Azure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router comparison

Azure Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

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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

Featured Reviews

Joseph Koomson

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.

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Amit Das

Technical Solution Architect at liwa

Has enabled us to manage internal access securely but lacks accessible documentation for deeper integration

We haven't required any support, but overall, Microsoft support is good. Whenever we raise any concern, they are supporting us on time. Currently it is good. We are not a public-facing company; it is a retail company only, so that's why I don't think it is required. We don't have an e-commerce solution on Azure. For that, we are using a different stack for the e-commerce portal, so that is not in Azure. We are only using it for business applications, and I think L3 filtering in network security suffices for our problem currently. Regarding scalability for Azure Firewall, we don't need it here because the request to the application is internal. All are internal users. So there is not much request to get into the application, so scalability is not required for us in the current scenario.

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Jim Voige

Site Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

High availability routing has secured our network and delivers reliable support every day

One downside of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is the need for a better understanding of what hardware it would run on. Right now, we're using Netgate's hardware, but I'm interested in knowing if there are other hardware options available, particularly heavier duty hardware, because the Supermicro 1537 version we have only has a single power supply, which is a shortcoming in an IT environment where dual power supplies are ideal. The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options. I'm familiar with the costs of Supermicro servers, and I believe Netgate charges a premium for their server hardware without enough upside to justify it. The pricing is not justified.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is stable."

"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."

"We have never stopped to calculate it, but we cannot describe how good we feel since we no longer face issues with the internet."

"I advise others Fortinet FortiGate has an easy configuration and it does not take much time to learn about the rules that you will need to apply for your company."

"This is a quality product with ok support, and it is better than the competition we've tried."

"By utilizing features such as dynamic path selection and application-aware routing, we've been able to reduce latency for critical applications such as VoIP and video by 20-30% during peak times."

"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."

"With Fortinet, we're able to control how users utilize resources and pull back on certain things while allowing more access in others, which has led to fewer expenses, less time wasted addressing issues related to reporting, and more order and better analysis of exactly what is going on in the network."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"In terms of the reporting, it's beautiful. It integrates with Azure monitoring and with Azure policies. That piece is a big help. You can set governing policies and you can use the application firewall, as well as the Azure Firewall, to enforce those policies."

"Microsoft's technical support is very good. They're quite knowledgable and responsive."

"It provided ease of maintenance, if a new firewall was needed, we only had to run the pipelines for this, so the maintenance was very easy and it reduced work by 30% while saving maintenance and operational costs by 15%."

"I would only recommend Azure Firewall depending on the requirements. If it is an enterprise that has basic requirements and needs to do packet filtering and a certain level of intrusion prevention, so for the level of IP whitelisting, it's a good product."

"The Layer four features are okay and meet my business needs."

"We have a centralized filtering capability because of Azure Firewall, which has helped a lot in reducing the management overhead for our application teams and improved our security and compliance by protecting us from a lot of traffic while safeguarding end-users' personal data and information."

"Azure Firewall is a cloud-native solution that removes the pain of load balancers."

"Azure Firewall is integrated well with Microsoft ecosystem."

More Azure Firewall pros

"They are more satisfied with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router in terms of its flexibility and customer support."

"It's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."

"My experience with the product is that it is a stable and good product that is easy to use."

"Overall, the entire Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router product has been reliable, though some of their smaller gear aimed at remote offices hasn't been cost-effective."

"I do not have complaints about Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router with Firewall, VPN, and Router; it is really comfortable for use, and it does a pretty good job."

"We use pfSense and Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router to establish a VPN tunnel between our client and our headquarters to transfer data between client and our equipment; it's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."

Cons

"Customer support needs improvement. I have had to take the direct internal sources, such as sales contacts, and after that I rarely see support response."

"Technical Support: This is where Fortinet stumbles. The support is farmed out overseas to techs that are not very knowledgeable about the Fortinet products."

"The pricing of the solution is expensive, so it could be cheaper."

