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."Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
"The product offers very good security."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"The main benefit is the grouping of our security monitoring."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"In terms of security, we have not experienced any security flaws or loopholes, and it has proven to be quite stable."
"Easy to implement, and it is also reliable."
"The security fabric is excellent."
"For everyday tasks, we just get alerts. It's anything that's suspicious, including from our Netgate. So, it's part of how we maintain cybersecurity in our school. This is working alongside our endpoint security solution."
"The documentation is very good."
"I handle the scanning for the finance department. I recently encountered an issue with the PCL bills, our company bills. I resolved the matter, cleared the bill, and received calls regarding it using pfsense.The user interface is extremely user-friendly, which is why we use it across various plant sites. Our IT representatives at the plants find it easy to use and manage because of its straightforward interface."
"The performance and functionality are good."
"The built-in open VPN and the VPN Client Export are the solution's most valuable aspects."
"The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"The gain in performance and security from configuring the VPN connections was significant."
"I give the initial setup an eight out of ten."
"Remote access is excellent."
"You have better control because you define apps. You just don't define ports. You define apps, and the apps are monitored in the traffic. It is more specific than the Cisco firewall when it comes to our needs."
"It is a stable solution...It is a scalable solution."
"Scalable ATP solution that's quick to set up. It demonstrates good performance and stability."
"The solution is scalable."
"The solution has plenty of features."
"What I like about Palo Alto is that it is a complete product, with everything in it."
"Usually, we sell the bundle with the UTM or threat management piece with IPS, IDS. Other providers, such as Palo Alto, are ahead in terms of safe functionality. So, for me, delivering truly safe service is probably something that still needs to be improved."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."
"It is quite new for us, and we need to go more in-depth into the monitoring tools. It provides different features that we need to do what we want. So far, it is okay for us. In terms of improvement, in the future, they can provide a faster implementation of features. Some of the features are first available in other solutions. Fortinet sometimes takes a little bit longer than other solutions, such as Check Point, to implement new features."
"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"Tunnel flapping was one of the major things I had seen wherein your internet link remains but your VPN tunnel is down. However, since I got a fix from the TAC team, I have not noticed it, but the customer complained a few times that they couldn't access the internet because of this problem."
"I would like reporting to be improved and should offer a lot more tools to monitor the products."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"Also, simplifying the rules for the GeoIP. Making it simpler to understand would be an improvement."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"The usage reports can be better."
"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."
"ClamAV AntiVirus can cause some crashes. That service should be improved."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"There is more demand for UTMs than a simple firewall. pfSense should support real-time features for handling the latest viruses and threats. It should support real-time checks and real-time status of threats. Some other vendors, such as Fortinet, already offer this type of capability. Such capability will be good for bringing pfSense at the same level as other solutions."
"The global product feature needs improvement, the VPN, and we need some enhanced features."
"Our main concern is that everything has to be synced with the WildFire Cloud and has to be checked through the subscription."
"The initial setup was a little bit complex, mainly due to the GUI console and management challenges."
"I think it would be nice for Palo Alto to work without the connection to the cloud. It is 100% powerful when connected to the cloud. But, if you disconnect from the cloud, you only get 40-50% power."
"The price could be better."
"The product fails to offer protection when dealing with high-severity vulnerabilities, making it an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The threat intelligence that we receiving in the reporting was not as expected. We were expecting more. Additionally, we should be able to whitelist a specific file based on a variety of attributes."
"Other vendors have some sort of bandwidth management built into the firewall itself and Palo Alto is missing that."
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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