OPNsense vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series comparison

OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Firewalls category. OPNsense is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.2, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #31 with an average rating of 8.7. OPNsense holds a 11.6% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 0.1% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of OPNsense users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks K2-Series are both prominent firewall solutions catering to different user needs. Users appreciate the pricing and support of OPNsense, while many find that despite its higher cost, Palo Alto Networks K2-Series offers superior features justifying the investment.

Features: OPNsense's flexibility and open-source nature allow extensive customization. The active community contributes to its development, ensuring a wide range of plugins. Its ease of integration with other systems is beneficial to users. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series offers advanced threat detection, which many consider state-of-the-art. Its automated security measures ensure proactive protection. Comprehensive compliance features help businesses adhere to industry standards.

Room for Improvement: OPNsense users highlight the need for better documentation. The interface could be more user-friendly, and the learning curve is often steep for beginners. Additionally, enhancing the scalability of the platform would benefit larger enterprises. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series users note a steep learning curve. Simplifying the management processes would improve user experience. They also desire more intuitive reporting tools to better understand security metrics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OPNsense is praised for its straightforward deployment process. The active community support is a major advantage. Its deployment is often quicker, requiring less technical expertise. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series, while powerful, requires significant expertise for deployment and configuration. Extensive customer service and support resources provide assistance once it is set up. Users find the initial setup challenging but beneficial in the long run.

Pricing and ROI: OPNsense is often chosen for its cost-effectiveness. Lower setup costs make it accessible for smaller businesses. The open-source model reduces overall expenses. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series involves higher initial expenses. It is viewed as a valuable long-term investment due to its security advantages. The advanced features justify the higher cost for those seeking robust security. The return on investment is significant through reliability and advanced protection.

To learn more, read our detailed OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

July 2025

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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

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OPNsense is 11.6%, down from 17.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is 0.1%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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Akram Zaki Hussein

System and Network Administrator at El Sadat City Language School

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

The interface is user-friendly, but there's room for improvement in terms of intuitiveness. The bundle management aspect requires additional attention to make it more intuitive, especially for inspecting high-level traffic. This is crucial, especially for larger companies where the existing features might not be the most optimal choice, given limitations like printer constraints. For high availability, it's crucial to have a method in place where a designated component oversees the entire process. Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine. It would be beneficial if OPNsense supported additional virtualization platforms like Hyper-V from Microsoft and VMware, similar to how Kaspersky has integrated them.

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Krishnakumar M

enterprise architect at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

One of the best tools for the prevention of evasive threats

There is a feature called granular application controls, which I liked. Instead of relying on ports and IP addresses, they use AMP ID. This kind of solution is very good. Another valuable feature is the prevention of evasive threats, which is one of the best tools I've encountered. SSL decryption and app ID-based SSL decryption are also impressive, along with the integration with user ID. Identity-based policies ensuring only authorized users can access specific resources are excellent features. Normally, there is something called SIM or SCIM in IDA IDM, but this feature is provided on the box, which is exemplary.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"FortiGate is more feature-rich and has a broader range of hardware. T"

"ROI is exceptionally good."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a very light product. It's easy to understand."

"Fortinet FortiGate has SD-WAN, FortiView, antivirus, sandbox, and IPS, which are generally well-known features."

"Fortinet FortiGate is pretty robust. The updates and firmware releases are pretty timely. They have a good product revision and review system, so they are constantly reviewing their configuration and the different mechanisms that are used on Fortinet FortiGate."

"Some of the key features of the solution is that it has good reporting, you can receive many details from the connection, for example, clients and website information."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution."

"What's most important is the ease of use."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The VPN server feature is the most valuable. It is integrated with Radius and AAA for doing accounting and authentication. Insight view is also an important feature for me at this time. It allows me to assess our network traffic. I also like the firewall feature. The BSD kernel has a packet filter. It is one of the most solid frameworks for firewalls. Its user interface is one of the best interfaces I have used."

"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."

"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."

"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."

