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Small businesses face a growing number of cyber threats. According to the Harvard Business Review, 83% of companies experienced more than one data breach. Chances are you've definitely heard of some of the biggest breaches, like Target and Sony. Major hacks are even plotlines in popular TV shows, like The Morning Show on Apple!
The cost of these breaches in the United States averaged $9.44 million, which includes everything from paying ransoms to lost revenues and business downtime.1 Unfortunately, cyber attacks are only increasing in frequency and impact, so investing in a reliable small business firewall is crucial.
I'll break down top firewall services in this best small business firewall review and answer common questions.
As a fellow small business owner, I'll give you what you need to know to prevent cyber attacks, secure sensitive data, and protect your business from potential financial and reputational damage.
Table of Contents
Best Small Business Firewall / Best Firewall for Small Business
- Perimeter 81 – Best Overall
- AWS Firewall Manager – Best Value
- Comodo – Best Free Option
Perimeter 81
When it comes to choosing the best firewall solution for your small business, Perimeter 81 stands out as the number one choice. With its comprehensive features and robust security capabilities, it offers unmatched protection against cyber threats, making it the go-to option for small businesses.
With Perimeter 81, you can ensure the security of your internal network and remote workers, which is key in this environment where many small businesses employ remote contractors or employees!
I like Perimeter 81’s advanced features, such as centralized management and application control that allow you to monitor and control your network traffic effectively. This ensures your business stays protected from malicious attacks and unauthorized access.
As a heads-up, Perimeter 81 was recently bought by Check Point, a huge cybersecurity company, for around half a billion dollars. Check Point is no joke. They’re global and have approximately 6,000 employees.
If a corporation like Check Point believes in Perimeter 81 so much, they put their money where their mouth is, I definitely feel super confident in their firewall and security solutions.
One of the standout benefits of Perimeter 81 is its ability to provide secure access to your network from anywhere. This is particularly crucial in today's remote work environment, where businesses need to ensure their employees can securely connect to company resources. With Perimeter 81, you can confidently enable remote work without compromising security.
Additionally, Perimeter 81 offers advanced threat protection, preventing malware infections and detecting and blocking malicious traffic. Its next-generation firewall capabilities, including intrusion prevention and deep packet inspection, provide an extra layer of security against cyber threats. Basically, everyone loves Perimeter 81 because it provides a lot of the best capabilities of more expensive firewall software at a fraction of the price – win-win!
Top 5 Benefits of Perimeter 81
1 – Feel Safe Allowing Remote Connections – With Perimeter 81, small businesses can provide secure access to their network from anywhere. This is particularly important in today's remote work environment, where employees need to connect to company resources from various locations.
2 – Safeguards Against Current and Future Threats – Protection against cyber threats is paramount for small businesses. Perimeter 81 offers advanced threat protection, safeguarding your network from malware infections and blocking malicious traffic. Cloud VPNs encrypt all transmitted data, and all data is encrypted with bank-level 256-bit AES encryption. In other words, Perimeter 81 adds an extra layer of security and helps defend against evolving cyber threats.
3 – Respond Faster to Threats – Effectively monitoring and controlling network traffic is essential to ensure the security of a small business. Perimeter 81 provides centralized management, allowing businesses full visibility and control over their network. This enables administrators to detect and respond to potential threats promptly and efficiently. Time is money, and the faster you can deal with a hack, the faster you and your team can get back to work!
4 – Trusted by Renowned Companies – Perimeter 81 has gained the trust of renowned companies like 23andMe, Headspace and more for their network security needs. This recognition speaks to the software's reliability and effectiveness in protecting businesses from cyber threats. By choosing Perimeter 81, small businesses can leverage the same level of security trusted by industry leaders.
5 – Never Worry About the Integrity of Your Network – Perimeter 81 offers next-generation firewall capabilities, providing enhanced security features such as application control and deep packet inspection. This helps businesses defend against advanced cyber-attacks and maintain the integrity of their network.
All of these benefits and more is why Perimeter 81 makes it to the top of our best small business firewall review.
