We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos XGS 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."It is a one box solution, which covers most of the edge device’s requirements."
"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"Good performance, stability, and virtual domain ability."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"This solution has helped our organization by protecting our network from attacks."
"I especially like the VPN part. It works like a charm."
"It is very easy to use. The interface is quite understandable. There is a good community, and I can take over at any time I want. If there is anything wrong with it, I could just reinstall the whole thing and start all over again, and I'll be up again in less than a few minutes"
"Technical support is perfect, excellent."
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"Good basic firewall features."
"What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service."
"The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well."
"Sophos XGS is profound as a firewall and security product."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features in Sophos XGS are identity and VPN. It is a very good solution that is able to detect and prevent a lot of malicious activity."
"We are happy and satisfied with all the features."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS are a set of functionalities that are quite commendable, they call it synchronized security, where all the solutions share defense lines with each other."
"The scalability of Sophos XGS is very good."
"It's very easy to manage this solution."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"One of the features that I would like to have is to do with endpoint production, it should be integrated. For example, the firewall gets notified of any kind of forensic event that needs to be done, such as if there is a ransomware attack and how it originated, all those records have to be available from the firewall, which is not."
"A lack of integration between our data centers."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"The cloud management and automation capability could be improved."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"Backup can be improved."
"The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"Improve analysis of logs and dashboards (control panel) with improved alert functionality."
"The product could offer more integrated plugins."
"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."
"There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC."
"Needs services on additional features, such as managing inventory and generating reports."
"They need intelligent reporting, not just your simple, standard reports."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"I recommend Sophos increase the user capacity of the firewall by 1.5 times. For example, say the firewall can accommodate 1,000 users now, then it should handle a load of 1,500 users."
"Sophos XGS could improve the automation system. It could be better if there was some level of automation, attacks automation, meaning if this happens, then it automatically executes a particular process."
"In the new release 19, there should be the implementation of a cloud service that you can use to set up the IPSec tunnels, and the SD-WAN from the WAN dashboard, and then you can push that configuration out to every firewall that you have."
"The customer service response time can be improved."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory."
"Sophos configurations are a bit complex."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 59 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. 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 Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XGS report.
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