We performed a comparison between pfSense and Fortinet Fortigate based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, it seems that pfSense is the more favorable solution because it is open source and also offers great features.
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"Some of the key features of the solution is that it has good reporting, you can receive many details from the connection, for example, clients and website information."
"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and the UI. It has always provided me with what I needed. I have no need for additional costs that other solutions have, such as Sophos."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"pfSense allows us to spread the hours of connection and do the filtering on the pfSense site."
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."
"The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"The firmware needs improvement because there are bugs when a new release comes through. Sometimes, the configuration changes, and it's a bit harder to see where the fail is. The first time that you have the firmware, it tends to have some issues, and it's better to wait a bit to update the equipment."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."
"Due to its higher cost, Fortinet FortiGate can lead to increased operational expenses."
"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."
"Also, simplifying the rules for the GeoIP. Making it simpler to understand would be an improvement."
"The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."
"The product could offer more integrated plugins."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The Netgate forums and community don’t provide extensive discussions and topics related to every pfSense service."
"The GUI. There are TONS of plugins for pfSense, as such, if a user wants to add quite a bit of functionality, the GUI will feel a little congested."
Fortinet FortiGate is ranked 2nd in Firewalls with 67 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 15 reviews. Fortinet FortiGate is rated 8.4, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Fortinet FortiGate writes "Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "Feature-rich, well documented, and there is good support available online". Fortinet FortiGate is most compared with Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Check Point NGFW and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and KerioControl. See our Fortinet FortiGate vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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Both are very good products, but some features that Sophos mentioned as new, FortiGate has been handling. If you are going to grow with several appliances I recommend Sophos, since the administration can be done from the cloud. With Fortinet, you have to pay a licensing fee. In terms of costs and all the options, they are very similar. Another detail to review is the support, at the beginning with Fortigate, I had enough details, but it is really improving significantly with respect to Sophos.
My comment is based on experience and I do not lean toward any of the brands. To reiterate, they are good types of equipment.