We performed a comparison between OPNsense 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: OPNsense is highly praised for its ability to easily adapt to changing needs, its guest access options, its flexibility, and its open license. SonicWall TZ is known for its exceptional unified threat management, strong VPN capabilities, reliable web security, and user-friendly centralized interface.
OPNsense could benefit from improvements in interface simplicity, bandwidth management, high availability, logging, integration, hardware updates, reporting, SSL inspection, and learning curve. SonicWall TZ needs enhancements in rated throughput, secondary DNS hosting, cloud management, user interface, integration, marketing, reporting, additional ports, GSM and Sonic Analyzer features, advanced features and pricing, UI application and net policies, scalability and proxy feature, DPI-SSL clients, content filtering, DNS hosting, monitoring and pricing, security and VPN connections, overall cost, and version improvements.
Service and Support: The customer service for OPNsense has garnered varying feedback, with certain users appreciating prompt responses and valuable aid, whereas some encounter challenges when attempting to access support. SonicWall TZ's support has also generated diverse opinions, as a few customers face language barriers and delays, but overall find the support satisfactory.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for OPNsense is uncomplicated and can be managed by clients without IT expertise, although it might be more time-consuming in certain scenarios like Azure. SonicWall TZ setup is simple, user-friendly, and can be finished within a timeframe ranging from 30 minutes to a few hours. Technical staff can provide assistance for swift deployment.
Pricing: The cost of setting up OPNsense primarily depends on the hardware used, since the software is provided for free. SonicWall TZ has received varying opinions regarding its pricing and licensing, with some users considering it cost-effective while others find it to be expensive.
ROI: OPNsense is a cost-effective option with a quicker return on investment due to the absence of ongoing fees. SonicWall TZ delivers satisfactory outcomes, although it suggests an upgrade for enhanced performance.
Comparison Results: Based on user feedback, OPNsense is the preferred choice when comparing it to SonicWall TZ. Users appreciate OPNsense for its scalability, excellent features, user-friendly interface, flexibility, stability, availability of a free version, and well-documented resources.
"It is easy to manage, and it doesn't need much knowledge from the team. It is a stable device, and there are many features that are included out of the box."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value."
"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."
"Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"It's more secure and more reliable."
"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."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"OPNsense is easy to use and open source."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"The solution is stable."
"It does exactly what it says on the tin. It is good for protecting the business from being compromised. Its port protection is very good."
"The scalability of SonicWall TZ is good and easy to add users."
"SonicWall TZ is very user-friendly and has network MAC binding. Additionally, the firewall works well."
"SonicWall TZ think it's a good, solid, and stable product."
"The solution is priced fairly and competitively."
"Access restriction and IP whitelisting are the most valuable features."
"The site-to-site VPN connections, content filtering, and in our current remote working situation, SSL VPN remote desktop connectivity are the most valuable features."
"The scalability could be better."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"They have to just improve its performance when we enable all UTM features. When you enable all the features, the performance of FortiGate, as well as of Sophos and SonicWall, goes down."
"I think that the infrastructure for the VPN could be improved. The way that it is bundled also made it difficult to use and sell as it is too expensive."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"Its price could be better."
"While they do have paid options that actually gives better features, for most of the clients, if they tend to take a paid option will instead opt for Fortinet."
"The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings."
"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."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"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."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"I would like to see lower antivirus pricing."
"It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions."
"Sometimes there is a glitch between the network connection. Last time, something happened on our IP phone, the SonicWall team did some updates to fix the issue. However, glitches happen very rarely. I did not experience any other types of problems."
"The products' reporting can be improved."
"Pricing could be lowered slightly."
"Sonic Analyzer could be improved. It's difficult to manage and not very intuitive."
"Getting support can be slow."
"I would like to see a SonicWall integration with the DLP tool, this would be interesting. Data Loss Prevention integration."
OPNsense is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 17 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 10th in Firewalls with 28 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of OPNsense writes "There are lots of capabilities built-in: Few would be High Availability, Proxy, DNS, Intrusion detection/prevention, content filtering, traffic and bandwidth management with 2factor autn. ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Multifeatured firewall solution with a user-friendly interface, high availability, scalability, and stability". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and KerioControl, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, SonicWall NSa, Meraki MX and WatchGuard Firebox. See our OPNsense vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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