Sophos Firewall Reviews

We use Sophos XGS in 15 locations with 15 firewalls for the XG. We dedicate one person to maintain the solution.

The most valuable feature of Sophos is the VPN solution. I also value their threat management, IPS, IDS, and login features with single sign-on.

Sophos XGS needs improvement with the threshold values. Other solutions have the capacity to handle more users.

I would like to see virtualization security included in the next release.

We have been using Sophos XGS for more than two years.

Sophos XGS is stable as long as the capacity is not exceeded, then it becomes slow.

Scalability needs to be improved by increasing the threshold value. The bulk capacity can handle 300 users, if you have more users, it does not work well.

Technical support is okay. They are responsive but limited with knowledge and need to escalate to the upper levels. It takes time to resolve issues.

The initial setup of the solution was straightforward. It is easy to use and convenient.

The license for Sophos XGS is for three years, paid on a yearly basis. Everything is included with the license; there are no additional fees.

Sophos SGS is a nice solution. I would rate this solution an 8 out of 10.

We manage all the network services, like DHCP, of each branch office.

It has helped us because we have identified some of the loopholes in our assets that we did not know existed.

I like using the combination of XG firewalls and the XDR product with the end user. I also like the integration of all the solutions and the visual of all our clients and the traffic routing in to the network from inside the console. The synchronization and the integration with all the products in the central office, such as Office 365 or AWS, make it a valuable solution.

We can configure rules with the user, traffic, etc., making it a very versatile solution for our network.

Better instructions should be provided as part of the technical support so that we can understand the functionalities. This will help us to troubleshoot faster.

We've been using Sophos XG for three years.

It is stable.

Sophos XG is a scalable solution. We have about 1,000 users.

Technical support is good, in general.

We used Fortinet, and we changed the solution because there were additional costs for reporting, licensing, and centralization. If we compare Fortinet to Sophos XG, the XG firewall costs less and performs better. That's one of the reasons that we moved to XG.

The other and the most important reason is the integration with our security solution, Sophos XDR.

The initial setup was very easy. It's much easier than that for other products. 

Deployment and maintenance can be done by one or two people. I am a specialist, and an engineer and I worked on the deployment and maintenance. 

The provider of the solution implemented it, and it took about a day.

We have seen an improvement in security not only in terms of technology but also in terms of internal practices in our company.

We predicted that it would take three years to obtain an ROI.

We bought the three-year license, and there are no additional costs.

We evaluated Check Point, Barracuda, and Palo Alto.

It's a good product, and you should go ahead with it.

I would rate Sophos XG at nine on a scale from one to ten.

This product is our perimeter firewall with web filtering and application filtering, as well as also providing site-to-site VPN and SSL VPN. We are end-users and customers of Sophos. I'm a network administrator. 

Sophos XG enabled our organization to establish site-to-site connectivity with our Branch offices and enabled work from home during pandemic through very easy to deploy SSL VPN solution for our employees. 

Reporting is the most valuable feature. They also recently provided the SDWAN solution and we're currently working on implementing that. 

I'd like to see improved throughput performance in a box. It's already a cost effective solution but I'd like to see the cost further reduced for annual renewals.

I've been using this solution for four years. 

Sophos has the same issue as all firewalls where it's scalable for virtualization and for cloud deployment, but it's not so scalable when it comes to the hardware. 

Customer service is good but has room for improvement like all others. 

Positive

The initial setup was very straight forward. 

Vendor team has very good level of expertise, transfer of knowledge was excellent and we are managing firewalls at our own. 

I believe there are better products on the market so I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

We normally use physical appliances for office and virtual appliances for datacenter.

XGS is similar to XG series but adds new Xstream Flow processors that are used to accelerate various functionalities that are normally done in x86 CPU.

Sophos will soon release SFOS v19 software which will utilize Xstream for even more functionalities like IPsec, SSLVPN, SDWAN and etc.

What I found most valuable in Sophos XGS is that it's very easy to manage.

Authentication with Azure AD needs improvement. It would be better if it could work directly without using local AD server. For comparison Fortinet FortiGate allows to use SAML authentication with Azure AD and does not require any local server. It is currently unknown to me, if or when it will be implemented on Sophos.

Local DHCP service also needs improvement. Windows DHCP service offers more functionality and is more flexible and easier to use. SFOS v18.5.3 added DHCP option functionality in the GUI - which previously worked only from CLI. 

I've been working with Sophos XGS since they came out. I cannot remember exactly the year and date, but it hasn't been so long, e.g. just one year.

It is very stable - have not had any issues.

