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Cisco Firepower

Cisco's next-generation firewall with Talos threat intelligence and deep network infrastructure integration

ToolFirewall & NGFWCloud, Self-hosted

Pricing: Custom pricing; contact the vendor.

Reviewed by the Cyber Vendor Guide editorial team against the public sources cited below · Last reviewed February 2026 · How we review listings

What is Cisco Firepower?

Cisco Firepower (now part of the Cisco Secure Firewall family) is Cisco's next-generation firewall platform that combines traditional firewall capabilities with advanced threat detection powered by Cisco Talos threat intelligence. Firepower integrates IPS, malware defense, URL filtering, and application visibility into a unified platform managed through Firewall Management Center (FMC). As part of Cisco's broader security portfolio, Firepower benefits from deep integration with Cisco networking infrastructure, SecureX platform, and the Talos threat research team.

Best for: Cisco-centric enterprises that want firewall security deeply integrated with their existing Cisco switching, routing, and SD-WAN infrastructure

Pros

  • Deep integration with Cisco networking infrastructure and ISE for identity-based policies
  • Talos threat intelligence provides one of the largest commercial threat research teams
  • Encrypted Visibility Engine can classify encrypted traffic without full decryption
  • Snort 3 IPS engine is highly customizable for security researchers
  • Broad government and compliance certifications (FIPS, Common Criteria, USGv6)

Things to check

  • Firewall Management Center interface is complex and can be unintuitive
  • Historical platform transitions (ASA to Firepower to Secure Firewall) cause confusion
  • Performance can degrade significantly when multiple inspection engines are enabled
  • Licensing complexity rivals or exceeds Palo Alto's subscription model
  • Migration from legacy ASA configurations to FTD can be time-consuming

Reported in public reviews and vendor documentation. See sources below.

Key Features

Cisco Talos threat intelligence with real-time threat updates
Snort 3 IPS engine with customizable detection rules
Encrypted Visibility Engine for inspecting encrypted traffic without decryption
Firewall Management Center (FMC) for centralized policy management
Integration with Cisco SecureX for cross-platform security orchestration
Application Visibility and Control (AVC)
Cisco Secure Malware Analytics (formerly Threat Grid) sandboxing
Cisco Secure Dynamic Multicloud Firewall for AWS and Azure

Do you work at Cisco Firepower? to confirm the details or send us a correction.

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Cisco Firepower Comparisons

Sources & references

Where the information on this listing comes from. Always verify pricing and capabilities against the vendor before a purchasing decision.

Spot an error, or do you represent Cisco Firepower? Request a correction.

Key facts

Pricing
Custom pricing; contact the vendor.
Model
Appliance purchase + annual per-feature subscription licenses
Founded
1984
Cloud
Yes
Self-hosted
Yes
Visit website

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Where Cisco Firepower appears

Guides

Shortlists

Certifications

FIPS 140-2, Common Criteria