All WatchGuard Firebox Reviews
1-25 of 278 Reviews
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Bob
Verified reviewer
Logistics and Supply Chain, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed May 2023
Wholehearted support for WatchGuard Fireboxes
I’ve used them for many years now, having had a number of generations from the 200/300 to the 270/370 to the 290 series. They work well, are so easy to use, are reliable and the support is fantastic.
PROSThe expansive feature set at a very competitive price makes the Firebox a really attractive option. The ease of deployment and management is, I believe second to none. However, it is the customer service behind the product that really makes it worth the money. I can’t state strongly enough how great the team there is.
CONSHonestly nothing. Even the odd little feature, if it could be improved, the team there listen and often it gets the requested tweak.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
I felt the WatchGuards did the job better and for a better price. The other vendors are fantastic, and wouldn’t have been a wrong choice, but I felt for the price and feature set, WatchGuard were the best option.
Dat
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 201-500 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2024
SMB Firewall with features
Have been with watchguard over 10 years now, improvement are steady with more features on each new release.
PROSEasy to manage and understand using their toolsets
CONSIntergration to other 2FA hardware vendors takes lots of work, no local on prem 2FA integration into its management web tool.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Costs effective solution and ease of management with active directory integration
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
Costs and ease of management with active directory integration
Louis
Verified reviewer
Telecommunications, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
3
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed April 2019
Basic UTM with Poor Manufacturers Support & Poor Reliability
WatchGuard is a leading vendor but lags behind its direct competitors, and it's reliability on the smaller range makes it questionable. However the pricing and basic feature set make it attractive to SMB's.
PROSThe GUI is user friendly and looks quite modern and slick. Generally the configuration is logical and easy to navigate. The pricing is generally cheap.
CONSReliability on hardware is poor, support isn't very helpful (e.g. they wont do a remote session to help), feature set is weak and generally the appliance lags behind its competitors.
Ted
Hospital & Health Care, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
Quality Product That Allows Peace of Mind
As described above. I love the product and am very thankful to have such a great security option.
PROSIn my opinion, the security of this product stands out more than anything. Once properly set up, it creates a peace of mind that we've taken another step in the right direction for our security needs.
CONSI can't say there is anything that I don't like about WatchGuard Firebox. I will be honest, at first, the cost related to it I thought was a little high, but once I noticed everything that it does, that cost is nothing compared to everything it does and protects. That to me makes it worth more than it's weight in gold. So much so, I have installed one in each of my office locations.
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
I made the switch as my previous hardware was becoming old and outdated. With the change in times, and the fact that I administer a healthcare organization, I needed a product that was reliable and secure. I tried the WatchGuard product and never looked back.
Andrea
Verified reviewer
Information Technology and Services, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2024
Full solution for company security
Continuous innovation of product, facility of configuration e a very full set of parameters
CONSThe hardware is every time a step down as a competitor solution
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Commercial support, facility of deploy of the configuration
Wander
Pharmaceuticals, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2024
Is a excellent Network Security brand
With WatchGuard Network Security I have had better control of my perimeter security. I have been able to have better control over web browsing security in my company.
PROSIs Ease to Use: it is an easy to understand and easy to use product. It is not difficult to adapt to use watchguard
CONSFor the moment I dont have anything to dislike
Doug
Financial Services, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2024
The Watchguard Experience
Overall, I think these are great appliances. They function efficiently, have great features, and are easy to setup and maintain. Plus the red color looks great on the rack.
PROSWatchguard is easy to set up out of the box and has a great feature set. I use it for both edge and internal firewalls. On the edge firewall, I have setup VPNs between office locations, segmented the network out with complex rulesets, etc.
CONSI'd add in a feature to whitelist by IP address to get around Intrusion Detection. It would simplify external vulnerability scanning.
Joseph
Libraries, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed April 2024
Rock Solid WatchGuard
The Firebox works 24 hours a day, 7 days week., 52 weeks a year in four locations and no failures. Watchguard supports the product. Four locations, 20 years no failures.
PROSThe Firebox works 24 hours a day, 7 days week., 52 weeks a year in four locations and no failures. Watchguard supports the product.
CONSThere are no cons. The Firebox works 24 hours a day, 7 days week., 52 weeks a year in four locations and no failures. Watchguard supports the product.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Ease of purchasing, Good References, No complaints.
Veerendra babu
Information Technology and Services, 10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
WatchGuard is more convenient than other firewalls.
Easy to do the configuration changes. Monitoring logs also more clear what to do next.
CONSNothing i found i am very happy while using WatchGuard.
James Michael
Automotive, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
Solid Product
This is a great product for our company. It offers great security and peace of mind with little interaction beyond setup.
