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Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) 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

Check Point Quantum Force (...
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
346
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (2nd)
Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...
Ranking in Firewalls
22nd
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) is 2.8%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router is 0.3%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW)2.8%
Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router0.3%
Other96.9%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

San Naing Htun - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Has improved threat prevention and protection but presents deployment and licensing challenges
The best features Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) offers are AI-powered threat prevention, zero-day protection, unified management, and scalability. These features have helped me in my daily work or my organization by allowing us, as a SAAS company operating across AWS, Azure, and handling external partner access or a multi-tenant model, to preemptively stop unknown attacks, which is critical. Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) has positively impacted my organization as it is a high-end enterprise grade firewall. I have noticed that it is very good if your SAAS business has high traffic volume, serious threat prevention requirements, and you are ready for the investment.
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 most valuable feature of the solution is its efficiency."
"Check Point NGFW products have improved the operation of our organization by allowing us to secure our perimeter from attacks, probes, malware, DDoS, bots and general bad actors, while fine tuning user access to resources in order to prevent privacy issues, loss of operations, or downtime."
"This is the number one, best firewall on the market."
"For us, the Check Point NGFW is the center of network traffic and security."
"Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) has positively impacted my organization because it is our core security system, and it performs effectively."
"A stable and fully functioning solution has enabled us to focus on other aspects of growing the business."
"If you want to share traffic loads to both cluster members you can use the active-active feature, if you don't want to share traffic loads you can prefer active standby."
"We feel much more secure with this product - especially the API support - and possible automation has saved us a lot of time in our team and organization."
"My experience with the product is that it is a stable and good product that is easy to use."
"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."
"It's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."
"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."
"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."
"They are more satisfied with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router in terms of its flexibility and customer support."
 

Cons

"The Check Point TAC support has, in recent years, deteriorated."
"The Checkpoint tech support takes a long time to resolve problems."
"Technical support could be improved."
"We would like to see constant improvement in anti-malware functionality and anti-threat protection."
"Check Point's capabilities are limited from a firewall perspective."
"If you have the standard support level, sometimes they take a long time to understand or even give you a solution or good workaround to a problematic situation."
"It should be user-friendly from an implementation point of view. Its setup is a little bit difficult."
"The routing rules and some more network settings should be listed on the Check Point Smart Console instead of GAIA Web GUI."
"The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options."
"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."
"They have to learn something more from FortiGate."
"The most significant drawback in recent years has been the cessation of firmware release downloads."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product provides value for pricing in terms of performance and technical features compared to other firewalls."
"It's reasonably priced, but competitors offer much cheaper options."
"It is a notably expensive product in our country compared to FortiGate and other servers."
"I don't think the product's pricing is a good value. I feel it's very overpriced. I feel a lot of the features for a next gen firewall are there. But I feel it's overpriced, because of the stability issues. As far as support goes, I really can't speak to direct Check Point support, but the third-party was pretty terrible... As far as the licensing goes, it's pretty complex. If anybody was to purchase the Check Point product, definitely make sure they have an account rep come on site, and explain it line by line, what each thing is. It's not straightforward. It's very convoluted. There's no way you could just figure it out by looking at it."
"The tool is a bit expensive."
"The pricing is a bit high, but obviously it gives you advanced features. If you want to buy the best thing on the market, you have to pay extra money."
"Maybe the pricing is a bit high but you get the durability and the duration."
"Check Point offers the same applications and features as Palo Alto for roughly a third of the price."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
25%
Construction Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Construction Company
34%
Comms Service Provider
12%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business163
Midsize Enterprise94
Large Enterprise199
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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). -Check Point GUI is a bit complicated, -Application and Web filtering are better t...
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 cloud platform, autoscaling, and the ability for users to create virtual IP addr...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Check Point NGFW?
Our experience with pricing for Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) has been mixed. The initial setup costs were fairly significant because we needed to buy the hardware appliances and then pay for th...
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 ask whether an antivirus scanning system is available in pfSense. Other companie...
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 around two years.
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 effective the solution is. I have not encountered customers asking for additional feat...
 

Also Known As

Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Control Southern, Optimal Media
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.