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."I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"Provides good firewall security and has great VPN features."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"Its stability is the most valuable."
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The customization potential is quite impressive."
"The usability of the solution is its best feature."
"The solution’s interface is pretty user-friendly."
"FortiGate is a rapidly growing vendor with a wide range of ready-to-use products. Their delivery time is remarkably quick, usually between two to four weeks."
"The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easily integrates with the FortiGate solution. However, verifying through documentation and assessing their support is necessary."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 's most valuable features are reporting and filtering."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall's design is good...I am very impressed with the product's stability."
"It is a scalable solution."
"Overall, I am satisfied with the product."
"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."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary."
"It is a stable solution. It is also easy to install and can be deployed and maintained by one team member."
"The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections."
"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."
"The Wi-Fi controller needs a lot of improvement."
"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"They need faster serviceability and more security features."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"The solution must improve the support provided for customers around the globe, considering the time differences in different places."
"Its load balancing feature could be easy to configure."
"The solution's GUI is not very appealing."
"The room for improvement is to have more flexibility on the virtual machines of their next-generation platforms."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall could be made a little less expensive."
"The solution's stability should be improved because it is extremely unstable."
"The product has to be upgraded every few weeks."
"There should be better customization in the IPS."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"We have not had any problems with it, and we also do not have a need for any new features. If anything, its reporting can be better. Sophos has better reporting than pfSense. Sophos has more detailed information. pfSense is not as detailed. It is summarized."
"My only observation is about the quality of the IPSec logs, which are difficult to interpret and are poor in filters."
"pfSense is not user-friendly. I hope to have something to make the interfaces more user-friendly."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"In terms of areas of improvement, the interface seemed like it had a lot. The GUI interface that I had gotten into was rather elaborate. I don't know if they could zero in on some markets and potentially for small, medium businesses specifically, give them a stripped-down version of the GUI for pfSense."
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.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.