Comparisons

How Zedmos compares

Zedmos on the axes buyers compare firewalls on, each row with the page that proves it, and one sourced page per vendor it is compared with.

Zedmos is a German network-security vendor, based in Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg, that builds a FreeBSD-based inline inspection engine and ships it three ways: as a package for OPNsense® and pfSense® CE firewalls, as Zedmos NGFW (a complete next-generation firewall on its own operating system, ZedmosOS, installed from an image onto x86 hardware the customer chooses), and with the Zero Trust Console, a multi-tenant management console that customers host themselves as a container or use hosted by Zedmos from Frankfurt. The engine classifies more than 200 protocols and runs intrusion detection and prevention, TLS inspection, data loss prevention with 61 detectors, an AI gateway for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot and other assistants, per-application routing across uplinks (SD-WAN) and WireGuard, OpenVPN and GRE overlays between sites (SASE), all on the appliance, with no packet, payload or session record sent to Zedmos. It is licensed per firewall, with an MSP tier that is multi-tenant, unlimited and billed monthly in arrears, and it has zero entries in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue.

Zedmos, on the axes a comparison is made on

Every row links to the page that proves it. Nothing here is a claim the site does not make elsewhere.

Topic	Zedmos	Proof
What it is	Software. An inline inspection engine that installs as a package on OPNsense or pfSense CE, or as Zedmos NGFW from an image onto x86 hardware you own.	Zedmos NGFW
Where inspection happens	On the appliance that routes the traffic. No packet, payload or session record is sent to Zedmos; there is no vendor cloud in the path.	Platform
Management	One multi-tenant console, self-hosted as a container under your own domain, or hosted by Zedmos at console.zedmos.com from Frankfurt. Same product either way.	Zero Trust Console
When management is unreachable	Every firewall keeps enforcing the policy it holds. The console is not in the packet path. A lapsed licence makes the console read-only and never drops traffic.	Licensing
Licensing	Per firewall, no hardware in the licence. Free tier (three firewalls, thirty days), Team tier per firewall, MSP tier multi-tenant, unlimited and billed monthly in arrears. Prices quoted, not published.	Licensing
Jurisdiction	A German company in Tuttlingen, Baden-Württemberg. The engine is developed, reviewed and released in Germany under German and EU law; a self-hosted console keeps firewall logs in your own GDPR controllership.	About Zedmos
Exploit record	Zero entries in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue (version 2026.09.11). Published on a page that stays up whatever the number becomes.	security.exploit-record
Support period and compliance	Security updates for at least five years per product line (EU Cyber Resilience Act, Annex III Class II), a CycloneDX SBOM with every release, and a disclosure policy with dates on it.	Trust & compliance
Inspection	200+ protocols classified, IDS/IPS in the same engine, TLS inspection with JA3/JA4 fingerprinting, QUIC and encrypted DNS under control, 16 policy actions, 26 threat categories.	Capabilities
AI gateway and DLP	61 content detectors in 7 groups, prompts and uploads inspected before they leave, and a local language model for unstructured text, on your hardware rather than in a vendor cloud.	AI Gateway & DLP
SASE and SD-WAN	WireGuard, OpenVPN and GRE overlays provisioned from the console, a backup hub with automatic failover, per-application egress across uplinks, and remote users on a standard WireGuard client with no per-seat licence.	SASE & secure connectivity
Identity	Users and groups from Active Directory, Azure AD or SCIM; policy selects on them by name. Remote users are identified from the moment they connect.	Secure access
White-label and OEM	The console, the firewall interface and appliance builds can carry a partner's brand; a complete second-brand build has already shipped. The engine, its updates and its SBOM stay named.	White-label
Certification	Four engineer credentials (ZCA-101, ZCP-201, ZCS-SASE-301, ZCS-MSP-302) with published blueprints, every exam free to sit, every credential publicly verifiable without an account.	Zedmos Academy

Compared with

One page per vendor. The left column of each is what that vendor's own documents say, with the source; the right column is what Zedmos does in the same terms. The last row is what they have that we do not.

