

Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
With Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall, that need is completely eradicated.
I believe there is a return on investment with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall for every company that deploys it, as they typically see returns quickly, often within a few months, and the value measured is reasonable and comes back quickly.
Because of the integrated ecosystem, we are able to gain better insight and develop better controls around securing our system.
The network attacks reduced by approximately 60% after using that, even without customizing the custom configuration yet.
For a very little investment, I was able to increase the security of my network.
I would evaluate my customer service and technical support experience as fantastic.
I would evaluate the customer service and technical support as a white-glove experience for sure.
I evaluate the customer service and technical support as excellent, as the support provided by Cisco is superior to other companies I have dealt with across various products.
Compared to some open-source projects with weak support, OPNsense stands out for having both a strong community and commercial backing options.
I mainly rely on community support since the solution is open source.
If you say you do not have one, it is finished. This is where the monopoly starts.
I find that Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall is well-prepared to scale with the growing needs of my organization, as it is designed with scalability in mind.
It scales well with the growing needs of my organization.
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall scales well with the growing needs of our organization.
I use Zenarmor, pinning it to one core for packet inspection, and the CPU performance seems very good.
OPNsense's scalability is excellent; I just need to resize my hardware and upgrade the server, and voilà, I am good to go.
In theory, OPNsense can handle small home networks and even large enterprise environments if deployed on sufficiently powerful hardware or virtualized on a clustered system.
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues.
No downtime or crashes experienced once it has been onboarded.
I have not experienced any downtime or crashes with Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall.
For home and small network use, OPNsense is also reliable, providing enterprise-grade security at no cost.
The only challenge faced was its inadequacy to manage large voice traffic effectively, even with dedicated hardware.
At the latest code level, I haven't experienced any crashes.
Licensing is always a pain point and represents the worst aspect of the solution.
Whenever we ask for a feature while working with Cisco, within a day, we get the feature added.
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall could be improved by refining the documentation around the migration path from Cisco Defense Orchestrator or Farsight Manager because when we were early adopters, the migration path was quite unset and very vague and ambiguous.
Enhancing its performance for significant amounts of data traffic would make it closer to a perfect solution.
It would be beneficial if they could create some videos on how to set it up themselves.
The documentation should be clearer because I faced some difficulties navigating many options.
While some vendors offer cheaper options, the real value lies in the technology and the support provided by Talos and TAC, justifying its price in comparison to other vendors.
Pricing has been competitive, and any savings we make on infrastructure can be reinvested in patient experience, care, and safety.
My experience with the pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been satisfactory.
I consider the pricing of OPNsense to be high when compared with other market products.
OPNsense is free, the licensing and setup was easy.
The centralized management console has helped my organization streamline security policies because we have a single place to view logs, ingestion, and to correlate all logs and events from one dashboard.
We also have the ability to document changes and indeed have the ability to roll back failed changes in a much more expeditious manner with an audit trail, which ensures that both our network team and our security and compliance organizations are confident that we can not only effectively implement change, but we can also manage the risk that comes along with change.
The most valuable feature is the integration with all of the other Cisco tools that we have, and its platform-first approach.
The most valuable features include the basic firewall functionality and the GeoIP location services.
I can have a Wi-Fi VLAN and feel secure that the server network or the VM network that I have on a different VLAN are isolated, and they cannot talk to one another, which adds a great level of security.
It offers enterprise-grade features such as intrusion detection and prevention system, VPN support, traffic shaping, and web filtering, all without license cost.

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 32 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 8 |
Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall offers comprehensive protection and advanced security features tailored for modern network infrastructures. It efficiently addresses complex security challenges by integrating multiple functionalities into a cohesive framework.
This firewall architecture effectively secures hybrid environments, blending cloud and on-premise resources seamlessly. With its flexible deployment options, Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall allows businesses to adapt to evolving threats while maintaining high performance. Its scalable and robust nature ensures balanced load distribution and advanced threat detection, optimizing both resource utilization and security management.
What are the most important features of Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall?Cisco Hybrid Mesh Firewall is extensively implemented in industries like finance, healthcare, and retail, where secure handling of sensitive data is critical. It supports businesses by offering tailored security configurations, ensuring compliance with industry standards, and facilitating smooth integration with existing infrastructures.
OPNsense is an adaptable open-source firewall and routing platform appreciated for its flexibility, scalability, and user-friendly interface. It is equipped with robust security features and offers excellent reporting and visibility, essential for small businesses and home setups.
OPNsense stands out for its modular design, allowing cost-effective customization. This system supports VPNs and various firewall capabilities, making it suitable for securing networks from malicious traffic. Its frequent updates and extensive documentation, combined with a supportive online community, enhance user experience. However, there is room for improvement in integration with virtual servers and Azure. Scalability and hardware updates are important for large-scale environments, and users desire more reliable VPN solutions and enhanced threat intelligence tools.
What are OPNsense's most important features?OPNsense is implemented in industries requiring VPN and firewall functions, supporting site-to-site connections, protecting servers, and managing commercial network traffic. Companies apply it for security, UTM, SD-WAN, content filtering, intrusion detection, and prevention, utilizing its open-source nature and effectiveness as a next-generation firewall.
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