We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security 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."The dashboard I have found the most valuable in Fortinet FortiGate."
"The customization potential is quite impressive."
"The ease of setting the solution up is a valuable aspect for us."
"The user interface is relatively easy. The devices are easy to deploy and figure out when you have experience with other security appliances."
"It is simple to manage, and there are a lot of functionalities in the same box."
"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring."
"The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability. The nice thing with the bigger vendors is that they're very good at scale."
"Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It offers good network visibility, which helps in rapid response through the Rapid Threat Containment feature. Its deployment and configuration are straightforward."
"The most valuable features of Cisco IOS Security are the plenty of functionality it provides, many people are IT certified the usage, and the user interface is good."
"Cisco IOS Security has many good features, but compared to other solutions, it has a more user-friendly interface with steps to apply and manage rules. Another good part of the solution is that it's more straightforward."
"You can scale it when you need to."
"Previously, anyone in the organization would see any data point in the wall. They could just go and connect their machine with that data point and could access the network. But now, even if someone came and tried that, they will not be given access."
"Cisco has always been a premium product. There's a lot of other entry-level solutions. This is more robust."
"The product has valuable features for business intelligence."
"The documentation is very good."
"It is a stable solution."
"The product’s documentation is good."
"We like the fact that the product is open-source. It's free to use. There are no costs associated with it."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"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"
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"This product could be improved with Active directory integration and better handling in IPsec and GRE Tunnels."
"I would like reporting to be improved and should offer a lot more tools to monitor the products."
"The solution could be more evenly structured."
"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."
"The user interface could be improved."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."
"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"If they could increase the performance a little better because the device sometimes gets slow."
"The graphical user interface or the GUI could be better. Beginners can use some devices with the GUI, but some security devices are configured using CLI. It would also be better if it had its own Intrusion Protection Service and Intrusion Detection Service on the server."
"Cisco is a scalable product, but it is expensive compared to other vendors."
"The company needs to make its solution more affordable to make it more accessible to larger markets. Otherwise, it's seen as an enterprise-level solution that small or medium-sized organizations can't afford and therefore they won't even look at it."
"We have a very bad experience on the support. They take too much time requesting logs, and they are not coming directly online to resolve the issues."
"There's a technology called SD-WAN that we would like to see. We are unable to handle multiple connections or to automatically load balance. I would like to have a feature that enables us to automatically prepare for load balancing."
"It should integrate with LDAP, Active Directory, etc, to improve the way in which the traces and connections of each IP, or user connected through the firewall, are shown."
"I tried pfSense, and it has a big issue with file system consistency, and this is what drove me to OPNsense. The file system stability is quite a big issue for us. We have a lot of outages related to power issues, and OPNsense is much more stable on this side."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The solution’s interface must be improved."
"The solution could improve by having centralized management and API support online."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"The technical support needs to be improved."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiOS, Meraki MX, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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