"We have experienced a number of failures when trying to upgrade firmware and the process takes a long time. We only experienced this when doing major upgrades between versions."

"The room for improvement is to have more flexibility on the virtual machines of their next-generation platforms."

"There could be more integration between the logging and analytical platforms to make it more seamless and integrated."

"To improve Fortinet FortiGate, I think they need to improve the software and make updates more quickly, rather than taking a long time to update the software or firmware."

"The only challenge that we are facing is that a good internet connection is required for VPN stability."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The product pricing could be more competitive."

"For larger enterprises, they need to adjust the scalability."

"Currently, it only supports IP addresses, so you have to be specific about the IPs that are in your environment."

"I would rate Azure Firewall one out of 10."

"The development area and QA area could be improved. With those improvements, we can improve projects and take even less time to implement them."

"One thing that would help engineers adopt it better is the documentation."

"The tool needs to improve the onboarding and transition process for on-prem users."

"This solution is not mature when it comes to handling perimeter traffic like internet browsing."

More Azure Firewall cons

"The effectiveness of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router traffic shaping is quite good, but I am not very satisfied with the interface for control."

"I would assess the effectiveness of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router's traffic shaping as good, but I would give a six marks only for that compared to others because in the past few years, there has been a stop of improvement or lack of improvement showing in Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router."

"The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options."

"The most significant drawback in recent years has been the cessation of firmware release downloads."

"They have to learn something more from FortiGate."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"They are very competitive, but we like to have the factory warranty taken care of."

"Pricing for Fortinet FortiGate SWG is more suitable for enterprise or large-sized organizations because they are the ones who can afford it versus small and medium-sized organizations."

"It is more affordable than Check Point and Palo Alto. Another thing is that all the features and the OS remain the same irrespective of the size of the device. Pricing-wise, Fortinet typically provides one-year support with the firewall appliance. There is also an option for three years which is how their licensing works."

"They are more expensive than others."

"We pay about $4,000 for a yearly license, and there aren't any additional fees."

"We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate."

"FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is cheaper than Cisco or CheckPoint."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate when compared to other solutions is high. However, my knowledge of the price is from third parties and I am not sure how accurate it is. I typically work in the technical area of my organization."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Azure Firewalls operate on a pay-as-you-go model, similar to cloud services."

"The pricing of Azure Firewall is pay-as-you-go. Fortinet also has a pay-as-you-go model, but Azure's pricing is higher and, with FortiGate, you also have the license."

"It is pay-as-you-go. So, you pay based on the usage. If I remember it well, there is a basic fee, and there is a traffic fee. It is not per month. It is per hour or something like that. It is not so expensive."

"I rate the product pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution is cheaper than other brands. My company has an enterprise contract and we finally got a good price with Azure."

"The licensing module is good."

"The total cost of ownership is much less than Palo Alto, Cisco, or any other brand."

"Before choosing this solution, we evaluated others, and we found this to be the most cost-effective."

More Azure Firewall pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Construction Company

38%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	369
Midsize Enterprise	139
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	12
Large Enterprise	22

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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 is a better choice, Azure Firewall or Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls?

Azure Firewall Vs. Palo Alto Network NG Firewalls Both solutions provide stellar stability and security. Azure Firew...

How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?

Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the...

Which would you recommend - FortiGate VM or Azure Firewall?

Both of these solutions are excellent options that provide flexible scalability and solid security. Fortinet Fortigat...

What needs improvement with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router regularly provides updates. One aspect they can improve is that most people ...

What is your primary use case for Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

We work with Netgate products. We are a reseller and consultant. We have been working with Netgate and Fortinet for a...

What advice do you have for others considering Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

For metrics to measure its impact, we do not measure in a formal way. We use bandwidth monitoring to check how effect...

