Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs Untangle NG Firewall comparison

Netgate and Arista are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Netgate is ranked #25 with an average rating of 9.0, while Arista is ranked #32 with an average rating of 8.0. Netgate holds a 0.2% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Arista’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Netgate users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Arista users who would recommend it.

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...

Read 5 Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router reviews

1,347 Views
498 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Untangle NG Firewall

Read 26 Untangle NG Firewall reviews

4,605 Views
3,914 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewa...

Untangle NG Firewall

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router and Untangle NG Firewall 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.

To learn more, read our detailed Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs. Untangle NG Firewall Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs. Untangle NG Firewall

August 2026

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Helped 909,725 peers since 2012

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

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Untangle NG Firewall

Ranking in Firewalls

32nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Unified Threat Management (UTM) (11th)

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 Untangle NG Firewall is 1.0%, down from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router	0.2%
Untangle NG Firewall	1.0%
Other	98.8%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

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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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

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"The product is easy to implement."

"The majority of our clients are very small businesses, and Untangle devices have been fantastic for these small clients. We've basically standardized our stack to just simply use Untangle. We include the hardware and the service option, which makes it very easy and affordable for us to just simply push that into the monthly per-user costing that we provide as a managed services provider. It's really a no-brainer. They're easy to use, and they're easy to set up and configure. Support is generally good about resolving any issues that we have. We haven't had any real complaints."

"Having various solutions in one appliance, one portal, that's easy to implement, with excellent customer service makes for a sound solution."

"The flexibility to grow, the user-friendliness of the interface, and the common center facility are the advantages of Untangle NG Firewall."

"Untangle is a much better buy for the money than SonicWall."

"The threat prevention features of Untangle NG Firewall have helped my network security management, and I find them very good."

"We have scaled it from 10 users to 1,000 users without any issues."

More Untangle NG Firewall pros

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

"They have to learn something more from FortiGate."

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

"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."

"We have a minor issue when assigning IP addresses in the ARP tables. You should be able to go into the ARP tables, look at the IP address and say, "Nope, they need to be on this side on this IP address." The ability to set a DHP reservation from the ARP tables would be great. It's no big deal, but it would be nice to have."

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

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

"The web content filtering needs improvement."

"Whenever there are a large number of endpoint VPN clients, connectivity becomes slow."

"The product needs to improve its mobile application."

"There is room for improvement in the logs. Like with Cisco, I can do almost everything and know almost anything about what's running. Untangle works very much out of the box. It's very user-friendly, but it's not engineer-friendly. So, it's good for a home user. For something fairly easy, but at the same time, with good technology to have at home, because at home, I'm not a millionaire or anything like that. So it's not like I'm worried to get hacked. I didn't want something like a Cisco firewall; it would be a bit overkill to have at home. So that's why I went for Untangle. But it lacks a few features. It's just a tick-box kind of thing. So they have apps and turn on and off the apps. The VPN's configuration is all very ticked. They have a few custom configurations, but it's not that much."

"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."

More Untangle NG Firewall cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We pay $350 USD per year for the solution. There are no additional costs. As long as you're not using a physical appliance, that's all you need."

"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."

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

"The pricing model is better than with SonicWall."

"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."

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

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

"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."

More Untangle NG Firewall pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

35%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

16%

Construction Company

10%

University

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	26
Midsize Enterprise	1

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...

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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.

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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...

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Untangle NG Firewall?

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

See all answers

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 functionality. It has a captive portal, web filter, virus blocker, spam blocker, ba...

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Comparisons

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Compared 35% of the time

VyOS Platform vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 23% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 12% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 11% of the time

Hillstone T-Series vs Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

Compared 11% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router Competitors

OPNsense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Untangle NG Firewall

Compared 5% of the time

More Untangle NG Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router

August 2026

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router report

Download Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router product report

Buyer's Guide

Untangle NG Firewall

July 2026

Download Untangle NG Firewall product report

Overview

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

Untangle NG Firewall provides a user-centric security firewall solution. It combines ease of integration with features such as comprehensive web filtering, VPN capabilities, and content control, tailored for small businesses and scalable for enterprise deployments.

Untangle NG Firewall is designed to enhance network security for small businesses, law offices, and unions. It offers centralized management and strong performance with features like SSL inspection, application control, and threat detection. Users appreciate customization options, bandwidth management, and tools like OpenVPN. However, there is room for improvement in reporting, hardware specs, and configuration options to match evolving security requirements. The call for a mobile app, better content filtering, and robust VPN capabilities is growing alongside a desire for improved licensing and support structures.

What are the important features?

Web Filtering: Provides comprehensive controls for managing internet access.
VPN Capabilities: Ensures secure remote access via stable VPN connections.
SSL Inspection: Inspects encrypted traffic for threats.
Application Control: Allows management of applications in the network.
Threat Detection: Identifies and mitigates potential security risks.

What benefits and ROI can be found in reviews?

User-Friendliness: Simplifies network management with easy setup and integration.
Cost-Effectiveness: Affordable pricing with potential savings through hardware-as-a-service model.
Security: Offers robust security features and tools to ensure network safety.
Scalability: Accommodates growth from small to enterprise-level networks.

In industries like law offices and unions, Untangle NG Firewall is implemented primarily on-premises and managed via the cloud. Its integration with existing hardware allows for seamless deployment, delivering features such as web filtering, intrusion prevention, and virus blocking. The easy setup and diverse capabilities make it a suitable option for enhancing security in various professional environments.

Arista

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

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

Netgate pfSense Plus Firewall/VPN/Router vs. Untangle NG Firewall

August 2026

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