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Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
580
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)
Check Point CloudGuard Netw...
Ranking in Firewalls
8th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
161
Ranking in other categories
Managed Security Services Providers (MSSP) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (3rd), Cloud and Data Center Security (4th), WAN Edge (3rd), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (3rd)
Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...
Ranking in Firewalls
27th
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
Martin Raška - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Security Engineer & Instructor at Arrow Electronics
Unification of security features strengthens network protection
The overall network security is good. It's big-picture, all in one bundle. It's valuable to have everything in one place instead of spreading across different products. Unified security management positively affects a company's security operations. They have one unified view of the security. I can connect multiple gateways to the management and have it in one place. I can have reporting and views in a single pane of glass on the consolidated platform. It's easy to use. The management is the best on the market. It's very easy to work with, read, understand, and navigate. It helps increase our customer's security posture. We can see in some cases CloudGuard improves our customers' posture overall.
Jim Voige - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main value comes from the simplicity of the product in terms of configuring and managing."
"User-friendly and affordable security solution that's recommended for SMB customers. This solution has good technical support."
"The most useful features of Fortinet FortiGate IPS are you can create a virtual firewall within it, most other firewalls do not have this feature. You are able to manage your network and have network segmentation within your firewall. Additionally, you can create virtual switches within the firewall and have policy management, such as firewall and access policy."
"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"Fortinet FortiGate saves a lot of time in expert hours from an expert engineer because the administration of the Fortinet FortiGate solution is easy, which may lead to fewer hours of an engineer spent on Fortinet FortiGate."
"Fortinet FortiGate positively provides my clients' organizations with a high return on investment."
"FortiGate is a great solution, although initially, it faced challenges in the Brazilian market due to lower brand recognition than Cisco. However, explaining and demonstrating its product format and offerings has proven easy. The cost-effectiveness and better features of FortiGate have made some clients skeptical. We set up a trial period, and they eventually opted for it. Many clients were convinced it was great after experiencing the solution's capabilities firsthand."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are its SD-WAN capabilities, such as dynamic routing, and other features, including security options such as antivirus, IPS, and IDS—all integrated into one device."
"It provides a huge benefit in many ways, offering a boost in confidence for secure cloud deployment and migration."
"CloudGuard Network Security provides us with unified security management across hybrid clouds as well as on-premise."
"This software is great in overall performance since it can locate any trouble across the networking system and provide solutions before it affects workflows."
"Check Point management is way easier."
"We consolidated from three management consoles and three clusters to only one, which is a big improvement."
"The tool's deployment is rapid. Its dashboard is also useful. It's easy to deploy both on-premises and in Azure. In an office with VMware running, deployment is a simple process. Similarly, in Azure, deployment is easy and scalable. Adding more CPUs is a straightforward task – just shut it down, modify the security, and restart. This ease of use translates into cost and resource savings, and faster deployment times."
"Any kind of cloud environment anywhere can be protected through this effortlessly."
"The multiple virtual firewalls on one box are extremely useful and the interconnection with virtual switches is simple and easy to understand."
"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."
"It's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."
"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."
 

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having better visibility. Palo Alto has better visibility."
"The user interface of the Fortinet FortiGate management console could be more intuitive and user-friendly, and the log analysis and reporting features could be enhanced to provide more flexibility and customizable insights."
"The UI could be improved."
"There should be more testing before releasing software since it can be a little buggy sometimes when new features come out after updates."
"Fortinet FortiGate IPS could improve the VPN. There are times it is slow."
"We are not utilizing Fortinet FortiGate to its full capacity because we have to pay for every small feature."
"The solution has many heightened points which we cannot get to without working on CLI."
"There is room for improvement in pricing."
"Some more built-in marketplace templates would be nice. It would be nice to see more vendor assistance in deployments and backup of recoveries versus having customers rely upon that themselves. That would make it a lot more seamless and aligned with the standard on-premise model that is there. Check Point can extend the same posture that they have to CloudGuard and make that transition very seamless."
"The setup cost is okay. The cost overall is somewhat high compared to other vendors, whether firewalls or cloud-native solutions."
"VPN troubleshooting can certainly be improved."
"The product needs to improve technical support."
"The customer support is not good."
"It is pretty great in all aspects, but the integration could be easier, especially with Scale Set and related features."
"There is room for improvement, especially concerning the integration with the management center. It would be beneficial if tasks that currently require scripts could be performed directly from the GUI."
"The pricing is too high. We pay more than twenty-five thousand USD per year, which could be reduced."
"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."
"The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"It's not the cheapest, but it's value for money. Given everything we've got out of it: the DMZ port, the VPN, and the high availability, it's a pretty reasonable price."
"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."
"I rate the product's pricing a seven out of ten. The additional cost depends on the extra feature requirements."
"The solution is offered as an annual license."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."
"We have the full license that included all of the features and support."
"The price, in comparison to other products is very cheap."
"The cost is on the higher side, as it is based on workload, hence we need to decide which VPC or workload needs to be part of CloudGuard."
"The tool's pricing is been higher than other solutions, but it seems like it's turning downwards."
"The price of Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is very high compared to other solutions, such as Fortinet FortiMail. For the over 2,000 mailboxes we use with the solution it is very expensive."
"Licensing is simply by the number of hosts that you are looking to protect within your environment. It makes it much easier to ensure that you are covering your environment."
"It is an expensive product, but when you realize that you need it, it does not feel so expensive. We have had a good experience with them as partners. They have helped us with designing and having good architecture and the best equipment at the best prices. We find it a good deal."
"I quite like the way they priced it. It is very reasonable."
"Check Point CloudGuard Network Security's pricing is far better than Palo Alto's because Palo Alto is very expensive."
"We pay approximately ‎€150,000 ($166,000 USD) per year."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Performing Arts
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business67
Midsize Enterprise40
Large Enterprise76
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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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 do you like most about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
The tool's most valuable feature is its management console.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Although I do not know much about the pricing or setup costs, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security is very cost-ef...
What needs improvement with Check Point CloudGuard Network Security?
Check Point CloudGuard Network Security could be improved with faster policy propagation across large multi-cloud env...
What needs improvement with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?
One downside of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is the need for a better understanding of what hardware it w...
What is your primary use case for Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?
We use Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router as a high availability BGP solution.
What advice do you have for others considering Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?
We use the Plus version of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router, which comes automatically with any Netgate hardw...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point vSEC, CloudGuard IaaS, Check Point Virtual Systems, Check Point CloudGuard Network Security
No data available
 

Overview

Information not available
 

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
Physicians Choice Laboratory Services, Helvetica Insurance
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Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.