Check Point NGFW vs OPNsense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
314
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (2nd), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point NGFW
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Number of Reviews
286
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
OPNsense
Ranking in Firewalls
3rd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 22.6%, up from 18.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point NGFW is 2.9%, down from 3.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OPNsense is 11.5%, down from 16.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
Unique Categories:
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions
19.7%
WAN Edge
21.4%
Unified Threat Management (UTM)
16.8%
No other categories found
 

Featured Reviews

AN
Apr 25, 2023
Good threat prevention capabilities, good price, and very easy to deploy and manage
I have deployed it for a bank at a core level. On the perimeter, there was a Palo Alto firewall, and at the core level, we deployed the FortiGate firewall at DC and DR locations. After that, we deployed SD-WAN. We replaced the MPLS switch with the Fortinet SD-WAN device, so the whole branch traffic comes to the SD-WAN box, and from there, it comes to the FortiGate firewall, and then it goes to the Palo Alto firewall for the internet access and resource access. While migrating branches from MPLS to SD-WAN, we did require a maintenance window. There was no difficulty. It was very user-friendly. I have had many difficulties with the Check Point firewall. I have deployed major projects on the FortiGate firewall. I migrated more than a thousand branches on Fortinet SD-WAN and implemented FortiGate super massive firewalls at DC and DR locations. There were no complexities. Only at one location, I had an issue related to SD-WAN, but my query was resolved by Fortinet's local team. It's an on-premises firewall for the DC and DR locations. I have never worked on cloud projects, but if there is any opportunity to deploy it on the cloud, I will do it. I have only done on-premises deployment.
YK
Jan 23, 2024
Safeguards networks against a wide range of cyber threats with its robust security features, advanced threat prevention and centralized management
It can function as either a standalone appliance or as part of a clustered solution, offering flexibility to suit the needs of various customers, ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. We have experience working with a diverse clientele across different industries, leveraging Check…
YaserAljohani - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 25, 2020
A solution that detects and blocks malicious content with good reporting and visibility, but the reliability needs improvement
I have some issues with OPNsense. I have created a virtual machine that I've lost connection at times and I am not able to connect to the gateway or ping the internet. When I started with OPNsense, it worked right away. It may be an issue with the virtual machine itself. I am currently setting up the protection on all of the virtual machines so they will connect to OPNsense and the internet, or anywhere they need to access. I have tried to download some malicious files or a virus and it should dump the files and prevent the download, but I don't seem to get any notification or warnings. It may be an issue with the configuration but I am not sure. I would like to see improvements made to connectivity and alerting. I wanted to deploy this solution in our organization and some of the workstations from remote sites but it's not reliable enough to do that yet. In the next release, I would like to see real traffic monitoring and more visibility. Also, for the antivirus, I would like to see the files protected by ClamAV. I would like to see intelligence in OPNsense and have the option to apply it or not. They need a threat intelligence tool similar to the one they would find with Cisco. It will show you the file hashes, all of the IFCs, the niches, the address information, and more. With all of this information, you can be proactive and block the malicious file hashes, all of the malicious IP addresses, and the public IP addresses. It should help you be proactive. It would be helpful to have OPNsense be one of the plugins, and they should include traffic capturing. With Palo Alto, you can monitor and specify which interface you want to monitor, the source IP, or you can specify the network and see the traffic that is coming from the VLAN, the destination, and any files being transferred over the network. If you apply security profiles you can see the signatures.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"We were looking for the VPN feature and controlling the inflow and outflow of all the traffic within the site and across the sites. We are also using it for the VPN and VLANs."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are remote access, web filtering, and IPS."
"The base firewall features are quite valuable to us."
"This is an easy solution to deploy."
"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
"As with any firewall, IPSEC VPN is the critical functionality. Not every organization has the budget to implement MPLS or SD-WAN, which makes IPSEC the go-to for site-to-site connectivity."
"The product offers a robust and intuitive experience, catering to the essential needs of users."
"With the new SmartTask offered in R80.40, we will be happy to configure some automatic control-functions."
"The configuration is one of the best features of this product."
"Check Point provides dedicated blades to monitor network traffic, which helps while troubleshooting network and packet-related issues."
"The packet inspection capabilities are great."
"They utilize various gateway features, including Identity as a Service (IDaaS), anti-spam, antivirus, and other security measures, effectively creating a robust defense against a wide range of potential risks."
"It is easy to control from the central management system. For example, if we have 10 firewalls, and we want to push that same configuration among them, we can use this solution's central management system to do that simultaneously. So, there is time saving in that way. The time savings does depend on the situation. For example, if I am running half an hour of work on each firewall, that will take around 300 minutes. However, if I do this work from the central management system, then it will only take 30 minutes to push the same configuration to those same 10 devices."
"It's open source."
"The tool's integration is more like a button press."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"It's more secure and more reliable."
"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings."
"The most valuable features of OPNsense are the GUI and frequent updates."
 

