Hillstone T-Series vs Untangle NG Firewall comparison

Hillstone Networks and Arista are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Hillstone Networks is ranked #43, while Arista is ranked #34 with an average rating of 8.0. Hillstone Networks holds a 0.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Arista’s 0.9% mindshare. Additionally, 66% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Arista users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Hillstone T-Series and Untangle NG Firewall are two well-regarded firewall solutions. Hillstone T-Series is noted for its pricing and customer support, but Untangle NG Firewall stands out for its features, making it a superior product for many users.

Features: Hillstone T-Series is praised for its robust security features, high performance, and comprehensive threat protection. Untangle NG Firewall is highly regarded for its ease of use, extensive app library, and flexible deployment options.

Room for Improvement: Hillstone T-Series could benefit from a more intuitive management console, an expanded feature set, and better usability. Untangle NG Firewall users suggest improving support response times, enhancing reporting capabilities, and focusing on support improvements.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Hillstone T-Series users find deployment straightforward but occasionally complicated by the need for technical expertise. Customer service is viewed positively. Untangle NG Firewall has a simple and quick deployment process, though customer service has mixed reviews.

Pricing and ROI: Hillstone T-Series is cost-effective with good ROI. Setup costs are reasonable, and long-term benefits are favorable. Untangle NG Firewall users find it worth the price due to its expansive feature set, though initial costs may be higher.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone T-Series vs. Untangle NG Firewall Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone T-Series vs. Untangle NG Firewall

March 2026

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.3%, down from 21.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone T-Series is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Untangle NG Firewall is 0.9%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
Untangle NG Firewall	0.9%
Hillstone T-Series	0.3%
Other	80.5%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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TahirMahmood

IT Manager at Zubair Feeds

Is stable and has a user-friendly dashboard and a good interface

We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good We cannot secure a specific IP class with this firewall. Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the…

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Gary-Downey

Director of Information Technology at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Has provided built-in VPN tools and reporting features that streamline remote access and monitoring tasks

We do an outside-sourced threat prevention regarding the Threat Prevention features. I haven't run into areas that could be improved or cons versus pros for Untangle NG Firewall. I haven't done anything too advanced when it comes to the filtering, so I'm not sure what can be improved or added. I haven't dug into the advanced features, but I think some of the advanced capabilities are probably where it lacks a little bit, with the filtering and firewall rules. These areas could be improved to make it a nine out of 10 or a 10 out of 10 for overall rating.

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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

"The ROI is great, as these boxes are not that expensive compared to what they can do, their functionality, and the reporting you receive."

"The most valuable aspects of FortiGate NGFW are its top-notch reputation in peer reviews, user-friendly interface, and excellent support."

"We are very happy with the security features afforded by this product."

"FortiGate is the most effective solution for us and it's a cheaper option to Check Point or Palo Alto which we looked at."

"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."

"This solution has a very friendly GUI and CLI as compared to other vendors."

"It is a scalable solution."

"Fortinet can pinpoint the source of the problem, so we can work with the right people to get it resolved."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"It has been stable so far."

"We installed Hillstone T-Series after a ransomware attack. The dashboard and user interface are very good."

"We found some limitations with Fortinet FortiGate, and we are satisfied with Hillstone T-Series right now."

"The only firewall able to monitor traffic from a CCTV network. Can detect unauthorized devices plugged into the network, which standard firewalls can't do."

"Hillstone supports IOT setup and detecting intrusions from IOT or CCTV connectivity, and with this solution, we can also detect unauthorized devices plugged into the CCTV network and sound the alarm to the administrator."

"From a small business perspective, it's a very good product because you don't really have to be that technical in order to use it."

"Since it can be put on any box, the scalability is fantastic."

"The reason we chose this solution is because of their support, which is hands down the best support that I have had with a firewall."

"The ease of use and the built-in and integrated features, including the apps that include OpenVPN, IPsec, and WireGuard VPN, are all built straight into Untangle NG Firewall."

"Web filtering is very reliable."

"Easy to set up and easy to integrate."

"NG Firewalls allow us to permit or deny applications we don't want to run. We also use content filtering, SSL inspection, and all the other things we run on the firewall to keep our clients protected and ensure they're not going where they shouldn't. It's a great firewall that works as intended."

"None of my clients has had a ransom or breach using Untangle."

More Untangle NG Firewall pros

Cons

"From a pricing perspective, I would rate them a six."

