We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Sophos XG’s single pane of glass makes it easy for users to manage the entire solution from anywhere. The solution is very light, stable, and provides excellent real-time control. Users feel OPNsense is not a good product for medium to large businesses, as it has some very limited features and needs better reporting and documentation.
"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."
"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."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."
"It has improved our organization with control data."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"It's open source."
"The technical support is very good."
"What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it. I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable."
"The DNS-level filtering is impressive for thwarting time scanners."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The most useful aspect of the solution is the concept of integrated security."
"The two most valuable feature of Sophos XG is, one the option to filter according to different applications and two, the integration with the Active Directory."
"In my experience, the solution was easy to use, has lots of features, and is easy to configure."
"The security of Sophos XG is very good."
"Over the past two years, during the COVID pandemic, the VPN has helped us a lot."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is flexibility."
"It's a complete firewall solution that has everything."
"The solution was able to be integrated well with exciting hardware and software and in multiple business sectors."
"The solution is very expensive."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"We would like to see a better training platform implemented."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"I use the FortiGate 60D model and realized the 300Mbps bandwidth limitation. Because it is a product that offers many services, I think it could have greater bandwidth capacity."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
"The reporting part could be better."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."
"The scalability needs improvement."
"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."
"Support could be improved."
"Sophos XG could improve the connectivity with Microsoft 365 or Azure Active Directory(AD). It doesn't work directly as other solutions do, such as Fortinet FortiGate. The client needs a separate AD server which is a problem."
"Data traffic analysis could be better. I think Fortinet products like FortiAnalyzer are very effective in analyzing data traffic. I think it's better than Sophos. It could also be more stable."
"It would be helpful if they had a set of standard templates because it would assist in the beginning, when you are just getting started."
"The two main areas where this product needs improvement are routing and reporting."
"The pricing has gotten much higher."
"They need to allow their solution to integrate with other products and not just other Sophos solutions."
"Sophos XG could improve Data Loss Prevention(DLP)."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX and Sophos UTM. See our OPNsense vs. Sophos XG report.
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We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.