Comparison conclusions:
pfSense offers paid options for additional support and features (pfSense Plus), a wider range of features and a larger community, but might have a steeper learning curve.
OPNsense provides a clean interface and built-in security features, but its community and documentation are smaller
The summary above is based on 40 interviews we conducted with pfSense and OPNsense users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"The most valuable feature is the ease of configuration."
"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."
"Good performance, stability, and virtual domain ability."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"One of the valuable features is a standardized OS."
"I really like the captive portal feature for our guest network. It has nice VLAN features in terms of separating our network. The anti-virus is also good."
"The most valuable features are the possibility of having one fabric for switching on security."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"Its reliability and cost-effectiveness stand out."
"Centralized administration with multiple services, which allows for execution in several important functionalities of information security."
"Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"Good basic firewall features."
"Its features rival many of the high cost solutions out there."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"The initial setup is not complex."
"The solution is good for a basic firewall for a small business or for home use."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."
"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it. I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The feature I find most valuable, is that the program helped me to realize all the requested functionality that was needed."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve to be on par with its competitors, such as Palo Alto and Sophos. They are the market leaders. Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve its capabilities. However, we are happy with Fortinet FortiGate."
"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."
"I think they need to improve more in order to be a competitor with the leaders of the field."
"Price, of course, can always be more competitive or better."
"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."
"I would like to see improvements in the support from Fortinet. Here in the Philippines, whenever we have problems with a Fortinet product, we mostly ask for support from distributors and resellers and not directly from Fortinet."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"The security could be improved."
"I would like to see multiple DNS servers running on individual interfaces."
"We are at the moment looking to use it as a proxy service so that we can limit what websites people go and view and that sort of thing. That's an area I've struggled with a little bit at the moment and it could be a bit easier to set up."
"Other solutions provide more scope for growth. For instance, we can have only 10 to 20 employees on VPN, but other solutions can support more users. We also have more capabilities to increase the performance of the solution."
"The integration of pfSense with EPS and EDS could be better. Also, it should be easier to get reports on how many users are connecting simultaneously and how sections connect in real-time."
"I would like better documentation concerning the provided packages and their integration."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"The solution would not be suitable for anything large-scale."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition."
"We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while OPNsense 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 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". Netgate pfSense is most compared with Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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