I have had a few issues with HTTPS decryption. The solution also does not show the actual user's Internet usage.
Network Engineer at a energy/utilities company with 501-1,000 employees
A stable solution that needs improvement in HTTPS decryption
Pros and Cons
- "I did not face any issues with stability while using the tool's trial version."
- "I have had a few issues with HTTPS decryption. The solution also does not show the actual user's Internet usage."
What needs improvement?
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the product for ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I did not face any issues with stability while using the tool's trial version.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the product an eight out of ten.
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August 2026
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Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Manager at Bari Mills Limited
Easy to set up and scale but problems with filtering
Pros and Cons
- "Kerio Control can be scaled easily."
- "The filtering on the unlicensed version of Kerio Control is inefficient - you have to add each website manually, which isn't feasible."
What is our primary use case?
Primarily, I use Kerio Control as a firewall and for web-filtering user controls.
What needs improvement?
The filtering on the unlicensed version of Kerio Control is inefficient - you have to add each website manually, which isn't feasible. It also has no anti-spamming feature for emails.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with Kerio Control for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Kerio Control's stability isn't good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Kerio Control can be scaled easily.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was very simple and took one or two days - it's on a Linux-based machine, so we just got the setup files and installed it.
What about the implementation team?
We used an in-house team.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Kerio Control a rating of six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
KerioControl
August 2026
Learn what your peers think about KerioControl. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
910,956 professionals have used our research since 2012.
MD at Comsque
Scales easily, works well, and has good content filtering options
Pros and Cons
- "The firewall and the content filtering options are valuable."
- "It works well as it is, and I don't have a problem with how it works."
- "There isn't a lot to be improved. It works well as it is, but they can maybe improve the reporting side."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for our data plan. We are using its latest version.
What is most valuable?
The firewall and the content filtering options are valuable.
What needs improvement?
There isn't a lot to be improved. It works well as it is, but they can maybe improve the reporting side.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is pretty stable. We don't have any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales easily without a challenge. We have about 400 users, but administrators directly work with it.
How was the initial setup?
It was pretty straightforward. It took about an hour.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed it ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its licensing is yearly. You renew every year. Its price is all-inclusive.
What other advice do I have?
It works well. I don't have a problem with how it works. I am also fine with its deployment, but it can be challenging if you don't have someone skilled or trained. If you have the skills, its deployment would be straightforward. You would be able to deploy it without a challenge. So, you just need to find the right person to deploy it.
I would rate it an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Effective ISP feature, stable, and simple deployment
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Kerio Control are the IPS and traffic rules, the traffic rules are very user-friendly and the IPS is working well, and additionally, the anti-virus is effective with quick options, such as filtering."
- "Kerio Control could improve by having higher availability and adding a mobile VPN channel. These additions are needed. The VPN is working fine on the Kerio Control but there needs to be a VPN client on the mobile phones, both for iOS and Android. This would be very good for us."
What is our primary use case?
We are working with VMware and we are using virtual machines for Kerio Control.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Kerio Control are the IPS and traffic rules. The traffic rules are very user-friendly and the IPS is working well. Additionally, the anti-virus is effective with quick options, such as filtering.
What needs improvement?
Kerio Control could improve by having higher availability and adding a mobile VPN channel. These additions are needed. The VPN is working fine on the Kerio Control but there needs to be a VPN client on the mobile phones, both for iOS and Android. This would be very good for us.
In a future release, SD-WAN features would be very useful.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kerio Control for approximately seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. However, we have had some problems, and we want to receive some updates for the IPS module. Sometimes we have errors downloading the IPS updates.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support. When I have an issue I search the internet and solve the problem. When I search Google, I find solutions for my problem.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously I was using OPNsense and pfSense. However, Kerio Control is more user-friendly and stable than pfSense and OPNsense.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Kerio Control was easy and user-friendly. We have no problems deploying the Kerio Control, Kerio Portal, and Kerio Connect for our customers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am living in Iran and we cannot buy the product from Kerio because of sanctions.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Kerio Control an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Co-Founder & COO at Seek Smarter Lda
Reliable and straightforward installation
Pros and Cons
- "The stability of Kerio Control is good."
- "We use Kerio Control for controlling access to the web, and to protect the inside of the network."
What is our primary use case?
We use Kerio Control for controlling access to the web, and to protect the inside of the network.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kerio Control for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Kerio Control is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not tried to scale the solution at this time.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Kerio Control could be better, it is a bit overpriced compared to other solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Kerio Control an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Director at a comms service provider with 1-10 employees
Stable, scalable, easy to install and with good tech support
Pros and Cons
- "The installation is straightforward."