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Comparisons

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Palo Alto Networks VM-Series vs Azure Firewall

Compared 19% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate-VM vs Azure Firewall

Compared 10% of the time

Check Point Cloud Firewall (formerly CloudGuard Network Security) vs Azure Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Azure Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

Azure Front Door vs Azure Firewall

Compared 3% of the time

More Azure Firewall Competitors

OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 58% of the time

VyOS Platform vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 42% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router Competitors

Product Reports

Fortinet FortiGate

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Azure Firewall

Download Azure Firewall product report

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Download Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router product report

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Azure Firewall integrates seamlessly with Azure services, providing threat intelligence-based filtering, scalability, and simplified configuration. It secures Azure-based infrastructure, protects workloads, and filters network traffic to ensure safe internet access.

Azure Firewall is central to managing security for applications, especially in hybrid cloud environments. Its features like URL filtering, SSL/TLS inspection, and centralized security controls cater to segmentation and zero-trust policies. Users appreciate its affordability, frequent updates, and flexibility for administrators with policies and high availability. However, some users see room for improved application filtering, better Azure integration, and more comprehensive documentation. Desired advanced features include intrusion prevention, anti-virus, and URL filtering. Cost concerns and limited scalability are mentioned, with suggestions for AI use, VPN functionalities, and enhancements in firewall management.

What are the most important features of Azure Firewall?

Seamless Integration: Works well with Azure services, providing cohesive security management.
Threat Intelligence-Based Filtering: Uses the latest threat data to filter network traffic.
Scalability: Easily scales to meet growing network demands.
Simplified Configuration: Streamlines setup and management processes.
Centralized Security Controls: Consolidates security settings for easier management.
Automated Updates: Ensures the firewall stays current with minimal manual input.
SSL/TLS Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits can users look for in Azure Firewall reviews?

Affordability: Cost-effective solution for many companies.
Frequent Updates: Regular updates that keep the firewall secure and up-to-date.
Flexibility for Administrators: Offers versatile policies and is easy to manage.
High Availability: Ensures reliable access and performance.
Industry Compliance: Supports standards to meet compliance requirements.

Many industries leverage Azure Firewall for secure cloud operations. Technology firms use it for hybrid cloud security, focusing on segmentation and zero-trust. Financial institutions deploy it for compliance and secure internet access, while healthcare uses it for protecting patient data and ensuring secure communications between on-prem servers.

Microsoft

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router offers open-source, license-free software with strong VPN options and robust networking capabilities, supporting secure, scalable, and reliable IT infrastructure integration.

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router stands out with its open-source framework, providing organizations the freedom from annual license renewals and enabling focus on CAPEX. It integrates seamlessly within IT environments, offering extensive package availability for broad functionality. Equipped with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPsec, it ensures robust VPN configurations. Its traffic shaping, load balancing, and failover functionalities enhance network performance, while Multi-WAN connections boost uptime. Users benefit from its affordability, scalability, VLAN support, and consistent secure operations. However, clearer communication on antivirus capabilities and interface improvements for speed is needed. The equipment's transition to cloud-based firmware updates has seen mixed reception.

What are the key features of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

License-Free Software: Avoid annual renewals, allowing financial focus on CAPEX.
Strong VPN Options: Supports WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPsec for secure connections.
Traffic Shaping and Load Balancing: Optimizes network performance and reliability.
Multi-WAN Capability: Enhances connectivity and ensures consistent uptime.
VLAN Support: Allows efficient network segmentation and management.
Open-Source Nature: Provides transparency and continuous community-driven enhancements.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces expenditure with license-free, open-source software.
Scalability: Grows with organizational demands without added costs.
Reliability: Ensures secure, stable connections with minimal downtime.
Ease of Use: Simplified configuration and management for technical teams.
Community Support: Backed by a knowledgeable user community for ongoing support.

In educational settings, such as universities and engineering colleges, Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router facilitates secure VPN tunnels for data transfer. It sees application as a high-availability BGP setup among consultants and resellers, ensuring reliability and network efficiency.

Netgate

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

Azure Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router