We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and SonicWall NSa based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"The SD-WAN is the most valuable feature."
"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"The most valuable feature is the FortiManager for centralized management."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"Its reliability and cost-effectiveness stand out."
"The most valuable feature, for instance, is the ease of migrating configurations between different Netgate devices housed in the same box."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"The initial setup was simple and fast."
"I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection."
"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."
"A very stable product that lasts over time, easy to understand, and administer."
"This solution has helped our organization by protecting our network from attacks."
"I like this solution because we are focused on VPN and have many brands that need to link a VPN and have security, like ransomware, spyware, and basic protection."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the firewalling, which is very good and the GUI which is very intuitive. It is easy to use, and provides great security."
"The filtering is excellent."
"Easy to setup and implement"
"We have not found any vulnerabilities since implementing the solution."
"The features I found most valuable are email security and web filtering."
"The solution can scale."
"It's very flexible and meets our customer's needs."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"I could not configure sFlow from the FortiGate graphical user interface. I realized that the sFlow configuration is available only from the CLI, and discovered that sFlow is not supported on virtual interfaces, such as VDOM links, IPsec, or GRE."
"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."
"The pricing could be reduced or include the first year warranty."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate is not very easy to use. The navigation could be improved to make it easier to use."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"It should integrate with LDAP, Active Directory, etc, to improve the way in which the traces and connections of each IP, or user connected through the firewall, are shown."
"I expect a better interface with more log analysis because I create my own interface."
"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."
"There could be a way to remote to it through a mobile app. You can always browse through your browser on your mobile phone or tablet, but it would be good to have a dedicated app. I understand that iOS and Android developers are expensive, but there should be a mobile app."
"Network monitoring and device inventory could use some improvements. I'm using SpiceWorks for this because it never really worked in pfSense."
"I'd like to find something in pfSense that is more specific to URL filtering. We have customers who would like to filter their web traffic. They would like to be able to say to their employees, "You can surf the web, but you cannot get access to Facebook or other social media," or "You can surf the web, but you're not allowed to gamble or watch porn on the web." My technicians say that doing this kind of stuff with pfSense nowadays is not easy. They can implement some filters using IP addresses but not by using the names of the domains and categories. So, we are not able to exclude some categories from the allowed traffic, such as porn, gambling, etc. To do that, we have to use another product and another web filter that uses DNS. I know that there are some third-party products that could work with pfSense, but I'd like the native pfSense solution to do that."
"The solution could use better reporting. They need to offer more of it in general. Right now, the graphics aren't the best. If you need to provide a report to a manager, for example, it doesn't look great. They need to make it easier to understand and give users the ability to customize them."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"The reporting feature could be better because most of the companies want to have the analytics included, which is something that you have to buy separately."
"The features I would like to see improve are the dashboard and the UI."
"The problem primarily with SonicWall is it's a Unix box. And it's all software, all the activities, blocking, censoring, everything has to happen in the software. If you start hitting the box with a lot of sessions it slows down and that's not what I expect from a firewall."
"The product likely isn't a good fit for a large organization."
"Initially, it may be difficult for some people to learn and become acquainted with it."
"The reporting and monitoring are a bit complex and should be easier in SonicWall NSa because other firewalls I have experienced have been more simple, such as Palo Alto. We are able to receive a clear view of our network. As a general user with little experience, it would be difficult for them to handle."
"I would like to have a built-in vulnerability scanner in the firewall. It would be great to have such functionality. Its price could also be better. It would also be good to have a local warehouse. It doesn't get damaged a lot, but if a customer needs a replacement, currently, it has to come from Miami or Mexico, which can take a few days. It would be better if they have a local warehouse from where we can just pick replacements and quickly solve a client's needs in terms of replacing equipment. It would be great to have it locally instead of waiting for it from Mexico or the USA."
"The thing main thing is that there's no user admin and in other firewalls, we can enable the scalable features, but SonicWall doesn't have that feature."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 20th in Firewalls with 77 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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 SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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