pfSense vs Sophos XG
We performed a comparison between pfSense vs Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"The management console is pretty simple, so anyone who understands networking can initially deploy the solution."
"We can use our devices to check all of the perimeters. It secures email websites."
"There is an easy process for configuring it, and it is straightforward to implement the device from scratch."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"Fortigate's most valuable feature is that it doesn't need a push policy when writing rules."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"The interface is straightforward and easy to use."
"The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use."
"I use pfSense because it gives me the flexibility to greatly expand basic firewall features."
"The documentation is very good."
"It is easy to use and has integrity with other systems, such as proxies and quality of service."
"It is very easy to use. The interface is quite understandable. There is a good community, and I can take over at any time I want. If there is anything wrong with it, I could just reinstall the whole thing and start all over again, and I'll be up again in less than a few minutes"
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"The user authentication rules are very useful."
"I like it for its simplicity. It is very simple to configure and implement. It is a very good product for medium-sized organizations."
"It is feature-rich, I like the server authentication, and the reports are good."
"The VPN feature is the most valuable. It has come in handy during this period when people are working from home. The filtering feature is also valuable because you can easily filter the sites that you don't want to visit. You can also set timely surfing quotas."
"The solution is very easy to use and straightforward."
"The product has all the latest features."
"Because of the pandemic, the VPN is the most valuable feature."
"I like the tunneling part which we are using for the VOIP. We have various other sites where we connect via tunneling. The tunneling part is very fast and easy to implement."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"The biggest "gotcha" is that if the client purchases what they call the UTM shared bundle, which has unified threat management on both, it's not as easy to manage if you have more than one firewall."
"The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement."
"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."
"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"The GUI could use improvements, though it is manageable."
"Layer 7 advanced firewall features are not included in the solution."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"The product could offer more integrated plugins."
"pfSense could improve by having a sandboxing feature that I have seen in SonicWall. However, maybe it is available I am not aware of it."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"The training manual provided to users lacks proper guidance on configuration procedures."
"Their support is fairly good, and they come back to me. I've had an issue once or twice where I couldn't understand what the support person was saying because those calls were probably routed to India. They were a bit difficult to understand, but it is generally not an issue."
"The manuals or guides we are given are too simple. When we are implementing the product, it is difficult for us as we don't have more detailed information."
"The VPN device could be improved upon."
"Their technical support needs improvement. I've been on hold with them for hours waiting for their support."
"Scalability it is a bit limited. We did a sizing exercise before the purchase. But that was just to fit our current needs. There was no room for having an option to upgrade the device. The only option that we have if we are grow in the near future, is to go for another model with higher specs, which is actually more expensive. In other words it doesn't have that modularity ."
"The support engineers of the product are not very tech-savvy, making it an area where improvements are required."
"The main problem with Sophos XG today is that it doesn't have a feature where you actually know the quality of an international link, which would allow us to we know if the link is operational or not. We need more information. It's losing packets on the network. It's high latency. So, we need more information to know if the link is really bad or really good, and today, we will only know if it's working and this just isn't enough."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, KerioControl, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX and Sophos UTM. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XG report.
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