OPNsense vs Untangle NG Firewall comparison

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OPNsense Logo
88,749 views|77,487 comparisons
Untangle Logo
17,424 views|14,075 comparisons
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Sep 5, 2022

We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Untangle NG Firewall based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Reviewers of both solutions say the initial setup is straightforward and easy.
  • Features: Users of both products are happy with their stability, scalability, VPN features, and overall performance.

    OPNsense users say the solution has a user-friendly interface and good reporting tools. Reviewers mention that it is less suitable for large-scale implementations.

    Untangle NG Firewall users like that the solution is secure, flexible, and easy to use. Users mention that it lacks the option of dropping sessions.
  • Pricing: OPNsense is an open-source solution and free of charge. Untangle NG Firewall reviewers feel that its price is fair. Untangle also has a basic free open-source version.
  • Service and Support: Reviewers of both solutions report being satisfied with the level of support they receive.
  • ROI: OPNsense users do not mention ROI. Untangle users report a positive ROI.

Comparison Results: The two solutions have similar ratings in each of the categories. However, Untangle NG Firewall users mention they have seen a positive ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed OPNsense vs. Untangle NG Firewall Report (Updated: March 2023).
690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month.""The system in general is quite flexible.""The technical support is very good.""We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable.""The initial implementation process is simple.""The IDS and IPS features are valuable. From the usability perspective, there is a lot of good documentation. As IT professionals, we found it very easy to configure the firewall. It was easy to configure and use.""OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware.""I have found the solution has some great features overall, such as guest access capabilities, dashboards, and ease of use. There is plenty of documentation and support and it has the plugins that I needed."

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"They have a command center that makes it easy to log into and see all of your appliances nationwide.""The majority of our clients are very small businesses, and Untangle devices have been fantastic for these small clients. We've basically standardized our stack to just simply use Untangle. We include the hardware and the service option, which makes it very easy and affordable for us to just simply push that into the monthly per-user costing that we provide as a managed services provider. It's really a no-brainer. They're easy to use, and they're easy to set up and configure. Support is generally good about resolving any issues that we have. We haven't had any real complaints.""What I like about this product, which is the reason that we continue to use it, is that you can install the software version on your own hardware. In case there is a problem with the hardware, we can just install the firewall in another machine and restore the configuration.""NG Firewalls allow us to permit or deny applications we don't want to run. We also use content filtering, SSL inspection, and all the other things we run on the firewall to keep our clients protected and ensure they're not going where they shouldn't. It's a great firewall that works as intended.""We find the web filter very valuable.""The web blocking for my clients and the application control are valuable."

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Cons
"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.""The reporting part could be better.""An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense.""The interface isn't so friendly user. But we have some technicians here who are quite confident with this tool. OPNSense could maybe add sets of rules so it's simpler to manage different groups with particular needs.""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.""Its interface should be a little bit better.""The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly.""The solution could be more secure."