Pricing for Perimeter 81
Pricing for Perimeter 81‘s firewall solution offers small businesses the flexibility to choose a plan that fits their budget. While exact pricing may vary depending on specific needs and requirements, Perimeter 81 offers affordable plans starting from a range of $8 a month if paid annually to $16/mo and up for Enterprise options. For being at the top of our best small business firewall review, these prices are incredibly reasonable!
All Perimeter 81 plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, plus you can request a demo to see how the service works in real-time.
Take a look at the video below to see how Perimeter 81 protects your business from malware:
Protect your business with Perimeter 81.
| Pros | Cons |
| Secure remote access, meaning your team can work from anywhere | Easy to install and set up, but you'll need someone to manage access, group assignments, and user permissions |
| Ability to integrate with other access management products is a plus | May have too many choices – Perimeter 81 goes beyond the standard firewall services and offers cloud services, encryption, management and more |
| Network segmentation means you can isolate threats and treat them by section. Other unaffected teams on your network will never even notice! |
Get started with Perimeter 81 today!
AWS Firewall Manager
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Firewall Manager is a security management service. It is designed to simplify configuring and managing firewall rules and policies across multiple AWS accounts and resources within those accounts.
The AWS Firewall Manager ranks as a good value on our best small business firewall review because hey – it's Amazon! Amazon is renowned for its web services, which are used by some of the biggest companies in the world, like the global energy solutions business Engie.
AWS Firewall Manager simplifies and centralizes the management of firewall rules and security policies for your AWS resources. It's a valuable tool for organizations with complex AWS infrastructures or multiple AWS accounts, as it helps ensure consistent security and compliance across all resources while simplifying administration and monitoring. The AWS suite also offers dozens of add-ons, so if you really want to integrate with Amazon, this is a good option.
Top 5 Benefits of AWS Firewall Manager
1 – Feel Safe Against Current and Future Threats – AWS Firewall Manager offers advanced threat protection measures to safeguard small businesses against cyber threats. Its robust security features, including deep packet inspection and intrusion prevention, effectively identify and block malicious traffic, ensuring enhanced security for the organization. This is pretty straightforward on how it saves you money – blocking malicious traffic should be at the top of your list for keeping your business going!
2 – Manage From Anywhere – AWS Firewall Manager provides centralized security management for your company. Instead of separate security policies for each account and resource, you can manage them all from a single location. This saves you time (and time is money!) when setting up security rules.
3 – Easily Integrate with Any Other Amazon Program – AWS Firewall Manager integrates with other AWS security services like AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) and AWS Shield, enhancing your protection against web application threats and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. It's pretty handy to have everything connected by Amazon's powerful network, and you know a company like Amazon works hard to make sure it protects all of the major companies that use it!
4 – Seamless Remote Work – The firewall solution ensures secure connectivity for remote workers, enabling them to access business resources and applications securely from anywhere. This feature is particularly valuable in today's remote work culture, facilitating productivity and maintaining the security of sensitive data.
5 – Easily Manage Audit and Compliance Reporting – AWS Firewall Manager enables you to monitor and report on rule compliance and security events across your AWS accounts, helping you maintain a secure and compliant environment. Let's face it: if a security audit happens, you want all of your compliance information easy to access, and AWS Firewall Manager provides that.
To experience the benefits of AWS Firewall Manager firsthand, check out the screenshot below showcasing the solution's centralized monitoring feature:
AWS Firewall Manager makes it onto our list because of its value, all thanks to its extremely generous 12-month free trial. If you decide to go with AWS after the trial, your price will increase, but AWS gives you plenty of time to figure out and test to see if AWS is best for you.
Pricing for AWS Firewall Manager
Pricing for AWS Firewall Manager ranges depending on your small business's specific needs and requirements. If you only need the Firewall Manager, you will pay $100 per policy per region. The prices change depending on what additional programs you need, like API Gateways, coding, analytics, which are all part of the AWS suite.
However, AWS Firewall Manager offers a 12-month free trial, so if you're on the fence about this best small business firewall review option, sign up today for the free trial!
