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A next-generation firewall (NGFW) should do more than filter traffic by address, port, and protocol. For a practical 2026 evaluation, check five capabilities: application-aware policy, integrated intrusion and threat prevention, controlled visibility into encrypted traffic, identity and device context, and management and logging that fit your deployment. This is an editorial checklist synthesized from government guidance and product documentation—not a universal standard or certification checklist.
1. Application-aware policy and Layer 7 control
Traditional network rules describe where traffic comes from, where it goes, and which protocol or port it uses. Application-aware policy adds the ability to make decisions based on the application or its functions. That can make rules more specific than a broad port-based allowance, provided the firewall can identify the applications and traffic your organization actually uses.
CISA and partner agencies describe application identification and control as a core NGFW capability in their joint guidance on modern approaches to secure network access. For cloud environments, Google Cloud documents Layer 7 application control for traffic entering or leaving a VPC and communication among VPC resources in its Cloud NGFW overview.
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- Check coverage for the applications and application functions that matter to your environment.
- Map the traffic paths the policy must govern, including east-west communication between cloud resources when relevant.
- Confirm how rules behave when traffic cannot be identified as a specific application.
2. Integrated intrusion prevention and threat prevention
Intrusion prevention systems (IPS) inspect network activity for signs of attacks or anomalies and can block matching traffic. CISA’s joint guidance describes built-in IPS, advanced threat protection, and integrated threat intelligence among NGFW capabilities. A feature name alone does not tell you what your deployment will receive: protections may be included, separately licensed, or dependent on a cloud service.
#1 Best Overall
- Compact and Efficient Design: The FortiGate 40F is designed for small to mid-sized businesses and enterprise branch offices, featuring a compact, fanless desktop form factor that ensures quiet operation and minimizes space usage.
- Robust Connectivity Options: Equipped with 5 GE RJ45 ports, including 1 WAN port and 4 internal ports, this model provides essential connectivity and flexibility for various network configurations in a small-scale environment.
- High-Performance Security: Offers up to 1 Gbps IPS throughput and 600 Mbps threat protection throughput, using Fortinet’s purpose-built security processor technology to deliver industry-leading performance and protection for SSL encrypted traffic.
- Advanced Threat Protection: Integrated with Fortinet’s AI-powered FortiGuard Labs, the FortiGate 40F offers comprehensive cybersecurity, identifying and mitigating both known and unknown threats to maintain robust security across your network.
- Simplified Management and Deployment: Features a user-friendly management console that provides comprehensive network automation and visibility, coupled with Zero Touch Integration with Fortinet’s Security Fabric for easy deployment.
Ask the supplier to identify the protections available under the specific edition and deployment model you are considering. Then evaluate throughput and latency with the protections you intend to enable, using your traffic mix and policy. The sources cited here do not provide a neutral, comparable performance benchmark, so vendor figures should not be treated as apples-to-apples results.
- List which IPS and threat-intelligence functions are included and which require additional licensing or services.
- Check what updates, cloud connectivity, or other dependencies the selected protections require.
- Measure performance with those protections active; do not rely on a headline throughput figure that does not match your intended configuration.
3. Visibility into encrypted traffic—with policy controls
Encrypted-traffic inspection can help security teams identify threats that would otherwise be hidden within encrypted connections. It is a capability to evaluate, not a direction to decrypt every connection. The appropriate policy depends on the organization’s security needs, sensitive traffic, and operating context; the sources available here do not establish a universal decryption policy or provide legal guidance.
Rank #2
- APPLIANCE ONLY: Hardware unit sold without a service subscription — security services, firmware updates and support are NOT included and must be purchased separately to activate protection.
- PERFORMANCE: Up to 2.5 Gbps firewall inspection, 1 Gbps threat prevention and 1.2 Gbps IPSec VPN throughput driven by SonicWall's patented Reassembly-Free Deep Packet Inspection (RFDPI) engine.
- CONNECTIVITY: 8x1GbE + 2x1G SFP in a desktop form factor; zero-touch deploy and manage on-box or via cloud Network Security Manager (NSM).
- THREAT PROTECTION: SonicOS 8 delivers intrusion prevention, gateway anti-malware, application control, TLS/SSL decryption, Capture ATP multi-engine sandboxing (RTDMI) and reputation-based content & DNS filtering with an active service subscription.
- BUILT FOR SMALL BUSINESS & BRANCH: Secure SD-WAN, IPSec and SSL VPN plus Zero-Trust Network Access through Cloud Secure Edge keep distributed sites and remote workers protected.
Vendor documentation from Palo Alto Networks and a Check Point buyer guide discuss encrypted-traffic inspection as an evaluation area. Treat vendor materials as descriptions of their own capabilities or buyer guidance, rather than independent proof of performance.
- Find out which encrypted traffic the firewall can inspect and what policy controls determine when inspection occurs.
- Ask how exceptions are configured and managed, particularly for sensitive traffic.
- Assess the operational impact of inspection, including how teams investigate blocked or excluded connections.
4. Identity and device context
Zero-trust policy can take account of who is using a resource and the context of the device or application, rather than trusting traffic solely because it comes from a particular network location. NIST’s NCCoE materials describe identity, device and network discovery, traffic inspection, and access-policy concepts in their introduction to implementing a zero-trust architecture and architecture examples.
These concepts do not make zero trust a product label or require one particular firewall design. NIST notes, “There is no single approach for migrating to ZTA that is best for all enterprises.” Choose identity and device controls that fit the organization’s access policy and the systems that supply relevant context.
Palo Alto Networks uses the terms User-ID, App-ID, and Device-ID in its product documentation. These are vendor-specific feature names, not generic standards; compare the underlying capabilities and integrations rather than assuming other products use the same terminology.
- Check which user, application, and device attributes can inform policy.
- Determine how the firewall obtains that context and whether it integrates with the organization’s access-policy systems.
- Verify how policies handle missing, stale, or unavailable identity and device information.
5. Management and visibility that fit your deployment
An NGFW’s value also depends on whether your team can administer policy and understand events across the environments it operates. Evaluate only the deployment types and traffic paths that match your organization—such as branch sites, data centers, and cloud networks—and check how policy, logs, and administration work across them.
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- Confirm that the product or service supports the deployment model you need: appliance, virtual, cloud service, or a combination.
- Check whether administrators can manage the relevant environments consistently and whether logs provide the visibility your operations team requires.
- Account for staffing and operational capacity, including the work needed to tune rules, review events, and maintain protections.
Compare NGFW options against your actual requirements
Compare real options using the same deployment assumptions. A useful evaluation records what each candidate can do for your traffic, sites, cloud footprint, policy, and team—not just the feature names on a product page.
| Evaluation area | What to verify |
|---|---|
| Application policy | Coverage for required applications and traffic paths, including east-west cloud traffic where relevant. |
| Threat prevention | Which protections are enabled and licensed, including IPS and threat-intelligence functions. |
| Encrypted traffic | Inspection visibility, policy controls, exception handling, and operational impact. |
| Identity and device context | Available context, how it integrates with access policy, and how missing context is handled. |
| Deployment and operations | Fit for the required appliance, virtual, or cloud model; centralized administration and useful log visibility. |
| Performance | Measured throughput and latency using your traffic mix and the protections you will actually enable. The sources cited here provide no neutral comparable benchmark. |
Use the same test conditions and security settings when assessing candidates. If a supplier quotes a performance figure, establish which configuration and protections it represents before using it in a comparison.
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