We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Palo Alto Networks WildFire based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls."In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"The product offers very good security."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the APIs. They are the most widely known."
"Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"The most useful functionality of Fortinet FortiGate is the user interface, multiple engines, and their cloud with the latest integrations. Additionally, the Security Fabric tool is very good."
"An incomparable stability is achieved with other firewall systems."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"It is a stable solution. It is also easy to install and can be deployed and maintained by one team member."
"It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application."
"The product’s documentation is good."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"It is effective. We have not had any problems."
"pfSense allows us to spread the hours of connection and do the filtering on the pfSense site."
"Being an application-based firewall, this is one of the critical focus factors along with the threat prevention services it provides."
"Detailed reporting on analysis of content. The inspections are easily applied to security policy profiles and profile groups, and may be assigned on a per-rule basis."
"The scalability is acceptable."
"Scalable ATP solution that's quick to set up. It demonstrates good performance and stability."
"The most valuable features are all of the security features in terms of protection and SSL and VPN."
"The solution is completely integrated with all the other Palo Alto products. I think that it is the best part for endpoint protection. The firewall features include URL and DNS filtering, threat protection, and antivirus."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten since we never faced any issues."
"We get support in the free version."
"Pricing for it is a bit high. It could be cheaper."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"The license renewal process, annual renewal price, and the web application firewall features should be improved."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"It would be a benefit if Fortinet would release a one-stop solution that is better integrated with other products and an automated emergency response system."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"Difficult to add or define, and not that easy to configure and manage."
"My only observation is about the quality of the IPSec logs, which are difficult to interpret and are poor in filters."
"The configuration of the solution is a bit difficult."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"The GUI. There are TONS of plugins for pfSense, as such, if a user wants to add quite a bit of functionality, the GUI will feel a little congested."
"The security could be improved."
"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."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"One concern I have with Netgate pfSense is related to packet filtering. Specifically, issues can arise with certain functionalities like GP, and, at times, there may be bugs."
"The product fails to offer protection when dealing with high-severity vulnerabilities, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The only problem with this solution is the cost. It's expensive."
"The price could be better."
"The cost of this solution could still be improved, in particular, giving product discounts for charitable causes."
"When comparing this solution to others it is not as good overall."
"Many years back an update caused an issue with the firewall. However, Palo Alto not only informed us of said issue, they also sent an update that fixed the issue before I even had time to log in to determine if the issue affected our services."
"The free version does not have real-time updates. It is slow."
"I would like to see them continue on their developmental roadmap for the product."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Palo Alto Networks WildFire is ranked 3rd in Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) with 58 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Palo Alto Networks WildFire is rated 8.4. 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 Palo Alto Networks WildFire writes "Good technical support and provides automatic analysis that saves us time in filtering email". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Palo Alto Networks WildFire is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Proofpoint Email Protection, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Fortinet FortiSandbox and Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
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