We performed a comparison between FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Netgate pfSense 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."The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
"The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The solution has helped our organization secure our network and connect remote sites."
"When I survey FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls."
"The solution’s interface is pretty user-friendly."
"It is a scalable solution."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall is a good solution because it has a range of options and a clear ecosystem."
"The product is easy to configure."
"Routing and reporting are two areas where the product has an added advantage compared to any other product."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"The initial setup was simple and fast."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"Routing, load balancing, Traffic Limiter and queues. Since this company relies on an Internet connection, having these features is a must."
"It is a stable solution."
"The tools' most valuable feature is load balancing."
"The plugins or add-ons are most valuable. Sometimes, they are free of charge, and sometimes, you have to pay for them, but you can purchase or download very valuable plugins or add-ons to perform internal testing of your network and simulate a denial-of-service attack or whichever attack you want to simulate. You can also remote and monitor your network and see where the gap is. Did you forget a printer port? Most attacks at the moment are happening through printers, and they can tell you immediately that you forgot to close the port of the printer. There are more than one million printers that are in danger, and everybody knows that hackers are using them to enter the network. So, you can download plugins to protect your network."
"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 graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"Stability and technical support are the two major issues I have found with Fortinet."
"We would like to see a better training platform implemented."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"The management consoles can be improved."
"Its load balancing feature could be easy to configure."
"Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective."
"There's a limitation wherein you can only have about 30 virtual or secondary IPs on a particular interface."
"The solution's GUI is not very appealing."
"The solution needs to improve its support."
"One area for improvement is the IPS engine."
"The pricing of the solution is expensive, so it could be cheaper."
"The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."
"If a user doesn't have a large amount of experience in Linux systems, they will have problems using this solution. Users need to be highly skilled in troubleshooting competency. Users who do not have such skills will find the product difficult to use."
"pfSense has some limitations in detecting site sessions. We want to control internet usage based on sites and their content, and pfSense doesn't perform this function."
"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."
"The stability could be improved."
"Other solutions provide more scope for growth. For instance, we can have only 10 to 20 employees on VPN, but other solutions can support more users. We also have more capabilities to increase the performance of the solution."
"Adjustment in the interfaces: I had to adjust those interfaces manually and of course that is a great feature that you can restore it but it is immediately also one point for improvement. If you don't have to adjust, if it's just stamped and it works, that's great."
"pfSense is not user-friendly. I hope to have something to make the interfaces more user-friendly."
More FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Pricing and Cost Advice →
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 37 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is rated 8.4, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) writes "Easy to set up but needs better pricing and more helpful support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is most compared with OPNsense, Tailscale, Twingate, Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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