We performed a comparison between Huawei 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."It's very fast and easy to configure."
"User-friendly and affordable security solution that's recommended for SMB customers. This solution has good technical support."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ease of use and there are several operating systems that can include the hardware capacities. In the newer releases, the resources were more useful because they were included in the operating system."
"Huawei was able to assist us in the installation of their product. The installation was very fast."
"The support for the solution has been excellent. If we ever had an issue they would send an engineer to help us with our problem."
"The solution's performance is good with IPSec."
"We make use of the new data center, specifically the containerized data center which is built and reviewed by Huawei, including all the device's infrastructure."
"The user interface is very, very good."
"The tool helps us to integrate with other brands."
"The security is good. It's as effective as anything else on the market."
"I like that the initial setup is straighforward. It's also a scalable solution."
"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 is a good firewall with good performance."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"The gain in performance and security from configuring the VPN connections was significant."
"I am happy with the EPLS, the radius, and I am happy with the captive portal."
"Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco."
"The built-in open VPN and the VPN Client Export are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"The solution is very easy to use and has a very nice GUI."
"The updates Fortinet provides are sometimes unstable."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"Quality control on their firmware versions needs improvement. When they introduce new firmware, there tend to be bugs."
"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."
"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."
"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"The solution could be more secure and have better integration."
"With the Huawei firewall, none of the features comes at the top. We found out later that customer support is really not good. For this firewall, because of our customers' routine, for example, every six months they'll do a penetration test to find weaknesses. So whenever they came up with VAPT reports, they are looking to Huawei for help. I think that's basically because it's a different culture. Chinese culture and our culture is different. They have always tried to help find some excuses or say some other things that cannot help you solve the problem immediately."
"The solution does not have sandboxing features."
"Wi-Fi scanning and Wi-Fi analysis would be useful features to include in the future."
"There needs to be more security equipment for the solution."
"The IPS feature must be improved."
"The solution requires a more interactive dashboard. That would make it easier than playing with configurations the way we have to now."
"The solution is scalable but it is difficult because you need to purchase new systems, it is not just one click."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"pfSense has some limitations in detecting site sessions. We want to control internet usage based on sites and their content, and pfSense doesn't perform this function."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"As an open-source solution, there are so many loopholes happening within the product. By design, no one is taking ownership of it, and that is worrisome to me."
"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."
"I have been using WireGuard VPN because it is a lot faster and more secure than an open VPN. However, in the latest version of pfSense, they have removed this feature, which is one of the main features that I need. They should include this feature."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
Huawei NGFW is ranked 31st in Firewalls with 18 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Huawei NGFW is rated 7.2, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Huawei NGFW writes "A scalable and easy-to-setup product that can be used to configure different policies for specific users". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Huawei NGFW is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Fortinet FortiOS, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Huawei NGFW vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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