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."Whenever we raise a complaint with FortiGate, their response and resolution times are minimal."
"The solution is very, very easy to use."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"It's very easy to configure."
"We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."
"The most valuable features are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"Consolidated our network environment at all locations, but mainly at our datacenter."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access."
"Cisco IOS allows us to keep the same security features as our principal offices."
"The solution is easy to use."
"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."
"The most valuable feature is endpoint protection."
"The most valuable features of Cisco IOS Security are the plenty of functionality it provides, many people are IT certified the usage, and the user interface is good."
"The VPN was valuable for us because more people are working from home. It has a lot of reporting and easy-to-use management tools."
"The solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."
"The product's stability is good."
"It is a better firewall than others and it has better features."
"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."
"Good basic firewall features."
"A free firewall that is a good network security appliance."
"pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"Creation of certificates and the facility to administer services are valuable features."
"The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice. It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding enhancements to FortiMail, FortiSOAR, and FortiDeceptor."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"The reports are very basic."
"The support system could be improved."
"Monitoring and reporting could be better."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"The solution is complex and can be more user-friendly."
"It would be ideal if the solution had more capacity."
"Most of their features are meant for Cisco. You cannot integrate them with any other vendor."
"We have a very bad experience on the support. They take too much time requesting logs, and they are not coming directly online to resolve the issues."
"Sometimes I find it difficult to manage. Some configurations are difficult for new engineers, for example."
"The solution is not user friendly and it is hard to manage the GUI interface."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"Cisco is an expensive firewall, so the pricing can be improved."
"I expect a better interface with more log analysis because I create my own interface."
"We are at the moment looking to use it as a proxy service so that we can limit what websites people go and view and that sort of thing. That's an area I've struggled with a little bit at the moment and it could be a bit easier to set up."
"It needs to be more secure."
"The usage reports can be better."
"In terms of areas of improvement, the interface seemed like it had a lot. The GUI interface that I had gotten into was rather elaborate. I don't know if they could zero in on some markets and potentially for small, medium businesses specifically, give them a stripped-down version of the GUI for pfSense."
"Layer 7 advanced firewall features are not included in the solution."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 21 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 15 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "It's a reliable solution that will be around for a long time, but the configuration and reporting interfaces need improvement". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "Feature-rich, well documented, and there is good support available online". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and KerioControl. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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