We performed a comparison between pfSense and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: pfSense offers valuable features such as IP address blocking, user-friendly dashboards, scanning and filtering capabilities, stability, customization abilities, and cost-effectiveness. SonicWall TZ provides unified threat management, VPN capabilities, web security, a user-friendly interface, simplicity, stability, performance, content filtering, and additional features.
pfSense users have suggested the need for instructional videos for beginners, a clearer web interface, improved stability, a mobile application, enhanced reporting, and better integration with other solutions. Users of SonicWall TZ have pointed out improvements that are needed in rated throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, integration and flexibility, marketing and branding, reporting and licensing, additional ports, affordability and competition, UI application and policy synchronization, technical support and VPN connections, and pricing.
Service and Support: Some users of pfSense have appreciated the technical support, while others have sought help from the online community. SonicWall TZ has garnered both positive and negative feedback. While some customers have found the support to be satisfactory, others have encountered delays and language barriers.
Ease of Deployment: Users generally find the initial setup of pfSense to be straightforward and easy, with a simple installation process. However, they express the need for clearer guidance or a configuration wizard. The initial setup for SonicWall TZ is considered intuitive and not overly complex, with a smooth out-of-the-box process.
Pricing: The cost of setting up pfSense is affordable and requires no extra charges for firmware updates. Opinions on SonicWall TZ's pricing are divided, with some deeming it cost-effective for medium-sized businesses, while others perceive it as pricey and lacking competitiveness.
ROI: pfSense provides a budget-friendly option with a low yearly cost and substantial hardware savings, leading to a considerable ROI. SonicWall TZ is suggested for improved efficacy and is seen as an essential element for safeguarding the network.
Comparison Results: pfSense is the preferred option when comparing it to SonicWall TZ. Users appreciate pfSense's easy-to-use dashboards, its open-source nature, and its capability to block IP addresses. They find it affordable, customizable, and effective in preventing attacks.
"The security features are about the best that I've seen anywhere."
"It's an easy solution to set up."
"The product offers very good security."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"I am "headache free" that I don't have to categorize all the websites and that security has been pre categorized by the people, and that the services are getting updated. At least one part of my problem is over."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"The GUI is good."
"It's great for capturing the traffic and troubleshooting it."
"At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections."
"The solution is very easy to use and configure."
"I had some outages in the network and we provide services for our company. We sell mobile credits. The terminal gets access to our own server inside the network and if one internet fails, then the other one is still up and we have a back-up link on the devices."
"A free firewall that is a good network security appliance."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"My company mainly works in the health and educational domain, schools and universities. I prevent the improper use of content from schools and universities. I defend the medical records for the patients in our hospitals. That is the main use case for me for the firewall."
"It is effective. We have not had any problems."
"SonicWall TZ is a stable product."
"It's been very easy to implement and deploy."
"The solution's VPN is very good for stability and detecting threats."
"It's a very cost-effective solution."
"It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access."
"The most valuable feature is the user-friendly navigation."
"Good VPN connection."
"Content filtering and application rules are the most valuable features. It is also easy to configure."
"The search tool needs improvement. It's very difficult to search for policies right now."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"The integration with third-party tools may be something that they should work on."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"This product could be improved with Active directory integration and better handling in IPsec and GRE Tunnels."
"Bandwidth usage in reporting could be improved for Fortinet FortiGate."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"The technical support needs to be improved."
"As an open-source solution, there are so many loopholes happening within the product. By design, no one is taking ownership of it, and that is worrisome to me."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The hotspot and the portal feature in this solution are not stable for WiFi access. We use it at least once or twice every day and it crashes. Some modules can be better by improving detection and having new updates. Additionally, we have some issues with clustering and load balancing that could improve."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
"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."
"I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
"We would like to improve the rules configuration in SonicWall TZ. Sometimes the rules don't work."
"The small business line has less PPS throughput."
"I would like to see lower antivirus pricing."
"The marketing of SonicWall has to be increased. Currently, when it comes to firewalls, most people go for Cisco and Palo Alto. SonicWall should improve its marketing and branding policies to increase sales. Other than that, it is good."
"SonicWall TZ can improve the UI application and when you create any net policies or any new policy, it will not sync or work properly."
"Sometimes there is a glitch between the network connection. Last time, something happened on our IP phone, the SonicWall team did some updates to fix the issue. However, glitches happen very rarely. I did not experience any other types of problems."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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 SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Untangle NG Firewall, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa, WatchGuard Firebox and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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Just purchase an anti-spam license and activate it at the SonicWall license portal.
I would like to recommend you SONICWALL HOSTED EMAIL SECURITY ADVANCED. It is more helpful and if you are using Office365 or GSuite, go for SonicWall Cloud App Security.
It is more powerful.
Hi, for SonicWall you buy a license and on the same firewall you can activate the antispam only in the ingress mode.
But there is a catch, at the moment they don't support TLS for SMTP so I would recommend their other solution, that has email security for appliance and virtualized on VMware or Hyper-V.