We performed a comparison between Azure Firewall and pfSense based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: pfSense comes out on top in this comparison. It is high performing and, according to reviews, it is a more comprehensive solution than Azure Firewall. pfSense also received higher marks in the support category.
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"Its stability is the most valuable."
"This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is security. They are known for efficiency and are on the top of Gartner Quadrant reviews. Fortinet FortiGate has an easy-to-use platform with a good graphical interface. The configuration is simple and the solution provides an overall good layer of security."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"Virtual Domains (VDOMs) are a feature that we found valuable."
"It's auto-scalable, which is a great feature."
"The SIEM that Azure Firewall provides us is very robust."
"The solution is stable."
"It's helped us improve our security posture."
"I think that one of the best features is definitely the premium version, along with the IDPs in terms of the intrusion detection and prevention system."
"Azure's cost-effectiveness is its major advantage."
"Performance and stability are the key features of this product."
"We secure the entry point to the virtual data center with the firewall."
"I use pfSense because it gives me the flexibility to greatly expand basic firewall features."
"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."
"Firewall system for small, medium, and large data networks. It allows you to provide security to your environment: DMZ networks, LAN, WAN, etc."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"We like the fact that the product is open-source. It's free to use. There are no costs associated with it."
"A very stable product that lasts over time, easy to understand, and administer."
"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"
"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."
"The solution could be more evenly structured."
"Improvement is needed in the Web Filter quotas to restrict users with allocated quotas."
"This product could be improved with Active directory integration and better handling in IPsec and GRE Tunnels."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution. However, my issue is the performance only. When I use all the profiles, this affects the performance. From the beginning, I should have had a better sizing of the box."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"Azure Firewall definitely needs a broader feature base. It should be able to go all the way up to layer 7 when looking at applications and things like that."
"It's a little heavy compared to a FortiGate or other firewalls."
"There is room for further integration of AI into the system."
"There should be better monitoring and logging. Currently, it is put in Sentinel. It should be more seamless and from the interface."
"It is a cloud service, but the lending speed for each region is not always the same. For example, in China, the speed is slow. They need to think about how to make sure that the service pace or speed is always the same in all regions. It would be a great improvement if they can provide the same pace worldwide."
"The reporting, logging, and monitoring features, as well as the flexibility of the policies, need to be improved."
"It would be nice to be able to create groupings for servers and offer groups of IP addresses."
"Right now, with Azure Firewall, we cannot have a normal inbound traffic flow. For inbound, Microsoft suggests using application gateways, so the options are very limited. I cannot use this firewall as an intermediate firewall because of the limitations, and I cannot point routing to another firewall. So if I want to use back-to-back firewall architecture in my environment, I cannot use Azure Firewall for that type of configuration either."
"ClamAV AntiVirus can cause some crashes. That service should be improved."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"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."
"If you want to take advantage of all of the solution's options, you need to have a bit of a technical background. It's not for a layperson."
"The Netgate forums and community don’t provide extensive discussions and topics related to every pfSense service."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
Azure Firewall is ranked 21st in Firewalls with 33 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Azure Firewall is rated 7.2, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Azure Firewall writes "Easy to use and configure but could be more robust". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Azure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Microsoft Defender for Cloud, Palo Alto Networks VM-Series and Azure Front Door, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Azure Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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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.
