Comparison conclusions:
pfSense offers paid options for additional support and features (pfSense Plus), a wider range of features and a larger community, but might have a steeper learning curve.
OPNsense provides a clean interface and built-in security features, but its community and documentation are smaller
The summary above is based on 40 interviews we conducted with pfSense and OPNsense users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"Our security improved from being able to put in rules and close off unwanted traffic."
"Customers are more inclined towards FortiGate because of application control, web filtering, and anti-spam features. The support from the FortiGate team is good, and price-wise, it is affordable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the analytics."
"We can use our devices to check all of the perimeters. It secures email websites."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."
"The initial setup is easy."
"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."
"I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection."
"An incomparable stability is achieved with other firewall systems."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"The documentation is very good."
"This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are the reports, monitoring, filtration, and blocking incoming and outgoing traffic."
"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"The solution has high availability."
"OPNsense is easy to use and open source."
"The technical support is very good."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost."
"Fortinet could improve the windows opener or the virtual IP solutions for opening windows. The virtual IP settings need improvement as firewalls are trending in new development directions."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
"A way to clean squid cache from the GUI."
"I have been using WireGuard VPN because it is a lot faster and more secure than an open VPN. However, in the latest version of pfSense, they have removed this feature, which is one of the main features that I need. They should include this feature."
"The stability could be improved."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"The product could offer more integrated plugins."
"The main problem with pfSense is that we have to use proxy solutions."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"The user interface can be improved to make it easier to add more features. And pfSense could be better integrated with other solutions, like antivirus."
"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the Insight or the NetFlow analysis part. It would be good to have the possibility to dig down on the Insight platform. Right now, we can easily do only a few analyses. If this page becomes more powerful, it surely will be a well-adopted platform."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"While they do have paid options that actually gives better features, for most of the clients, if they tend to take a paid option will instead opt for Fortinet."
"The solution would not be suitable for anything large-scale."
"There is room for improvement in SSL inspection."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while OPNsense is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". On the other hand, the top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Robust network security and management offering a user-friendly interface, open-source flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, with challenges regarding initial setup and the absence of official support". Netgate pfSense is most compared with Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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