PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Cisco Secure Firewall 4225
Cisco Secure Firewall 4225
★ 3.4 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: 80 Gbps (Cisco product page; some reseller listings show 90 Gbps or 95 Gbps stateful)
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 80 Gbps (FW+AVC+IPS, 1024B; Cisco product page lists IPS at 80 Gbps)
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: 80 Gbps (Cisco product page); Decryption throughput 30 Gbps
  • Max Sessions: 90 Million concurrent firewall connections (ASA table; older datasheet revision lists 80 Million)
  • New Sessions/sec: 1.7 Million (ASA stateful firewall)
  • Interfaces: 2 x NetMod bays for expansion modules; reseller listing shows 8 x SFP+ on-chassis
  • Form Factor: 1RU rack-mount, dual power supply, 80 Plus Platinum

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Strong 80 Gbps threat prevention and IPsec VPN throughput in a 1RU chassis; Two NetMod bays allow interface expansion without replacing the appliance; Available as ASA or Threat Defense (NGFW) software images, so the same hardware can serve different deployment needs; Supports high concurrent session counts (up to 90 million) and 1.7 million new connections per second for busy data center or campus edge use; Cisco Firepower Management Center and Cisco Defense Orchestrator give centralized management and policy control
  • ✘ Cons: High upfront cost, with reseller prices typically from about $145K to over $200K before subscriptions; Threat Defense features require ongoing subscription licensing, which adds recurring cost; Published throughput and session figures differ across Cisco datasheet versions and resellers, so specs must be verified against the current datasheet before purchase; Overkill for small and mid-sized businesses that need far less throughput; Requires NetMod modules and separate optics, which add to total cost of ownership
  • Est. Price: $145,679 - $213,663

Compare Against

Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max)
Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max)
★ 4.9 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti in the sources reviewed
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 2.3 Gbps IDS/IPS per Ubiquiti spec page (older listings show 1.5 Gbps)
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; third-party reviews report about 800-1,000 Mbps for WireGuard and 300-400 Mbps for OpenVPN
  • Max Sessions: Not published in the sources reviewed
  • New Sessions/sec: Not published in the sources reviewed
  • Interfaces: 1x 2.5GbE RJ45 WAN, 4x GbE RJ45 LAN (one LAN port can be reconfigured as a second WAN for multi-WAN)
  • Form Factor: Compact desktop; UCG-Max-NS variant includes 512GB NVMe storage

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Low entry price at $199 MSRP; Compact desktop form factor; Five-port layout with multi-WAN support via a reconfigurable LAN port; Runs UniFi OS with integrated IDS/IPS, site-to-site and remote VPN options (IPsec, WireGuard, OpenVPN, L2TP); Manages 30+ UniFi devices and 300+ clients per Ubiquiti listing
  • ✘ Cons: Routing and IPS throughput (2.3 Gbps) is modest for multi-gigabit WANs with inspection enabled; Published throughput figures conflict across sources (1.5 vs 2.3 Gbps IPS, varying VPN numbers); Only one 2.5GbE port, with the remaining ports at 1GbE; Vendor does not publish IPsec tunnel, session, or new-connection limits; Some resellers list prices well above MSRP (one US listing at $394.79)
  • Est. Price: $199 - $279

Popular Comparisons

Cisco Secure Firewall 4225 vs Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber Cisco Secure Firewall 4225 vs Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro Max Cisco Secure Firewall 4225 vs Ubiquiti Cloud Gateway Max Cisco Secure Firewall 4225 vs Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Max (UCG-Max) Cisco Secure Firewall 4225 vs Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)