pfSense vs Sophos XG
We performed a comparison between pfSense vs Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"The most valuable features are simplicity, management, and that it's constantly evolving."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring."
"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"We have found it to be very reliable and that's why our teams and various users in our company use it as our main firewall every day."
"I mostly like all of it. Whatever we use is valuable."
"The redundancy and scalability ARE very nice."
"Great extensibility of the platform."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"I like pfSense's security features."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets."
"The performance and functionality are good."
"The simplicity and timely updates."
"One of the standout features of Sophos XG is its proprietary VPN technology known as RID (Remote Internet Device). This unique technology provides efficient branch connectivity without the need to invest in additional firewalls for each branch. By utilizing an affordable device called RED, users can effectively control and establish connections in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, the solution is feature-rich."
"I have found the solution easy to use and fully integrated."
"I rate Sophos support 10 out of 10. When my device was freezing, I contacted them, and sent me a replacement. It only took a couple of days for Sophos to ship the device to Kenya. I didn't have a redundant device, so it was urgent."
"The scalability of Sophos XG is good."
"The most valuable feature is the VPN aspect."
"Overall, this is a good product and I would recommend it for small to mid-sized customers."
"This solution is very user-friendly and even a non-professional can configure the policies."
"Security is a continuous process. In every product, there is a requirement for improvement. Its pricing should also be improved according to Indian market requirements. They must also improve on the reporting part. Its reporting can be more precise. If we can get a real-time report in a specific format, it will be helpful for customers to know about the current status of their security."
"I think there could be more QoS features"
"The license renewal process, annual renewal price, and the web application firewall features should be improved."
"Some features of Fortinet FortiGate are actually fee enabled that are inconvenient for deploying in production. Other issues relate to isolation with Cisco products and your server."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"Backup can be improved."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"As far as wanting more scalability or things in the network diagram, it's going to cost you."
"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."
"In terms of areas of improvement, the interface seemed like it had a lot. The GUI interface that I had gotten into was rather elaborate. I don't know if they could zero in on some markets and potentially for small, medium businesses specifically, give them a stripped-down version of the GUI for pfSense."
"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."
"I'd like to find something in pfSense that is more specific to URL filtering. We have customers who would like to filter their web traffic. They would like to be able to say to their employees, "You can surf the web, but you cannot get access to Facebook or other social media," or "You can surf the web, but you're not allowed to gamble or watch porn on the web." My technicians say that doing this kind of stuff with pfSense nowadays is not easy. They can implement some filters using IP addresses but not by using the names of the domains and categories. So, we are not able to exclude some categories from the allowed traffic, such as porn, gambling, etc. To do that, we have to use another product and another web filter that uses DNS. I know that there are some third-party products that could work with pfSense, but I'd like the native pfSense solution to do that."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"It is performing well. However, the only challenges that we are facing are the effectiveness with blocking the proxy and tuneling applications, aside from proxy and similar applications. So the application filter on the product is not really performing 100%. Every now and then there are some updates that are happening on such applications, and it takes time until it gets the appropriate updates and becomes capable of capturing such applications and blocking them. A new feature I would really like to see would be some sort of an enhanced application filter with greater efficiency when it comes to the applications that can bypass firewall policies. These applications are really a nightmare. Once they are on the network and not detected, or the appliance is not really successful in capturing them and unblocking them, the bandwidth gets wasted all the time."
"Lacking network access control, user profiling and analytics dashboards."
"The initial set up process can be a little tricky, especially when you are registering with Sophos using your registration number. Setup is not necessarily complex, but it's not trouble-free. You do have connectivity issues at the initial setup with registering the device on the Sophos platform to access the advanced features. It doesn't always go through the first time around. That may be an issue with the quality of our automation. I'm not sure exactly what it is."
"The price should be cheaper."
"The solution could improve by making the graphical interface better and increasing the performance."
"I do prefer when updates come out a bit quicker."
"The pricing has gotten much higher."
"XG is at its end of life. People are moving to XGS."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos UTM, KerioControl, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XG report.
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