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Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs Palo Alto Networks VM-Series comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...
Ranking in Firewalls
25th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
4.3
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series
Ranking in Firewalls
17th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (18th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router is 0.2%. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is 2.7%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Palo Alto Networks VM-Series2.7%
Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router0.2%
Other97.1%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Jim Voige - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
MuhammadNadeem - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Network Engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Has supported urgent deployments and enabled inline threat protection but pricing and features could be more flexible
I am not using Palo Alto Networks VM-Series mostly, but based on my experience, there are some deficiencies in Palo Alto Networks VM-Series. Having those features missing, we are not proposing Palo Alto Networks VM-Series to all customers. However, for urgency and for some solutions that customers need for some of their other sites and subdivisions, we are providing the same.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"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."
"My experience with the product is that it is a stable and good product that is easy to use."
"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."
"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."
"They are more satisfied with Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router in terms of its flexibility and customer support."
"The most valuable feature is that you can control your traffic flowing out and coming out, allowing you to apply malware and threat protection, as well as vulnerability checks."
"Palo Alto can handle a lot more and give us more insight into our network."
"A solid operating system with all the necessary data center security features."
"AWS has improved our agility to apply firewall rules."
"The most effective features of the solution for threat prevention are Layer 7 inspection, SSL decryption, IPS, and the web filtering profile."
"Palo Alto's robust threat intelligence supports new updates, and I can open cases directly with their Threat Intelligence team."
"In terms of security breaches, the product aids in categorizing and monitoring traffic, allowing for the identification of potentially malicisous or incorrectly formatted applications."
"Palo Alto offers excellent security, with features such as email scanning, malware protection, and efficient VPN and antivirus capabilities."
 

Cons

"The most significant drawback in recent years has been the cessation of firmware release downloads."
"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."
"They have to learn something more from FortiGate."
"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."
"The pricing for the hardware of Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall_VPN_Router is steep, which is one reason I'd explore other options."
"It would be good if the common features work consistently in physical and virtual environments. There was an integration issue in the virtual deployment where it didn't report the interface counters, and we had to upgrade to the latest version, whereas the same thing has been working in the physical deployment for ages now. It seems that it was because of Azure. We were using VMware before, and we didn't have any such issues. We do see such small issues where we expect things to work, but they don't because of some incompatibilities. There also seems to be a limitation on how to do high availability in a virtualized environment. All features should be consistently available in physical and virtual environments. It is not always easy to integrate Palo Alto in the network management system. We would like to be able to compare two network management systems. They can maybe allow monitoring an interface through the GUI to create a reference or do a baseline check about whether your network monitoring system is actually giving you the correct traffic figures. You need traffic figures to be able to recognize the trends and plan the capacity."
"The implementation should be simplified."
"The scalability could be improved further."
"Recently, they introduced their Prisma Cloud solution. Compared to the previous technologies, like Panorama, which is used for centralized firewall management, or even the individual firewalls, it's a bit challenging to integrate the traditional firewall policies into Prisma Cloud."
"We feel that the setup was complex."
"People are less aware of Palo Alto."
"Perfection is unlikely as the dynamic nature of traffic and constant changes can result in occasional bugs despite regular updates."
"It would be helpful if we had a direct number for the support manager or the supporting engineer. That would be better than having to email every time because there would be less wait."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"​The licensing is pretty much like everyone else."
"The VM series is licensed annually."
"We found purchasing process the product on the AWS Marketplace to be very good."
"Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is notably cheaper than other firewall vendors, except Fortigate."
"The pricing and licensing are reasonable."
"Initially, pricing was high. Later on, we were able to negotiate the pricing and get something that fits our budget."
"The price of this solution is very high for some parts of Africa, which makes it a challenge."
"There is a need to make payments toward a yearly subscription-based model in which you need to add modules that you want to use in your company."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
35%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Healthcare Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Construction Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise24
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Features comparison between Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls
In the best tradition of these questions, Feature-wise both are quite similar, but each has things it's better at, it kind of depends what you value most. PA is good at app control, web filtering a...
How does Azure Firewall compare with Palo Alto Networks VM Series?
Both products are very stable and easily scalable. The setup of Azure Firewall is easy and very user-friendly and the overall cost is reasonable. Azure Firewall offers a solid threat awareness, can...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks VM-Series?
The pricing is more on the expensive side, but it is justified due to its functionality, reliability, and throughput, even with all features enabled. In comparison to FortiGate ( /products/fortinet...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Warren Rogers Associates
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.