"OPNsense is highly stable."

"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."

"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."

"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."

More OPNsense pros

"This is a very reliable firewall and we have never had problems with it."

"It's easy to configure."

"Palo Alto has a unique solution for DNS security, which is very good."

"Simple integrations with the domain controllers and other inventories"

"Overall product rating: Nine out of ten."

"I have found the threat profile feature valuable."

"This firewall is very good for our customers because they don't have to write their own rules for adding an application."

"The most valuable feature of Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is the configuration, it is very clear."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pros

Cons

"Fortinet FortiGate could improve the user interface. There should be more functionality and options through the GUI."

"Application management can be improved."

"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."

"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost."

"The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."

"WAN load-balancing could be a lot better at detecting when a link is poor or inconsistent, and not just flat out dead."

"Fortinet FortiGate could be improved in terms of user friendliness at the policy level and assigning URL based and keyword based features."

"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"The reporting part could be better."

"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."

"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."

"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."

"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."

"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."

"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."

"I think the most important thing is that it should be easily accessible, but currently, that doesn't seem to be the case. We need a hardware platform that's based on common standards and open computing principles, which would be like a commodity and benefit us greatly."

More OPNsense cons

"The reporting functionality in GlobalProtect needs to be improved."

"It would be really helpful to have dashboards that provide information on IOC blockings such as where and how many. It will also be good to know how many hashing files have been reported. It would also be nice to have easy access to this information. Otherwise, it's a painful, manual task."

"Its networking features could be better."

"When it comes to renewing the solution, they tend to try to jack up the pricing."

"There are a lot of bugs in this solution."

"Palo Alto has many other products. It would be nice for these products to be centralized under one tool"

"The tool needs to improve integration with more products from other vendors. I would like the product to add threat intelligence features as well."

"Threat prevention could use improvement. Not just in malware exploits and C2 traffic; enhancing web traffic protection would be a great upgrade."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Setup cost may be not so low, as you expect, because it depends on different factors, but TCO for 5 years may pleasantly surprise you."

"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."

"The price of the license and warranty can be better because it is very expensive."

"The Fortinet FortiGate security features cost approximately $1,500 a year. The firewall itself doesn't have a recurring cost. It's the security features on top of that that you pay for."

"Some of our customers are using Sophos and SonicWall due to price concerns, as they can't manage the pricing of Fortinet FortiGate."

"We find the most valuable aspect of this solution is the price. It is affordable, and cheaper than other firewalls."

"The Indian market is different than the European and American markets. When you compare they need to be a bit more aggressive on pricing."

"The license is yearly. We pay for the top end. It's called 360."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The solution is not expensive."

"It is not an expensive product. Basically, I deployed it because it was the fastest solution to satisfy our needs in open source."

"OPNsense is an open-source solution and it is free to use."

"OPNsense is open source software so at this time it is free for us to use."

"We are not paying any licensing fees. OPNsense is completely free for us."

"It is free."

"Its pricing is unbeatable in comparison to other firewalls. You can have a small instance that could be €80 a month with the hardware underneath. Azure Firewall and FortiGate are out of the question at this price. If you are on a public cloud, you need the underlying infrastructure. Other than that, there is no additional cost. If you have it on-prem, you have to buy the server or the appliance. The hardware cost is replaced with the infrastructure cost in the cloud. You also have costs for the public IPs and underlying VMs, but that's not related to OPNsense. It would be the same for a FortiGate deployment on Azure. You need a FortiGate license, and you need the underlying infrastructure that scales up depending on your needs."

"It's not expensive."

More OPNsense pricing and cost advice

"Pricing is a sensitive issue because the cost is high in this market."

"Products by the leader in the field are justifiably a bit more expensive compared to other vendors."

"If you compare K2-Series' quality with its price, I think it is reasonable."

"It would be nice if they lowered their prices for small businesses."

"The price of this solution is too high."

"Palo Alto Networks K2-Series is an expensive solution, the price could be reduced. They are more expensive than some of their competitors."

