We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Netgate pfSense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."LinkGreat firewall capabilities"
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is the simple configuration."
"The most important feature, normally for small business customers, is link load balancing."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"The security on offer is very good."
"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."
"We are able to filter a lot of traffic especially when a lot of the traffic is in layer 7."
"Cisco is head-and-shoulders above all of the competition when it comes to technical support."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The technical support is good."
"Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It offers good network visibility, which helps in rapid response through the Rapid Threat Containment feature. Its deployment and configuration are straightforward."
"Completely integrates branch offices with perimeter security."
"It covers everything we need it to without looking to secondary solutions."
"The Intrusion Firewall is a valuable feature."
"For everyday tasks, we just get alerts. It's anything that's suspicious, including from our Netgate. So, it's part of how we maintain cybersecurity in our school. This is working alongside our endpoint security solution."
"Creation of certificates and the facility to administer services are valuable features."
"The solution is very robust."
"We've found the stability to be very good overall."
"A valuable feature is that the solution is open source."
"It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application."
"The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well."
"It works. I put pfSense in, and it works. I can't think of any trouble I ever had with it. It runs on heat-sensitive appliances. They don't need a fan, so they don't overheat. It is affordable, fast, and very high-speed. It is built on BSD Unix, and it pretty much runs on any Intel processor."
"I need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it."
"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good. I hope that their technical support will be better in the future."
"It would be good if they had fewer updates."
"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."
"Its customer service could be better."
"I think they should bring back remote VPN for users."
"The routers, don't have like long-term tendency features, or higher availability features available for the IOS. It could also use a better user interface."
"We cannot directly upgrade the system. The tool's deployment is also very difficult in legacy environments. The tool needs to have bigger ports as well."
"In the next release of this solution, we would like to see support for the 100BT and 7000 models."
"It takes too much time to deploy a policy to FMC. It takes around eight minutes. You can't afford any downtime when you're changing policies."
"With respect to user-friendliness, it is a command-line interface and those with such experience will get along just fine, whereas others may struggle."
"There could be a bit more functions on offer that could make it easier to use."
"The initial setup is complicated."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"I believe improving integration with various antivirus vendors could be beneficial."
"It should integrate with LDAP, Active Directory, etc, to improve the way in which the traces and connections of each IP, or user connected through the firewall, are shown."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"I would like to see multiple DNS servers running on individual interfaces."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"ClamAV AntiVirus can cause some crashes. That service should be improved."
"The solution requires a lot of administration."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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