We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks PA-Series 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 most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"The GUI is good."
"The solution is scalable."
"The performance is good."
"The Intrusion Prevention System and the web filtering are both working well."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
"It's open source."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"I have found the solution has some great features overall, such as guest access capabilities, dashboards, and ease of use. There is plenty of documentation and support and it has the plugins that I needed."
"We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable."
"The most effective features for threat prevention in the PA-Series are its integration with Cortex and the use of machine learning AI for advanced threat detection."
"The product's initial setup process was simple."
"The documentation is great."
"The product's most valuable feature is web filtering."
"The solution is easy to manage."
"The reporting feature and application ID functionality within Palo Alto Networks PA-Series are incredibly valuable to us."
"It has its own logging system. You can go to monitoring and check the logs to see if a connection is getting blocked. You can use multiple types of logs to check if a file or a port is getting blocked or if there are any TCP resets from the source or destination. It's easy to troubleshoot with the monitoring and logging it provides."
"It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"Technical support is good but the response time could be faster."
"The logs need to be better. They need to be more visible and easier to access."
"Fortinet Fortigate could benefit by simplifying some of their processes."
"There are some complex administration tasks in their administration portal. That needs to be improved."
"Fortinet needs more memory to save the log files. We need it to save the logs on the hardware and not in the cloud. I know this feature is available in FortiCloud, but if we need this log locally, it is not available."
"The routing capability on the FortiGate devices has room for improvement."
"I think the most important thing is that it should be easily accessible, but currently, that doesn't seem to be the case. We need a hardware platform that's based on common standards and open computing principles, which would be like a commodity and benefit us greatly."
"Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition."
"The reporting part could be better."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"When using the solution at the beginning was difficult. There was a steep learning curve."
"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series should improve its price. It should also include a feature similar to Sophos' Security Heartbeat."
"The solution's licensing price could be improved."
"The product's high prices are an area of concern where improvements are required."
"Currently, they are not protected with any data security when they work from home or outside the network. They surf the Internet directly and should implement a proxy or firewall to monitor the data between the endpoint and the internet."
"The SD-WAN feature of Palo Alto Networks is not good compared to FortiGate."
"As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers."
"Pricing flexibility could be an aspect worth considering, as it has been a concern for some of our clients."
"Utilizing these features as a unified solution can require additional setup, particularly when incorporating Panorama for centralized management, which may involve extra costs."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Robust network security and management offering a user-friendly interface, open-source flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, with challenges regarding initial setup and the absence of official support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks PA-Series writes "Offers trained customer support, stability and ease of use ". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and IPFire, whereas Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is most compared with SonicWall NSa, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox. See our OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series report.
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