Take a look at the video below to see how AWS Firewall Manager works:
| Pros | Cons |
| AWS Firewall Manager provides a centralized platform for configuring and managing security policies across multiple AWS accounts and resources. This is really helpful if your small business already uses Amazon products and services. | The AWS ecosystem can be complex, especially for smaller businesses. If you're not integrated into the AWS system, it might be a steep learning curve. |
| AWS Firewall Manager seamlessly integrates with AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF) and AWS Shield, enhancing protection against web-based threats and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. These additional layers can keep your small business secure. | AWS adds up! While this is at the top of our list of the best small business firewall review, it comes at a cost, and it only gets more expensive the more you add on. |
| AWS Firewall Manager provides features and controls that help organizations maintain compliance with security policies and industry regulations. This is particularly beneficial for businesses operating in regulated industries, such as healthcare or finance, where strict security and compliance measures are essential. |
Comodo
When it comes to protecting your small business from cyber threats, Comodo Firewall emerges as top three on our best small business firewall review. This robust firewall solution offers a comprehensive set of advanced features that provide reliable security for your network. Best of all? You can get it all for FREE!
In 2022, CNET named Comodo Firewall as Editor's Choice for the top-rated firewall management application.5
One unique feature of Comodo Firewall is its sandbox facility, which can run new software and applications before deploying them to your networks. This is great for you and/or your team to test out network security before deploying a new application to your team at large.
Top 5 Benefits of Comodo
1 – Protection Against Malware Threats, Even When You’re Sleeping! – Comodo Firewall offers advanced threat protection features such as intrusion prevention. These capabilities help safeguard your small business network by detecting and blocking malicious traffic, ensuring your internal network remains secure.
2 – Easily Manage Employee/Contractor Access – With the increase in remote work, it is crucial to have a firewall solution that can manage and secure remote workers and their devices. Comodo Firewall provides application control and URL filtering, allowing you to define and manage access rights. This feature ensures remote workers can securely connect to your network without compromising security.
3 – Feel Safe Knowing Your Company is Protected from Malicious Websites – Protecting your small business from malware infections is paramount. Comodo Firewall offers robust malware protection and content filtering. It actively blocks access to potentially harmful websites, reducing the risk of malware infection and keeping your network safe from malicious software.
4 – Test Out Risky Applications Safely – Your team can run new applications and programs in Comodo's sandbox feature, which is a great way to try out new software without any threats to your network and team at large. This is great for small businesses that regularly download new applications, need to vet apps from freelancers, and more.
5 – Free! – While Comodo does offer a more robust paid feature, Comodo still scores highly with its free firewall manager too. You can't beat free!
Pricing for Comodo
Did I mention Comodo is free? Yes, that's right, there is a FREE option on our best small business firewall review – and it's Comodo Firewall!
If you'd like to upgrade to the paid version of Comodo, which includes full anti-virus protection, you can do so for $29.99 for one PC. Get 3 PCs covered by Comodo for only $39.99.
On G2, a site that reviews various software products, a small business owner reviewed Comodo and said Comodo was a great option if you need an affordable firewall manager, and praised Comodo's customer support. (6)
Take a look at the video below to see how Comodo works in real time:
| Pros | Cons |
| Free is pretty great, especially for small businesses. Plus, Comodo is effective, so free + effective is unbeatable. | PC only – if anyone on your team uses Apple products, Comodo will not work for them! |
| Sandbox features allow your small business to test applications and programs first before deploying them to the full team. | Reviewers have described Comodo as ‘vocal', and it can get a little overzealous in identifying malware, even if something is not actually malware. |
| Lightweight firewall manager. Comodo uses minimal computer resources, which is good if you have remote workers whose PCs aren't super robust. |
Common Questions About Small Business Firewalls
What is The Best Small Business Firewall?
When it comes to small business firewalls, one standout option is Perimeter 81. With its advanced features and robust security capabilities, Perimeter 81 offers top-notch protection for your business's network.
