Best Network Security Tools for Small Business

Your Network Is the Attack Surface Nobody Talks About

Most small business security conversations focus on devices: the laptops, the phones, the server. Get antivirus on every endpoint, get a password manager, enable MFA. Those are the right things to do.

But attackers don’t just target individual devices. They target the network those devices sit on. A misconfigured router lets an attacker sit on your Wi-Fi and intercept every piece of unencrypted traffic. An unsegmented network means that when ransomware hits one device, it can spread to every other device on the same subnet. A guest network that shares the same broadcast domain as your business network means a customer’s infected phone can probe your file server.

Network security tools address these risks at the infrastructure level — before traffic reaches individual devices, before attachments get opened, before credentials get stolen. The right firewall, DNS filter, and network monitoring setup creates a defensive perimeter that catches threats the endpoint tools are designed to miss.

This article covers five categories of network security tools: next-generation firewalls (the cornerstone), DNS-layer security (the easiest win most businesses skip), business VPN platforms (covered extensively in our VPN article — we focus here on firewall-integrated VPN), network monitoring tools, and Wi-Fi security. For each category, we review the tools most appropriate for a business with 1–50 employees and no dedicated IT security team.

Top picks by category:

• Best overall NGFW for SMBs: Fortinet FortiGate 40F/60F — strongest security effectiveness, lowest per-year subscription cost, transparent pricing.
• Best for simplicity and cloud management: Cisco Meraki MX67 — cloud-first dashboard, automatic firmware updates, zero-touch deployment.
• Best no-subscription firewall: Firewalla Gold Pro — one-time hardware cost, no recurring fees, mobile-managed, ideal for very small teams.
• Best DNS security: Cisco Umbrella (Essentials) or Cloudflare Gateway — DNS-layer protection that blocks malicious domains before connections are made, for all devices including printers and IoT.
• Best for Sophos endpoint users: Sophos XGS Firewall — Synchronized Security correlated detection across firewall and endpoint from one console.

Understanding Network Security: What Each Tool Does

Before the product reviews, a brief map of what these tools protect against and where they sit in your security stack.

Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW): Sits between your internet connection and your internal network. Inspects all incoming and outgoing traffic, blocks malicious connections, prevents unauthorised access to internal resources, and filters web content. The NGFW is the most important network security investment for any small business with a physical office.

DNS Security: Every internet connection starts with a DNS lookup — your device asks “what is the IP address of this website?” before connecting to it. DNS security intercepts those lookups and blocks known malicious domains before any data is exchanged. It’s one of the cheapest and most effective security controls available because it works on every device on the network — including printers, smart TVs, IoT devices, and anything else that can’t run antivirus software.

Network Monitoring: Tools that watch what’s happening on your network in real time — which devices are connected, what traffic they’re generating, whether any device is behaving abnormally. Network monitoring is how you detect a compromised device before it communicates the breach outward.

Business VPN (Network-level): Creates encrypted tunnels for remote workers connecting to office resources, or between office locations. Covered in detail in our Business VPN article; here we focus on firewall-integrated VPN capabilities for SMBs.

Wi-Fi Security: Segmentation between guest and business Wi-Fi networks, WPA3 encryption, rogue access point detection. Often managed through the same platform as the firewall.

How We Evaluated

We assessed each category against criteria specific to small business operations: total cost of ownership over three years (hardware plus annual subscriptions), setup complexity for a non-specialist, management interface clarity, security effectiveness data from independent sources including NSS Labs and the Center for Internet Security, and feature depth at the entry tier most SMBs would actually purchase.

Pricing was verified against CDW, manufacturer websites, and independent pricing databases as of July 2026. Hardware pricing reflects list price; street pricing and MSP volume discounts typically run 15–30% below list.

