We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and SonicWall NSv 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."Our project needs to link two sides through the internet. One of these was in Cairo and the other in another city. We used FortiGate as the integrating solution between the two locations, i.e. the Fortinet 30E & 100E."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"The payment function for applications is good."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"FortiGate is very simple to manage and easy to use."
"It's very easy to configure."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is load balancing. It can provide central management and VPNA. Additionally, it has enhanced our security environment."
"I like pfSense's security features."
"It is a stable solution. It is also easy to install and can be deployed and maintained by one team member."
"The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well."
"Open source and support are valuable. I have community support."
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company."
"Content protection, content inspection, and the application level firewall."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"The product helps improve our security."
"Some of the filtering is not robust, you can escape it with a VPN. Some of the users bypass some of the filters. It catches some but it also misses some, that area could be improved. It's functioning reasonably but there's room for improvement in that area."
"Lacks training for new features."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"I think that the infrastructure for the VPN could be improved. The way that it is bundled also made it difficult to use and sell as it is too expensive."
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"For the third-party packages, I'd rather have it built-in, like a core feature of pfSense, part of the core model."
"Web interface could be enhanced and more user friendly."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"There could be a way to remote to it through a mobile app. You can always browse through your browser on your mobile phone or tablet, but it would be good to have a dedicated app. I understand that iOS and Android developers are expensive, but there should be a mobile app."
"The solution could improve by having centralized management and API support online."
"It needs to be more secure."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall NSv is ranked 35th in Firewalls with 7 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall NSv is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSv writes "Easy to use, stable, and the security features work well". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSv is most compared with Azure Firewall, SonicWall NSa, SonicWall TZ and Fortinet FortiGate-VM. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall NSv report.
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