PROSOnce setup there is little maintenance.
CONSNothing to date, the product works as it should and has a great shelf life in a rapidly evolving tech world.
Stefanos
Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed October 2023
Watchguard Firebox- Your trustworthy partner
We really feal secure with our pair of Fireboxes. We really like the offered VPN solution, which enabled us to work remotely over the pandemic period. We like the fact that the Fireware is getting often updates and new features are added all the time.
PROSWhat we like the most about WatchGuard Firebox is the many features it does offer.
CONSWhat we like the least about WatchGuard Firebox is the way "Explicit Proxy" was implemented. Although this is a great feature, the fact that it is meant to be only used once per user does decrease its value very much. We were hoping that we would be able to set allowed destinations in the "Explicit Proxy", but the default destination is "Firebox" and can't be an FQDN or IP, etc. Also the NATing does not work with the "Explicit Proxy", as there is a second hidden policy after the "Explicit Proxy", which is the one that defines the IP Address of the traffic, which can't be changed as it is hidden. The "Explicit Proxy" was the main reason why we chose the first pair of Fireboxes (have upgraded twice already) but we were disappointed because of it. However even as it is, it is better than nothing, as when we had done our research there was NO other firewall offering this option!!! So we are still both happy to have the feature / but disappointed because we expected it to be better. We are still hopping the "Explicit Proxy" will be redisigned as this is a unique feature not found on any other firewall!!!
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
At the time we were looking for a replacement for our MS Forefront TMG which stopped being supported. The only Firewall that support this was the Firebox!
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
Our Cisco AS was getting to hard to manage. The interface was outdated and we saw no real efforts to add new features to it. Also at the time we were looking for a replacement for our MS Forefront TMG which stopped being supported. The only Firewall that support this was the Firebox! A friend had it installed we had a look and liked it very much/ A few weeks later we had order a pair (for a Firecluster) and were about to install it!
Chris
Financial Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
An excellent, rich firewall, with lots of options.
It has been great overall and I would highly reccomend them.
PROSI love the support group that has always been able to walk me through different scenarios and customizations.
CONSIf I had one gripe with it (them) is that there are so many resources & articles about configuring the box, that it can be hard to know where to start. Firewall administration is pretty heady already, and their knowledgebase doesn't do you any favors - but their human resoureces really compensate for this.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
it was just reccomend by our vendor as a better product
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
Netgear stopped supporting our model, so our vendor reccomended WatchGuard - happy ever since (about 8 years).
Tyler
Information Technology and Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2023
Fantastic Business Class Appliance for the Money
Very reliable devices with quick turn around in rare cases of issues. Easy to setup and configure vs some other comparable devices. Multiple different supported VPN types depending on your need. Good UTM feature set.
CONSSome of the security features can be obtuse to configure and analyze the logs from. Not an insurmountable issue but will take a little time to learn initially.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Based on using the devices we determined that Watchguard we're simplest to configure and maintain while sacrificing nothing in terms of reliability and feature set.
Adnan
Media Production, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2023
Simple, pragmatic network security device
Excellent support received
PROSEasy to deploy, use and manage is the key feature of WatchGuard with built-in IDS7 IPS functions
CONSPricing needs to be gathered from scattered distrubutors
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Because we have been using WatchGuard on our other sites and had a very good experience
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
IKEv2 with DUO not being supported
Joseph
Computer Networking, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed August 2023
Watchguard Firewalls
We enjoy our partnership with Watchguard. They helped us achieve Silver partnership and have provided excellent support for any issues that have come up.
PROSThe firewall vpn is great and ease of use for many of the subscription features. We are able to do content filtering, only allow certain dns servers, create blocked ports and ips easily and are comfortable with the network protection it provides.
CONSThere are sometimes issues with vpn that cause us to need to remove and recreate a vpn user on the firebox. System manager constantly has to be upgraded to configure the firebox. I would like to see system manager check for updates at launch so we do not have to manually update it.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
We liked the pricing, ease of use and customer service from this vendor more than the others.
Giovanni
Computer & Network Security, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
Enterprise network security at right price
Easy of implementation, cloud controlled, powerful configuration
CONSRackmount adapter for all models. Firmware autoupdate.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Enhanced Security and easy of configuration
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
For Security reason. Fortinet was hacked a lot of time in a short period
Dale
Verified reviewer
Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
WatchGuard Fireboxes; A router with Great ROI
I love WatchGuard because they are affordable by small business and scalable as they grow. Support is excellent and can be relied on.
