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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Helped 920,769 peers since 2012

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.

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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 UTM platform has been the most valuable, as it's a great system with the possibility of having several plates implemented on the same appliance."

"The UTM platform has been the most valuable."

"Browsing speed has picked up considerably as users now have to do their official work and cannot browse social sites instead."

"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."

"The firewall allows the logging of traffic, and it has an easy to use VPN."

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

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

"This is my favorite product that I use, and I think it's one of the best in the world."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] pros

"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."

"The support is excellent quality."

"The initial setup was simple and fast."

"What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service."

"The most valuable features of pfSense are the high availability that easily allows failover to a backup unit and the Snort integration with pfSense and WireGuard."

"My technicians find the pfSense's web interface very useful. It is very easy to use. pfSense is very reliable and stable. We like the OpenVPN clients that can be deployed using pfSense very much."

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its simplicity."

"pfSense's greatest strength lies in its customizable package installation, detailed logging capabilities, and ability to manage log history, including sending it to Vault Logs via Syslog."

More Netgate pfSense pros

Cons

"The physical memory is insufficient for installing policies and some other operations."

"Specifically on the user experience, sometimes the set up of things, such as the VPN SSL, takes a lot of time to load and a lot of time to get up and running on every session."

"The interface needs improvement."

"While the technical support is good, the Indian level technical support could use an upgrade."

"Some features that could be improved are advanced threat protection, sandboxing, and vulnerability management."

"Customer service is definitely degrading, according to me."

"Customer Service: Horrible. It takes them days, sometimes weeks, until they try to help, and then they don't help enough."

"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."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] cons

"I saw there was a list of features at the bottom of product page, so I had to select the features I wanted, but I couldn't have all the features at the same time, and the website would prevent me from adding extra features, which actually was the cause for the order to fail."

"I think the dashboard/interface could be improved and the ability to manage it from a mobile platform."

"The main problem with pfSense is that we have to use proxy solutions."

"The solution can be complex. It needs a bigger team with more coding skills than what we have at our disposal."

"The tool is just a little bit slow to release patches, so it is probably one of the things where the tool can improve."

"I don't like subscription models, and unfortunately, the latest pfSense license, pfSense Plus, went to a yearly subscription model."

"The web is evolving every day, so the product should be constantly improved with more regular updates."

"Currently, you deploy it, and it performs as expected, but there are no analytics or reporting capabilities to extract information from the firewall, generate a report, and engage stakeholders in discussions about network connectivity issues, concerns, or upgrades."

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 would say pfSense is competitively priced. It isn't the cheapest hardware, but I've never had a problem with it. It is far cheaper than big brand names like FortiGate and Cisco while delivering a feature set that's nearly the same across the entire list. The only places it falls short are esoteric features that almost nobody needs."

"PfSense's pricing is reasonable. However, support is relatively expensive for smaller customers, and you need to pay per device to get it. So if Customer A is having an issue, I have to get support, and then I have to get support for Customer B, and so on. It would be nice as a managed services provider to get support for my company rather than individual devices."

"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."

"This solution was about $150,000 cheaper than the closest competitor over a three year period."

"I am using the community version of the solution which is free."

"Our customers must pay for an annual license."

"It is free. It is open source."

"The licensing model needs improvement, especially for home users. There should be more flexibility to change licenses with hardware changes. The pricing model could be more accessible for home users."

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

Earn 20 points

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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