"This is an expensive solution, although you will get value for the price."

"This product is designed for large companies. The price would not be suitable for a small or medium size company."

More Palo Alto Networks K2-Series pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

15%

University

Manufacturing Company

Performing Arts

23%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?

When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?

Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and cl...

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What do you like most about OPNsense?

What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?

The pricing is competitive when compared to vendors like Palo and FortiNet.

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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...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

The pricing for the Palo Alto Networks K2-Series solution is affordable and there are no complaints about the licensing.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Palo Alto Networks K2-Series?

The graphical user interface is a little complex and difficult to manage. L1 engineers cannot work on the Palo Alto N...

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 20% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 12% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

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Netgate pfSense vs OPNsense

Compared 36% of the time

IPFire vs OPNsense

Compared 15% of the time

Sophos XG vs OPNsense

Compared 8% of the time

Untangle NG Firewall vs OPNsense

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos XGS vs OPNsense

Compared 3% of the time

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Cisco Secure Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 61% of the time

Juniper SRX Series Firewall vs Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Compared 39% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

OPNsense

August 2025

Download OPNsense product report

Buyer's Guide

Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

August 2025

Download Palo Alto Networks K2-Series product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

OPNsense is widely used for firewall functionalities, intrusion detection, VPN and IPSec, content filtering, securing network traffic, and remote access. It protects internal networks and manages servers securely, suitable for small to medium-sized businesses.

OPNsense is a comprehensive firewall solution leveraging open-source technology. It integrates with third-party modules like WireGuard and CrowdSec, enhancing its security capabilities. Offering on-premises and cloud deployment, it features an intuitive graphical interface, advanced reporting, VPN functionality, IDS/IPS features, and high scalability. Users find it ideal for small businesses and home networks due to its stability and ease of use. Frequent updates and an active community support its continuous improvement. However, it needs advancements in VPN selection, scalability, and technical documentation. Enhanced high availability, threat intelligence, and integration with virtualization platforms are required. User feedback suggests improvements in connectivity, alerting, traffic monitoring, and antivirus protection.

What are the key features of OPNsense?

Strong Firewall: Robust firewall capabilities for securing network traffic.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention: Effective IDS/IPS for threat mitigation.
VPN Functionality: Comprehensive VPN support including WireGuard.
Content Filtering: DNS-level filtering for enhanced security.
Advanced Reporting: In-depth traffic analysis and reporting features.
High Scalability: Supports growing network demands.
Integration Capabilities: Works with third-party modules like CrowdSec.
Intuitive GUI: User-friendly graphical interface enhances usability.

What benefits should users look for in OPNsense reviews?

Security: High level of protection for internal networks.
Manageability: Easy management of servers and network traffic.
Cost-Effective: Open-source nature reduces costs.
Reliability: Stable performance suitable for small and medium-sized businesses.
Community Support: Active community and frequent updates.

OPNsense is implemented across various industries to secure network infrastructure and ensure reliable connectivity. In fintech, it safeguards sensitive financial data while maintaining compliance. Educational institutions deploy it to protect student information and enable secure remote learning environments. Healthcare organizations use it to secure patient data and comply with HIPAA regulations. By integrating with tools like WireGuard and CrowdSec, businesses enhance their cybersecurity posture and streamline network management, making OPNsense a versatile choice for diverse operational needs.

OPNsense

Designed to handle growing throughput needs due to increasing amounts of application-, user-, and device-generated data, the K2-Series offers amazing performance and threat prevention capabilities to stop advanced cyberattacks and secure mobile network infrastructure, subscribers, and services.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc. 3. EuroBSDCon 4. Netgate 5. Claranet 6. Voleatech 7. Open Systems AG 8. Securebit AG 9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH 10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.

State of North Dakota, SEGA, Alameda County Office of Education, Temple University, VERGE, CAME

Buyer's Guide

OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

July 2025

Free Report: OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series

Find out what your peers are saying about OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks K2-Series and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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