Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG) vs Cisco Secure Firewall 220: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)

★ 4.9 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 23.5 Gbps (routing, iPerf3, DHCP WAN)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 12.5 Gbps (IDS/IPS)
IPsec VPN Throughput: 580 Mbps (site-to-site, single tunnel)
Max Sessions: 1,000,000 concurrent
New Sessions/sec: 71,000 (listed under general capacity; not specific to VPN or IPsec)
Interfaces: 2x 2.5GbE RJ45, 2x 25G SFP28, 2x 10G SFP+ (some listings show 2x RJ45 + 4x SFP28; verify against the Ubiquiti datasheet)
Form Factor: 1U rack-mount, dual hot-swappable PSUs
SSL/TLS Inspection Concurrent Sessions: 10,000 (5,000 recommended under heavy traffic)
CPU / Memory: 18-core ARM v8.2 @ 2 GHz, 16 GB DDR4
UniFi Capacity: 500+ UniFi devices, 5,000+ clients

✔ Pros: 25G SFP28 and 10G SFP+ uplinks at a gateway price point; 23.5 Gbps routing throughput; 1 million concurrent sessions; 18-core ARM CPU with 16 GB RAM; hot-swappable redundant PSUs; supports 500+ UniFi devices and 5,000+ clients; manages through UniFi Network controller with a single pane of glass
✘ Cons: IPsec VPN throughput of 580 Mbps is low for a gateway at this price; IDS/IPS throughput of 12.5 Gbps halves routing performance when threat inspection is enabled; SSL/TLS inspection is limited to about 10,000 concurrent sessions; port configuration differs across listings and should be verified; frequently out of stock at major US retailers, with a $170 memory surcharge at some resellers; no built-in Wi-Fi, so it depends on separate UniFi APs and switches; reviewers cite a steeper learning curve than consumer-grade routers
Est. Price: $1,999 - $2,892

Cisco Secure Firewall 220

★ 3.3 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 2 Gbps (ASA software, stateful inspection, HTTP 1024B; 1500B UDP per footnote)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 1.5 Gbps (FTD software, FW + AVC + IPS, 1024B; AVC + IPS also 1.5 Gbps)
IPsec VPN Throughput: 1.5 Gbps (ASA, 450B UDP L2L); 1.2 Gbps (FTD, 1024B TCP with fastpath)
Max Sessions: 100K concurrent firewall connections (ASA); 30K concurrent sessions with AVC (FTD)
New Sessions/sec: 80K new connections per second (ASA); 6K new connections per second with AVC (FTD)
Interfaces: 4x 1000BASE-T (RJ-45) + 1x 1G SFP fixed data ports, plus 1x 1000BASE-T management port; no network modules; max 5 data ports
Form Factor: Compact fanless desktop unit, 1 RU rack-mountable with accessory, wall-mount option; 1.15 in x 9.2 in x 7.8 in, 2.6 lb

✔ Pros: Fanless, silent operation (0 dBA) suited to branch offices and small desks; Compact footprint with rack and wall-mount options; Low power draw (12.7 W typical, 19 W max) on a single external 30W AC supply; Supports both ASA and Threat Defense (FTD) software images via separate SKUs (CSF220-ASA-K9, CSF220-TD-K9); Active/Standby high availability and up to 5 VRF instances on FTD; Built-in 4x 1GbE copper plus 1G SFP for flexible uplinks; Broad price point for a Cisco-branded next-generation firewall; MTBF rated at 700,000 hours
✘ Cons: Throughput is limited to about 1.5 Gbps with threat prevention enabled, so it does not suit multi-gigabit WAN links; Only 1G interfaces, with no 10G SFP+ option listed on the official datasheet; No clustering or multi-instance support, which limits scale-out; No redundant power supply; Maximum 50 VPN peers and 30K concurrent sessions with AVC on FTD are modest for larger sites; Software image is fixed per SKU (ASA or FTD), so switching platforms requires a different appliance; Official datasheet does not publish a USD list price, so pricing depends on reseller quotes
Est. Price: $839 - $1,136

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