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Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall vs Netgate pfSense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
592
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Arista Edge Threat Manageme...
Ranking in Firewalls
40th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Netgate pfSense
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
221
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 15.1%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 8.0%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate15.1%
Netgate pfSense8.0%
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall0.3%
Other76.6%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

JK
IP Network Security Specialist at MTN Ghana
Process-Level CPU Visibility: Introduce detailed CPU-usage metrics per subsystem (e.g., IPS engine, logging) so administrators can quickly identify and address performance spikes.
Analytics with FortiAnalyzer. Being able to pull in logs not just from our FortiGates but from all our other firewalls and then get them in one view has been a game changer. Whether I’m building an executive dashboard or doing a deep dive forensics session, I get everything I need without navigating consoles.Straightforward Application Control. FortiGate spots and blocks unwanted apps (eq. like BitTorrent or streaming services) with accuracy. Segmentation with VDOMs. We’ve carved our data center into four logical ‘mini-firewalls’ enterprise, core, billing, and WAF—all on one box. Each has its own rules and logs, and any traffic between them still gets inspected. It’s like having multiple appliances without the extra hardware. Always-Up-to-Date Threat Feeds. Daily signature updates and AI-driven threat sensing mean we’re blocking the latest vulnerabilities almost as soon as they’re announced.
TarunKumar11 - PeerSpot reviewer
Global Leadership Council at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
Secure internet access has reduced threats and simplifies firewall management for distributed teams
Threat detection needs improvement; Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall should follow Alto and Fortinet. One limitation that I've seen is AI-driven automation which needs to vastly improve. It has fewer third-party integrations, and therefore the adoption amongst very large enterprises is less; it's largely with the SMBs. Customer support can be improved. It's a smaller global footprint that Arista provides, with fewer certified partners in some regions and limited 24/7 support for premium vendors. I've categorically mentioned that it has sophisticated threat detection capabilities but they can be bettered. AI-driven automation can be improved, and therefore, I think the adoption with large enterprises can be much better. I think the current AI capabilities of Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall are a bit limited compared to other vendors. It primarily relies on threat intelligence feeds, signature-based detection, and reputation services. Currently, I would rate its AI capabilities as probably a seven out of ten because it does not provide for extensive GenAI or advanced ML-driven autonomous capabilities like some of its competitors. Threat intelligence aspects can be further improved, and I think there's a lot that the product can do with respect to the usage of AI. AI-driven automation and threat detection can vastly improve. I don't think they were purchased through AWS Marketplace. The adoption has to increase amongst large customers, and threat intelligence needs to improve for many customers to adopt, enhancing the security ecosystem that is relatively small.
JA
Principal Cloud Architect - Software Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Rapid VPN setup has connected offices in minutes and brings live insights for proactive issue control
What I appreciate the most about Netgate pfSense is the ease and straightforward nature of the platform. I can set up a new office in less than 10 minutes. The benefits of using Netgate pfSense are that I can set up VPNs in less than two to three minutes, and then just deploy the file across my networks, where everybody would be connected in less than an hour. The dashboards of Netgate pfSense bring all the necessary information that I need at a glance, and it is actually a live update every three to five seconds. It is spotless, and I have been able to catch issues before they hit operations.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The next-generation firewall features are the solution's most valuable aspect."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 's most valuable features are reporting and filtering."
"The solution is very stable; it doesn't have bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it's reliable."
"Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"The simplicity of the configuration and the stability of the product are most valuable. The VPN concentrator is very useful."
"The best feature of Fortinet FortiGate is SD-WAN."
"The interface is very good."
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has positively impacted my organization by reducing botnet attacks."
"Phish Blocker is a valuable feature."
"I would say that if you're a small and medium enterprise or an education institution and you have a distributed organization looking for a cost-effective and easy-to-manage next-generation firewall solution with fairly good security, VPN, filtering, and centralized management, then Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is an excellent choice."
"The Tailscale integration is very helpful. The DHCP and DNS server functionalities, as well as the package manager, are also good."
"Creation of certificates and the facility to administer services are valuable features."
"A good firewall has to be easy to install, configure, use, and fit the use case."
"The learning curve is steep, but once you get the basics down, it's very robust and easy to use."
"If you don't need WireGuard VPN, pfSense is better because it is easier to use than OPNsense."
"What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service."
"What I appreciate the most about Netgate pfSense is the ease and straightforward nature of the platform; I can set up a new office in less than 10 minutes."
"pfSense's user interface is very nice for simpler configs and monitoring. It is very stable, and it works very well."
 

