Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber vs Palo Alto Networks PA-5450: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber

★ 5.0 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; 5 Gbps IDS/IPS-secured routing throughput is the only headline figure (reviewer and retailer listings)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 5 Gbps IDS/IPS
IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published
Max Sessions: Not published; 500+ simultaneous users and 4,000-entry MAC address table
New Sessions/sec: Not published
Interfaces: 2x 10G SFP+; 1x 10GbE RJ45 (10G/2.5G/1G); 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M); 2 of the 6 WAN-capable ports are default WAN (1x 10G SFP+ and 1x 10GbE RJ45), with the other ports selectable as WAN
Form Factor: Compact desktop; 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm; 675 g without SSD
CPU / RAM: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 at 2.2 GHz / 3 GB RAM
Storage: Optional NVMe SSD up to 2 TB (NVR storage)
PoE Budget: 30W total from one PoE+ port (port 4)
Max Power Consumption: 29.4W excluding PoE output

✔ Pros: Lowest-cost Ubiquiti gateway with 5 Gbps IDS/IPS, rated above the UDM-SE's 3.5 Gbps at a lower launch price ($279 MSRP vs. $499); Multi-gig flexibility with 10GBASE-T, dual SFP+ and four 2.5GbE ports; Compact desktop design with optional NVMe storage for UniFi Protect/NVR use; Supports site-to-site VPN plus OpenVPN, WireGuard and L2TP server functions, with integrated PoE+ for one device; Managed through the UniFi Network controller with 500+ simultaneous user capacity
✘ Cons: No official routing, IPsec or WireGuard throughput figures published by Ubiquiti; community WireGuard numbers (around 400-500 Mbps) are unverified; Only one PoE+ output port (30W total) versus eight PoE ports on the UDM-SE; Lower device and user capacity and less storage expansion than the UDM-SE; No published IPsec tunnel or concurrent session limits; Reseller prices now often run above the launch MSRP (about $320-$346 USD at US resellers)
Est. Price: $279 - $346

Palo Alto Networks PA-5450

★ 3.4 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 200 Gbps (App-ID / HTTP appmix)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 189 Gbps
IPsec VPN Throughput: 85 Gbps
Max Sessions: 100 million
New Sessions/sec: 3.6 million (older datasheet lists 4 million)
Interfaces: Modular: 1-2 networking cards per system. Each networking card: 4x 100/1000/10G Cu, 12x 1G/10G SFP/SFP+, 2x 40G/100G QSFP28. Requires data processing cards (2 networking cards need at least 2 DPCs)
Form Factor: 5U rack-mount chassis

✔ Pros: Very high throughput for a single chassis (200 Gbps firewall, 189 Gbps threat prevention); Modular design with networking and data processing cards allows capacity to scale; Supports 100M max sessions and 3.6M new sessions per second for large data center and carrier workloads; 85 Gbps IPsec VPN throughput; Redundant AC or DC power and fan options; Full PAN-OS feature set including App-ID, Threat Prevention, and ML-powered security; Interface modes include L2, L3, tap, and virtual wire with 802.1Q VLAN support
✘ Cons: High upfront cost, typically around $88,000 to $100,000+ for the base bundle before licensing and support; Performance figures depend on card configuration and test conditions, so real-world results may differ; Requires 5U of rack space and considerable power and cooling, which is excessive for small or mid-size sites; Port counts and bundle contents vary across resellers, so configurations need careful quoting; Subscription licensing for Threat Prevention, URL filtering, and support adds substantial recurring cost; Overkill for branch or SMB deployments that the PA-400 or PA-1400 series would serve better
Est. Price: $88,320 - $103,010

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