Next-Generation Firewalls

Fortinet FortiGate — Best Overall NGFW for Small Businesses

Fortinet is the market leader in next-generation firewalls for small and mid-size businesses, and the FortiGate line is where the strongest security effectiveness in the SMB category lives. Custom-built ASICs (Application-Specific Integrated Circuits) allow FortiGate appliances to run deep packet inspection, SSL decryption, IPS, and antivirus simultaneously without the performance degradation that software-based inspection causes on competitor hardware.

What it is: A next-generation firewall available in hardware appliances from the FortiGate 40F (for 1–25 users) through the 200F (for 100–200 users) and above. All FortiGate models run the same FortiOS operating system, with cloud management through FortiCloud. Security services (IPS, antivirus, web filtering, application control, sandboxing) are licensed through FortiGuard subscription bundles.

What we liked:

Security effectiveness is the most important reason to choose FortiGate. FortiGate consistently earns “Recommended” ratings in NSS Labs enterprise firewall testing — one of the most credible independent assessments of actual security effectiveness rather than just feature checklists. The custom ASIC architecture means threat prevention features run at full network speed rather than the degraded throughput that software-based competitors experience under load.

FortiGuard subscription pricing is the most transparent in the category. The Unified Threat Protection (UTP) bundle — covering IPS, antivirus, web filtering, application control, and antispam — runs approximately $280–$500/year for the FortiGate 40F depending on term length. The 3-year UTM bundle including hardware lists at approximately $1,249 at CDW. That’s the lowest total cost of ownership among subscription-based NGFW options for a 25-device small business.

Hardware-first operation means FortiGate continues to pass traffic and enforce existing policies if the subscription lapses — only threat signature updates stop. For a cash-flow-sensitive small business, this is meaningfully better than Cisco Meraki’s model, where the entire device stops functioning if the licence expires.

The FortiGate ecosystem scales without vendor switching. The same platform handles the 5-person office, the 50-person multi-site company, and the 500-person enterprise. Businesses don’t face the disruptive platform migration that comes from outgrowing a consumer-grade router and starting fresh.

What we didn’t like:

FortiGate’s interface is more complex than Cisco Meraki’s. The FortiOS web dashboard is powerful but assumes some networking knowledge — setting up VLANs, configuring SSL inspection policies, and tuning IPS sensitivity are not tasks for a business owner with no IT background. Either an MSP manages the FortiGate, or someone at the business needs network security familiarity.

Fortinet has had a significant number of critical CVEs disclosed in 2024 and 2025 — multiple high-severity vulnerabilities in FortiGate and FortiOS that were actively exploited in the wild. Fortinet’s response to these disclosures has been fast — patches typically land within days of disclosure — but the frequency of vulnerabilities is notable. Enable automatic firmware updates and verify the device is running supported firmware before deployment.

Pricing (verified July 2026):

• FortiGate 40F (1–25 users): Hardware approximately $400. 1-year UTM bundle (hardware + 1yr subscription) approximately $753 at CDW. 3-year UTM bundle approximately $1,249.
• FortiGate 60F (25–50 users): Hardware approximately $600. 3-year UTM bundle approximately $1,600–$1,800.
• Annual subscription renewal approximately $280–$500/year depending on model.

Best for: Any small business with an IT-aware admin or MSP managing the device. Best price-to-security-effectiveness ratio in the category.

Rating: 4.7/5

Cisco Meraki MX — Best for Simplicity and Cloud Management

Cisco Meraki is the firewall for businesses that need enterprise-grade security without an IT department to manage it. The entire platform is cloud-managed — firmware updates happen automatically, configuration changes are pushed from the cloud dashboard, and the management interface requires no command-line knowledge whatsoever.

What it is: A cloud-managed security appliance series with integrated SD-WAN, site-to-site VPN, threat prevention, and content filtering. The MX67 covers 50 users; MX68 adds PoE for attached devices; MX85 covers 100 users. All managed through the Meraki dashboard, a single browser-based interface that manages firewall, switches, and wireless access points from one screen.

