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Data Quadrant Awards 2024

Next Generation Firewall


SoftwareReviews names Palo Alto Network Security NGFW, Fortinet Fortigate NGFW, Sophos Firewall, and Cisco Secure Firewall as Next Generation Firewall Data Quadrant Award Winners.


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Next Generation Firewall

Data Quadrant

Data Quadrants are proudly founded in 100% user review data and are free of traditional "magical" components such as market presence and analyst opinion, which are opaque in nature and may be influenced by vendor pressure, financial or otherwise.

The SoftwareReviews Data Quadrant evaluates and ranks products based on feedback from IT and business professionals. The placement of a software in the Data Quadrant indicates its relative ranking as well as its categorization.

Read The In-Depth Report

A thorough evaluation and ranking of all software in an individual category to compare software across every dimension.

  • user satisfaction rankings
  • |
  • vendor capability comparisons
  • |
  • business value scores
  • |
  • individual feature evaluations
  • |
  • emotional connection to products
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30+ pages

Next Generation Firewall Data Quadrant

Note Software product placement is based on the scores provided by users, recency of the reviews, and review volume. Axes are dynamically adjusted based on the minimum and maximum values in the data set.

Evaluate the Complete

Software Experience

When distilled down, the software experience is shaped by both the experience with the software and the relationship with the vendor. Evaluating enterprise software along these two dimensions provides a comprehensive understanding of the product and helps identify vendors that can deliver on both.

Product Features and Satisfaction

The satisfaction is captured in the overall satisfaction score, which is driven by the likelihood of users to recommend the software, combined with user satisfaction across top product features.

Vendor Experience and Capabilities

The vendor relationship is calculated in a weighted average of the satisfaction scores tied to vendor capabilities (e.g. software implementation, training, customer support, product roadmap) as well as emotional response ratings toward the vendor (e.g. trustworthy, respectful, fair).

Gold Medalists


Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

We offer a full line of next-generation security appliances that range from the PA-200, designed for enterprise remote offices, to the PA-7050, which is a modular chassis designed for high-speed data centers. Our platform architecture is based on our single pass software engine and uses function-specific processing for networking, security, threat prevention, and management to deliver predictable performance.

9.1

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+94

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

91%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

Badge Winner
80Reviews

Fortinet

Fortinet Fortigate NGFW

FortiGate enterprise firewalls reduce complexity and improve overall security posture by providing full visibility into users, devices, applications and threats on the network, with the ability to apply advanced threat protection anywhere in the network.

9.0

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+90

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

91%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

Badge Winner
104Reviews

Sophos

Sophos Firewall

Sophos Firewall’s Xstream architecture protects your network from the latest threats while accelerating your important SaaS, SD-WAN, and cloud application traffic.

8.4

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+90

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

88%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

Badge Winner
84Reviews

Cisco Systems

Cisco Secure Firewall

The Cisco UTMs are all-in-one solution that offer flexible Internet redundancy, comprehensive security, and very easy-to-use configuration flows.

8.3

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+86

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

86%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

Badge Winner
204Reviews

Vendor Capability Awards


Availability and Quality of Training

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Breadth of Features

Fortinet Fortigate NGFW

Badge Winner

Business Value Created

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Ease of Customization

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Ease of Data Integration

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Ease of IT Administration

Fortinet Fortigate NGFW

Badge Winner

Ease of Implementation

Arista NG Firewall

Badge Winner

Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Quality of Features

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Usability and Intuitiveness

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW

Badge Winner

Vendor Support

Arista NG Firewall

Badge Winner

Vendor Capability Awards


Availability and Quality of Training

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Breadth of Features

Fortinet Fortigate NGFW


Business Value Created

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Ease of Customization

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Ease of Data Integration

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Ease of IT Administration

Fortinet Fortigate NGFW


Ease of Implementation

Arista NG Firewall


Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Quality of Features

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Usability and Intuitiveness

Palo Alto Network Security NGFW


Vendor Support

Arista NG Firewall


Other Evaluated Vendors


Arista Networks

Arista NG Firewall

Arista Networks’ NG Firewall (previously Untangle) enables you to quickly and easily create the network policies that deliver the perfect balance between security and productivity. NG Firewall combines Unified Threat Management (UTM)—to address all of the key network threats—with policy management tools that enable you to define access and control by individuals, groups or company-wide.

7.9

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+94

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

95%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

37Reviews

CATO Networks

Cato SASE Cloud

Cato SASE cloud is a global converged cloud-native service that securely and optimally connects all branches, datacenters, people, and clouds. Cato can be gradually deployed to replace or augment legacy network services and security point solutions.

7.6

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+84

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

88%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

24Reviews

Barracuda Networks

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Barracuda's Cloud Generation Firewalls redefine the role of the Firewall from a perimeter security solution to a distributed network optimization solution that scales across any number of locations and applications, connects on-premises and cloud infrastructures, and helps organizations transform their business.

7.2

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+85

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

82%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

52Reviews

SonicWall

SonicWall Network Security Manager

SonicWall firewalls are your first line of defense against Internet security threats. Give ransomware the boot with the powerful sandbox technology of Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP). Dive deep into your packets without sacrificing speed thanks to SonicWall's patented Reassembly Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI). The TZ Series represents some of the best small business firewalls of 2018, while the NSA Series is the perfect fit for enterprises, distributed environments, & data-heavy offices.

7.1

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+79

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

85%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

32Reviews

WatchGuard Technologies

WatchGuard Network Security

WatchGuard offers the most comprehensive portfolio of security services, from traditional intrusion prevention, gateway antivirus, application control, spam prevention, and URL filtering, to more advanced services for protecting against evolving malware, ransomware, and data breaches. Each security service is delivered as an integrated solution within an easy-to-manage and cost-effective Firebox appliance.

7.1

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+82

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

82%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

49Reviews

Forcepoint LLC

Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall

Forcepoint Next-Generation Firewall can be deployed via eight different appliance series to suit any size organization and their unique needs. Each model comes with centralized management, industry-leading integrated security and the dependability needed in modern network security.

7.0

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+79

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

79%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

30Reviews

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.

Check Point Quantum

Check Point provides customers of all sizes with the latest data and network security protection in an integrated next generation firewall platform, reducing complexity and lowering the total cost of ownership.Your network is under constant threat. To secure it, you need the most advanced firewall protection. Check Point Next Generation Firewall identifies and controls applications by user and scans content to stop threats before they happen.

6.8

Composite
Score

Composite
Score

+76

Emotional
Footprint

Emotional
Footprint

77%

Likeliness to
Recommend

Likeliness
to Recommend

43Reviews

For the full list of vendors in this space, click here.

About Gold Medal Awards and Software Reports

SoftwareReviews Gold Medal Awards recognize outstanding vendors in the technology marketplace as evaluated by their users. Gold Medals are the capstone of an in-depth software evaluation report, and awarded using a proprietary, transparent methodology based on a composite satisfaction score that averages four different areas of evaluation: Net Emotional Footprint, Vendor Capabilities, Product Features, and Likeliness to Recommend. The Net Emotional Footprint Score measures user emotional response ratings of the vendor (e.g. trustworthy, respectful, fair).

Software Reports present comprehensive evaluations of software vendors on the above elements. Software buyers can use this data to make more informed, data-driven software purchasing and renewal decisions.

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