Cons

"They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."
"Currently, without the additional reporting module, we only have access to basic reporting."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"The solution could be more user friendly."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."
"Management: Check Point should move away from its current architecture wherein it mandatorily requires a management server to manage the gateways. They should develop A feature in the gateway itself so that no management server is needed for policy and gateway management."
"With the version we're on, it's a bit time-consuming if you have multiple IP addresses to add. But in the later versions, which we're moving to, it makes it a lot easier to add IP addresses with dynamic objects, as they call it."
"It depends whether the problem is known to Check Point. If they are aware there is a problem, quite often it will then depend on which tech you finally land on if it's easier or harder to get to the root cause. The last issue was in India so that was pretty bad. It's easier if you get directly through to Tel Aviv or Ottawa, but you can't choose. Once they know what the issue is, it's pretty good. It pretty much depends on the engineer that you get. There are pretty good engineers and there are many engineers who are at just the starter level at Check Point who are not really into the stuff. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy, depending on the problem and the tech engineer you get."
"You need to merge all the old consoles into one new one and make the interface more convenient for the novice administrator."
"The network automation and security automation could be better."
"Although very efficient, the product could be developed in a way that does not take a lot more system resources."
"The API support is good. However, Check Point needs to focus on more prepared scripts for some tiresome actions."
"They could make the licensing a bit easier to deal with, especially for enterprise-level options."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
"The reporting part could be better."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is flexible."
"Its price is normal. If I compare it with other vendors, such as Palo Alto, it's normal. Palo Alto is expensive."
"Go for long term pricing negotiated at the time of purchase."
"It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."
"The license of Fortinet FortiGate should be reduced."
"The price is high compared to some of the other solutions."
"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."
"The solution requires a license annually, it is not a user license, you can have as many users as your want. I must renew the license regularly per device."
"I don't see that Check Point is very high, but it is geared more towards enterprises."
"Check Point needs to lower its price drastically, and the licensing model is very complex."
"Though we did not take issue with the price of Check Point NGFW, we felt that it was providing us with inadequate support here in Uganda."
"Licensing is pretty straightforward and is based on the blades available, such as NGFW, NGTP, and NGTX."
"Cisco pushes clients to purchase their hardware, and this is not the case with Check Point. This helps to easily manage costs."
"Comparatively, Check Point pricing is a little high. However, if you have that budget, I would recommend anybody to go with Check Point."
"Check Point Firewall costs more compared to the other firewalls in the markets, as pricing is little high. However, it is easy to take the license and use it in the firewall."
"The licensing is straightforward; there are only three types of licenses that include NGFW, NGTP, and SNBT, so the organization can choose its license according to their requirements."
"The solution is not expensive."
"It's a free solution."
"We are using the paid version."
"OPNsense is a well known open-source tool."
"It's not expensive."
"Its pricing is unbeatable in comparison to other firewalls. You can have a small instance that could be €80 a month with the hardware underneath. Azure Firewall and FortiGate are out of the question at this price. If you are on a public cloud, you need the underlying infrastructure. Other than that, there is no additional cost. If you have it on-prem, you have to buy the server or the appliance. The hardware cost is replaced with the infrastructure cost in the cloud. You also have costs for the public IPs and underlying VMs, but that's not related to OPNsense. It would be the same for a FortiGate deployment on Azure. You need a FortiGate license, and you need the underlying infrastructure that scales up depending on your needs."
"It is free."
"The price of OPNsense is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
21%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
54%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
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...
What do you like most about OPNsense?
What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?
I've used the free version. My computer with two network cards at home allows me to try as many different software op...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Amazon Web Services 2. Microsoft 3. IBM 4. Cisco 5. Dell 6. HP 7. Oracle 8. Verizon 9. AT&T 10. T-Mobile 11. Sprint 12. Vodafone 13. Orange 14. BT Group 15. Telstra 16. Deutsche Telekom 17. Comcast 18. Time Warner Cable 19. CenturyLink 20. NTT Communications 21. Tata Communications 22. SoftBank 23. China Mobile 24. Singtel 25. Telus 26. Rogers Communications 27. Bell Canada 28. Telkom Indonesia 29. Telkom South Africa 30. Telmex 31. Telia Company 32. Telkom Kenya
Control Southern, Optimal Media
1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc.  3. EuroBSDCon  4. Netgate  5. Claranet  6. Voleatech  7. Open Systems AG  8. Securebit AG  9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH  10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH  Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. OPNsense and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.