Compare

Firewall comparison:

* Designates a pay for licensed feature on top of base price

Z

Firewall-Z 
0
  • Hardware: Free
  • Licensing: Free
  • SNORT IDS
  • Packet Inspection
  • Zero Day Threat Detection
  • Central Management
  • Web Interface
  • Shell Access
  • Block Lists
  • Custom Block Lists
  • Country Block Lists
  • No limit VPN
  • No limit Site2Site VPN
  • Free updates
  • Open Source

SW

SonicWall 
400+
  • Hardware: Pay
  • Licensing: Pay (*)
  • *IDS
  • * Packet Inspection
  • * Zero Day Threat Detection
  • Central Management
  • Web Interface
  • No Shell Access
  • * Block Lists
  • * Custom Block Lists
  • * Country Block Lists
  • Limited VPN Clients
  • Limited Site2Site VPN
  • Limited updates
  • Closed Source

WG

Watchguard 
400+
  • Hardware: Pay
  • Licensing: Pay (*)
  • *IDS
  • * Packet Inspection
  • * Zero Day Threat Detection
  • Central Management
  • Web Interface
  • No Shell Access
  • * Block Lists
  • * Custom Block Lists
  • * Country Block Lists
  • Limited VPN Clients
  • Limited Site2Site VPN
  • Limited updates
  • Closed Source

 

The two firewalls we’re comparing here are large companies but in our view they pack too much into a single unit.  Both SonicWall and WatchGuard take a UTM approach (Unified Threat Management) although they like to call themselves “Next Generation”.  There are many next gen firewalls on the market, many are over rated marketing machines like the folks at Palo Alto Networks and many are the same old same old with a new marketing manager and similar features they’ve always had.

Price is important and features are too.  Although we do have the ability to put WIFI on our systems we don’t suggest doing so.  WIFI should be broken out into a separate controller and access points.  Putting WIFI on the router adds a certain level of overhead we don’t recommend.  We’d prefer you put in a smart switch with VLans, a firewall that does what a firewall is good at and a WIFI controller like Ubiquity that does what it is good at.  Keeping things more focused on job function makes the most sense to us and should to you too!