Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router comparison

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

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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

Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Ranking in Firewalls

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Unified Threat Management (UTM) (7th)

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...

Ranking in Firewalls

23rd

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Featured Reviews

Chinedu Onwurah

Global Juniper Presales Engineer at Westcon-Comstor

Robust security measures and cost-effectiveness meet diverse industry needs

The biggest benefit of Juniper SRX Series Firewall overall is that it is rugged and cost-effective, offering basic firewall features and additional licensed features as needed. The main challenge I see as a distributor is Juniper's rating in the Gartner report, where Juniper is not a leader in enterprise security, which often influences customer conversations. Most customers want to check the Gartner report before they engage, making it challenging to sell Juniper security. With my extensive experience with the Juniper SRX Series Firewall, the robustness of the SD-Cloud or Security Director interface and overall functionality needs to be improved to compete with leading firewall solutions.

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Jim Voige

Site Manager at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

High availability routing has secured our network and delivers reliable support every day

One downside of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is the need for a better understanding of what hardware it would run on. Right now, we're using Netgate's hardware, but I'm interested in knowing if there are other hardware options available, particularly heavier duty hardware, because the Supermicro 1537 version we have only has a single power supply, which is a shortcoming in an IT environment where dual power supplies are ideal. The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options. I'm familiar with the costs of Supermicro servers, and I believe Netgate charges a premium for their server hardware without enough upside to justify it. The pricing is not justified.

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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

"Most of our clients use it as a traditional firewall, blocking Layer 3 and Layer 4, blocking by transport."

"Juniper is a highly flexible platform, and you get more bang for your buck compared to a Cisco product."

"We liked that it had additional features and was more modern than the Cisco ASA line."

"This is a very, very stable solution."

"The user interface is good."

"Juniper SRX has helped in the financial success of our organization."

"Using a Juniper CLI, you configure a "candidate configuration", then "commit" it to bring it live. If you do not like it or messed up something, you just "rollback" to the previous configuration. It can all be done in a matter of minutes. This is super handy once you get use to it."

"We use it as a firewall at our head office and branches."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall pros

"My experience with the product is that it is a stable and good product that is easy to use."

"I do not have complaints about Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router with Firewall, VPN, and Router; it is really comfortable for use, and it does a pretty good job."

"Overall, the entire Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router product has been reliable, though some of their smaller gear aimed at remote offices hasn't been cost-effective."

"It's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."

"We use pfSense and Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router to establish a VPN tunnel between our client and our headquarters to transfer data between client and our equipment; it's very simple to use, efficient, up to date, and the hardware is very available; it's very safe."

"They are more satisfied with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router in terms of its flexibility and customer support."

Cons

"Ongoing costs are something that we need to manage and make sure that we're getting value on."

"Juniper needs to focus more on their perimeter firewalls."

"I think improvement can be done to the security part, particularly the UDM, and the product should have a user-friendly interface similar to FortiGate. It should have the Azure RBAC in the next release."

"Third-party support for Juniper is a lot less than Cisco."

"In some cases, customers encounter issues related to network interfaces, while others prioritize security concerns."

"The visibility/reporting could be better. To see something, you have to export the log to a syslog and then process with another product."

"The solution's configurations and syntax are specific and more complicated than other platforms."

"The setup process should be improved."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall cons

"I would assess the effectiveness of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router's traffic shaping as good, but I would give a six marks only for that compared to others because in the past few years, there has been a stop of improvement or lack of improvement showing in Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router."

"The effectiveness of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router traffic shaping is quite good, but I am not very satisfied with the interface for control."

"They have to learn something more from FortiGate."

"The most significant drawback in recent years has been the cessation of firmware release downloads."

"The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its price is comparable to the competition."

"The direct support with Juniper is expensive. When you stop using the solution and miss one year of payments, if you want the support back on a specific node, they ask you to pay for the year that you haven't used the node."

"Compared to other vendors, the pricing of this solution is good."

"The pricing appears to be cost-effective, and the cost is quite reasonable within Bangladesh and other countries, though it may vary based on global currency fluctuations."

"In my opinion, the Juniper SRX Series Firewall is cheaper than other products."

"We were able to lower our overall operating costs over a three year period by 25%, mostly recovered from maintenance/support costs."

"When you consider performance, price, and features, maybe Juniper is not so cost-effective compared to other solutions like MikroTik."

"The pricing is perhaps half, probably forty percent, of Cisco."

More Juniper SRX Series Firewall pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Construction Company

38%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	47
Midsize Enterprise	20
Large Enterprise	32

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Juniper SRX?

The Juniper SRX Series Firewall is affordable and cost-effective. The cost depends on the use case; for firewalls, it's not per user, but for VPN Connect it is per user, while most other licenses a...

What advice do you have for others considering Juniper SRX?

I work with Aruba, Juniper, and FortiGate Fortinet solutions. I do not work with Juniper Mist. I only work with Juniper switches, routers, and firewalls, including MX routers, QFX switches, and Jun...

What needs improvement with Juniper SRX Series Firewall?

I do not work with threat prevention, so customers do not purchase this license for Juniper SRX Series Firewall. It is working only with firewall and VPN concentrator and router functionality. We d...

