Cisco Cisco Secure Firewall 1210 vs Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG): Specs & Price Comparison

Cisco Cisco Secure Firewall 1210

★ 3.4 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 6.5 Gbps (ASA stateful inspection); 6.0 Gbps (ASA multiprotocol); 6.0 Gbps (FTD FW + AVC, 1024B)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 6.0 Gbps (NGIPS, 1024B); 6.0 Gbps (FW + AVC + IPS, 1024B); 1.0 Gbps (TLS decryption)
IPsec VPN Throughput: 5.0 Gbps (FTD, 1024B TCP with Fastpath); 5.5 Gbps (ASA, 450B UDP L2L test)
Max Sessions: 200K concurrent (with AVC on FTD; concurrent firewall connections on ASA)
New Sessions/sec: 35K (FTD, with AVC); 175K (ASA)
Interfaces: 8x 1000BASE-T (10/100/1000 Mbps), no SFP+ slots. 1210CE: 8 copper ports. 1210CP: 8 copper ports, of which 4 are PoE
Form Factor: Desktop/compact; wall- or rack-mountable with optional accessories (no rack units listed)
Max VPN Peers: 200
Virtual Router Instances (VRF): 5 (FTD only)
Power: 100-240V AC, 50-60 Hz; typical 32W, max 40W (1210CE). 1210CP: 165W max including PoE
Software: Runs ASA or Threat Defense (FTD). Multi-instance not supported on Threat Defense

✔ Pros: Compact desktop form factor suits branch offices and small sites; Runs either ASA or Threat Defense software, so one platform can serve different deployment needs; Eight integrated 1GbE copper ports with no extra modules needed; 1210CP adds 4 PoE ports (120W total) for powering phones and cameras; FTD version supports FMC, FDM, and Security Cloud Control management plus active/standby HA; Sustains 6 Gbps of threat-prevention throughput with IPS enabled; Per-model 1210CE and 1210CP share the same performance figures
✘ Cons: No SFP+ or other high-speed uplink, which limits it to 1GbE; Throughput is modest compared with larger 1200 Series or 3100 models; Threat Defense supports only 5 VRFs and no multi-instance; The official datasheet has no single IPsec VPN figure, and the test methods for the ASA and FTD numbers differ; 1210CP PoE power budget is ambiguous in the datasheet and should be confirmed with Cisco; Street prices vary widely by reseller, and there is no official Cisco list price in the sources reviewed
Est. Price: $2,495 - $3,226

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

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