We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Palo Alto Networks WildFire based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls."I really like the captive portal feature for our guest network. It has nice VLAN features in terms of separating our network. The anti-virus is also good."
"We use the FortiGate Sandbox to detect zero-day vulnerabilities, such as anomalies or malware, that are unknown and have not yet been discovered."
"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"From the firewall perspective, the rules and policies are very sufficient and easy to use."
"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."
"A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside."
"It performs very well."
"Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco."
"Great extensibility of the platform."
"This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution."
"I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall."
"Is good at blocking IP addresses."
"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 solution is very easy to use and configure."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"I love the idea of Palo Alto Networks WildFire. It's more geared toward preventing malware. If someone's laptop or phone is malware-infected, the tool prevents it from uploading valuable corporate data outside the corporate network. That's what I love about Palo Alto Networks WildFire. It stops malware in its tracks."
"The solution is easy to use and the Panorama feature is good. The software management or the malware blocking and some authentication management system are good."
"The solution is scalable."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is how it keeps up-to-date with viruses."
"The reporting feature helps our performance."
"Being an application-based firewall, this is one of the critical focus factors along with the threat prevention services it provides."
"It is the best device in comparison to other network products in the marketplace."
"Their technical support is outstanding and top-notch."
"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."
"From a reporting perspective, there's room for improvement. They're providing FortiAnalyzer through which one can get some enhancements, but the visibility and reporting still need slight improvement."
"I need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"The support we receive when we need to upgrade is not satisfactory and has room for improvement."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"The main aspect of FortiGate that could be improved is load balancing. Our management team does not want to buy another appliance for only load balancing."
"The initial setup is complex."
"It would be great to add more to security."
"The solution’s interface must be improved."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
"I have been using WireGuard VPN because it is a lot faster and more secure than an open VPN. However, in the latest version of pfSense, they have removed this feature, which is one of the main features that I need. They should include this feature."
"The solution could be more user-friendly, and the graphical interface needs some work so that someone without an IT background can use the application. I would like the ability to manage the on-premise appliance from the cloud. When I'm not in the office, it would be great to connect to the pfSense server and administer the network remotely."
"My only observation is about the quality of the IPSec logs, which are difficult to interpret and are poor in filters."
"Web interface could be enhanced and more user friendly."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"I think it would be nice for Palo Alto to work without the connection to the cloud. It is 100% powerful when connected to the cloud. But, if you disconnect from the cloud, you only get 40-50% power."
"There are some formats that the solution cannot support ."
"When you contact support, there is no guarantee that they will be available to help you tackle the issue that you are facing."
"The price of WildFire should be reduced in order to make it more affordable for our customers."
"The initial setup was a little bit complex, mainly due to the GUI console and management challenges."
"Any enhancements should likely be focused on the firewall appliance to further strengthen overall security capabilities, such as refining app and user identity features."
"Palo Alto Networks WildFire should be more real-time in nature. The signature updates should happen in a minute or less than a minute to be a very good feature for the customer."
"The cyber security visibility and forensics features to receive more information about incidents could improve in Palo Alto Networks WildFire."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Palo Alto Networks WildFire is ranked 3rd in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) with 58 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Palo Alto Networks WildFire is rated 8.4. 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 Palo Alto Networks WildFire writes "Good technical support and provides automatic analysis that saves us time in filtering email". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Palo Alto Networks WildFire is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Proofpoint Email Protection, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Fortinet FortiSandbox and Cloudflare.
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