The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well.
It is very easy to use. The interface is quite understandable. There is a good community, and I can take over at any time I want. If there is anything wrong with it, I could just reinstall the whole thing and start all over again, and I'll be up again in less than a few minutes
It is a very good solution for enterprises that need a VPN for their employees. It is the best way to provide a remote work facility to employees at a very low cost. Other solutions that I have had in the past were very expensive. Enterprises don't always have that kind of money to invest.
The plugins or add-ons are most valuable. Sometimes, they are free of charge, and sometimes, you have to pay for them, but you can purchase or download very valuable plugins or add-ons to perform internal testing of your network and simulate a denial-of-service attack or whichever attack you want to simulate. You can also remote and monitor your network and see where the gap is. Did you forget a printer port? Most attacks at the moment are happening through printers, and they can tell you immediately that you forgot to close the port of the printer. There are more than one million printers that are in danger, and everybody knows that hackers are using them to enter the network. So, you can download plugins to protect your network.
pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information.
VP of Business Development at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 20
2021-11-16T04:08:00Z
Nov 16, 2021
What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service.
I'm the expert when it comes to Linux systems, however, with the pfSense, due to the web interface, the rest of the staff can actually make changes to it as required without me worrying about whether they've opened up ports incorrectly or not. The ease of use for non-expert staff is very good.
Systems Administrator at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
2020-12-19T10:27:54Z
Dec 19, 2020
The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice.
It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall.
One of the advantages of pfSense is that it is very easy to work with. It is a very good open-source solution, and it works really well.
pfSense provides a complete package. For some features, it could be the first solution in the world. It is a very good alternative in the market for a firewall solution. You don't need to go to Cisco or other brands with expensive firewalls. pfSense also allows us to offer some support services.
Principal at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Top 20
2020-11-19T07:30:11Z
Nov 19, 2020
It works. I put pfSense in, and it works. I can't think of any trouble I ever had with it. It runs on heat-sensitive appliances. They don't need a fan, so they don't overheat.
It is affordable, fast, and very high-speed. It is built on BSD Unix, and it pretty much runs on any Intel processor.
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.
I had some outages in the network and we provide services for our company. We sell mobile credits. The terminal gets access to our own server inside the network and if one internet fails, then the other one is still up and we have a back-up link on the devices.
My company mainly works in the health and educational domain, schools and universities. I prevent the improper use of content from schools and universities. I defend the medical records for the patients in our hospitals. That is the main use case for me for the firewall.
Hello community,
I am the CEO of a small company and am currently researching firewall solutions.
Which solution do you prefer: pfSense or KerioControl? What are the pros and cons of each solution?
Thank you.
Hi, pfSense is better solution for small business. Pro : It's open source product and can be used with dedicate box such as Netgate. Good community support. Very cheap solution, one time cost, no subscription or license renewal. Work perfectly, Monitoring and control is best in class. Cons: Complex in configuration, Require good technical knowledge. Using Netgate 6100 with 400 endpoints with auto configuration settings working good.
Hello community,
I work at an educational organization and I am currently researching firewalls.
Which solution do you prefer: pfSense or OPNsense? Why is pfSense's firewall better than OPNsense's?
Thank you for your help.
They are pretty much the same... OPNsense has a better GUI...
The community in pfSense is much bigger... OPNSense has more frequent updates... but other than that... you can not make mistakes...
The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management.
The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well.
It is very easy to use. The interface is quite understandable. There is a good community, and I can take over at any time I want. If there is anything wrong with it, I could just reinstall the whole thing and start all over again, and I'll be up again in less than a few minutes
It is a very good solution for enterprises that need a VPN for their employees. It is the best way to provide a remote work facility to employees at a very low cost. Other solutions that I have had in the past were very expensive. Enterprises don't always have that kind of money to invest.
It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet.
pfSense allows us to spread the hours of connection and do the filtering on the pfSense site.
Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco.
The initial setup is not complex.
