We performed a comparison between FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Netgate pfSense 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."This is an easy solution to deploy."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"Advanced routing (RIP, OSPF, BGP, PBR). It gives you a seamless and simple integration into a large network."
"It works very well. It has a lot of different functionalities. Its cost is also fine for our customers."
"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
"It's super reliable. I don't think I've ever had a reliability issue with it."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The product is user-friendly and not complex."
"The solution has helped our organization secure our network and connect remote sites."
"User identification and application identification are valuable features."
"The setup is easy."
"I found the upgrades valuable."
"The usability of the solution is its best feature."
"Fortinet offers comprehensive security solutions for various purposes."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"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."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"A very stable product that lasts over time, easy to understand, and administer."
"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."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"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."
"Technical support for this solution can be improved."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"It could use more templates for third-party site-to-site VPN setups other than FortiGate and Cisco."
"It would be good if they had fewer updates."
"FortiLink is the interface on the firewall that allows you to extend switch management across all of your switches in the network. The problem with it is that you can't use multiple interfaces unless you set them up in a lag. Only then you can run them. So, it forces you to use a core type of switch to propagate that management out to the rest of the switches, and then it is running the case at 200. It leaves you with 18 ports on the firewall because it is also a layer-three router that could also be used as a switch, but as soon as you do that, you can't really use them. They could do a little bit more clean up in the way the stacking interface works. Some use cases and the documentation on the FortiLink checking interface are a little outdated. I can find stuff on version 5 or more, but it is hard to find information on some of the newer firmware. The biggest thing I would like to see is some improvement in the switch management feature. I would like to be able to relegate some of the ports, which are on the firewall itself, to act as a switch to take advantage of those ports. Some of these firewalls have clarity ports on them. If I can use those, it would mean that I need to buy two less switches, which saves time. I get why they don't, but I would still like to see it because it would save a little bit of space in the server rack."
"There is one big configuration file with no separations for the unique VDOMs. Maybe they could separate individual VDOM configuration files with the root VDOM configuration file referencing the individual VDOM config files."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"I see problems with the licensing. If I have to add a new feature, we need to add a license."
"The solution's stability should be improved because it is extremely unstable."
"Technical support is not helpful."
"The licensing model and pricing need improvement."
"Vulnerabilities owing to viruses in the OS need to be reduced in FortiGate Next Generation Firewall from an improvement perspective."
"The product has to be upgraded every few weeks."
"Its load balancing feature could be easy to configure."
"The room for improvement is to have more flexibility on the virtual machines of their next-generation platforms."
"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."
"Also, the GUI is helpful, but it's not user-friendly. It's complicated. It should be more intuitive for the average user and have an excellent graphical view. Of course, the user will typically know about network administration, but it still should be easy to understand."
"It would be great to add more to security."
"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."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"Netgate pfSense needs to improve the configuration for a VPN."
"The integration of pfSense with EPS and EDS could be better. Also, it should be easier to get reports on how many users are connecting simultaneously and how sections connect in real-time."
More FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Pricing and Cost Advice →
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 37 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is rated 8.4, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) writes "Easy to set up but needs better pricing and more helpful support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is most compared with OPNsense, Tailscale, Twingate, Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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