We performed a comparison between Hillstone E-Series and Netgate pfSense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"We can use our devices to check all of the perimeters. It secures email websites."
"The pipe filter application is an outstanding feature."
"Allows for firewall rules to be programmed and named in a way that makes it “readable”"
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"We purchased Fortinet because of the pricing, its functionality, because it met our requirements, and the total cost of ownership over five years was quite reasonable. In the market, Fortinet is rated quite well."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"I am impressed with the application filtering feature."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"Five out of five ROI."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"Is good at blocking IP addresses."
"The documentation is very good."
"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"Good basic firewall features."
"The built-in open VPN and the VPN Client Export are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections."
"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"I think there could be more QoS features"
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"The current usage reporting is very basic."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"The configuration of the solution is a bit difficult."
"In terms of areas of improvement, the interface seemed like it had a lot. The GUI interface that I had gotten into was rather elaborate. I don't know if they could zero in on some markets and potentially for small, medium businesses specifically, give them a stripped-down version of the GUI for pfSense."
"I believe improving integration with various antivirus vendors could be beneficial."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"The solution could improve by having centralized management and API support online."
"The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
"The product could offer more integrated plugins."
"It needs to be more secure."
Hillstone E-Series is ranked 33rd in Firewalls with 9 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Hillstone E-Series is rated 9.0, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Hillstone E-Series writes "A user-friendly and marketable solution with a virtual switching capability". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Hillstone E-Series is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, OpenVPN Access Server, Sangfor SSL VPN and Meraki MX, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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