infosec & Netsec Unit at Microgenesis Business Systems

Oct 26, 2023

A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced. It is almost 90% faster compared to other solutions.

Read full review

Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Apr 2, 2024

The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to us.

Read full review

GC

Gopinath Chennupati

Senior Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Oct 25, 2023

A valuable feature that we can consider is the deployment time, which is significantly reduced, almost 90% faster compared to other solutions. This leads to quicker deployment and less downtime.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 32)

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Cons review quotes

Associate Process Manager at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Oct 10, 2023

There are constant updates for the operating system. It is a nice thing also, but it has its own disadvantages. Continuous updates are there. The users face issues like, how often do I need to update that? Within a period of five months, I'm updating it two or three times. It gives them a feeling that they are not confident about their product and have to update it so frequently.

Read full review

Senior Network Engineer at Just In Time Group (Sri Lanka)

Apr 26, 2024

Palo Alto can improve the web application firewall (WAF) feature at layer 7.

Read full review

Director of Sales at S4E Serbia

Mar 11, 2024

Utilizing these features as a unified solution can require additional setup, particularly when incorporating Panorama for centralized management, which may involve extra costs.

Read full review

Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Free Report: Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Palo Alto Networks PA-Series. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: June 2025.

860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.

reviewer2279679

Senior Network Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

Sep 19, 2023

There seem to be some issues with TAC (Technical Assistance Center) or Palo Alto support. Anytime you open a case, a level one engineer joins, and then you have to escalate it to level two or three. The support system has changed in the past few years, and that's something they need to look into.

Read full review

SM

Technical Manager at PSR

Dec 28, 2023

The technical support offered by Palo Alto is an area of concern where improvements are required.

Read full review

Cyber Security Solutions Technology Consultant at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Mar 5, 2024

In future releases, maybe Palo Alto can enhance and enlarge their portfolio with SIEM solutions. They already have an endpoint protection solution, SOAR solution, that's fine. But when it comes to standalone IDS/IPS solution or email security solution, for example, we don't have any product in that category for Palo Alto.

Read full review

Lead Frontend And Mobile Developer at INTIS

Jun 30, 2023

Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet.

Read full review

BK

Bryan Kenneth De La Cruz

Team Lead, Infosec & Netsec Unit at Microgenesis Business Systems

Oct 26, 2023

As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers.

Read full review

Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Apr 2, 2024

Pricing flexibility could be an aspect worth considering, as it has been a concern for some of our clients.

Read full review

GC

Gopinath Chennupati

Senior Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Oct 25, 2023

I have found that the tool works well for me, but there are areas where security testing and protection could be improved, especially in virtual or cloud environments. However, in this project, once we deployed it, we haven't encountered any issues. The cost is currently manageable, but as we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older generation switches and routers. So, I'm looking for additional capabilities in these areas.

Read full review

Show 10 more reviews (out of 33)

Product Categories

Product Categories

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Fortinet FortiGate vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Netgate pfSense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

OPNsense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sophos XG vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Azure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

WatchGuard Firebox vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

SonicWall TZ vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sophos XGS vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

SonicWall NSa vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sangfor NGAF vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Fortinet FortiGate vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Netgate pfSense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

OPNsense vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sophos XG vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Azure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

WatchGuard Firebox vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

SonicWall TZ vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sophos XGS vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

SonicWall NSa vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Sangfor NGAF vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs Palo Alto Networks PA-Series

See all alternatives

Related questions

63

What do you recommend for a corporate firewall implementation?

86

Comparison of Barracuda F800, SonicWall 5600 and Fortinet

403

Sophos XG 210 vs Fortigate FG 100E

121

Which is the best network firewall for a small retailer?

120

When evaluating Firewalls, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

39

Cyberoam or Fortinet?

545

Fortinet, Palo Alto or Check Point?

12

If you could go back, would you change your decision to buy that firewall and why?

67

Sophos XG vs Fortigate UTM

28

Can you recommend a solution to replace Cyberoam 200ing Firewall?