Sophos Firewall Tested: Security, Features, and Real-World Performanc
What do you like best about the product?
What stands out most about Sophos Firewall is its integrated security approach and ease of centralized management.
What do you dislike about the product?
Licensing and subscription models (especially for advanced features like Sandstorm or Synchronized Security) can get expensive, particularly for small businesses.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Sophos Firewall is designed to solve several key network security and management challenges, and it does so in a way that benefits both technical teams and business operations.
It is a very good Firewall.
What do you like best about the product?
User-Friendly Interface — Sophos Firewall has a clean, intuitive dashboard that makes managing network security easier, even for less experienced admins.
Synchronized Security — Its integration with Sophos Endpoint Protection allows for real-time communication between devices and the firewall, enabling automatic threat response and deeper visibility.
Advanced Threat Protection — It offers strong, layered protection including IPS, web filtering, sandboxing, and deep packet inspection to catch threats before they reach your network.
Flexible Deployment — Whether on-premises, virtual, or cloud-based, Sophos Firewall adapts well to different environments.
What do you dislike about the product?
Support Response Variability
Firmware Updates Timing
Limited Customization in Some Areas
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Simplifying Security Management — The unified, user-friendly interface and synchronized security with Sophos endpoints streamline management, saving time and reducing the chance of misconfigurations.
Enabling Secure Remote Access — Robust VPN support allows employees to safely connect from anywhere, which is vital for today’s hybrid and remote work models.
Ensuring Compliance and Visibility — Comprehensive logging, reporting, and web filtering help organizations meet regulatory requirements and gain clear insight into network activity.
Reducing Operational Costs — By integrating multiple security functions into a single platform, it lowers the need for multiple standalone appliances or software.
good experience
What do you like best about the product?
Strong solution. Management interface easy to use. Low cost, ease of implementation
What do you dislike about the product?
The Level one support is slow to respond and sometimes you need to go to level 2 to get real technical help
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Network protection, intrusion detection, content filtering, app control...
Excellent Security product
What do you like best about the product?
Ease of use as well as comprehensive security.
What do you dislike about the product?
The Gui can be slow even when logged on locally.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Protects our locations as well as interconnecting via SDWand and SSL VPN.
Deployment is straightforward while interface complexity leads to challenges
What is our primary use case?
Our main use case at the moment for Sophos XG is to create a site-to-site VPN with one of our clients. We cannot use AWS VPN, so we use Sophos XG.
We only used the VPN functionality. We did not explore other aspects of the product beyond the VPN capabilities.
What is most valuable?
The IPsec VPN is the only feature we utilized in Sophos XG. We did not explore the web and application filtering capabilities, and these features have not helped our organization in managing bandwidth or access to malicious sites.
What needs improvement?
The user-friendly interface of Sophos XG is acceptable but too complicated. There are many options and configurations, but it is very complicated to navigate through all those options if you are not familiar with the product.
Sophos XG can be improved by making the UI more user-friendly. They should add packet capture functionality in the UI instead of requiring users to access the server directly for this purpose, as it is a very useful tool that everyone needs. Additionally, it can be confusing when working in the AWS Marketplace, as users might mistakenly purchase the old version of Sophos XG.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Sophos XG for three or four months. It is new, and we may discontinue using this product because it has not met our requirements.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Considering the deployment flexibility of the Sophos XG firewall, hybrid deployments have not supported our organization's diverse technological infrastructure.
It is a bit early to tell, but Sophos XG is adequate for my company's growing needs at present.
How are customer service and support?
I have not tried their customer service and technical support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have considered other solutions before Sophos XG, including pfSense, AWS firewall, and Kato firewall.
I was previously using AWS firewall and Kato firewall before switching to Sophos XG.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with deploying Sophos XG was easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing was through AWS.
What other advice do I have?
I do not use the security heartbeat functionality.
I have not tried the synchronized security feature of the Sophos XG firewall.
I am not particularly interested in being a reference to the vendor. We do not use Sophos extensively, so I may not provide substantial insights.
What led me to consider changing was that we thought the VPN configuration was not working because of the product we used to work with, so we tried other alternatives.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate Sophos XG a seven or eight, though this rating is limited by our minimal usage of the product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Sophos Firewall Protection
What do you like best about the product?
Sophos firewall user interface is clean and intuitive. Its web filtering and application control work seamlessly and provide peace of mind.
What do you dislike about the product?
The authentication speed to accessing internet through wireless is about one minute waiting which is very slow. Auto loading of network shares on VPN connection is very complex, Internet bandwidth usage monitoring on different VLAN interfaces is not possible and the licensing prices are high (not affordable)
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I am being protected against cyber threats. Sophos firewall is benefiting me through unified security management via Sophos Central and simplifying the overall network security
Advanced Security and Central Management
What do you like best about the product?
Web protection , ATP, sync security with sophos central
What do you dislike about the product?
Complex Licensing Model, firmware degradation
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Managing Remote Users Securely -sophos supports SSL/IPSec VPN, ZTNA (Zero Trust Network Access), and secure web gateways.
Compliance and Data Loss Risks
Transiction from UTM Firewall to XGS
What do you like best about the product?
Gui interface and security features - ease of use
What do you dislike about the product?
No migrate tool from UTM Firewall, no access from remote to secondary firewall
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
cybersecurity
A Network beast. Perfect set-up for our IT Infrastructure.
What do you like best about the product?
Best NGFW amongst peers, as i have used others as well.
Great unified management console. Ease of use is unmatched. Easily Implemented.
What do you dislike about the product?
Best in class unified console. Great performance.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
IT team is relieved that one of the best product is implemented. Team can focus on their KPI's with relaxed mind.
Easy to use and learn from unified console.
Runs without problems and is reliable
What do you like best about the product?
It runs smoothly and is reliable, the user interface is simple, and the support is great.
What do you dislike about the product?
The setup was somewhat lengthy and could be simpler.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
So far, everything is running smoothly.
