Comparison conclusions:
pfSense offers paid options for additional support and features (pfSense Plus), a wider range of features and a larger community, but might have a steeper learning curve.
OPNsense provides a clean interface and built-in security features, but its community and documentation are smaller
The summary above is based on 40 interviews we conducted with pfSense and OPNsense users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."
"Fortinet FortiGate's reliability is valuable."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"It is a better firewall than others and it has better features."
"Open source and support are valuable. I have community support."
"The flexibility of adding new kinds of services without spending any money can't be beaten."
"This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution."
"The performance and functionality are good."
"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it. I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"The technical support is very good."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"Its reporting and pricing need improvement."
"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."
"The solution's framework needs to be frequently updated in order to have a stable solution."
"With the reports, you can see it, and you can get good feelings so upper management can go, "Oh, wow. That looks pretty." However, it's very basic."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"Adjustment in the interfaces: I had to adjust those interfaces manually and of course that is a great feature that you can restore it but it is immediately also one point for improvement. If you don't have to adjust, if it's just stamped and it works, that's great."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"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."
"The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
"The solution’s interface must be improved."
"The solution could always work at being more secure. It's a good idea to continue to work on security features and capabilities in order to ensure they can keep clients safe."
"pfSense is not user-friendly. I hope to have something to make the interfaces more user-friendly."
"The interface isn't so friendly user. But we have some technicians here who are quite confident with this tool. OPNSense could maybe add sets of rules so it's simpler to manage different groups with particular needs."
"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the Insight or the NetFlow analysis part. It would be good to have the possibility to dig down on the Insight platform. Right now, we can easily do only a few analyses. If this page becomes more powerful, it surely will be a well-adopted platform."
"We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much."
"When using the solution at the beginning was difficult. There was a steep learning curve."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"The solution could be more secure."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while OPNsense is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". On the other hand, the top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Robust network security and management offering a user-friendly interface, open-source flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, with challenges regarding initial setup and the absence of official support". Netgate pfSense is most compared with Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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