The scalability of Sophos XGS is good. Normally we suggest the clients to use firewall as a service, since it gives more flexibility both for client and us, since usually we manage the client's firewall. There is a virtual version of the firewall which scales even more, since it can be upgraded to a license that offers more RAM and CPU cores. For us, it scales very well, e.g. I'm giving it the maximum score: ten out of ten.

If a client is looking for a new firewall, then we normally need to consider as much information as possible (user count, weight per user, LAN throughput, WAN throughput, functionalities and etc). If a client wants to pick a solution for larger environment, then we also ask recommendation from Sophos to get the most optimal solution.

Positive

The initial setup for Sophos XGS is very easy. From cloud it can be deployed even faster, since it allows to create configuration templates.

The ratio of price and functionality is good.

Licensing cost depends on particular model and required functionality:
- It is possible to use the firewall without any license, but then it will work only as port based firewall.
- Normally we suggest to use at least Standard License.
- Licensing cost for single appliance or active/passive HA cluster is the same - only 1 license.
- Active/Active cluster requires 2 licenses and performance gain is very small. It is better to use more powerful appliance. 

We are Sophos Gold partner and mainly like to use Sophos XGS firewalls.
If it a requirement by client, then we can also offer non-Sophos firewall solutions.

There are multiple models of Sophos XGS that we use, e.g. we use both desktop  and 1U sized models.

Sophos XGS can be fully cloud managed, and it's possible to deploy it directly from the cloud, that you installed the hardware, and maybe I have to use an ESB key, though I'm not sure. We haven't tried deploying it that way yet.

The only difference between Sophos XGS and Sophos XG is the software version that is supported on the hardware. The difference will be when the version 19 software comes up, as it will not work on Sophos XG.

I recommend Sophos XGS to others who are thinking of implementing it. I recommend for them to use it. Sophos firewall can be also used without additional firewall, but we strongly suggest using Standard license, which offers application filtering and IDS/IPS.

Network Security

Performance has been as per expectations and productivity has greatly improved as there are no downtimes experienced.

All of Sophos XG's features are valuable.

Sometimes when you roll out a new firmware, you find that the rules you already have in place are broken, so it's difficult to migrate to a new firmware without going through release notes and user reviews. That's the only downside I've experienced in Sophos.

I've been using Sophos XG for about four years now.

So far, so good. Sophos XG has been stable, and we have not had any challenges.

I find Sophos XG to be scalable. I only have one site, so I still see room for that kind of deployment. I don't see a challenge when it comes to the scale. I have around 150 users.

I rate Sophos support 10 out of 10. When my device was freezing, I contacted them, and they sent me a replacement. I didn't have a redundant device, so it was urgent. It only took a couple of days for Sophos to ship the device to Kenya. 

Positive

I rate Sophos UTM eight out of 10 for ease of deployment. We didn't have any serious issues. The only challenge we had was migrating from Sophos UTM to XG. There was no direct migration, so we had to do a manual configuration. 

After deployment, the solution doesn't require much maintenance. So as long as my connections are up and running, I don't need to do any maintenance. All the updates are automatic.

Both teams were involved. The in-house team was more familiar with the network environment and requirements. I would rate the vendor team's expertise 8 out of 10.

Sophos XG's price is affordable for most organizations, so I rate it six out of 10 for affordability.

We looked at FortiGate to see how it performs compared to Sophos. I wouldn't speak for the other vendors because I'm mainly using XG, so I will praise Sophos.

I rate Sophos XG eight out of 10. I recommend Sophos XG. If you subscribe to the enhanced support, you get 24/7 customer service, so you can get help any time you need it. I wouldn't hesitate to advise people to implement Sophos.

I use this product for my VPN. It links site-to-site between us and my client's VPN.

All of the users have a unique ID that they use to connect to the VPN.

The product also does site blocking based on the category of the website that the users are trying to access.

I can also use it to monitor all of the users' activities.

We use this in our physical environment.

During the pandemic, this product helped our employees connect with the office network. Security-wise, it provides IPS filtering, which is also quite benefiticial.

The most valuable feature is the VPN. Over the past two years, during the COVID pandemic, the VPN has helped us a lot. All of the users are able to connect with our office network using their own devices.

The interface can bit a bit more user-friendly. For me, it's still user-friendly and I don't find it difficult to use. However, the configuration should be more user-based. As an example, IPSec is complex and a little bit difficult to configure. If it were more like Microsoft Azure and the way their online configuration works, it would be an improvement. As it is now, I have all of the settings inside the device, so I can clone them and use them for customers. But, on the customer's side, it is difficult for people to understand.

Our Wi-Fi network is not working as well as expected.

I have been working with Sophos XG since December 2019.

