Being a not-for-profit hosting provider (specifically for Christian churches and ministries) who has utilized a few of the open source and even closed-source firewall and routing products including Cisco, Juniper and even the open source product Vyatta (which is awesome but thusfare cannot compare to Cobia) I can personally tell you the differences:

Cisco - Cisco provides an excellent product - however they are Expensive. Cisco is a for profit organization whose focus is on training, certifications, and of course the bottom line. They have teams of people who train people to offer services at an expensive cost - and of course deliver a great product. Great but costly.

Juniper - basically in the same class as Cisco.

Vyatta - a product I have recently grown to love - is much like Cobia with a few differences. The VPN module is costly, free support is almost non-existant (mailing list support exists - but not good imho) however you have to pay out the Wazoo for support from a live person.

Cobia - Cobia begins with people. the StillSecure organization understands that people make the difference. They are not as concerned with building a customer base as they are ensuring their customer base is satisfied. Their people understand and realize that the people of their base - are dealing with people.

The Cobia platform is open source software and operates on commercial off-the-shelf x86 hardware (just like the PC your most likely using - or the server you have sitting around collecting dust…) The product includes many modules such as the XORP router, full (Transparent) firewall, DHCP server and more.

Cobia @ present does not include the VPN plugin - however since this is based on Linux - you could build this into the system if needed.

Cobia also @ present does not include the Strataguard plugin however in speaking with the company today I was told the system will be free for a 5mbps connection. If you need something faster you will need to spend a little bit of cash…

Today I had the occasion to contact StillSecure to ask a few key questions - one being about the Transparent Firewall… the response I recieved was awesome. 3 different parties touched base to make sure my questions were answered - on a product that costs …. $ FREE

It is odd that you find a company that is dedicated to providing support, who provide a great software platform, with dedicated people to support that platform.

This company reminds me much of cPanel - and is much like what many churches should be like - They are focused on the Mission vs the Mortar. The philosophy of this organization is one that I can follow -

Their sales associates are called Evangelists ! Imagine that - a company who calls their sales folks Evangelists.
and to think - we in the church sometimes run away from that… enomiker as if its damaging…

Their philosophy is to offer the best product - and in turn people will pay for support over and above what they cannot get for free.

One last note - In speaking with the CTO - Mitchell Ashley - I found that he is a dedicated Christian - focused on providing a great product, great support, modeled after how he as a Christian (Methodist) should live.