We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos XGS 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."The security on offer is very good."
"One of the valuable features is a standardized OS."
"The feature I like most is the SD-WAN. It allows you to manage more than one ISP at the same time. And there is a high-availability mode, so if one of your ISPs is down, you still have a backup."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"The solution is stable."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"Great extensibility of the platform."
"Super easy to manage. Anyone who has been working with firewalls can handle it."
"pfSense allows us to spread the hours of connection and do the filtering on the pfSense site."
"The "OpenVPN Client Export" package is really helpful in exporting the VPN client software on most popular devices: iOS/Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, and a handful of SIP handsets."
"Creation of certificates and the facility to administer services are valuable features."
"It is a very good solution for enterprises that need a VPN for their employees. It is the best way to provide a remote work facility to employees at a very low cost. Other solutions that I have had in the past were very expensive. Enterprises don't always have that kind of money to invest."
"One of the advantages of pfSense is that it is very easy to work with. It is a very good open-source solution, and it works really well. pfSense provides a complete package. For some features, it could be the first solution in the world. It is a very good alternative in the market for a firewall solution. You don't need to go to Cisco or other brands with expensive firewalls. pfSense also allows us to offer some support services."
"I use pfSense because it gives me the flexibility to greatly expand basic firewall features."
"The VPN is the best feature."
"The solution is easy to use and configure, once you know how to apply the policies."
"The solution is very user-friendly, and the GUI is so good that I don't have to use the CLI. This eliminates the need for typing; clicking allows me to get to what I'm looking for."
"It's easy to use, and the service is good. If anything goes wrong, their support system is very reliable."
"The most valuable features in Sophos XGS are bandwidth management, content filtering, and WAN link management failover. If one internet activity or one link would fail, automatically it will switch over to another one."
"Setup was straightforward. One person is enough for deployment."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos is the VPN solution. I also value their threat management, IPS IDS features and login features with single sign-on."
"It's easy to deploy and connect."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"Palo Alto has a feature called WildFire Analysis that is unavailable in FortiGate. WildFire is better than a sandbox because it can address zero-day threats and vulnerabilities. It can immediately identify zero-day threats from the cloud."
"Fortinet FortiGate can be integrated with different platforms. They have integrations in place, but I can't say they're 100%."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"Network monitoring and device inventory could use some improvements. I'm using SpiceWorks for this because it never really worked in pfSense."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"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."
"pfSense is not user-friendly. I hope to have something to make the interfaces more user-friendly."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"Reporting and real-time monitoring, since I'm used to Watchguard's reporting features, it would be nice to have an embedded solution for reporting."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"It needs to be more secure."
"They need intelligent reporting, not just your simple, standard reports."
"We'd always like the solution to be a bit less in terms of cost."
"It has recently started to suddenly block and crash."
"The configurations can be a bit complex."
"In Sophos, the user portal is not user-friendly."
"There are a lot of false-positive cases."
"Sophos XGS could improve the price."
"The reporting could be better."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 58 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS 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 Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XGS report.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
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.