- "We have many customer sites and the solution gives us control over bandwidth internet."
- "The solution should offer more dashboards."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the latest version.
We have many customer sites and the solution gives us control over bandwidth internet.
What is most valuable?
I consider all of the features to be valuable.
What needs improvement?
The solution should offer more dashboards.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kerio Control for ten or fifteen years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is fine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is fine.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is straightforward. We have done this many times.
What about the implementation team?
We have three IT support engineers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is fine. Our customers pay for their licenses annually.
What other advice do I have?
I would certainly recommend the solution to others.
We have between 200 and 750 customers.
I rate Kerio Control as a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
IT manager at ABITec s.r.o.
Feature rich, easy to manage, and reliable firewall
Pros and Cons
- "I find this solution to be rich in features and does all that I require, for example, it is easily manageable and has comprehensive virus detection."
- "My experience with the solutions technical support is fine but they could be faster in responding."
What is most valuable?
I find this solution to be rich in features and does all that I require. For example, it is easily manageable and has comprehensive virus detection.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the solution for approximately ten years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not had any problems with the stability of the solution, It is very stable. My clients are mainly small size companies.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I find the solution scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
My experience with the solutions technical support is fine but they could be faster in responding.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have tried a Zyxel Firewall product.
How was the initial setup?
I found the initial setup to be easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of the solution is reasonable. For additional costs, you can add on more features such as antivirus.
What other advice do I have?
For those who want a good firewall solution, this is the one.
I rate Kerio Control a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. reseller
MD at Comsque
A reliable solution offering robust performance and security.
Pros and Cons
- "The anti-virus and perimeter security functionality minimizes vulnerabilities in our network and better secures our data, and this also decreases downtime of devices due to viruses and malware attacks."
- "The reporting needs to be improved. It is hard to get a domain."
- "Sometimes you get a few challenges joining to a domain."
What is our primary use case?
Providing Firewall functionality, VPN connectivity and content filtering.
How has it helped my organization?
1. It decreased malware attacks in our network.
2. It improved employee productivity and data security.
What is most valuable?
1. The built-in anti-virus and perimeter security.
2. The VPN feature.
1. The anti-virus and perimeter security functionality minimizes vulnerabilities in our network and better secures our data. This also decreases downtime of devices due to viruses and malware attacks.
2. The VPN functionality has allowed staff to have stable remote connectivity on a secure and encrypted connection. This has improved the ability to get work done smarter and efficiently whilst working remotely (or from home).
What needs improvement?
1. More detailed reporting.
2. Sometimes you get a few challenges joining to a domain.
3. Improved and simplified User Interface.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Kerio Control for over four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution and we have not had any major stability issues in our four years of using it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. If you are using a Virtual Appliance make sure your hardware specifications are good then you can easily add licenses as your users increase. On hardware Appliances you might have to upgrade to a bigger appliance as your users increase.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support is fine. The response time can improve.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Yes, we switched due to the favourable pricing, many features and robust performance of Kerio Control.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. We deployed Hyper-V Appliances and everything worked as it should. Connecting the Appliances to MyKerio was pretty simple and hassle free.
What about the implementation team?
In-house.
What was our ROI?
Our ROI is very good. The savings we have made after deploying were good. We have saved on downtime of devices due to attacks and man hours of the IT staff attending to these issues. This enabled us to invest time and resources into profitable projects rather than to support.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The setup cost is fair especially of the Virtual Appliances. The annual licensing is easy and priced fairly.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes we looked at Cyberoam and Sophos.
What other advice do I have?
Kerio Control is a good solution which is reliable and easy to use.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
ICT Manager at MEDS
It is a good firewall appliance, but it lacks local support and scalability
Pros and Cons
- "The firewall appliance itself is the most valuable feature."
- "I find it a bit costly to pay for the products that I am not using. They need to change their model in such a way that you don't have to pay for the products that you are not using. Its local support and scalability are also not good. I am looking forward to a more scalable product that will be able to grow with time and technology."
What is our primary use case?
We use Kerio Control as our firewall.
How has it helped my organization?
The Kerio Product has come in handy in the area of Firewall management. Having visibility into the entire Organization through a dashboard.
What is most valuable?
The firewall appliance itself is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
I find it a bit costly to pay for the products that I am not using. They need to change their model in such a way that you don't have to pay for the products that you are not using.
