We performed a comparison between Check Point NGFW and OPNsense based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Features: Check Point NGFW is highly regarded for its extensive security functions, centralized control, and ability to virtualize. OPNsense is appreciated for its ability to scale, provide guest access, offer user-friendly dashboards, and provide a free version for users. Check Point NGFW needs enhancements in integration, hardware upgrades, cost, stability, load balancing, technical support, and reporting capabilities. OPNsense, on the other hand, requires improvements in its interface, bandwidth management, multi-provider internet protection, integration with Azure, a timeline for new features and updates, IPS solution, reporting capabilities, SSL inspection, and learning curve.
Service and Support: The service for Check Point NGFW has varying feedback, with certain customers appreciating its assistance and quick response, while others believe there is room for improvement. OPNsense boasts an exceptional community support network, although a few users encounter challenges in directly accessing support.
Ease of Deployment: The setup process for Check Point NGFW can be complex and challenging, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the product. It requires expertise and experience for certain configurations and migrations. The initial setup of OPNsense is described as straightforward and easy, even for clients without IT experience. It can be completed within a few hours, with slight variations depending on individual circumstances.
Pricing: The cost of setting up Check Point NGFW is deemed to be expensive, whereas OPNsense falls into the moderate range. Check Point provides flexible licensing choices, although some individuals find the procedure complex. OPNsense is a license-free open-source solution. In addition to the basic expenses, OPNsense requires additional costs for hardware, installation, and training.
ROI: Check Point NGFW provides cost savings, simplicity, and reliable security enforcement, resulting in a favorable return on investment. OPNsense achieves a return on investment in less than three months and eliminates recurring fees.
Comparison Results: Check Point NGFW is the preferred choice over OPNsense. Users appreciate its comprehensive security features, centralized management, and virtualization capabilities. It is known for its stability, ease of use, and scalability. Check Point NGFW is considered worth the price due to its superior security and reliability.
"The security fabric is excellent."
"It is user friendly, and has all the features you need."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"It is a one box solution, which covers most of the edge device’s requirements."
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"The secure web gateway module and the application control module are valuable. HA operations are very easy."
"The features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The customization potential is quite impressive."
"Check Point NGFW generates very helpful reports based on the logs of the activated features."
"Check Point helps a lot with automatization which definitely reduces the effort to maintain the environment."
"My favorite feature is the UTM piece and that was the main reason we bought it. It helps us to fine tune the network."
"By far, it's the best security solution one can adopt for their organization."
"Management integration is holistic as centralized management has been core to the solution for decades."
"We can decipher the activity of each connection and see what is inside it."
"I was impressed by how easy it was to activate blades and implement them on a security gateway, with the process taking less than five minutes."
"The architecture of the solution is extraordinary"
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"The VPN server feature is the most valuable. It is integrated with Radius and AAA for doing accounting and authentication. Insight view is also an important feature for me at this time. It allows me to assess our network traffic. I also like the firewall feature. The BSD kernel has a packet filter. It is one of the most solid frameworks for firewalls. Its user interface is one of the best interfaces I have used."
"It is a very good solution. I like the dashboard. I can see what is going on and manage it as I like it."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"They need to improve their technical support."
"It can be a little bit more user-friendly in terms of policy definition and implementation. It seems a little bit complicated, and it could be simplified."
"We would like to see better pricing."
"There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"The initial setup and configuration are not intuitive and require training."
"In our particular case, we have different web applications developed by the same organization, however, that requires a specialized protection element such as a WAF. Having this service or feature within the same solution would be very valuable."
"My customers complain that the interface isn't user-friendly."
"The biggest improvement they could make is having one software to install on all three levels of their products, so that the SMBs, the normal models, and the chassis would all run the same software. Now, while there is central management, everything that has to be configured on the gateway itself works differently on the three kinds of devices."
"Although very efficient, the product could be developed in a way that does not take a lot more system resources."
"Check Point is not a cheap solution and it's always painful to see exactly how much we need to spend on this."
"The presentation of the reports need to be more user-friendly."
"The smart console is heavy."
"This product has room for improvement in technical support for Africa."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"The reporting part could be better."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."
"I would like better documentation concerning the provided packages and their integration."
"Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine."
Check Point NGFW is ranked 5th in Firewalls with 277 reviews while OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews. Check Point NGFW is rated 8.8, while OPNsense is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Check Point NGFW writes "Good antivirus protection and URL filtering with very good user identification capabilities". On the other hand, the top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Robust network security and management offering a user-friendly interface, open-source flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, with challenges regarding initial setup and the absence of official support". Check Point NGFW is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Netgate pfSense and Juniper SRX Series Firewall, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and KerioControl. See our Check Point NGFW vs. OPNsense report.
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