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.
"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"Fortinet FortiGate's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"The most important feature, normally for small business customers, is link load balancing."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"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."
"Technical support is perfect, excellent."
"A valuable feature is that the solution is open source."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"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."
"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."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"It's open source."
"OPNsense is easy to use and open source."
"We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience."
"The solution has high availability."
"The technical support is very good."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The non-error conserve mode has room for improvement."
"It would be nice if backups could more easily migrate between different models."
"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve if it had a cloud-managed solution."
"The user interface could be improved to make it less confusing and easier to set up."
"Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"I feel that the reporting needs to be improved."
"I believe improving integration with various antivirus vendors could be beneficial."
"Netgate pfSense needs to improve the configuration for a VPN."
"The user interface can be improved to make it easier to add more features. And pfSense could be better integrated with other solutions, like antivirus."
"It requires more attention to provide a better alternative for open source to small government or educational institutions with reduced budgets in terms of technology."
"The usage reports can be better."
"Also, the GUI is helpful, but it's not user-friendly. It's complicated. It should be more intuitive for the average user and have an excellent graphical view. Of course, the user will typically know about network administration, but it still should be easy to understand."
"The integration could be improved."
"I tried pfSense, and it has a big issue with file system consistency, and this is what drove me to OPNsense. The file system stability is quite a big issue for us. We have a lot of outages related to power issues, and OPNsense is much more stable on this side."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"The reporting part could be better."
"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
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, Sophos UTM, KerioControl, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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