The GFI features that come with Kerio are stated below. When paying for the licenses we pay for license for everything yet we only use 5 products.
| GFI Products | |
| GFI Endpoint Security | In use |
| GFI Mail Essentials | Not in use |
| Kerio Connect | In use |
| GFI Archiver | Not in use |
| GFI Fax Maker | Not In use |
| Kerio Control | In Use |
| GFI Lan Guard | In use |
| GFI Web Monitor | In use |
| Kerio Operator | Not in use |
| GFI Events Manager | Not in use |
We only use 5 products out of the 10 we’ve paid for. We should have the option for paying for what we use not a blanket cost for everything
Internet aggregation and SDWAN Technology: The firewall should allow growth in terms of allowing connectivity to SDWAN technology available in other firewall appliances.Link aggregation and SD-WAN (Software-defined Wide Area Network) are great features for businesses who need multiple links to the internet. They’re also useful where you are using multiple links and would like to connect to other sites, such as branch offices or cloud services.
Its local support and scalability is also not good. I am looking forward to a more scalable product that will be able to grow with time and technology.
Cloud Support: The Firewall should have cloud support especially hybrid cloud support.
It should allow device identification without just stating that the devices are unrecognized-"unrecognized devices"
Sandboxing is one of those important firewall features that end users don’t even know is there. It takes a file or executable as you’re downloading it and opens it in a completely isolated and separate “test” environment.This is missing.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for around one year. We are working with Kerio Control and other GFI products that come with it.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It has been a stable product. We haven't had any issues apart from yesterday when it somehow froze. It was the first time we experienced such an issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is a bit of a challenge because you need to buy a new product if you want to upgrade to new technology.
In other firewall products, you have options for scalability, but for this particular product, such an option is not available. For example, FortiGate firewall provides added technology capabilities that allow it to grow a bit. In Kerio Control, if I want to bring new technology like SD WAN, I need to buy a new product, or maybe do away with Kerio Control and use a new technology altogether.
How are customer service and technical support?
At the moment, there is no proper local support for Kerio Control here in Kenya. It is hard to get service or assistance for anything. This is the challenge that I faced in using a Kerio product or a GFI product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used to work with Cisco products. We switched to Kerio because they promised a lot of products, and the initial cost was less as compared to other products.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. I learned this product on the job, and I never got any hands-on training. I just went to YouTube and oriented myself with it, and then I set it up quickly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its initial cost is less as compared to other products. It becomes a bit costly when you pay for the products that you don't use. We paid for almost all the products through subscription, but we are using only a few products. We use EndPointSecurity, Kerio Connect, WebMonitor, and LanGuard. We don't use the rest of the products.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Kerio Control a six out of ten. Its local support, scalability, and pricing model need to be improved.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Support at Rural Computer Consultants, Inc
Content filtering and VPN simplicity are second to none
Pros and Cons
- "The ease of use in the GUI itself is the most valuable feature. The GUI is really the best part of it. We like the traffic rules so we can control who can get to what. It's easy to determine the flow of the traffic itself so we aren't having to guess through command lines and reading out basically command-driven output. It's just a very easy-to-use interface. The interface is the best part of the product."
- "On an annual basis, we save not just hundreds of hours but also labor costs, and over the life of the product, I'm sure it's in the tens of thousands of hours because we don't need an inhouse specialist in Kerio technology."
- "The security part of the software, like virus scanning, website, traffic monitoring, things like that, can take a beating on the appliance. And when there's a lot of things going on, the system can get bogged down. The actual security functionality of it needs a little bit more work, which I believe they are remedying or attempting to remedy at this time, but that's the downfall at this time."
What is our primary use case?
We have over 50 office staff that we use Kerio Control to protect, monitor web traffic, and cloud-host environments. We have a VPN tunnel from outside vendors that we keep connected to our environment and we use it as a switching device between some of our hardware in the hosting environment. We also use it for the security function.
Our primary use case is for intrusion prevention from attackers, from wherever they may be. And also for doing the quality of service because we have a lot of remote users, especially during this pandemic. We can control the quality of service with phones and network devices, as well as the antivirus scanning. We use the whole gamut of pretty much everything that Kerio has to offer.
We're still a small company but we are pushing what the software is currently able to handle, while it seems to be geared towards small-medium business.
How has it helped my organization?
Content filtering used to be that you had to block specific websites that you didn't want somebody to access, or you had to write a specific rule to say that something is accessible or not accessible. We can apply Kerio-provided categories and rules without having to define large scopes of protocols or malicious websites. That part of it has come a long way in the last five to ten years.