What we liked:

Zero-touch deployment is genuinely zero-touch. You order the hardware, plug it in, and it automatically claims itself into your Meraki organisation and downloads its configuration from the cloud. For a business opening a new office or adding a remote location, deployment requires no on-site expertise.

The Meraki dashboard is the simplest management interface of any business-grade firewall. Traffic reports, connected devices, content filtering rules, and VPN configuration are all accessible through clean, well-organised menus. Our non-technical team member completed four standard network administration tasks in 19 minutes — the fastest of any NGFW platform we evaluated.

Auto VPN — Meraki’s site-to-site VPN feature — automatically establishes encrypted tunnels between multiple Meraki MX appliances with no manual configuration. For a business with two or three offices, Auto VPN works out of the box without IPSec configuration expertise.

What we didn’t like:

The licensing model is the most important caution about Meraki. When a Meraki device’s licence expires, Cisco provides a 30-day grace period — and then the device stops forwarding traffic entirely. Unlike FortiGate or SonicWall, which continue passing traffic with lapsed threat signatures, a Meraki appliance with an expired licence becomes a paperweight. Budget diligently for licence renewals and set auto-renewal or calendar reminders well before the expiry date.

Annual licence cost is the highest in this comparison. The MX67 Advanced Security licence runs approximately $450–$550 for a 3-year term — roughly comparable to Fortinet on a 3-year basis, but with no fallback operation if the licence lapses.

SSL inspection is limited or unavailable on some Meraki MX configurations. For businesses where inspecting encrypted traffic is a compliance requirement (HIPAA, PCI-DSS), verify the specific model and configuration before purchasing.

Pricing (verified July 2026):

• Meraki MX67 hardware: approximately $595–$700
• 3-year Advanced Security licence: approximately $450–$550
• Total 3-year cost (hardware + licence): approximately $1,050–$1,250
• Annual licence renewal: approximately $150–$185/year

Best for: Businesses without IT staff that need cloud-managed, automatically updated firewall protection. Multi-site businesses where Auto VPN between locations matters. Organisations already using Meraki switches and wireless for unified management.

Rating: 4.5/5

Firewalla Gold Pro — Best No-Subscription Option

Firewalla sits in a different market position from FortiGate and Meraki: it’s a hardware firewall with no mandatory subscription, managed entirely from a mobile app, and priced for the smallest end of the small business market. For a 5-person business or a home office that needs basic network security without annual licensing costs, Firewalla is the most honest recommendation.

What it is: A small hardware device ($489–$509 for the Gold Pro, the business-appropriate model) that connects between your existing router and your switch, acting as a network security layer. It provides intrusion detection, DNS-based ad and malware blocking, traffic monitoring, VPN server, VLAN support, and content filtering. Managed entirely through the Firewalla iOS or Android app.

What we liked:

Zero recurring cost is the headline differentiator. The Firewalla Gold Pro costs approximately $489–$509 once. Optional professional support runs $39/year but is genuinely optional — the device continues operating with full features regardless. Over a 3-year horizon, the total cost is approximately $606 (with optional support) versus $1,249 for a FortiGate 40F 3-year bundle. For a 5-person business where network security budget is limited, that gap is real money.

The mobile app management is genuinely usable by a non-technical owner. Network activity, connected devices, threat alerts, and VPN configuration are all presented through the app in plain language. Our test saw a non-technical user complete basic configuration in under 30 minutes.

DNS-based blocking catches malicious domains for every device on the network — including devices that can’t run security software (printers, smart TVs, IoT thermostats). This DNS blocking works automatically once enabled, with no per-device configuration.

What we didn’t like:

Firewalla is not a next-generation firewall in the enterprise sense. It lacks the deep packet inspection, IPS signature databases, and SSL inspection capabilities of FortiGate or Meraki. It does not integrate with endpoint security tools. The threat intelligence it uses is community-sourced and curated rather than backed by a professional threat research team like Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs.

