We performed a comparison between FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Netgate pfSense 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 features that prevent internet connections, the filtering are the most valuable because we did not have any internet protection before."
"The solution is scalable."
"The security on offer is very good."
"It is user friendly, and has all the features you need."
"I like how we can achieve total integration."
"FortiGate improved our security. It's one of the best hardware firewalls."
"We can use our devices to check all of the perimeters. It secures email websites."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"The solution's application control is very powerful."
"I like the common administration and the possibility of adding Fortinet defense systems."
"There are multiple features I have found to be valuable, such as encryption and integrated security features."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 's most valuable features are reporting and filtering."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features we found are the SD-WAN, FortiGate SD-WAN, and the standard UTM protection, among others."
"When I survey FortiGate products, I see that they have a good performance, especially in terms of next generation firewalls."
"The product is user-friendly and not complex."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"The gain in performance and security from configuring the VPN connections was significant."
"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."
"The product’s documentation is good."
"It works. I put pfSense in, and it works. I can't think of any trouble I ever had with it. It runs on heat-sensitive appliances. They don't need a fan, so they don't overheat. It is affordable, fast, and very high-speed. It is built on BSD Unix, and it pretty much runs on any Intel processor."
"Good basic firewall features."
"I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall."
"We like the fact that the product is open-source. It's free to use. There are no costs associated with it."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"I would like to see improvements in the product's application rules."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."
"I don't really have anything negative to say as far as Fortinet firewalls are concerned. If anything, they can support a user a little bit better. They can stop being so time-sensitive about how much time the support call has taken, and they can help you do it yourself."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"There have been several vulnerabilities in the firewall. It is hackable, some of the images are hackable."
"Technical support is not helpful."
"I would like to have SD-WAN as a part of the Next Generation Firewall. It would enhance high availability."
"The solution's GUI is not very appealing."
"The solution needs to integrate VPN features."
"One of the weaknesses of the solution is something we noticed, especially after comparing the tool with SD-WAN features, since, unfortunately, in a massive scale size environment, the solution is not good. I"
"The solution needs to improve its support."
"When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"It is not centrally managed, where you log into the website and can see all your services there. We would like to be able to see is all the configurations from a central interface on all our pfSenses."
"Improve analysis of logs and dashboards (control panel) with improved alert functionality."
"The hotspot and the portal feature in this solution are not stable for WiFi access. We use it at least once or twice every day and it crashes. Some modules can be better by improving detection and having new updates. Additionally, we have some issues with clustering and load balancing that could improve."
"Needs services on additional features, such as managing inventory and generating reports."
"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."
"There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC."
"Also, the GUI is helpful, but it's not user-friendly. It's complicated. It should be more intuitive for the average user and have an excellent graphical view. Of course, the user will typically know about network administration, but it still should be easy to understand."
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FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 37 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is rated 8.4, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) writes "Easy to set up but needs better pricing and more helpful support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is most compared with OPNsense, Tailscale, Twingate, Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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