We performed a comparison between OPNsense and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: OPNsense is highly praised for its ability to easily adapt to changing needs, its guest access options, its flexibility, and its open license. SonicWall TZ is known for its exceptional unified threat management, strong VPN capabilities, reliable web security, and user-friendly centralized interface.
OPNsense could benefit from improvements in interface simplicity, bandwidth management, high availability, logging, integration, hardware updates, reporting, SSL inspection, and learning curve. SonicWall TZ needs enhancements in rated throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, integration, marketing, reporting, additional ports, GSM and Sonic Analyzer features, advanced features and pricing, UI application and net policies, scalability and proxy feature, DPI-SSL clients, content filtering, DNS hosting, monitoring and pricing, security and VPN connections, overall cost, and version improvements.
Service and Support: The customer service for OPNsense has garnered varying feedback, with certain users appreciating prompt responses and valuable aid, whereas some encounter challenges when attempting to access support. SonicWall TZ's support has also generated diverse opinions, as a few customers face language barriers and delays, but overall find the support satisfactory.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for OPNsense is uncomplicated and can be managed by clients without IT expertise, although it might be more time-consuming in certain scenarios like Azure. SonicWall TZ setup is simple, user-friendly, and can be finished within a timeframe ranging from 30 minutes to a few hours. Technical staff can provide assistance for swift deployment.
Pricing: The cost of setting up OPNsense primarily depends on the hardware used, since the software is provided for free. SonicWall TZ has received varying opinions regarding its pricing and licensing, with some users considering it cost-effective while others find it to be expensive.
ROI: OPNsense is a cost-effective option with a quicker return on investment due to the absence of ongoing fees. SonicWall TZ delivers satisfactory outcomes, although it suggests an upgrade for enhanced performance.
Comparison Results: Based on user feedback, OPNsense is the preferred choice when comparing it to SonicWall TZ. Users appreciate OPNsense for its scalability, excellent features, user-friendly interface, flexibility, stability, availability of a free version, and well-documented resources.
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate appears to be scalable."
"The technical support in our region is excellent."
"The most valuable feature is the policy routing and application control."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."
"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
"What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it. I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The solution has high availability."
"The DNS-level filtering is impressive for thwarting time scanners."
"We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable."
"OPNsense is easy to use and open source."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
"The feature with SonicWall that I have found most valuable is that all the models have the same interface. We don't need to learn different interfaces in the smaller or bigger models."
"Good site categorization and application controls."
"SonicWall TZ is stable."
"I have found this solution to be easier to use when compared to other products, such as those offered by Cisco."
"The product is easy to deploy."
"We like the unified threat management for defense-in-depth. We can terminate our site-to-site and remote access VPNs with it."
"The most valuable feature is the protection available, and then ease of use and flexibility."
"Access restriction and IP whitelisting are the most valuable features."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"One of the problems I was having was with user mapping, and it is an issue for which I have escalated tickets with Fortinet support."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"The performance could be a bit better. Right now, I find it to be lacking. Having good performance is very important for our work."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the Insight or the NetFlow analysis part. It would be good to have the possibility to dig down on the Insight platform. Right now, we can easily do only a few analyses. If this page becomes more powerful, it surely will be a well-adopted platform."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"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."
"The reporting part could be better."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings."
"In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
"There is room for improvement in SSL inspection."
"We have experienced some issues with SonicWall TZ and they are lacking some advanced features other vendors have."
"The quality of tech support can vary."
"The solution's cost needs improvement."
"I think content filtering is the area this product should improve. It's a little tricky to get put in correctly."
"The areas we would like to see improvement include more features available similar to the equivalent FortiGate appliance, e.g. SSL encryption and inspection. Two-factor authentication capability would be another additional feature that could be included in the next release."
"There is a point I don't like about SonicWall in the past and now. Most of the destinations we look at when we're detecting some user using too much bandwidth or something like that, SonicWall just gave us destination IP address, instead of the full qualified domain name. I think that's the most important part that is still missing. I think that's the most important for us."
"The dashboard needs to be improved."
"In an upcoming release, SonicWall could improve by adding cloud management for all devices for free or at a nominal cost. Currently, they have a cloud management platform but is not free. We have the MySonicWall portal for purchasing from them for software updates and renewals."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and Check Point NGFW, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our OPNsense vs. SonicWall TZ report.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