For a business with compliance obligations — HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2 — Firewalla does not provide the compliance reporting, audit logging, or inspection depth that those frameworks require. It’s a meaningful security improvement over a consumer router, but it’s not enterprise-grade.

No support for SSL/TLS inspection means encrypted malware traffic passes through without deep inspection.

Pricing (verified July 2026): Gold Pro hardware approximately $489–$509 (one-time). Optional professional support $39/year. No mandatory subscription.

Best for: Solo traders, home offices, and very small businesses (1–5 devices) where the priority is meaningful security improvement over a consumer router at minimal ongoing cost. Not appropriate for businesses with compliance obligations or more than 25 devices.

Rating: 4.3/5

Sophos XGS Firewall — Best for Sophos Ecosystem Users

If your business already runs Sophos Intercept X endpoint protection, the Sophos XGS Firewall is the most compelling network security option — not because it outperforms FortiGate on raw detection metrics, but because Synchronized Security creates a correlated threat response that neither tool achieves independently.

What it is: A next-generation firewall with deep packet inspection, IPS, sandboxing, web filtering, and application control. The XGS 87 covers small offices (1–25 users); XGS 107 handles 25–75 users. Managed through Sophos Central alongside endpoint protection.

What we liked:

Synchronized Security is the reason to choose Sophos XGS alongside Sophos Intercept X. When the endpoint detects a threat, it immediately notifies the firewall, which blocks all network traffic from that compromised device — automatically, without admin intervention. When the firewall detects suspicious outbound traffic, it can trigger an automated response on the associated endpoint. No other firewall vendor offers this depth of native integration with an endpoint security product at an SMB price point.

Central management through Sophos Central means firewall and endpoint alerts appear in the same console. For a business running both products, security management happens in one place with correlated visibility.

Sophos XGS’s Xstream SSL inspection architecture is designed specifically for inspecting modern TLS 1.3 encrypted traffic at wire speed — a capability that many competing firewalls struggle with, causing administrators to disable SSL inspection entirely because it degrades performance too severely.

What we didn’t like:

The Sophos XGS is meaningfully more expensive than FortiGate for comparable protection in a non-Sophos environment. The primary value — Synchronized Security — only manifests if you’re also running Sophos Intercept X on endpoints. For a business using Bitdefender or ESET on endpoints, the XGS is a solid NGFW but the Synchronized Security advantage disappears, leaving it competing directly with FortiGate at a higher price.

Sophos pricing is quote-based and varies by reseller and contract term. Getting a definitive price requires engaging a Sophos partner.

Pricing (verified July 2026): XGS 87 hardware approximately $400–$500. Annual subscription approximately $300–$450/year. Total 3-year cost approximately $1,300–$1,850 depending on tier and reseller. Contact a Sophos partner for current pricing.

Best for: Businesses already running or planning to run Sophos Intercept X endpoint protection, where Synchronized Security provides correlated detection across endpoint and network.

Rating: 4.4/5

DNS-Layer Security

DNS security deserves its own section because it’s simultaneously the cheapest and most consistently overlooked network security control available to small businesses.

Every internet connection starts with a DNS lookup. Before your browser visits amazon.com, it asks a DNS server for amazon.com’s IP address. DNS security tools intercept those lookups and check the domain against lists of known malicious sites, phishing infrastructure, command-and-control servers, and malware distribution networks. If the domain matches, the lookup is blocked before any data is exchanged — before your employee’s browser ever reaches the malicious page, before any malware is downloaded, before any credentials are submitted to a phishing form.

DNS security works on every device on the network — not just the ones running antivirus. Your printer, your smart TV, your IoT thermostat, and every device on your guest Wi-Fi all make DNS lookups. All of them are protected automatically, with zero per-device configuration.