The plugins or add-ons are most valuable. Sometimes, they are free of charge, and sometimes, you have to pay for them, but you can purchase or download very valuable plugins or add-ons to perform internal testing of your network and simulate a denial-of-service attack or whichever attack you want to simulate. You can also remote and monitor your network and see where the gap is. Did you forget a printer port? Most attacks at the moment are happening through printers, and they can tell you immediately that you forgot to close the port of the printer. There are more than one million printers that are in danger, and everybody knows that hackers are using them to enter the network. So, you can download plugins to protect your network.
The GUI is easy to understand.
Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company.
pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information.
What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service.
I have found pfSense to be stable.
My technicians find the pfSense's web interface very useful. It is very easy to use.
pfSense is very reliable and stable. We like the OpenVPN clients that can be deployed using pfSense very much.
I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall.
Technical support is perfect, excellent.
I like pfSense's security features.
What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance.
The most valuable features of pfSense are the reports, monitoring, filtration, and blocking incoming and outgoing traffic.
The solution is very easy to use and configure.
It is a better firewall than others and it has better features.
pfSense is easy to use, has user-friendly dashboards, and useful blocking features.
Is good at blocking IP addresses.
The concurrent users are perfect for us.
The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance.
The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use.
We like the fact that the product is open-source. It's free to use. There are no costs associated with it.
The VPN is my favorite feature.
The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features.
A free firewall that is a good network security appliance.
A valuable feature is that the solution is open source.
I mostly like all of it. Whatever we use is valuable.
It is a stable solution. It is also easy to install and can be deployed and maintained by one team member.
I especially like the VPN part. It works like a charm.
It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good.
I'm the expert when it comes to Linux systems, however, with the pfSense, due to the web interface, the rest of the staff can actually make changes to it as required without me worrying about whether they've opened up ports incorrectly or not. The ease of use for non-expert staff is very good.
I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable.
The solution is very easy to use and has a very nice GUI.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The flexibility of adding new kinds of services without spending any money can't be beaten.
I am happy with the EPLS, the radius, and I am happy with the captive portal.
I like the connectivity to the open VPN. It's very smooth.
I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection.
We've found the stability to be very good overall.
pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home.
Content protection, content inspection, and the application level firewall.
The classic features such as content inspection, content protection, and the application-level firewall, are the most important.
The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets.
The interface is straightforward and easy to use.
The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice.
It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall.
The built-in open VPN and the VPN Client Export are the solution's most valuable aspects.
One of the advantages of pfSense is that it is very easy to work with. It is a very good open-source solution, and it works really well.
pfSense provides a complete package. For some features, it could be the first solution in the world. It is a very good alternative in the market for a firewall solution. You don't need to go to Cisco or other brands with expensive firewalls. pfSense also allows us to offer some support services.
It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application.
It works. I put pfSense in, and it works. I can't think of any trouble I ever had with it. It runs on heat-sensitive appliances. They don't need a fan, so they don't overheat.
It is affordable, fast, and very high-speed. It is built on BSD Unix, and it pretty much runs on any Intel processor.
It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with.
The documentation is very good.
At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections.
The initial setup is easy.
Good basic firewall features.
Great extensibility of the platform.
The solution is very robust.
The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary.
The most valuable features are the VPN and the capture photo.
The initial setup was simple and fast.
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.
This solution has helped our organization by protecting our network from attacks.
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.
I had some outages in the network and we provide services for our company. We sell mobile credits. The terminal gets access to our own server inside the network and if one internet fails, then the other one is still up and we have a back-up link on the devices.
My company mainly works in the health and educational domain, schools and universities. I prevent the improper use of content from schools and universities. I defend the medical records for the patients in our hospitals. That is the main use case for me for the firewall.
The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems.
Super easy to manage. Anyone who has been working with firewalls can handle it.
Stability has been excellent. We have experienced no issues; it never fails.
The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product.
Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there.