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"We have a minor issue when assigning IP addresses in the ARP tables. You should be able to go into the ARP tables, look at the IP address and say, "Nope, they need to be on this side on this IP address." The ability to set a DHP reservation from the ARP tables would be great. It's no big deal, but it would be nice to have.""It does have multi-factor authentication in some areas, but I would love to see a more widely implemented version of that on the devices themselves.""They don't have any feature that allows you to drop the session.""The biggest challenge that we have with this solution is local support. The local support is a problem in our area.""The storage is minimal, so we have to set the system to delete data after seven days.""On their low-end appliance, they could have more memory and the largest storage space. The low-end appliance comes with a too-small hard drive, and it could use a little extra room. It only comes with about 4 gigs or 8 gigs of memory, and the hardware space is only 40 gigs, which is really small."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The solution is not expensive."
  • "As an appliance, it's in the medium price range."
  • "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 is open source and free."
  • "The price of OPNsense is good."
  • "I'm using the free version of OPNsense. I didn't check the pricing for the solution because I still need to test it before getting the approval to purchase OPNsense, and it isn't easy to get approval from the higher-ups."
  • More OPNsense Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The pricing model is better than with SonicWall."
  • "This is not an expensive product. It is affordable and there are different packages available depending on the features that you need, or the sector that you are in."
  • "Untangle is open-source software. So, you can get it for free. That has been a benefit, especially for the residential users because it is free. The license costs start at $25 a month for some additional features, including higher tiers of security intrusion prevention. The free version comes with intrusion detection, and then the license version has intrusion prevention. It also has some additional things for active directory connectors, etc. It starts at $25 a month to cover 12 devices. Then it goes up from $25 to $50 a month for 12 to 25 devices. That's where it really doesn't scale out per site. If you have a site that has more than 50 devices on it, then Untangle quickly becomes cost prohibitive in comparison to several other competitors."
  • "Usually, it's about $350 a year for 12 users, and it's about $600 for 50 users. It's very reasonable as compared to the others. One of the reasons is that they're all open-source. You just buy their appliance and put it in until it dies. Because it's run under open platforms, mine seems to always work on older equipment. I've taken old equipment and put a new hard disk in it. I have taken about nine-year-old computers and put their operating system on them, and ran them like a champ. The only thing that changed was the hard drive because I don't trust a hard drive that's more than three to four years old."
  • More Untangle NG Firewall Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and client, Open VPN and client, and PPTP client. Both also have intrusion detection and… more »
    Top Answer:We have been operating here in our lab for several months, and everything appears to be extremely stable.
    Top Answer:I'm using the free version of OPNsense. I didn't check the pricing for the solution because I still need to test it before getting the approval to purchase OPNsense, and it isn't easy to get approval… more »
    Top Answer:NG Firewalls allow us to permit or deny applications we don't want to run. We also use content filtering, SSL inspection, and all the other things we run on the firewall to keep our clients protected… more »
    Top Answer:I rate Untangle nine out of 10 for affordability. The pricing model is based on the number of users. The license tiers are 12, 24, 50, and unlimited.
    Top Answer:We have a minor issue when assigning IP addresses in the ARP tables. You should be able to go into the ARP tables, look at the IP address and say, "Nope, they need to be on this side on this IP… more »
    Ranking
    6th
    out of 49 in Firewalls
    Views
    88,749
    Comparisons
    77,487
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    515
    Rating
    8.3
    23rd
    out of 49 in Firewalls
    Views
    17,424
    Comparisons
    14,075
    Reviews
    2
    Average Words per Review
    1,360
    Rating
    8.5
    Comparisons
    Learn More
    OPNsense
    Video Not Available
    Overview

    OPNsense is a user-friendly, fast-track, open-source FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform. This software offers features that are generally available from costly commercial firewalls, with the added benefit of open and verifiable sources. The firewall provides users, developers, and organizations with an advantageous environment through transparency. The development of this project is driven by a strong focus on security and code quality.

    The solution offers a variety of components, such as:

    • Weekly security updates. These updates provide the user with the ability to reach new emerging threats in a timely manner through small increments.

    • Two major releases every year. These yearly releases are on a fixed release cycle and provide organizations with the ability to plan ahead of an upcoming upgrade.

    • A roadmap of instructions. Each major release provides a guide and a set of clear goals.

    A team of professionals developed OPNsense. Other professional and experienced software architects, engineers, and developers are encouraged to join in the development of the solution to make it as successful as possible. OPNsense offers a variety of rich features with each release. Each upgrade is based on FreeBSD for continual, long-term support and utilizes a freshly advanced MVC framework based on Phalcon. OPNsense is committed to helping businesses, school networks, remote offices, hotels, and other markets in keeping their data protected.

    OPNsense Core Features

    OPNsense continually offers a free, complete, high-end security platform with new releases and features. With each release, OPNsense focuses on providing more unique and better security features in a timely manner. These features include:

    • Captive Portal
    • Built-in reporting and monitoring tools including RRD Graphs
    • Network Flow Monitoring
    • Traffic Shaper
    • Support for Plugins
    • Granular Control Over State Table
    • Dynamic DNS
    • Two-factor authentication throughout the system
    • Netflow Exporter
    • Encrypted Configuration Backup to Google Drive
    • Forward Caching Proxy (transparent) with Blacklist Support
    • Stateful inspection firewall
    • DNS Server & DNS Forwarder
    • High Availability & Hardware Failover (with configuration synchronization & synchronized state tables)
    • DHCP Server and Relay
    • Virtual Private Network (site to site & road warrior, IPsec, OpenVPN & legacy PPTP support)
    • Intrusion Detection and Prevention
    • 802.1Q VLAN support

    Reviews from Real Users

    OPNsense is a favorite security solution among reviewers for a number of reasons. Two of those reasons include the user-friendliness of the solution, which makes it easy to use, and its ability to easily scale.

    For many, a user-friendly solution is essential. FiorindoDi A., a system administration specialist at a tech vendor, says, "The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly, which makes the product easy-to-use."