"Like any hardware, it has finite scalability restrictions."

"Technical support is a little slow and needs to be improved."

"It would be helpful to have a better tool for migrating all policy rules using an automatic script."

"There should be better customization in the IPS."

"It claims it does DLP, but the degree and level of controls are very basic."

"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."

"The support is very poor with FortiGate IPS and they need to look into fixing it. The senior support agent does not honor their commitments when ordering products."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"They have a very good technical support team, but I think there are some communication issues due to language differences."

"Licensing is not cheap, but there are customers who will buy because they understand that this has a cost involved and they will cater their budget for that."

"They have a very good technical support team, but I think there are some communication issues due to language differences."

"Licensing is not cheap."

"Another loophole with Hillstone T-Series is that when we connect through WiFi and turn our hot spot on, all who connect through the hotspot get all the functions, and the security does not work."

"The pricing is not as good as it was some time ago. They've since skipped offering a lot of individual features."

"It would be much easier if there was a mobile app."

"For the web filter, I think they can do better especially on the free model."

"The web content filtering feature of Untangle was not giving us what we wanted."

"The common center facility that Untangle provides should be available on-premises. There are great corporations here in Mexico that like the Untangle solution, but they don't like the fact that the monitoring and access to the appliance are in the cloud. They request for the common center facility to be available and installed on-premises."

"It does have multi-factor authentication in some areas, but I would love to see a more widely implemented version of that on the devices themselves."

"On their low-end appliance, they could have more memory and the largest storage space. The low-end appliance comes with a too-small hard drive, and it could use a little extra room. It only comes with about 4 gigs or 8 gigs of memory, and the hardware space is only 40 gigs, which is really small."

"The product needs to have a better support group for its online support, specifically for its help desk."

More Untangle NG Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet has one or two license types, and the VPN numbers are only limited by the hardware chassis make."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate could improve, it is expensive."

"It's one of the more expensive brands. The 100 series costs around $4,000. They are similar in pricing to what you might get from Cisco solutions and probably other similar ones. They're not more expensive than other similar solutions, but they're certainly not cheaper either."

"Pricing and licensing is a little bit complicated in FortiGate. They are always on the higher side. This is one issue that we always raise with the company that they should reduce the price according to Indian market requirements. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The pricing is justified. It's a little pricey, but what you pay for is what you get."

"The platform offers a reasonable price point compared to its competitors."

"I pay €1,200 per year for the license along with Fortinet's 81E firewall appliance. I would rate this pricing as 3/5 stars, and I believe the price is reasonably similar to its competitors in the market, being somewhere in the middle."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate when compared to other solutions is high. However, my knowledge of the price is from third parties and I am not sure how accurate it is. I typically work in the technical area of my organization."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"On a scale from one to ten, with one being low and ten being high price, I would rate the price of Hillstone T-Series at three. There are no additional costs other than renewal costs."

"We got a much cheaper price than that provided by Fortinet right now."

"The tool's pricing is moderate, and licensing costs are yearly."

"The solution is fairly priced."

"Untangle is open-source software. So, you can get it for free. That has been a benefit, especially for the residential users because it is free. The license costs start at $25 a month for some additional features, including higher tiers of security intrusion prevention. The free version comes with intrusion detection, and then the license version has intrusion prevention. It also has some additional things for active directory connectors, etc. It starts at $25 a month to cover 12 devices. Then it goes up from $25 to $50 a month for 12 to 25 devices. That's where it really doesn't scale out per site. If you have a site that has more than 50 devices on it, then Untangle quickly becomes cost prohibitive in comparison to several other competitors."

"It is not expensive. The best part is that it is based on the pay-per-use kind of scenario. An increase or decrease in the number of people doesn't make any difference. We are really happy about using this particular scenario."

"This is not an expensive product. It is affordable and there are different packages available depending on the features that you need, or the sector that you are in."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The setup cost is about $2000 to $3000 per year."

"It is not expensive. It is cheaper than Fortinet."

More Untangle NG Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

No data available

Comms Service Provider

16%

Manufacturing Company

University

Construction Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	363
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	1

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Untangle NG Firewall?

It is not very expensive, so it is affordable for my budget.

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What needs improvement with Untangle NG Firewall?

I would appreciate improvements to the ad blocker and SSL Inspector of Untangle NG Firewall.

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What is your primary use case for Untangle NG Firewall?