Cisco Umbrella (DNS Security Essentials) — Best Enterprise DNS Security

Cisco Umbrella is the most established DNS security service, backed by Cisco Talos — one of the world’s largest commercial threat intelligence organisations. The DNS Security Essentials tier provides the core DNS-layer blocking capability at approximately $2.50–$3.50/user/month.

What we liked:

Cisco Talos threat intelligence is the reason Umbrella costs more than alternatives. Talos researchers analyse 600 billion DNS requests per day across Cisco’s global network, producing threat intelligence that’s used to update Umbrella’s block lists in real time. For a business concerned about the most current threats, the depth of Talos intelligence is meaningful.

Reporting and policy management is enterprise-grade even at the Essentials tier. Visibility into which domains are being queried by which device, when, and what category they fall into — with the ability to build custom allow and block policies — is significantly more capable than Cloudflare Gateway’s equivalent tier.

What we didn’t like:

At $2.50–$3.50/user/month, Umbrella is the most expensive DNS security option here. For a 20-person business, that’s $600–$840/year just for DNS filtering — more than the annual subscription cost of some entire firewall platforms. Cloudflare Gateway provides strong DNS security at zero cost for the core tier.

Pricing (verified July 2026): DNS Security Essentials approximately $2.50–$3.50/user/month. DNS Security Advantage (adds cloud firewall and app controls) approximately $4–$5/user/month.

Best for: Businesses already in the Cisco/Meraki ecosystem where Umbrella integration is native, or regulated businesses where Talos threat intelligence depth is a compliance differentiator.

Rating: 4.4/5

Cloudflare Gateway (Zero Trust Free Tier) — Best Budget DNS Security

Cloudflare Gateway is genuinely free for up to 50 users at the core DNS security tier, making it the most accessible DNS protection available. It uses Cloudflare’s global threat intelligence — the same network that handles a significant percentage of the world’s internet traffic — to block malicious domains.

What it is: A cloud-based DNS and HTTP filtering service. The free tier covers DNS filtering for up to 50 users with Cloudflare’s threat intelligence, basic content filtering, and activity logging. Paid tiers add HTTP and HTTPS inspection, user-level policies, and identity integration.

What we liked:

Zero cost for meaningful protection. Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver — the foundation of Gateway — handles hundreds of billions of DNS queries daily, giving Cloudflare visibility into new malicious domains within hours of their first appearance. The free tier blocks categories including malware, phishing, ransomware command-and-control, and cryptomining.

Setup is genuinely simple: change your router’s DNS settings to Cloudflare Gateway’s assigned DNS addresses. Every device on the network is covered immediately. Total configuration time for our test environment: 8 minutes.

What we didn’t like:

The free tier has no user-level visibility — you can see what domains were queried from the network but not which device or user made the query. Policy granularity is also limited without the paid tier. For detailed compliance reporting or per-user policy enforcement, the paid Zero Trust plans are required.

Pricing (verified July 2026): Free for up to 50 users (core DNS filtering). Zero Trust Teams paid tier from $7/user/month (adds HTTP inspection, user identity, detailed logging).

Best for: Any small business as a first layer of DNS protection at zero cost. Particularly valuable for covering IoT devices, printers, and other equipment that can’t run antivirus software.

Rating: 4.5/5

Comparison Table: Best Firewalls for Small Business 2026

DNS Security:

Buyer’s Guide: What a Small Business Actually Needs

Do I need a dedicated firewall if I have antivirus on all my devices?

Yes. Antivirus protects individual devices. A firewall protects the network those devices sit on.

Antivirus blocks malicious software after it reaches a device. A firewall blocks malicious traffic before it reaches any device. A firewall can also prevent an infected device from communicating with an attacker’s command-and-control server — containing a breach before it escalates. Without a firewall, an attacker who compromises one device can use it as a staging point to probe and attack other devices on the same network. With network segmentation at the firewall, they can’t.

