Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] vs Netgate pfSense comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Check Point Software Technologies and Netgate are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Additionally, 84% of Check Point Software Technologies users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Netgate users who would recommend it.

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Read 19 Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] reviews

84% willing to recommend

Netgate pfSense

Read 223 Netgate pfSense reviews

33,881 Views
31,509 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Netgate pfSense

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] and Netgate pfSense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Cisco, Netgate and others in Firewalls.

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: October 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

October 2026

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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

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Netgate pfSense

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

223

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (3rd)

Featured Reviews

William Cambronero

Consultant at ITQS

Great firewalls, VPN, and Intrusion prevention capabilities

Some features that could be improved are advanced threat protection, sandboxing, and vulnerability management. Another point is to improve the technical support provided by Check Point UTM-1. Although the company offers different standards, including basic and premium, by mail and by telephone, they present a very large deficiency in the time it takes to comply with the provisions of the SLA. Coordinating a meeting is complicated by the schedules. The documentation should also be improved by having it unified.

Read full review

Juan-Arias

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.

Read full review

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 for us was to implement negligent functionality, to direct functionality to viewer control and application control so we could disconnect, and at the same time, we installed checkpoints. We disconnected our proxy."

"It safeguards against cyber attacks."

"It provides visibility and drives organizational security."

"Since I have installed the solution everything is working very great."

"When we were evaluating services, we knew we needed something robust and easy to implement with the old equipment and something that was safe."

"The databases and its signatures are its most important features."

"As a security information analyst, it helps me to see information in a very clear way."

"Check Point is not cheap when compared to other solutions, but it provides high level security, and as an organization we are fully satisfied with this product."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] pros

"The most valuable feature of pfSense is that it's a stateful firewall. I also like the way the rules are implemented on the firewall. It makes things much easier to see at a glance."

"The VPN is my favorite feature."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an open-source tool and is available at a very low cost."

"Initial setup was very straightforward; the interface is very self-explanatory."

"pfSense is free and open source software; modification is easy and you can adapt it to your company's requirements."

"It's open-source, it's flexible, and has a strong community."

"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 initial setup was simple and fast."

More Netgate pfSense pros

Cons

"Memory and processing power: These devices are strictly for small business applications."

"The interface needs improvement."

"I would like to see improvements in the report area. Some features should be integrated and not licensed separately."

"The entire GUI, look and feel of the application."

"Technical support was very bad because the supplier who sold it to us, wasn't very supportive, and he wouldn't giving us direct links to the OEM."

"What has been the issue of firewalls is they ask me for policies and content filtering application control and all these features that are now part of Harmony."

"Customer service is not their strong suite. It takes a lot of time until they fix anything, and it can be better to try and fix the issue without them."

"Yes, about once a year we have a catastrophic failure. It's pretty random."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] cons

"It would be nice if the solution had a wizard for some of the complex functions."

"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.)."

"Snort or Suricata don't block things they should out of the box. It's always been a pain point of pfSense. If you turn on Snort or Suricata for IPS or IDS, no setting is effectively set and forget. Turning any commercial firewall to the lowest setting will provide you with a decent amount of security with almost zero false positives, but pfSense is not that way. You've got a babysit Snort and Suricata to the point where sometimes you turn it off."

"When I checked other packages, it seems they use different tools that are installed on the PSS for functionality. They rely on third-party tools, unlike Fortinet, for example, which has its own tools. In comparison, we also use third-party tools on pfSense. For example, we had a situation where we needed a tool to identify authorized users, and when I searched for a solution, I found a third-party tool. However, using such tools may come with additional costs."

"The fact that you can completely brick your firewalls just by having a configuration that they allow, and they don't even tell you there's a problem until they both go down. That's totally unacceptable in an enterprise."

"The security could be improved."

"The problem with open-source is that no one can take responsibility."

