Cisco Firepower 4100 Series vs. Cisco Secure Firewall

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
The Cisco Firepower 4100 Series’ 1-rack-unit size is presented by the vendodr as ideal at the Internet edge and in high-performance environments. They further state that it shows what’s happening on your network, detects attacks earlier so you can act faster, and reduces management complexity.N/A
Cisco Secure Firewall
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Cisco Secure Firewall delivers comprehensive threat protection for modern, distributed networks. Built to support hybrid workforces and multicloud environments, it enables Zero Trust access, application visibility, and secure remote connectivity. With integration across the Cisco Secure portfolio, including SecureX and Talos threat intelligence, the firewall powers organizations to detect and stop more sophisticated threats. Centralized management simplifies policy enforcement, orchestration,…N/A
Pricing
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Editions & Modules
Firepower 4100
50,000-250,000
per appliance
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Considered Both Products
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
Chose Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
We switch to Palo Alto due the amount of tickets open with Cisco Firepower 4100 Series. It was taking a great amount of time for our engineers to fix problems. But it was a great tool when it was working as we were expecting. The fact it has a lot of instability on the releases …
Chose Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
We previously use Cisco ASA 5500 series but due to those devices are a little old, we changed to Cisco Firepower 4100 Series as more recent product from Cisco. One of the reasons to select Cisco Firepower 4100 Series was the configuration migration availability from ASA to …
Chose Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
As I mentioned before, the Fortigates have better failover. I think the Cisco interface is easier to use that that of the Fortigate. My only criticism would be that with multiple CLIs, it can get a bit confusing when you are trying to configure something or troubleshoot from …
Chose Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series deployment is straightforward and easy to implement. It is also can support high availability and able to achieve redundancy. Besides, firmware upgrade is quite simple and the process does not take much effort as the upgrade will be automatically …
Cisco Secure Firewall
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
on par with other firewalls vendors I've used over the years
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
It has great features, and compared to competitors, the cost of deployment is manageable too.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
While Cisco Secure Firewall is pricey, it delivers and does not compromise on capabilities. It is the best for network protection. Worthy every dollar.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco is more secure than FortiGate.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
The administraion interface of the Cisco secure firewall is a lot more easy to learn than the Palo Alto solution. Also, the dashboard panels offers by Cisco seems a lot more useful and details than the Palo Alto solution.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Having worked in the Fortinet and Sonicwall space, I have found that the Cisco Secure Firewall platform is the easiest to work with. The platform is easily customizable and overall very clean. Cisco has kept the platform feeling fresh with regular updates.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
We use it because it's the best firewall on the market now. And are the best protection and hardware.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco has a more seamless integration with its firewall management center compared to palo alto's panorama which tends to become out of sync with their firewalls. This can cause config differences, duplicate rules, or just the inability to deploy polices due to inconsistencies. …
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Well FWs are branch security things and major things so really not much similar device at Cisco portfolio.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco Nexus Series Switches
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
They are peer competitors, with Palo Alto offering some advantages over the Cisco products in the way of licensing simplicity and costs. The Palo Alto also supports the abilty to do "to the box" filtering and policy enforcement where Cisco requires special rules that are …
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series and VMware SD-WAN
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
I personally didn't evaluate any other products. We were already working with Cisco, so just keep upgrading.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
I've used Ubiquiti products, SonicWall products, the various older Cisco and Meraki. Cisco is definitely more of an enterprise level and overall it has probably better overall options and integrations and functionality and we've continued to choose to use it because it works …
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
We utilize these two products together to provide enhanced user experience and security.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco Secure Firewall works better with the Cisco ecosystem when we can utilize it and feels beefy enough when we utilize it in the data center. The Fortinet we have found are great, small cost boxes for remote offices with a better UI then Cisco Secure Firewalls. The feature …
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
Cisco Secure Firewall outperforms and the feature set are much better.
Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
I'm still evaluating new data center build out with Palo Alto, Cisco Secure Firewall or other.
Features
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Firepower 4100 Series
8.6
Ratings
0% below category average
Cisco Secure Firewall
7.9
Ratings
9% below category average
Identification Technologies8.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Visualization Tools8.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Content Inspection8.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Policy-based Controls8.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP10.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
VPN10.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
High Availability10.00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Stateful Inspection10.00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Proxy Server5.50 Ratings6.80 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 10.0 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.2
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Firepower 4100 SeriesCisco Secure Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend
