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.
"Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"The concurrent users are perfect for us."
"Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco."
"I am happy with the EPLS, the radius, and I am happy with the captive portal."
"Its scalability is a strong point."
"pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information."
"The tools' most valuable feature is load balancing."
"We've found the stability to be very good overall."
"The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets."
"I have found the solution has some great features overall, such as guest access capabilities, dashboards, and ease of use. There is plenty of documentation and support and it has the plugins that I needed."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings."
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"We have been operating here in our lab for several months, and everything appears to be extremely stable."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"It's more secure and more reliable."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"Its customer service could be better."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"I would like to see improvements in the support from Fortinet. Here in the Philippines, whenever we have problems with a Fortinet product, we mostly ask for support from distributors and resellers and not directly from Fortinet."
"This product could be improved with Active directory integration and better handling in IPsec and GRE Tunnels."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"The integration should be improved."
"We are at the moment looking to use it as a proxy service so that we can limit what websites people go and view and that sort of thing. That's an area I've struggled with a little bit at the moment and it could be a bit easier to set up."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
"Layer 7 advanced firewall features are not included in the solution."
"pfSense is not user-friendly. I hope to have something to make the interfaces more user-friendly."
"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."
"The solution would not be suitable for anything large-scale."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
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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