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.
"FortiGate SD-WAN facilitated a smooth transition for our customers between their two internet service providers, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity without any downtime."
"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."
"We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"The most valuable features are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"This is an easy solution to deploy."
"The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring."
"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"It has firewall and VPN capabilities, which are very valuable features."
"The most valuable features of OPNsense are the GUI and frequent updates."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"OPNsense is easy to use and open source."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings."
"We use the content filter quite a lot because it's an office setting. During working hours, we like to censor the sites users can visit so it increases productivity. Therefore, the content filter has been good for us."
"The stability is very nice."
"User-friendly firewall solution which scales well, is stable, and has high availability."
"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."
"The VPN is quite useful for us, as well as the ATP."
"The product is easy to deploy."
"It protects against intrusion while allowing needed access."
"The solution is priced fairly and competitively."
"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."
"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having a frequent ask questions(FAQ) area for people to receive quick answers to popular questions. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have an SMS notification feature. For example, if you cannot access your email you could receive an SMS message."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"Fortinet already improved FortiGate, but in the current market, many brands of security devices have improved together. Fortinet still needs to catch up with market standards. Fortinet is lacking in features in comparison to competitors."
"The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"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."
"I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings."
"Sonic Analyzer could be improved. It's difficult to manage and not very intuitive."
"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 reporting analytics could be improved, it is very unstable."
"It could probably be more user-friendly, and it could be more scalable with releases and subscriptions."
"SonicWall TZ can improve the UI application and when you create any net policies or any new policy, it will not sync or work properly."
"The solution has lost the trust of its customers because of moving from one company to another."
"I would like to see lower antivirus pricing."
"Full monitoring obviously needs to be improved. We need full monitoring covered under the security licensing."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while SonicWall TZ is ranked 12th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while SonicWall TZ is rated 8.0. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall TZ writes "Has efficient user access control feature and good technical support services ". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and Check Point NGFW, whereas SonicWall TZ is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, SonicWall NSa and Zyxel Unified Security Gateway. See our OPNsense vs. SonicWall TZ report.
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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.