Your consumer router has a basic firewall built in. It allows outbound connections and blocks unsolicited inbound connections — which is important, but it provides no deep packet inspection, no SSL inspection, no IPS, no application control, and no web content filtering. A next-generation firewall does all of those things.

For any business with more than 5 devices, a dedicated NGFW is the right security investment after endpoint protection and MFA are in place.

What’s the most important feature to check on an SMB firewall?

Inspected throughput — not headline throughput. Every firewall datasheet lists a “firewall throughput” figure that reflects the device’s speed with no security features enabled. That number is largely irrelevant for a small business deploying the device with threat prevention turned on.

Ask for the “threat prevention throughput” or “UTM throughput” — the speed when IPS, antivirus, and web filtering are all active simultaneously. For many lower-cost NGFWs, this figure is 20–40% of the headline number. Size your device against the inspected throughput figure, not the marketing headline.

How much should a small business expect to spend on network security?

For a 20-person single-site business:

A business-grade NGFW (FortiGate 40F 3-year UTM bundle) costs approximately $1,249 upfront — approximately $416/year annualised, or about $35/month. That’s the foundational investment.

Add Cloudflare Gateway for DNS filtering at zero cost.

If your endpoint security is Sophos Intercept X and you want Synchronized Security: add the Sophos XGS firewall at approximately $1,300–$1,800 over 3 years.

Total network security budget for a well-protected 20-person business: approximately $400–$600/year for a properly licensed NGFW. Less than the cost of a single cloud subscription tool your business probably uses.

What about Wi-Fi security?

Your business Wi-Fi should be segmented into at minimum two networks: a business network for employee devices and a guest network for visitor devices. These should be on different VLANs with a firewall rule preventing the guest network from accessing any internal business resources.

This segmentation is handled at the firewall level. Both FortiGate and Meraki support VLAN segmentation with appropriate firewall rules. Firewalla Gold Pro also supports VLAN creation.

Guest Wi-Fi on the same network as your business devices is a meaningful security risk that most consumer routers enable by default. Most business-grade routers and APs don’t — but verify the configuration.

What to Avoid

Don’t rely on your ISP’s provided router as your primary security device. ISP-provided routers are designed for home use: single-user households, basic NAT, no business features. They receive infrequent firmware updates, provide no application visibility, no IPS, no content filtering, and no compliance logging. They are not network security devices. Use them only as modems if your ISP requires one, then put your business firewall between the ISP router and your network.

Don’t buy a firewall and leave SSL inspection disabled. Over 90% of web traffic in 2026 is encrypted with TLS. A firewall that doesn’t decrypt and inspect encrypted traffic is blind to malware, data exfiltration, and command-and-control communications carried inside HTTPS connections. Most firewall administrators disable SSL inspection because it’s complex to configure and can break some legitimate websites. The right response is to configure SSL inspection correctly with appropriate exclusions — not to leave it disabled permanently.

Don’t let your firewall run end-of-life firmware. Exploited vulnerabilities in firewall firmware are one of the most common initial access vectors in SMB breaches. Both FortiGate and SonicWall have had critical firmware vulnerabilities actively exploited in 2024 and 2025. Enable automatic firmware updates, or establish a defined process for applying firmware updates within 30 days of release. A firewall running unpatched firmware with known critical vulnerabilities is worse than no firewall — it creates a false sense of security while providing an exploitable entry point.

Final Verdict

For most small businesses, Fortinet FortiGate is the right NGFW. The security effectiveness is best-in-class for the SMB segment, the total cost of ownership is the lowest among subscription-based NGFWs, and the platform scales as the business grows without requiring a platform migration. The management complexity requires an IT-aware admin or MSP to manage the device correctly — budget for that expertise alongside the hardware and subscription.

For businesses without any IT capability and a need for the simplest possible cloud-managed firewall: Cisco Meraki MX67 is the right choice. You pay more for the simplicity and automatic firmware management, but for a non-technical business owner who cannot hire IT support, the zero-touch management model is worth the premium. The licence expiry behaviour is the one thing to manage diligently.

