We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos XGS 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."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."
"I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud."
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"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's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed."
"We generally use it because it's cheap. When we need something more robust we use Barracuda and Sony Wireless Routers. For certain clients, we use pfSense because it's compatible with the VoIP platform."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"The initial setup is easy."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"Stability has been excellent. We have experienced no issues; it never fails."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"The interface is straightforward and easy to use."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"The feature that I find most valuable is the synchronized security option where the endpoint talks to the firewall."
"It offers an easy initial implementation."
"It's easy to use, and the service is good. If anything goes wrong, their support system is very reliable."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos is the VPN solution. I also value their threat management, IPS IDS features and login features with single sign-on."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"It's easy to use and user-friendly."
"Spam filtering is what I love most about XGS."
"Sophos XGS' best features are simplicity and its built-in reporting tool."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"Monitoring and reporting could be better."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
"I don't like that anything more than very basic reporting is not included."
"The solution could be more evenly structured."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"There are some bias issues and some intrusions in our network that have to be addressed. So, we're thinking of changing this firewall to something like a professional hardware-enabled firewall."
"The security could be improved."
"Network monitoring and device inventory could use some improvements. I'm using SpiceWorks for this because it never really worked in pfSense."
"Also, simplifying the rules for the GeoIP. Making it simpler to understand would be an improvement."
"pfSense could improve by having a sandboxing feature that I have seen in SonicWall. However, maybe it is available I am not aware of it."
"Adjustment in the interfaces: I had to adjust those interfaces manually and of course that is a great feature that you can restore it but it is immediately also one point for improvement. If you don't have to adjust, if it's just stamped and it works, that's great."
"Web interface could be enhanced and more user friendly."
"Sophos XGS could improve the automation system. It could be better if there was some level of automation, attacks automation, meaning if this happens, then it automatically executes a particular process."
"I would like to see a history of the monthly bandwidth utilization, the bandwidth consumption for a period of time."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"There are issues with some designs being able to work on high availability."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having a Network Access Control(NAC). This feature is a basic function in other firewalls and should be added, such as Palo Alto."
"Sometimes, we haven't received proper support. They couldn't find the solutions that we required. One thing that we need is an NTP server facility. The Sophos XGS device does not have this capacity or this feature."
"In the new release 19, there should be the implementation of a cloud service that you can use to set up the IPSec tunnels, and the SD-WAN from the WAN dashboard, and then you can push that configuration out to every firewall that you have."
"I recommend Sophos increase the user capacity of the firewall by 1.5 times. For example, say the firewall can accommodate 1,000 users now, then it should handle a load of 1,500 users."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 18th in Firewalls with 58 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 8.0. 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 Sophos XGS writes "Highly stable, scalable, and priced well". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, Meraki MX and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XGS report.
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