Beyond the obvious, a hardware firewall is installed between the network and the internet and provides comprehensive protection against outside threats. However, these are difficult to install requiring expert IT staff to do so.
Software firewalls are more user-friendly to install, as no physical devices or cabling are required. They can be installed on existing virtualised infrastructure, minimising the time, effort and maintenance requirement to provide the organisation with a complete customisable firewall configuration which can also protect on a per-device or per-application level.
Because a hardware firewall can be seen as a perimeter fence, if it is breached the entire network is compromised while a software firewall protects devices and applications individually.