pfSense vs Sophos XG
We performed a comparison between pfSense vs Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"We use a southern institution that's audited for IT security and the reporting that automatically comes off the unit makes it much easier to meet compliance standards and makes it easier as far as the amount of time that has to be spent to compile that information. If you get your reporting set up correctly when you initially set it up, you just select the one you want and hit print. The auditing trail on it is the best feature."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."
"It's very fast and easy to configure."
"The virtual firewall feature is the most valuable. We have around 1,500 firewalls. We did not buy individual hardware, and the virtual firewalls made sense because we don't have to keep on buying the hardware. FortiGate is easier to use as compared to Checkpoint devices. It is user friendly and has a good UI. You don't need much expertise to work on this firewall. You don't need to worry much about DCLA, commands, and things like that."
"For everyday tasks, we just get alerts. It's anything that's suspicious, including from our Netgate. So, it's part of how we maintain cybersecurity in our school. This is working alongside our endpoint security solution."
"The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary."
"Its reliability and cost-effectiveness stand out."
"Good basic firewall features."
"The classic features such as content inspection, content protection, and the application-level firewall, are the most important."
"The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use."
"It is effective. We have not had any problems."
"pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information."
"Content blocking for websites is the most valuable aspect of the solution."
"It gives me a very good, stable connection in all tunnels."
"As a security solution, it's a very good security solution."
"I like the web filter, application filter, and VBA."
"The firewall provides network visibility and reporting capabilities, constantly improving over time. It can be integrated with the cloud console, allowing centralized management of multiple firewalls. integration with endpoint security products ensures seamless traffic flow and rule enforcement, even when endpoints are not directly connected to the firewall."
"The solution is very easy to use and straightforward."
"It is feature-rich, I like the server authentication, and the reports are good."
"I like their firewall and the intrusion detection feature"
"The logs need to be better. They need to be more visible and easier to access."
"There are some cloud-based features that could be much more flexible than they currently are."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."
"The ease of use could be improved."
"Backup can be improved."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"There could be a way to remote to it through a mobile app. You can always browse through your browser on your mobile phone or tablet, but it would be good to have a dedicated app. I understand that iOS and Android developers are expensive, but there should be a mobile app."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"Other solutions provide more scope for growth. For instance, we can have only 10 to 20 employees on VPN, but other solutions can support more users. We also have more capabilities to increase the performance of the solution."
"The solution could use better reporting. They need to offer more of it in general. Right now, the graphics aren't the best. If you need to provide a report to a manager, for example, it doesn't look great. They need to make it easier to understand and give users the ability to customize them."
"The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."
"The VPN features can be improved. Due to covid-19, we have a lot of employees that work from home and we need better VPN capabilities."
"I need to open the email to see what it contains and the value of it before I know whether to access it or not."
"There should be web caching to improve bandwidth utilization. It should have a very good caching feature. That's because we are in a very poor continent, and the connectivity cost is very high. We have low bandwidth, and the intensive usage of bandwidth is not easy here in Africa. If they improve services for web caching, it would be better."
"In the Firewall, the Intrusion Prevention System can be improved."
"The weakest point is the technical support because they are difficult to get into contact with."
"In the Sophos XG, the SD-WAN has all the rules done separately, such as net policy routing. In the previous version, they were all in a single rule and everything was done that way. The way it is now is difficult for us because we are not used to this newer version. The firewall rules should be easier to configure and create. Everything should be done with a single click."
"The training manual provided to users lacks proper guidance on configuration procedures."
"The management console could be improved and the solution lacks good technical support."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos UTM, KerioControl, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XG report.
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