Cons

"The dashboard is not user friendly so is a bit complicated."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."
"We'd like more management across other integrations."
"Even though our currency in this part of the world is becoming increasingly weak, the pricing is now expensive for us. I have tried pushing Fortinet FortiGate to some customers, however, sometimes the transactions don't conclude due to pricing issues."
"Fortinet FortiGate SWG could improve the price, it is expensive."
"I am afraid I cannot say that I have seen a return on investment."
"While the security is good, we'd always prefer if it was even better to ensure protection."
"The documentation is not clear."
"The product has a lot to improve in the area of policy implementation."
"Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall can be improved, particularly the user interface, which is not very good, and also the logs, which are not very good."
"Threat detection needs improvement; Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall should follow Alto and Fortinet."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"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."
"The pfSense product is very powerful in layer 3 but you must add some products to match a viable commercial product which generally has all the functions integrated in one hardware system (proxy, antivirus, etc.)."
"It is best practice to remove all installed packages before you do an upgrade because most upgrade failures have to do with having installed packages."
"I'm currently struggling with deploying pfSense more extensively. Right now, we are not getting much support on their end."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."
"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."
"The price for the device and software is high. However, the solution is of good quality and has a lot of features."
"At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. Its one-year license cost is competitive with three and five-year licenses offered by other products."
"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."
"It is an inexpensive solution."
"I would rate the pricing a seven out of ten"
"I consider it an averagely-priced tool."
"The tool is quite cheap."
"The price of pfSense is on par with everything else. It depends on how big an appliance you buy and whether you're purchasing it directly from Netgate. Some rack-mounted systems are expensive—a couple thousand bucks. The one that I use at my house was $700."
"Netgate pfSense Community Edition is great and free. For Netgate pfSense Plus, we have to buy Netgate's boxes, and the pricing is great."
"From Sonic Wall, their price is much higher, because for every feature that you want to add, you have to pay. I can do the same things with pfSense, but everything is included in one price."
"pfSense is open-source, but the support is something that the customer pays for."
"The price of pfSense seems reasonable. I pay around a hundred dollars a year for pfSense Plus, which is inexpensive for such a complex product. It's also good that they can still release a community edition. If it started to get extremely expensive to the point where it was more of an enterprise-only product that costs thousands of dollars a year or something like that, I might consider stepping down to the community edition or looking elsewhere."
"For what they charge for it, which is maybe $100 a year, it's still good. If you wanted to build your own router, pfSense is more than worth $100 a year to have all that flexibility and maybe your own piece of custom hardware that you want to run it on."
"Their pricing is quite reasonable."
"We are using the open-source version which is free. We are testing the solution to see if we are going to go to the enterprise version which requires a license and is not free."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Construction Company
36%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Real Estate/Law Firm
3%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business369
Midsize Enterprise139
Large Enterprise195
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business171
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
What needs improvement with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall can be improved, particularly the user interface, which is not very good, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
My advice to others looking into using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that it is effective and accompli...
What is your primary use case for Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
My main use case for Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is as a perimeter firewall. I use it as a perimeter fi...
Help me find the best open source router
You don't really specify what type of router you are looking for but if you are talking about a gateway router I reco...
How do I choose between Fortinet FortiGate and pfSense?
Fortinet’s Fortigate is a firewall solution we use and are very much satisfied with its performance. We find Fortigat...
What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?
Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and cl...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Information Not Available
Nerds On Site Inc., RKC Development Inc., Expertech, Fisher's Technology, Ncisive, Consulting, CPURX, Vaughn's Computer House Calls, Imeretech LLC, Digital Crisis, Carolina Digital Phone, Technigogo Technology Services, The Simple Solution, SwiftecITInc, Rocky Mountain Tech Team, Free Range Geeks, Alaska Computer Geeks, Lark Information Technology, Renaissance Systems Inc., Cutting Edge Computers, Caretech LLC, GoVanguard, Network Touch Ltd, P.C. Solutions.Net, Vision Voice and Data Systems LLC, Montgomery Technologies, Techforce, Concero Networks, ASONInc, CPS Electronics and Consulting, Darkwire.net LLC, IT Specialists, MBS-Net Inc., VOICE1 LLC, Advantage Networking Inc., Powerhouse Systems, Doxa Multimedia Inc., Pro Computer Service, Virtual IT Services, A&J Computers Inc., Envision IT LLC, CommunicaONE Inc., Bone Computer Inc., Amax Engineering Corporation, QPG Ltd. Co., IT 101 Inc., Perfect Cloud Solutions, Applied Technology Group Inc., The Digital Sun Group LLC, Firespring
Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
902,456 professionals have used our research since 2012.