We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos XGS 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 solution is extremely reliable."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"The solution is stable."
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product."
"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
"This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution."
"The solution is very robust."
"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."
"The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice. It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall."
"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."
"The tools' most valuable feature is load balancing."
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"Its reliability and cost-effectiveness stand out."
"The Sophos XGS product is highly versatile and well-suited for various companies, including small, medium, and large enterprises. Its effectiveness lies in its inspection firewall capabilities, making it a commonly chosen option in our country due to its reasonable pricing. Sophos Firewall's support for VPN encryption and thorough inspection makes it a suitable choice for many companies, and I recommend it accordingly. At the moment, I can't propose any new features. The primary concern is the traffic stability, which needs improvement. Although the traffic stability is generally good, it has been noted that it can impact RAM and CPU, affecting workflow and inspection."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"It is very stable. I have not heard of any issue where clients would have to replace hardware. It's been really stable for a long while."
"The solution is scalable."
"The product was easy for us to install."
"Easy to set up firewall product, that's also easy to manage and scale."
"The solution is scalable."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more capabilities for troubleshooting VPN connections. For example, I do get some feedback about the current status, but I could use some history and logging of important events. The information is logged in our Syslog server, but I could use that information from the device. If they could provide a GUI to have some more insight on what's going with my VPN would be useful."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"It needs more available central management."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"The pricing could always be better."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"The price of FortiGate should be reduced because there are some other leading products that are cheaper."
"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."
"The access control aspect of the product could be improved."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"The Netgate forums and community don’t provide extensive discussions and topics related to every pfSense service."
"It should integrate with LDAP, Active Directory, etc, to improve the way in which the traces and connections of each IP, or user connected through the firewall, are shown."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"Sophos XGS could improve the automation system. It could be better if there was some level of automation, attacks automation, meaning if this happens, then it automatically executes a particular process."
"I do not get notifications regarding ISP downtime."
"The solution could be easier to manage and configure."
"The application is a little slow; it takes five to ten seconds to respond to every click when configuring. If we need to do significant configuration, it can take a lot of time. This might be because we have a low-end machine, and it could be faster with a high-end one."
"We'd like an interface that can monitor everything."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"They should customers who are facing issues with their product reviews; they found bots in it. If they can do their proper research and use the user analysis and testing, that would greatly help the clients."
"When it comes to different interfaces there is some speed issue that can be improved in Sophos XGS."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 60 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. 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 XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XGS report.
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