"The hotspot and the portal feature in this solution are not stable for WiFi access. We use it at least once or twice every day and it crashes. Some modules can be better by improving detection and having new updates. Additionally, we have some issues with clustering and load balancing that could improve."

More Netgate pfSense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing is too high."

"This cost is between 3,000 and 5,000 euros per year, so some other solutions are cheaper and the pricing should be improved."

"I use the free version."

"I spent a couple of $1,000 on hardware, and the OS was free. A comparable firewall would cost me probably 20 grand. It saved a lot of money."

"I think Netgate pfSense's TAC or support is a little expensive, considering how inexpensive everything else is."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"I am using the free version of pfSense."

"If you need to buy hardware onto which to install PfSense, go with their boxes on their website, they are great."

"Netgate pfSense is fairly priced."

"pfSense is open-source, but the support is something that the customer pays for."

More Netgate pfSense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

18%

Marketing Services Firm

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	172
Midsize Enterprise	34
Large Enterprise	29

Questions from the Community

Ask a question

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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 recommend PFSense. This software solutions can be installed on youf own hardware or ...

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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 Fortigate both cost-effective and efficient. One of the features we like most is that Fo...

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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 client, Open VPN and client, and PPTP client. Both also have intrusion detection a...

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Comparisons

Fortinet FortiGate vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 20% of the time

Sophos Cyberoam UTM vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 12% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 11% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 8% of the time

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] Competitors

OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 49% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 5% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

October 2026

Download Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense

October 2026

Download Netgate pfSense product report

Overview

Check Point UTM-1 delivers proven, best-in-class security ideal for use in industrial Ethernet and SCADA environments. Robust performance and central management provide unmatched value in a simple, all-in-one solution.

Check Point Software Technologies

Netgate pfSense is an open-source firewall and router software known for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and community support. It includes customizable packages for varied network management needs, offering solid performance and straightforward management for diverse setups.

Netgate pfSense provides an impressive range of functionalities including firewall capabilities, VPN options, and extensive customization through packages. Its low resource usage and high availability make it viable for businesses of all sizes, especially when dealing with tailored network demands. Despite its strengths, users suggest improvements in ease of use, mobile compatibility, and support for plug-ins. Enhanced centralized management, better documentation, and additional security features are frequent requests.

What are the key features of Netgate pfSense?

Scalability: Suits any network size from small home setups to large enterprises.
Open-source: Offers transparency and flexibility, allowing for community-driven development.
Firewall Capabilities: Provides robust protection against unauthorized access.
VPN Options: Supports secure remote connectivity with various VPN protocols.
Customizable Packages: Allows users to personalize functionalities to fit network needs.
High Availability: Ensures continuous network operations with redundancy features.
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic efficiently across multiple paths or connections.
Traffic Shaping: Manages bandwidth allocation to optimize network performance.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Significant savings due to low operational costs and open-source nature.
Performance: Reliable service delivery with minimal hardware demands.
User-friendly Interface: Intuitive design that simplifies complex network management.
Community Support: Access to extensive community resources for troubleshooting and advice.
Comprehensive Documentation: Detailed guides and tutorials to facilitate installation and configuration.

In education and healthcare, Netgate pfSense is employed for secure connectivity and efficient traffic management, accommodating distinct demands of remote access and content filtering. Organizations in these sectors often utilize features such as load balancing and VPNs to maintain secure and reliable network operations while integrating with services like Active Directory for streamlined identity management. Small to medium-sized enterprises benefit from its affordability and robust functionality, making it a go-to choice for managed service environments requiring effective network security and control.

Netgate

Sample Customers

AccessIT Group Inc., Accuvant, Cadre Computer Resources Inc., Compuquip Technologies Inc, Dimension Data North America Inc., Forsythe Solutions Group, Gotham Technology Group LLC, GuidePoint Security LLC, Iovations, IPS

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 Fortinet, Cisco, Netgate and others in Firewalls. Updated: October 2026.

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