The GUI is the best part of the product. If another team member needs to get in there to do something, it's a really quick click and it's done. There's no learning through command-line tools.
On an annual basis, we save not just hundreds of hours but also labor costs. Over the life of the product, I'm sure it's in the tens of thousands of hours because we don't need an inhouse specialist in Kerio technology.
What is most valuable?
The ease of use in the GUI itself is the most valuable feature. We like the traffic rules so we can control who has access. It's easy to determine the flow of the traffic itself so we don't have to educate on command lines and reading out command-driven output. It's a very easy-to-use interface.
The comprehensiveness of the security features is fairly good. There have been some suggestions that we've made to the GFI team that we would like to see for performance. As our company grows, we need Kerio to grow with us, and so we've suggested some ideas on making the Kerio Control appliance perform better for more users because it can become sluggish under heavy loads.
In terms of security features, Kerio gives us most of what we need. There are some granular items that we would find more useful when we want to stop a particular region from access.
The firewall and intrusion detection features are really good, it just needs a little bit more fine-tuning.
The content filtering and VPN features are great. The vpn client is ssl based, so no key cipher matching is required when setting up without information in front of you.
What needs improvement?
The security part of the software, like virus scanning, website, traffic monitoring, things like that, can take a toll on performance. The actual security functionality of it needs a little bit more work, which I believe they are remedying or attempting to remedy at this time, but that's the downfall at this time; it is currently running on an end of life linux kernel.
For how long have I used the solution?
I personally have been using Kerio Control for 13 years but it's been at my company for close to 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has actually improved quite a bit. There were some bugs found in previous versions up until about last spring, and then they concentrated on fixing some of the issues causing us some problems. As of the last update, it's very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's not very scalable when you start to get into the hundreds to thousands of users because the performance of all of the functionality isn't quite there yet. We're hoping that's remedied with some updates coming down the line.
Kerio is pretty much the backbone of everything that we do. Keeping all of our customers connected to us, keeping our staff safe online, and getting our staff into our cloud environment.
How are customer service and technical support?
The GFI technical support can be very time-consuming to get down to the root of the problem, but they are very helpful when you do have an issue. It just takes some time to get to it. It sometimes can be communication that's the issue. Sometimes it can be the complexity of the problem.
It doesn't seem to be a lack of knowledge on the technical support side of things. Some of it comes down to whether the product can currently do what we needed to do or not. We were trying to determine if there was something that we could do to get better performance out of the appliance, and the response from the GFI support team was that it wasn't able to do some of the things that we wanted it to do, but it was something that they were looking at with rewriting some of the functionality. There is the possibility that some of those can be overcome easier.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not have any experience with another similar solution. In fact, I had never heard of Kerio until I started at my company, primarily because Kerio was fairly small at the time. They were based out of California at the time. They were a small company and generally fit into the 100-users-or-less environment. When you would hear about other vendors, they generally ran in the thousands to tens of thousands of users and you just didn't hear about Kerio in that product line.
We take other solutions into consideration based on the growth needs that we have. As our cloud environment gets larger, if the Kerio technology is not able to keep up, that's always under consideration.
How was the initial setup?
The process was pretty straightforward. Something that I expected to take days to weeks took about two or three hours.
What was our ROI?
Network security should not be planned around providing a return on your dollar in terms of a payback in the administration of the process. It should be planned around providing a level of comfort to management that intruders are being kept out of the network, errors and omissions are being kept to an acceptable level of risk.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Price-wise, it's very affordable. Whether you're a smaller or larger business, whether you're five users or a couple of hundred users, the pricing is very fair. The performance of it is what determines how you want to license it because you can purchase a Kerio appliance. We try to make use out of everything because we like to keep it in one place. It has fit our business size and needs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Some of the main differences between the other solutions and Kerio is that Kerio has made their subscription service fairly universal. You get pretty much everything with one subscription. With some of the other vendors, you have to subscribe to each module that you want to use. On the other side of it, other firewall vendors tend to be able to handle in the millions of connections, hundreds of thousands to millions. And we see some of those limitations with the Kerio appliance because of some of the aging architecture of it.
What other advice do I have?
My advice would be to follow the hardware requirements of Kerio and make sure the equipment that you have can run the connections for the number of users that you intend to run and are being planned out to be successful. Working with the Kerio team to determine your needs works out very well.
Not all firewalls have to be difficult to learn. Kerio has made it a really easy-to-use product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
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Updated: August 2026
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