We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and SonicWall NSv 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 solution is stable."
"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."
"The security on offer is very good."
"It's very good and very stable for businesses. It works very well."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."
"The firewall sensor is highly effective, and it's easy to deploy. You can deploy pfSense with limited hardware resources. It's not necessary to have an appliance with much RAM to make it work. It's cost-effective and performs well."
"Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco."
"The initial setup was simple and fast."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"It is a better firewall than others and it has better features."
"I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features."
"The product helps improve our security."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"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."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"Their software support needs improvement. I would prefer to have better support for bug fixes. Sometimes, we open a ticket, and it is very difficult to get a solution. Specifically, we are not at all happy with their support for load balancing."
"One area for improvement is the performance on bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"The solution lacks sufficient filtering."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"Its reporting capabilities can be improved. It should have some out-of-the-box reporting capabilities and some degree of customization. The basic reporting that it currently has is not sufficient to create more usable reports. It needs some sort of out-of-the-box reporting. They try to make customers purchase FortiAnalyzer for this kind of reporting, which is an additional cost. Other firewall vendors, such as SonicWall and Sophos, provide this sort of reporting without any additional cost."
"They could improve their commercial stance and be more agile when it comes to the commercial pricing of enterprise deals."
"The integration should be improved."
"If you want to take advantage of all of the solution's options, you need to have a bit of a technical background. It's not for a layperson."
"pfSense could improve by having a sandboxing feature that I have seen in SonicWall. However, maybe it is available I am not aware of it."
"The interface is not very shiny and attractive."
"The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
"Web interface could be enhanced and more user friendly."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall NSv is ranked 35th in Firewalls with 7 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall NSv is rated 8.0. 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 SonicWall NSv writes "Easy to use, stable, and the security features work well". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSv is most compared with Azure Firewall, SonicWall NSa, SonicWall TZ and Fortinet FortiGate-VM. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall NSv report.
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