VM-Series Virtual Firewall Reviews & Product Details

One thing I like a lot is that it does not lack any features from physical firewalls; almost everything you have and need in a physical FW, you can have on the VM-Series. Also, I like the depth of the security it provides. Deep packet inspection, user/device context, URL filtering, DNS Security, and the list goes on, are must-have features for any company that takes cybersecurity seriously. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I don't like that in VMware ESXi only certain drivers are supported, and I don't like the fact that, except for that, I think that full deployment is kind of expensive. It also requires a lot of resources (CPU, RAM, etc.) to meet performance requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Stability of the Palo Alto and reliability of the Palo series also the GUI is more easy to use. Also the Palo Alto gives us more functions that can be used. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

That the virtual PaloAlto firewall isn't on premises so it can be attacked by hackers more than the Hardware PaloAlto firewall. Also, the OS needs to be more smoothly upgraded. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The fact the firewall goes beyond port and protocol filtering for better Application aware security and the ability to enforce policies based on users using User-ID. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Even though Palo Alto VM-Series is praised for its security depth, scalability, and AI-driven threat prevention, it is expensive compared with other firewall vendors like Fortinet and Cisco. I am from Ethiopia and as someone working in IT integrators, many of our clients are a bit sensitive when it comes to price, this makes it difficult in proposing Paloalto firewall for them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is easy to deploy where we can save cost of hardware and also managed application security and network traffic in highly secure manner. It is robust and solid products in term security. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is nothing much about firewall products personally to me but need to go with phase by phase when comes to deploying and managing. As new beginner need to learn many things in order to deploy this products Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Security Efficacy: It topped the SecureIQLab 2024 Cloud Firewall Test, outperforming 11 other vendors in blocking real-world threats, including encrypted SSL/TLS attacks.

Cloud Flexibility: Supports AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, KVM, Nutanix, and more—ideal for virtualized deployments across platforms.

Zero Trust & Deep Inspection: Offers App-ID, User-ID, Device-ID, and inline deep learning to detect zero-day threats Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Complex Configuration & Learning Curve

Initial setup and policy tuning can be intimidating, especially for teams new to Palo Alto’s architecture.

Advanced features like App-ID and User-ID require deep understanding to avoid misconfigurations.

2. Licensing & Cost Structure

Licensing via Software NGFW credits can be confusing and expensive for smaller deployments. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The most i like is its cost and it has more capable as the physical one and also as long as you purchase it you can get it no pending time west in manfacturing Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

While enabling advanced features it has the most difficualt configurations by itself and also haively depends on the server capacity or resource is needed Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I find most helpful is the level of granular visibility it provides, which is essential for my work in the SOC. The App-ID and User-ID features are incredibly powerful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The primary downside is the complexity and high cost of the licensing model. It feels like every essential security feature is a separate, expensive subscription. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best aspects of the Palo Alto Networks VM-Series Virtual Firewall include its advanced threat prevention capabilities, consistent security policy enforcement across diverse environments, scalability and agility in virtualized settings, centralized management through Panorama, and seamless integration with major cloud and virtualization platforms. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Documentation Gaps: Occasionally, users find the documentation to be less comprehensive for newer features or unique deployment scenarios, which can complicate implementation and troubleshooting efforts. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like the fact that the firewall has a relatively low false-positive rates. Also, you can get all the PAN-OS features without waiting for the vendor to port them. This was kind of time-consuming part. The single-pass classification with the flow is also easy to use without much complication. I didn't need much support, which was also a good thing when using the product. The logging is incredible and very well organized with rich metadata. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

When we have people new to the product, they need kind of training because they don't know how to work with the PAN-OS. So onboarding these guys is quiete heavy in terms of training. Also, the frequency of PAN-OS upgrades is relatively high, which I need all the time to restart the service. We have also noticed more recently that when using a high traffic (e.g., PPS) or even large number of IPS signatures, the hypervisor is getting stressed. Some colleagues from different companies also noticed the same issue. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I believe what I like the best about these FWs is their Application level visibility. The App-ID tech used in the Firewalls allows us in our environment to control applications on a granular level allowing improved security.

Also the fact they're fairly easy to deploy and implement in any environment our customers have such as VMware, AWS, Azure cloud etc. This helps with the ease of integration within the organizations using multiple cloud solutions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

One con would be that they can have some complex initial configuration and may require special expertise within the customer support environment, which can discourage may discourage smaller organizations from using these as they have slightly high licensing and maintenance costs compared to other Virtual FW solutions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.