In addition to its firewall capabilities, Perimeter 81 also offers advanced features like centralized management, private VPNs, and protection against malware, among many other security features. Best of all, Perimeter 81 offers four different pricing tiers, making it accessible even to small businesses.
Firewall Providers?
Our top recommendations for firewall providers are:
- Perimeter 81 – overall best in class for small businesses in our best small business firewall review
- AWS Firewall Manager – best value for businesses who are connected to the Amazon ecosystem
- Comodo – best free option that provides a lot of bang for little bucks!
Best Firewall Router for Small Business?
Perimeter 81 is the best firewall router for small businesses. It offers secure remote access, advanced threat protection, centralized management and is trusted by thousands of companies, big and small. It's also reasonably priced, offering four different tiers to grow as your business grows.
How Do I Choose a Firewall for My Small Business?
When choosing a firewall for your small business, consider features like application control, content filtering, and intrusion prevention to protect against cyber threats. Look for solutions that offer centralized management, advanced threat protection, and deep packet inspection. Choose a firewall that fits your budget and technical knowledge, whether it's a hardware or software firewall. Popular options include Perimeter 81, AWS Firewall Manager, and Comodo.
How Much Does a Firewall Cost for a Small Business?
The cost of a firewall for a small business can vary depending on the specific needs and requirements. However, it is important to consider the upfront costs as well as the ongoing expenses.
Free options like Comodo are pretty straightforward – they're free! Prices increase from there, from $8/mo paid annually for the smallest tier on Perimeter 81, to $100 for AWS Firewall Manager.
Do Small Businesses Need a Hardware Firewall?
Do small businesses really need a hardware firewall? Absolutely! With the increasing number of cyber threats, protecting your internal network is crucial. While hardware firewalls may require upfront costs, they offer greater security capabilities and centralized management, making them an essential investment for small businesses. We recommend Perimeter 81 as the overall best small business firewall for small businesses, but you can also Comodo, which is free.
Best Firewall Hardware for Small Business?
Perimeter 81 is the best overall firewall manager for small businesses because it offers next generation firewall capabilities, in addition to its anti-malware features, centralized management, and more. The key to choosing the best firewall hardware for your small business centers on security layers – the more layers you have, and the more secure they are, the more secure your business is. Firewalls are one additional security layer for your business.
Small Business Firewall With VPN?
Perimeter 81 is a solid choice if you're looking for a small business firewall with VPN, as a key component of Perimeter 81 is advanced threat protection. Perimeter 81 has Cloud VPNs that encrypt all transmitted data, which is encrypted with bank-level 256-bit AES encryption. In other words: it's another extra layer of security for your business!
Best Firewall for Small Business Reddit?
On Reddit, users discussed how security for small businesses is no longer prohibitively expensive and is crucial nowadays. One Reddit user highlighted Perimeter 81 in particular for offering cloud firewalls and noted Perimeter 81 is particularly good for small businesses with fewer users that don't want to spend a ton of money for top-tier firewall managers.7
For free firewall manager options, Reddit users said Comodo was a good option for firewall protection as well as its whitelist capabilities and flexibility for a variety of settings.8
Best Small Business Firewall / Best Firewall for Small Business
- Perimeter 81 – Best Overall
- AWS Firewall Manager – Best Value
- Comodo – Best Free Option
Sources:
1 – https://hbr.org/2023/05/the-devastating-business-impacts-of-a-cyber-breach
2 – https://www.perimeter81.com/solutions/role/small-business-owners
3 – https://www.perimeter81.com/solutions/role/small-business-owners
4 – https://www.perimeter81.com/solutions/role/small-business-owners
5 – https://personalfirewall.comodo.com/#_ga=2.199891118.1473830738.1696867346-1218920011.1696524814
6 – https://www.g2.com/products/comodo-firewall/reviews?utf8=%E2%9C%93&order=most_recent#survey-response-4948277
7 – https://www.reddit.com/r/msp/comments/y5pa76/msp_friendly_firewalls_for_small_businesses/
8 – https://www.reddit.com/r/antivirus/comments/rtfos3/best_firewall/
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