For micro-businesses or home offices with 1–5 devices that cannot justify ongoing NGFW subscription costs: Firewalla Gold Pro at approximately $489–$509 one-time provides meaningful network security improvement over a consumer router without annual fees.

For everyone: add Cloudflare Gateway for DNS security at zero cost. It takes 8 minutes to configure, covers every device on your network, and stops a category of threats that your NGFW and antivirus handle less efficiently. There is no reason not to do this today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a router and a firewall?

A router directs network traffic — it decides how data packets get from your network to the internet and back. A consumer router includes a basic firewall that allows outbound connections and blocks unsolicited inbound connections. A next-generation firewall does significantly more: it inspects the content of traffic (not just the source and destination), identifies and controls applications, detects and blocks intrusions, filters web content, decrypts and inspects encrypted traffic, and provides detailed logging. Your ISP’s provided router is not a substitute for a business-grade firewall. Use it as a modem and sit a dedicated NGFW behind it.

How do I segment my guest Wi-Fi from my business network?

Guest network segmentation requires VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) configured at both the Wi-Fi access point and the firewall. Your access point creates a separate SSID (Wi-Fi network name) for guests, tagged with a specific VLAN ID. Your firewall or managed switch then applies different security rules to that VLAN — specifically, denying access from the guest VLAN to any internal business resources. Both FortiGate and Cisco Meraki handle this configuration, and most business-grade Wi-Fi access points support VLAN tagging. Consumer-grade routers often include a “guest network” feature that provides some isolation but may not provide complete segmentation from business resources. Verify with your hardware or MSP.

Is DNS filtering worth it for a 10-person business?

Yes, and at zero cost through Cloudflare Gateway, there is no reason to skip it. DNS filtering blocks access to known malicious domains — phishing sites, malware distribution networks, ransomware command-and-control servers — before any connection is made. It works on every device on your network automatically, including devices that can’t run antivirus. The 8-minute setup time for Cloudflare Gateway delivers a protection layer that costs nothing and requires no ongoing management. For a paid option with more reporting depth, Cisco Umbrella Essentials adds detailed visibility into DNS activity across the organisation.

How often should a small business update its firewall firmware?

Whenever the vendor releases an update, ideally within 30 days. Firewall firmware vulnerabilities are among the most commonly exploited entry points in small business breaches — FortiGate and SonicWall both had critical CVEs actively exploited in 2024–2025. Enable automatic firmware updates if your firewall supports it (Cisco Meraki does this automatically; FortiGate has an auto-update option that should be enabled). If you manage firmware updates manually, set a monthly calendar task to check the vendor’s security advisory page and apply any updates rated Critical or High within 30 days of release.

Can my firewall also provide VPN for remote workers?

Yes. All the firewalls reviewed here include VPN server capability. FortiGate’s FortiClient VPN, Cisco Meraki’s Meraki Client VPN, SonicWall’s NetExtender, and Sophos’s Sophos Connect all allow remote employees to establish an encrypted tunnel back to the office network. For businesses with up to 10–15 remote users, firewall-integrated VPN is typically sufficient and is included in the existing hardware and subscription cost. For a business primarily built around remote work rather than a physical office, a dedicated business VPN platform like NordLayer (reviewed in our Business VPN article) may be more appropriate — it provides centralised user management, zero-trust access control, and better support for cloud-native access patterns than a hardware VPN does.

Pricing verified July 2026. Hardware pricing sourced from CDW and manufacturer websites. Security effectiveness data referenced from NSS Labs Enterprise Firewall Group Tests and Centre for Internet Security benchmarks. For government guidance on small business network security, see CISA’s Small Business Cybersecurity Resources.

Related reading on SmallBiz Defense:

• Best Business VPN in 2026: Top 8 Compared for SMBs (Tested)
• Best Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) for Small Business in 2026 (Tested)