PROSI like the user interface. It is intuitive and fairly easy to configure by a person who is familiar with Routers and routing principles
CONSI am hard pressed to find the area that I don't like here. Hardware is good, price is good for the smaller companies that we normally deal with. As they grow hardware must be upgraded. I think that is the same with all routers.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
I think the ROI is outstanding. Once configured they run without much maintenance or intervention.
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
The Watchguard was less expensive and does the same thing. WatchGuard support.
Albert
Aviation & Aerospace, 51-200 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2023
Exploring the Impact of WatchGuard Firebox
WatchGuard Firebox is a feature-rich firewall solution with notable strengths in security, scalability, and user-friendliness. No complains....
PROSWatchGuard Firebox offers a comprehensive set of security features, including intrusion prevention, application control, URL filtering, advanced threat protection, VPN highly secured and easy to use and deploy.
CONSSome advanced features and services, such as threat intelligence feeds and certain security updates, may require additional subscription services
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
I am so used to it. Easy to manage, deploy and it's highly secured.
Matthew
Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2023
WatchGuard for Your IT
Overall, the process with WatchGuard is typically pretty seamless.
PROSI like the ability to cloud manage multiple devices.
CONSIf the device is not activated properly, it can be a pain to get it going.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
We chose WatchGuard because the client had existing WatchGuard devices.
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
We switched because of the ease of use and matching access points.
Robert
Information Technology and Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2023
It just works
We recommend to all of our clients to use the WatchGuard Firebox. From an ease to use, to the security that it provides, with great customer support, this is by far the best product on the market in this price range.
PROSThe VPN with AuthPoint is very easy for non-technical clients to set up and use. Intuitive menus for configuring the firewall.
CONSI think the website filtering could be a little better, but not a big complaint there.
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
We liked the product and interface much better
Martin
Computer & Network Security, 11-50 employees
Used weekly for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
Veracity uses Watchguard
Easy to use, rebuild and configure for small to medium businesses, the documentation could do with a bit of a clean up for trying to find stuff Google tends to be better as searching the documentation than there own system or the navigation in the docs.
PROSWatchGuard has a very simple to use Web Control panel and allows for advanced configurations in a relatively easy to understand manner.
CONSSite to Site VPN for Watchguards seems to be a proprietary system that does a lot of configuration for you so not being able to manage as easily as just building your own Site-to-Site links using known technologies
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
Availably, Cost and ease of configuration
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
Supply lead times, when switching Zexel delayed our order by months when we were told it would be a couple of weeks till shipped upon ordering.
Alex
Information Technology and Services, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
Preferred Firewall since over 20 years!
very satisfied since over 20 years of usage for all my customers
PROSSimple and logically to administer, Use of System Manager for offline management of full configuration and write it up to Firebox in one step - so I have a backup of every change and never need to mind the steps for configuring changes to get in the right order! Authpoint is a grate product for MFA for VPN!
CONSMaybe the red color, but that is really not any harm at all - else than this - maybe the partner model, that you only get higher discounts on purchasing if you are a bigger partner.
Reasons for switching to WatchGuard Firebox
to complicate and not worth renewing at all
Omar
Logistics and Supply Chain, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed July 2023
Watchguard
Watchguard has facilitated all our branches connectivity. We have an improved and clear view of our network traffic and utilization.
PROSThe firebox is fast and easy to setup, Availability of 2 modes of firewall access: web interface and watchguard system manager application.BO VPN services is stable and is not bandwidth thirsty. Free Watchguard dimension server logs all network traffic for monitor purposes.
CONSSupport is not always timely and can take several hours to receive response.
Gary
Airlines/Aviation, 201-500 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2023
WatchGuard Review from an Airline perspective
Overall I find it an excellent product. Easy to use and configure (aside of some slightly tedious setup but that goes with all routers). Once deployed they really run themselves aside of some updates, etc which would be nice if we can set an automated update schedule check and deploy. Tech support is very easy work with and very thorough as well.
PROSWatchguard is easy to configure and deploy. After deployed it is easy to update in terms of rules as well as firmware.
CONSIt is too bad you can't copy/paste a VPN and just change the IP addresses as well as rules. In the WG config there are rules. Copy one and paste to another WG or paste to the existing one and simply change some parameters. That would actually make config and ongoing support much
Reason for choosing WatchGuard Firebox
I have experience with WG for several years now. I have worked with other products but have never waivered in my choice to use WG. Wathguard is also a catch all (for the most part) device which is also a bonus!!!
Simon
Retail, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2023
Great Portfolio of Products
We have been using Watchguard for a number of years and they are always inovating.
PROSThey are so easy to manage and visually see what is happening on the network. The cloud one pane of glass is fantastic for managing multiple products. They now have the full one stop solution for our extended network.
CONSThe ability to manage the firewalls with both the cloud and Watchguard System Manager.