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 is a safe product."
"FortiGate improved our security. It's one of the best hardware firewalls."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"This is an easy solution to deploy."
"It's a firewall that secures our internal network. I have been using it since 2013, and I find that most of the features are advanced, and very user friendly."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"We can run it on any hardware."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"The VPN is my favorite feature."
"Super easy to manage. Anyone who has been working with firewalls can handle it."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"I can manage it easily by myself."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The solution is good for a basic firewall for a small business or for home use."
"The solution has high availability."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"It has firewall and VPN capabilities, which are very valuable features."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"The platform's interface could improve."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."
"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 support structure needs to be improved because every time we contact them, there is a delay in the response."
"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."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"Reporting and real-time monitoring, since I'm used to Watchguard's reporting features, it would be nice to have an embedded solution for reporting."
"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."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"There is room for improvement in SSL inspection."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
"I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
"The solution would not be suitable for anything large-scale."
"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."
"The logging could improve 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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