This is a product that we use every day. Without it, it is very difficult for us to work. I really like the reliability and the performance of the Sophos device, but I'm facing a few issues with my Wi-Fi networks. This device supports the Wi-Fi network, but it's not quite as good as we expected. I'm not sure why it is not working so well for me.

This is quite a reliable device, even as we scale it. We have fewer than 35 people in the company that uses it.

It has been a very long time since I have contacted Sophos technical support. It was very difficult to get connected with customer service. Finally, after reaching customer care, which was handled by Cyberoam, they helped me out and fixed whatever issue I was facing.

My customer care team is not in India, and this is something that we expected to have.

Prior to Sophos XG, I was using the Cyberoam product. Cyberoam was acquired by Sophos. Aside from this, I don't have much experience with other providers.

It is not complex to set up. Initially, it is a simple configuration but they should have default profiles available. For example, many companies only need a generic configuration. Even if it's just a static IP to get them started and then they can assign a default profile for all of the users inside the company.

Our initial deployment took between two and three days to complete. This included deploying a new server. In advance of beginning deployment, we spent one day gathering requirements. The Sophos part of the deployment only took between three and four hours.

The initial deployment was done by the vendor and me together. We had an integrator to set up the rack, and they supplied us with Sophos. Most of the configuration was done by me because the integrator did not have enough time.

I also take care of the maintenance including the patching and updating. One person is enough for this. I used to have an assistant but now, I'm the only person that takes care of it.

The price of this product is fine for me. For example, there are open-source solutions available on the market, but I trust Sophos. I know the vendors in India and I trust the product.

I paid approximately 57,000 Rupees ($750 USD) for three years.

Personally, I like this product and I like the vendor. The platform is very good and apart from the wireless interface issue that I am having, working with this product has been a very good experience.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are using Sophos XG, but not the latest version. The solution works as the main gateway. We are a small company of 250 employees so we also use the solution as a router.

The hardware and VPN connections are slow so we are planning on upgrading the solution. Next month we will be replacing the Sophos XG we have as it is reaching the end of life next year. We will be purchasing the XG 3000 to gain more options in the VPN tunnels.

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.

Over the last six months, we have noticed that the hardware is slow, especially the VPN connections.

Sophos would benefit if they could improve the integration with Active Directory. It does not function consistently and we have to reconfigure it to make it function again. 

Integration with IPA, which is like Active Directory for Linux servers, would be a nice feature to include.

I have been using Sophos XG for three years.

This solution is very stable. We have not had any problems in the three years we have been using Sophos XG. We did have one infection that gained access to one server in the DMZ but it was because the rules were not well configured and not because of the product.

We haven't had to scale the solution. 

Support from Sophos XG has been fine for what we have required.

We had been using Astaro. We selected Sophos XG because we knew it would be easy to set up and configure as the two solutions are similar.

Previously we were working with Astaro, so the setup and configuration of Sophos XG was easy. The implementation took less than a month.

The company that sold the firewall solution provided support hours while we were migrating the rules of our old firewall. They provided us with advice on some of the rules, especially on the routing to connect to a branch office.

We purchase an annual standard license.

I recommend Sophos XG if you are coming from pfSense or Astaro as the migration will be really easy. The learning path will also be easy. If you are coming from Barracuda or Cisco it will be more difficult especially the web interface of the firewall is not intuitive.

I would rate Sophos XG an 8 out of 10.

We're using Sophos XG within one business unit for security. We use it for the firewall and mapping some services.

Sophos XG's price is right, and it's easy to manage. It's a good fit for our current needs at the moment. 

Sophos XG's user interface has some room for improvement. 

We started using Sophos XG in June of this year, so it has only been a few months. 

I think Sophos XG is stable.

Sophos XG is scalable. We have about 600 users here in Mexico, and everyone is behind this solution. I think it's possible we might increase usage, and we've discussed this with our corporate office in Germany. We could decide to go with another product, but we might expand Sophos if it performs well.

Support is one area where I have some issues. Sophos support isn't that good. 

In some companies where I've worked, I used Fortinet and ASA with FirePOWER from Cisco. In some places, I used Meraki with the MX and the Advance Security licensing. I have some issues with other technologies. Last year, they had Sophos UTM on the devices, but there was an opportunity was to switch our clients to Sophos XG and try out the solution.

Setting up Sophos XG is too easy. It took about two hours. The only part of the solution that I deployed was the firewalls. It's something I do all the time in my business unit, so it was quick. We have two people responsible for deployment and maintenance, including me. 

I had some support from a partner.

A Sophos XG license costs approximately $45,000 

I rate Sophos XG nine out of 10. Our experience so far has been good, but maybe we'll come across another solution that's at the same or a higher level.