Firewall vendors

Zedmos vs FortinetFortiGate

Licensing, lifecycle, management, jurisdiction, exploit record and MSP billing, from Fortinet's own documents and public records, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs SophosSophos Firewall (XGS)

Licensing, the cloud console, jurisdiction, hardware lifecycle, exploit record, MSP Flex billing and where DLP runs, from Sophos's own documents, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs Palo Alto NetworksPA-Series, PAN-OS, Panorama

Subscriptions and credits, Panorama and Strata Cloud Manager, jurisdiction, end-of-life policy, exploit record, MSSP billing and cloud-delivered DLP, from Palo Alto Networks' own documents, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs SonicWallTZ, NSa, SonicOS, NSM

Security suites, Network Security Manager and MySonicWall, jurisdiction, retirement modes, exploit record and the 2025 cloud-backup incident, MSSP billing and cloud sandboxing, from SonicWall's own documents, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs WatchGuardFirebox, Fireware, WatchGuard Cloud

Security suites, WatchGuard Cloud and local management, jurisdiction, end-of-life policy, exploit record, FlexPay billing and the retired on-box DLP, from WatchGuard's own documents, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs Cisco MerakiMX, Meraki Dashboard

Mandatory cloud licences and what expiry does, the cloud-only dashboard, jurisdiction and the US primary controller, end-of-support dates, exploit record, MSLA billing and cloud-delivered DLP, from Meraki's own documentation, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs Check PointQuantum, Smart-1, Infinity Portal

Software blades, Smart-1 and Smart-1 Cloud, Israeli jurisdiction, life-cycle policy, exploit record, MSSP billing and where DLP runs, from Check Point's own documents, each with its source.

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Cloud SASE vendors

Zedmos vs ZscalerZero Trust Exchange, ZIA, ZPA

Per-user licensing, where inspection happens, jurisdiction, the published SLA and fail-open behaviour, exploit record, MSSP terms and cloud DLP, from Zscaler's own documents and filings, each with its source.

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Zedmos vs Cato NetworksCato SASE Cloud, Sockets

Bandwidth and per-user licensing, where inspection happens, jurisdiction, the SLA and Internet Recovery behaviour, exploit record, MSP pools and cloud DLP, from Cato's own knowledge base and terms, each with its source.

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Also named

Vendors a buyer lines Zedmos up against for which no sourced page is published yet. A name here is not a claim about the product.

Zenarmor

How these comparisons are made

01Every statement about another vendor comes from that vendor's own documents, a regulator's record or a public filing, and carries the link. Nothing is paraphrased from a review site or a competitor.
02The exploit-record rows are read from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue's own JSON feed: entries per vendor, the ransomware flag on each, and the product each names. The catalogue version is stated on every page.
03Each page ends with what the other vendor has that Zedmos does not. A page that only lists the ways we win is a page nobody believes.
04Each page carries the date it was last checked. If a statement is wrong or out of date, write to info@zedmos.com and it will be corrected.

Questions

Is Zedmos an alternative to Fortinet, Sophos, Palo Alto Networks or SonicWall?

Zedmos is a next-generation firewall in the same product category, sold differently: software on hardware you own rather than an appliance with a subscription bundle, a console you host yourself or use hosted from Frankfurt rather than a vendor cloud, a German vendor under EU law, and a published exploit record of zero entries in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue. What those vendors have that Zedmos does not is stated on each comparison page.

Is Zedmos an alternative to Zscaler or Cato Networks?

For sites and remote users, yes, with a different architecture: Zedmos SASE inspects traffic on hubs you run rather than in a vendor's points of presence, so nothing passes through a third party and there is no fail-open moment when a cloud is unreachable. Zscaler and Cato offer a global backbone, a published availability SLA and cloud-delivered services that Zedmos does not; the comparison pages say so.

Where do the numbers on the comparison pages come from?

From the other vendor's own product pages, legal terms, life-cycle policies, partner programmes and public filings, each linked beside the statement, and from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue for exploit records. Each page states when it was last checked.