We performed a comparison between Hillstone E-Series 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."It's an easy solution to set up."
"This product is definitely scalable."
"The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"It's a firewall that secures our internal network. I have been using it since 2013, and I find that most of the features are advanced, and very user friendly."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."
"Five out of five ROI."
"This solution has two main features that we find very valuable; a threat-intelligence option, and a web/application filtering option. The technical support team are very good and very quick."
"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."
"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."
"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."
"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."
"The installation is easy, we have not had any complaints from our customers."
"I use pfSense because it gives me the flexibility to greatly expand basic firewall features."
"A valuable feature is that the solution is open source."
"Technical support is perfect, excellent."
"We've found the stability to be very good overall."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"The features I have found best are ease of use, GUI, and performance."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"The solution needs to improve its integration with cybersecurity."
"It is stable, but its stability can be improved."
"The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"With FortiGate, the main complaint that I have heard is about the technical support."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"If they had better integration with security products, such as Cisco ISE or Rapid Threat Containment, then it would be an improvement."
"The tool provides just a general report. It does not provide a granular report. Hence, the tool should work on its reporting feature."
"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."
"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."
"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."
"The current usage reporting is very basic."
"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."
"The tool needs to improve its price."
"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."
"Netgate pfSense needs to improve the configuration for a VPN."
"Lacks instructional videos."
"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"pfSense has some limitations in detecting site sessions. We want to control internet usage based on sites and their content, and pfSense doesn't perform this function."
"When I checked other packages, it seems they use different tools that are installed on the PSS for functionality. They rely on third-party tools, unlike Fortinet, for example, which has its own tools. In comparison, we also use third-party tools on pfSense. For example, we had a situation where we needed a tool to identify authorized users, and when I searched for a solution, I found a third-party tool. However, using such tools may come with additional costs."
Hillstone E-Series is ranked 33rd in Firewalls with 9 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. Hillstone E-Series is rated 9.0, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Hillstone E-Series writes "A user-friendly and marketable solution with a virtual switching capability". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". Hillstone E-Series is most compared with Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, Sophos XG, OpenVPN Access Server, Sangfor SSL VPN and Meraki MX, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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