We performed a comparison between pfSense and SonicWall TZ based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: pfSense offers valuable features such as IP address blocking, user-friendly dashboards, scanning and filtering capabilities, stability, customization abilities, and cost-effectiveness. SonicWall TZ provides unified threat management, VPN capabilities, web security, a user-friendly interface, simplicity, stability, performance, content filtering, and additional features.
pfSense users have suggested the need for instructional videos for beginners, a clearer web interface, improved stability, a mobile application, enhanced reporting, and better integration with other solutions. Users of SonicWall TZ have pointed out improvements that are needed in rated throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, integration and flexibility, marketing and branding, reporting and licensing, additional ports, affordability and competition, UI application and policy synchronization, technical support and VPN connections, and pricing.
Service and Support: Some users of pfSense have appreciated the technical support, while others have sought help from the online community. SonicWall TZ has garnered both positive and negative feedback. While some customers have found the support to be satisfactory, others have encountered delays and language barriers.
Ease of Deployment: Users generally find the initial setup of pfSense to be straightforward and easy, with a simple installation process. However, they express the need for clearer guidance or a configuration wizard. The initial setup for SonicWall TZ is considered intuitive and not overly complex, with a smooth out-of-the-box process.
Pricing: The cost of setting up pfSense is affordable and requires no extra charges for firmware updates. Opinions on SonicWall TZ's pricing are divided, with some deeming it cost-effective for medium-sized businesses, while others perceive it as pricey and lacking competitiveness.
ROI: pfSense provides a budget-friendly option with a low yearly cost and substantial hardware savings, leading to a considerable ROI. SonicWall TZ is suggested for improved efficacy and is seen as an essential element for safeguarding the network.
Comparison Results: pfSense is the preferred option when comparing it to SonicWall TZ. Users appreciate pfSense's easy-to-use dashboards, its open-source nature, and its capability to block IP addresses. They find it affordable, customizable, and effective in preventing attacks.
"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
"The dashboard I have found the most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"We have been able to offer several services to customers in a single box."
"The reporting and monitoring are very good."
"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."
"It is a stable solution."
"The redundancy and scalability ARE very nice."
"The product’s documentation is good."
"I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"It is a better firewall than others and it has better features."
"I use pfSense because it gives me the flexibility to greatly expand basic firewall features."
"The solution is stable."
"Technical support is good."
"We like their interface very much. It's pretty easy to use."
"Its user interface and simplicity are the most favorite parts for our clients. They find it stable and easy to use. Its performance is also good."
"It's a very cost-effective solution."
"The feature with SonicWall that I have found most valuable is that all the models have the same interface. We don't need to learn different interfaces in the smaller or bigger models."
"Content filtering and application rules are the most valuable features. It is also easy to configure."
"The feature we found most valuable in SonicWall TZ is that it is user-friendly for an administrator."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"FortiGate support could do some improvements on their IPv6 configuration. Right now it's still in the very early stage for utilizing in an enterprise level network environment."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"The stability of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"They've become quite expensive."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"The technical support needs to be improved."
"It's just not listed as FIPS compliant for where we're at now in government, which is an issue."
"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"The solution's cost needs improvement."
"The small business line has less PPS throughput."
"There can be an improvement in analysis and reporting. We need enhancement on the reporting side."
"I can't get the support that I need from SonicWall."
"In general, the company needs to think contingently and integrate more security options."
"There is a point I don't like about SonicWall in the past and now. Most of the destinations we look at when we're detecting some user using too much bandwidth or something like that, SonicWall just gave us destination IP address, instead of the full qualified domain name. I think that's the most important part that is still missing. I think that's the most important for us."
"The monitoring is a little bit confusing."
"The technology in this particular version is very old."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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 SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall TZ report.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.
Just purchase an anti-spam license and activate it at the SonicWall license portal.
I would like to recommend you SONICWALL HOSTED EMAIL SECURITY ADVANCED. It is more helpful and if you are using Office365 or GSuite, go for SonicWall Cloud App Security.
It is more powerful.
Hi, for SonicWall you buy a license and on the same firewall you can activate the antispam only in the ingress mode.
But there is a catch, at the moment they don't support TLS for SMTP so I would recommend their other solution, that has email security for appliance and virtualized on VMware or Hyper-V.