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 221 Netgate pfSense reviews

33,789 Views
31,762 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, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls.

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

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

August 2026

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Helped 912,565 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

7.2

Number of Reviews

221

Ranking in other categories

Firewalls (2nd)

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Check Point has been in the security industry for so long that it has evolved different solutions and technologies."

"It has given us the ability to securely connect remote office sites to our Core Data Network over ISP DPLC Circuits."

"The solution is very robust."

"The pricing is reasonable for the performance and support we are getting."

"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."

"The most important features are performance and ease of management."

"It safeguards against cyber attacks."

"It's pricey, but it provides 100% satisfaction for the money you spend."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] pros

"The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and versatility."

"The stability of Netgate pfSense is rock solid; I have never had any problems with stability."

"First of all scalability of this solution; it's an all-in-one solution useful for every kind of company, very easy to set up rules and NAT, and it has several modules like transparent proxy, VPN, and traffic shaping which are the daily modules for me."

"I like that there's a community edition that I can install on my own virtual machines or hardware. I can test things without messing with them in production, which is incredibly useful. If you have a Juniper or Cisco, you can typically only afford one. You're forced to make changes in production and hope they don't break anything because there's no easy way to have a testing environment. The free version of pfSense offers load balancing or failover WAN, which is also helpful. Most commercial firewalls don't have that in the cheapest iteration of the hardware."

"We've never gone down using the solution."

"The solution is very easy to use and configure."

"It is effective. We have not had any problems."

"It's very straightforward, even for beginners, as there is documentation and different tutorials and videos available in different languages."

More Netgate pfSense pros

Cons

"As we don't have a representative of Check Point supplier in our country, this makes it very difficult when we have some issues to resolve."

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

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

"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."

"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."

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

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

"The interface needs improvement."

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] cons

"I'm trying to set up a gaming server for multiplayer games like 7 Days to Die. I spent three or four days trying to publish a private IP address through pfSense to the outside world. Some commercial and consumer-grade routers can do this, specifically gaming routers, but pfSense is not intended for this usage."

"The usage reports can be better."

"The main feature that I could see them adding would be a management interface that lets me manage multiple pfSense instances."

"We take care of more than 60 customers, so it would be nice to have the ability to have all of the pfSense boxes that we deploy under one pane of glass so we can manage them centrally."

"I would like to see a subscription-based tech support option."

"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."

"User interface is a little clumsy."

"The integration could be improved."

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."

"It is about €1,000. It is a one-time payment. I do not have a monthly or yearly subscription. I don't subscribe to any subscription because I hate cloud services. There are no additional costs."

"Unless they have specific requirements that demand a particular device, I always suggest pfSense specifically because of the absence of pricing and licensing."

"The pricing seems fair overall, but I think they need more reasonably priced options for very small offices."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"They are on the higher end, but you do not get stuck with spending thousands of dollars every year. You do not have recurring license costs to have people use a simple feature like VPN. That makes it more cost-effective in the long term."

"I think Netgate pfSense is very fairly priced."

"While pfSense hardware from Netgate might have a higher upfront cost, I've had very little trouble with it. Plus, buying from them directly helps fund the software's development, making it a worthwhile investment in my eyes."

"PfSense is reasonable for a business but a little pricey for home use. With the time savings and reliability, it pays for itself. I've been more than happy with the unit we've gotten here for the capacity we need. However, it'd be nice to have nice to have some nice home units that aren't a thousand dollars."

More Netgate pfSense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

20%

Marketing Services Firm

16%

Financial Services Firm

14%

Performing Arts

Comms Service Provider

12%

Computer Software Company

10%

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	171
Midsize Enterprise	33
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 16% of the time

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

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 10% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Check Point UTM-1 [EOL]

Compared 9% of the time

More Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] Competitors

OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 51% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 8% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 4% 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]

September 2026

Download Check Point UTM-1 [EOL] product report

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense

August 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, Netgate, Cisco and others in Firewalls. Updated: August 2026.

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