When we are asked by local partners which security equipment we use we always recommend our Cisco security products. The Firepower firewall is no exception and we can easily recommend this to others who need a fast, secure, and well built system that integrates well with all your existing hardware and software.
Read full review
The software offers advanced firewall solutions from Web threats management to behavioural analytics and comprehensive application security. Cisco Secure firewall software is incredibly easy to deploy and implement. Customer support services providers are concise and very responsive. Integration and customization of the software are exceptional. The product boasts impressive capabilities, enabling it to stop threats and manage all security flaws in real time.
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Pros
  • Policy management in the GUI. I'm old-school, and still create ACLs in the CLI, but using the GUI for this is very nice.
  • Event monitoring and reporting is great, and you can get very granular when it comes to what information you are viewing.
  • I really like the troubleshooting features that are built in, especially the packet tracer and the ability to generate and download a troubleshooting package to review or send to TAC.
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  • It's good at segregating networks and ensuring that you only give the access that you need to give. Especially with medical devices, you want to only give the access that they need and keep them in their own separate areas so that they can't just communicate with the rest of the network. It's also good at the border for keeping attackers out of the network.
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Cons
  • When deployed as Firepower Threat Defense, configurations cannot be made within the device itself.
  • Troubleshooting can be difficult if the Cisco Firepower 4100 Series firewall is managed by the Cisco Firepower Management Center.
  • There are two operating systems in Cisco Firepower 4100 Series, firmware upgrade process will take a long time.
Read full review
  • I have one argument, failover scenario. It's not quite easy. Failover scenario of firewalls. It's sometimes not quite easy to know the issue. But if we open a tech case, a technical case to Cisco, Cisco will help us, it's a little bit con, but we are happy with this product.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
It works really well. We can do most anything we want or need to with it, and you don’t have to have a doctorate or multiple certs to necessarily figure it out. The thing that would probably have to happen to make us switch would be if we just got priced out - Cisco’s more powerful and higher bandwidth models cost a pretty penny.
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Usability
It not easy to understand the different features it offers. Sometimes you need to spend a couple of minutes to implement a change or even open a ticket with cisco tac to figure it out. Once support is on the phone with you they know how to resolve problems. But it's not an intuitive tool
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The platform is powerful and feature-rich, especially when paired with tools like Firepower Management Center (FMC) and SecureX. The policy structure is logical, and the visibility into traffic flows, threat activity, and rule hits is quite strong once you're familiar with the interface
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
As for the availability, in general we did not experience any issues with it, neither in situations where there's only one physical device implemented nor when there's and High Availability pair. Failover works like a charm, no complaints here, it works as it should and so far it has been highly reliable.
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Performance
No answers on this topic
no slowing down, vpn is working fast
Read full review
Support Rating
No answers on this topic
Our experience with Cisco TAC support for Cisco Secure Firewall has been very good. The support engineers are knowledgeable about the product and have many tools available to them to work "under the hood" of the firewalls or management center. When we've had equipment failures, the RMA process has been simple and straightforward.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
very good
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
was a good training but questions was answered not so good. Training was "Fundamentals of Cisco Firewall Threat Defense and Intrusion Prevention (SFWIPF)".
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
Our initial implementation was aided by Cisco's professional services and was excellent. The engineer was very knowledgeable and helped us work through issues while building out our new internet security edge Part of this involved tools to migrate the firewall configuration from old to new.
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Alternatives Considered
We switch to Palo Alto due the amount of tickets open with Cisco Firepower 4100 Series. It was taking a great amount of time for our engineers to fix problems. But it was a great tool when it was working as we were expecting. The fact it has a lot of instability on the releases was the deciding factor.
Read full review
Cisco Secure Firewall works better with the Cisco ecosystem when we can utilize it and feels beefy enough when we utilize it in the data center. The Fortinet we have found are great, small cost boxes for remote offices with a better UI then Cisco Secure Firewalls. The feature set included with the firewalls feels similar from a security point of view.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
you can choose up to 50 devices i think thats enough for our organization
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Quickly respond to incidents using vpn remote access
  • VPN L2L used to establish connections with global providers
  • Up to 2000+ vpn access without having performance issues
  • Granular access with policy groups based on the AD user
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  • Cisco Secure Firewall gives details on the possible intrusions attempts that are occurring on the network, which gives stakeholders confidence that the network is being protected.
  • Cisco's reputation as a longstanding network leader provides the trust that is needed in keeping networks secure.
  • The wide variety of tools and features that Cisco Secure Firewall provides allows business owners to plan for changes that can occur in the network as Cisco is able to adapt to the different needs.
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ScreenShots

Cisco Secure Firewall Screenshots

Screenshot of Cisco Secure 1200 Series Firewall FamilyScreenshot of Cisco Secure 4200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure 4200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 1200 Stack FamilyScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 200 Series