    Peerspot reviewers speak of the scalability of the solution. For example, an anonymous cloud and infrastructure manager at a venture capital and private equity firm reviewer notes, "OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."

    Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform that helps keep networks safe while accessing the internet. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams. The solution also has a cloud-based management console for remote management that can either be deployed on premises or as SaaS, and virtualized or cloud-based. It also has flexible deployment options, including third-party hardware, as a virtual machine, or as a turnkey appliance. Untangle NG Firewall is ideal for small IT teams with limited budgets.

    Untangle NG Firewall Features

    Untangle NG Firewall has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Intrusion protection
    • Threat prevention
    • Virus blocker
    • Virus scanner
    • App control
    • SSL inspection
    • Bandwidth control
    • Reporting
    • Logs
    • VPN
    • Web filter
    • IDS/IPS
    • Access controls
    • Location control
    • Proxy
    • Active Directory/LDAP connections

    Untangle NG Firewall Benefits

    There are many benefits to implementing Untangle NG Firewall. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

    • Simplified network security: Untangle NG Firewall has a single, modular, software platform which simplifies security for all networks and ensures every device is adequately protected.
    • Visibility: The solution provides a browser-based, responsive, and intuitive interface enabling users to gain visibility quickly into the traffic on the network.
    • Deep analysis and insights: With the solution, users can see a network’s status at a glance on the dashboard, ensure compliance with full event logs, and get notifications of network anomalies or unusual user behavior with alert rules. In addition, users can gain insights in real time from database-driven reports.
    • Next-generation filtering: Untangle NG Firewall makes it easy to manage every rogue application, encrypted web request, malware distribution point, and drive-by malvertising attempt.
    • Connectivity and performance: The solution helps your organization maintain visibility and control over remote workers, branch offices, and guest Wi-Fi to keep users connected and data safe regardless of location or level of access.
    • Policy creation: Users can create policies by user, group, device, and time in order to control access.
    • Additional apps: Untangle NG Firewall offers additional apps, allowing organizations to create complete configuration backups to protect against network disruptions.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Untangle NG Firewall is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Some of its major advantages are that it is easy to use, has good features, including VPN, reporting, alerting, and filtering, and can be installed on existing hardware.

    “It is very easy to use. The user interface is very straightforward. It may not be as fancy as some of the ones I've seen, but it's very straightforward. It's very easy to find what you need, and it's very easy to get things done,” says Josh E., CEO at DragonTech IT Services, Inc.

    Barry A., Owner at ThinkEzIT, says, “It has good VPN features, helpful reporting and alerting, built-in content filtering, and excellent support.”

    PeerSpot user Victor O., Director at Kisii County Government, explains, “What I like about this product, which is the reason that we continue to use it, is that you can install the software version on your own hardware. In case there is a problem with the hardware, we can just install the firewall in another machine and restore the configuration.”

    Offer
    Learn more about OPNsense
    Learn more about Untangle NG Firewall
    Sample Customers
    CompuNet Systems GmbH,
    North American Stamping Group, Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey (CPNJ), Brown County Schools, IN, City of Bridgeton, MO, Lancaster County, SC, Vision Charter School, Clay County Sheriff’s Department, NC, Breakwater School, Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, NH, Admiral Farragut Academy, Flow Companies, No Ordinary Hotel, KECdesign,
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Comms Service Provider25%
    Logistics Company17%
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Aerospace/Defense Firm8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Comms Service Provider20%
    Computer Software Company16%
    Government9%
    Educational Organization6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Comms Service Provider17%
    Computer Software Company14%
    Government9%
    Retailer6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business63%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise25%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business28%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise52%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business100%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise19%
    Large Enterprise48%
    Buyer's Guide
    OPNsense vs. Untangle NG Firewall
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about OPNsense vs. Untangle NG Firewall and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    690,226 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    OPNsense is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 14 reviews while Untangle NG Firewall is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 6 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Untangle NG Firewall is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Supports high availability, good content filtering capabilities, and ability to protect against various types of malware". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Untangle NG Firewall writes "Its simplicity, variety of features, and low pricing have enabled us to improve the security for our small business clients at a price that they are happy to pay for". OPNsense is most compared with pfSense, Sophos XG, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Untangle NG Firewall is most compared with pfSense, Sophos XG, Fortinet FortiGate, Sophos UTM and SonicWall TZ. See our OPNsense vs. Untangle NG Firewall 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.