What needs improvement with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router regularly provides updates. One aspect they can improve is that most people ask whether an antivirus scanning system is available in pfSense. Other companie...

What is your primary use case for Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

We work with Netgate products. We are a reseller and consultant. We have been working with Netgate and Fortinet for around two years.

What advice do you have for others considering Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

For metrics to measure its impact, we do not measure in a formal way. We use bandwidth monitoring to check how effective the solution is. I have not encountered customers asking for additional feat...

Fortinet FortiGate vs Juniper SRX Series Firewall

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Compared 58% of the time

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Compared 42% of the time

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Product Reports

Juniper SRX Series Firewall

Download Juniper SRX Series Firewall product report

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Download Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router product report

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router report

Also Known As

Juniper SRX

No data available

Overview

Juniper SRX Series Firewall delivers high-speed performance and robust security services, offering seamless integration with third-party products and a user-friendly experience through its unified OS.

Juniper SRX Series Firewall excels in delivering stability, robust security, and high-speed performance. Known for its reliable routing and firewall capabilities, it ensures secure connectivity with IPsec VPN and offers a powerful CLI for configuration. High availability and centralized management enhance efficiency, while automation supports seamless operations. Despite these strengths, some users find its GUI outdated and integration with other systems challenging. There is room for improvement in scalability and intuitive configuration, while pricing and customer support need enhancements to compete with market leaders like Cisco and Fortinet.

What are the top features of Juniper SRX Series Firewall?

High-Speed Performance: Ensures fast and efficient network operations.
Robust Security Services: Provides comprehensive protection against threats.
Routing Capabilities: Delivers reliable and flexible network routing.
Ease of Integration: Supports connection with third-party products.
IPsec VPN: Offers secure connectivity for remote access.
Powerful CLI: Facilitates detailed and customized configurations.
High Availability: Guarantees continuous operation of network services.

What benefits and ROI should users expect?

Enhanced Security: Offers strong defenses against cyber threats.
Operational Efficiency: Increases productivity through centralized management and automation.
Simplified User Experience: Reduces training time with a unified OS.
Flexible Deployment: Provides versatility for on-premises and cloud-based applications.

Juniper SRX Series Firewall finds application in sectors like finance, education, and telecommunications, focusing on site-to-site VPNs, remote work protection, and perimeter defense. It secures data centers and internal networks, provides network traffic encryption, and supports high-availability configurations and routing capabilities in both on-premises and cloud-integrated settings.

Juniper

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router offers open-source, license-free software with strong VPN options and robust networking capabilities, supporting secure, scalable, and reliable IT infrastructure integration.

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router stands out with its open-source framework, providing organizations the freedom from annual license renewals and enabling focus on CAPEX. It integrates seamlessly within IT environments, offering extensive package availability for broad functionality. Equipped with WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPsec, it ensures robust VPN configurations. Its traffic shaping, load balancing, and failover functionalities enhance network performance, while Multi-WAN connections boost uptime. Users benefit from its affordability, scalability, VLAN support, and consistent secure operations. However, clearer communication on antivirus capabilities and interface improvements for speed is needed. The equipment's transition to cloud-based firmware updates has seen mixed reception.

What are the key features of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router?

License-Free Software: Avoid annual renewals, allowing financial focus on CAPEX.
Strong VPN Options: Supports WireGuard, OpenVPN, and IPsec for secure connections.
Traffic Shaping and Load Balancing: Optimizes network performance and reliability.
Multi-WAN Capability: Enhances connectivity and ensures consistent uptime.
VLAN Support: Allows efficient network segmentation and management.
Open-Source Nature: Provides transparency and continuous community-driven enhancements.

What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?

Cost Efficiency: Reduces expenditure with license-free, open-source software.
Scalability: Grows with organizational demands without added costs.
Reliability: Ensures secure, stable connections with minimal downtime.
Ease of Use: Simplified configuration and management for technical teams.
Community Support: Backed by a knowledgeable user community for ongoing support.

In educational settings, such as universities and engineering colleges, Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router facilitates secure VPN tunnels for data transfer. It sees application as a high-availability BGP setup among consultants and resellers, ensuring reliability and network efficiency.

Netgate

Sample Customers

7-Eleven, AARNet Pty Ltd, Allegro Networks, alltours GmbH, Apollo Hotel Papendrecht, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Atlantech Online, Availity, Bajaj Capital, Baloise Insurance, BancABC, BAS Group, Black Lotus, Blue Box, Borealis, Carilion Clinic, Catholic Health System, CATV, Champlain College, Chinas Ministry of Railways, China University of Mining and Technology (CUMT), Cloud Dynamics, CloudSeeds, Cloudwatt, CODONiS, Colt Technology Services, Cork Internet Exchange, CSS Versicherung AG, CyrusOne, Danish Crown, Deloitte Belgium, Department of Energy, Divona Telecom, DQE Communications, DreamHost, European Government Agency, Expedient, Financial Market Information Services Provider, Fluidata, Fonality, Fox Sports, Global Financial Institution, Global Investment Bank, Global Investment Company, Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), Goethe University, HEAnet, High Performance Networks Inc., Hillenbrand

Information Not Available

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router