My usual use cases for Untangle NG Firewall are just like a firewall and router. The main purpose is for firewall fun...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Hillstone T-Series

Compared 28% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Hillstone T-Series

Compared 17% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Hillstone T-Series

Compared 9% of the time

Check Point CloudGuard Network Security vs Hillstone T-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Hillstone T-Series

Compared 7% of the time

More Hillstone T-Series Competitors

OPNsense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 23% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 7% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

IPFire vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 4% of the time

More Untangle NG Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

March 2026

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Buyer's Guide

Untangle NG Firewall

March 2026

Download Untangle NG Firewall product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

Hillstone T-Series Intelligent Next-Generation Firewalls, Hillstone iNGFW

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.

Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.

What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.

Fortinet

Hillstone’s T-Series intelligent Next-Generation Firewall (iNGFW) uses three key technologies to detect advanced attacks and provide continuous threat defense for today’s networks. First, it uses statistical clustering to detect unknown malware, leveraging the patented Hillstone Advanced Threat Detection engine (ATD). Second, it uses behavioral analytics to detect anomalous network behavior, which is based on the Hillstone Abnormal Behavior Detection engine (ABD). Finally, it leverages the Hillstone threat correlation analysis engine to correlate threat events detected by disparate engines – including ATD, ABD, Sandbox and other traditional signature-based threat detection technologies – along with context information to identify advanced threats.

Hillstone Networks

Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform that helps keep networks safe while accessing the internet. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams. The solution also has a cloud-based management console for remote management that can either be deployed on premises or as SaaS, and virtualized or cloud-based. It also has flexible deployment options, including third-party hardware, as a virtual machine, or as a turnkey appliance. Untangle NG Firewall is ideal for small IT teams with limited budgets.

Untangle NG Firewall Features

Untangle NG Firewall has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Intrusion protection
Threat prevention
Virus blocker
Virus scanner
App control
SSL inspection
Bandwidth control
Reporting
Logs
VPN
Web filter
IDS/IPS
Access controls
Location control
Proxy
Active Directory/LDAP connections

Untangle NG Firewall Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Untangle NG Firewall. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Simplified network security: Untangle NG Firewall has a single, modular, software platform which simplifies security for all networks and ensures every device is adequately protected.

Visibility: The solution provides a browser-based, responsive, and intuitive interface enabling users to gain visibility quickly into the traffic on the network.

Deep analysis and insights: With the solution, users can see a network’s status at a glance on the dashboard, ensure compliance with full event logs, and get notifications of network anomalies or unusual user behavior with alert rules. In addition, users can gain insights in real time from database-driven reports.

Next-generation filtering: Untangle NG Firewall makes it easy to manage every rogue application, encrypted web request, malware distribution point, and drive-by malvertising attempt.

Connectivity and performance: The solution helps your organization maintain visibility and control over remote workers, branch offices, and guest Wi-Fi to keep users connected and data safe regardless of location or level of access.

Policy creation: Users can create policies by user, group, device, and time in order to control access.

Additional apps: Untangle NG Firewall offers additional apps, allowing organizations to create complete configuration backups to protect against network disruptions.

Reviews from Real Users

Untangle NG Firewall is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is easy to use, has good features, including VPN, reporting, alerting, and filtering, and can be installed on existing hardware.

“It is very easy to use. The user interface is very straightforward. It may not be as fancy as some of the ones I've seen, but it's very straightforward. It's very easy to find what you need, and it's very easy to get things done,” says Josh E., CEO at DragonTech IT Services, Inc.

Barry A., Owner at ThinkEzIT, says, “It has good VPN features, helpful reporting and alerting, built-in content filtering, and excellent support.”

PeerSpot user Victor O., Director at Kisii County Government, explains, “What I like about this product, which is the reason that we continue to use it, is that you can install the software version on your own hardware. In case there is a problem with the hardware, we can just install the firewall in another machine and restore the configuration.”

Arista

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

University of Córdoba

North American Stamping Group, Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey (CPNJ), Brown County Schools, IN, City of Bridgeton, MO, Lancaster County, SC, Vision Charter School, Clay County Sheriff’s Department, NC, Breakwater School, Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, NH, Admiral Farragut Academy, Flow Companies, No Ordinary Hotel, KECdesign,

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone T-Series vs. Untangle NG Firewall

March 2026

Free Report: Hillstone T-Series vs. Untangle NG Firewall

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