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.
"It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"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 are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"The solution is stable."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The scalability is good in Fortinet FortiGate."
"At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"A free firewall that is a good network security appliance."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"Technical support is perfect, excellent."
"I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The VPN server feature is the most valuable. It is integrated with Radius and AAA for doing accounting and authentication. Insight view is also an important feature for me at this time. It allows me to assess our network traffic. I also like the firewall feature. The BSD kernel has a packet filter. It is one of the most solid frameworks for firewalls. Its user interface is one of the best interfaces I have used."
"The IDS and IPS features are valuable. From the usability perspective, there is a lot of good documentation. As IT professionals, we found it very easy to configure the firewall. It was easy to configure and use."
"We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience."
"The feature I find most valuable, is that the program helped me to realize all the requested functionality that was needed."
"It is a very good solution. I like the dashboard. I can see what is going on and manage it as I like it."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"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 could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."
"The visibility of the network can be better. The GUI can be improved for better visibility of the network flow. Other solutions have better GUI in terms of network visibility."
"Backup can be improved."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."
"Lacks training for new features."
"The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future."
"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."
"The technical support needs to be improved."
"My only observation is about the quality of the IPSec logs, which are difficult to interpret and are poor in filters."
"The stability could be improved."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The integration could be improved."
"It is not centrally managed, where you log into the website and can see all your services there. We would like to be able to see is all the configurations from a central interface on all our pfSenses."
"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."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"The interface isn't so friendly user. But we have some technicians here who are quite confident with this tool. OPNSense could maybe add sets of rules so it's simpler to manage different groups with particular needs."
"I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
"The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly."
"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."
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, KerioControl, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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