We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and SonicWall NSa 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 most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"What I like the most is the configuration and that it's simple, and straightforward to maintain."
"It's quite comfortable to handle the FortiGate firewall."
"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"The scalability of Fortinet FortiGate is good."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"The initial setup was simple and fast."
"My company mainly works in the health and educational domain, schools and universities. I prevent the improper use of content from schools and universities. I defend the medical records for the patients in our hospitals. That is the main use case for me for the firewall."
"The VPN is my favorite feature."
"Good basic firewall features."
"The initial setup is not complex."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company."
"The features I found most valuable are email security and web filtering."
"It allows us to block applications, i.e., websites by application type category. It is far more capable than content filtering alone."
"The solution has many useful features, such as content management, user management, user filtering, and domain controller connectivity mapping."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"The most valuable feature is the sandbox."
"Compared to Cisco, SonicWall NSa is much easier to configure."
"The most valuable feature is the Global Management System."
"The firewall feature is most valuable since my work is to analyze if there is any potential attack. SonicWall NSa gives the perfect analysis."
"Fortigate's hardware capacities could be improved."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."
"I would prefer to have more detailed logs within the FortiGate products themselves rather than relying on a separate tool."
"Fortinet should focus on enhancing the capabilities of FortiGate by consolidating its various products, such as FortiGate Cloud, FortiManager, and FortiAnalyzer."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"The feature which gives us a lot of pain is ASIC architecture."
"The integration with third-party tools may be something that they should work on."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"I believe improving integration with various antivirus vendors could be beneficial."
"The solution could be more user-friendly, and the graphical interface needs some work so that someone without an IT background can use the application. I would like the ability to manage the on-premise appliance from the cloud. When I'm not in the office, it would be great to connect to the pfSense server and administer the network remotely."
"We have not had any problems with it, and we also do not have a need for any new features. If anything, its reporting can be better. Sophos has better reporting than pfSense. Sophos has more detailed information. pfSense is not as detailed. It is summarized."
"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."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"It was difficult to configure our web printer through the solution. This process could be easier. Additionally, integration with SD-WAN solution."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"The cost could be lower. There could also be more flexibility for smaller companies."
"The product must enable integration with endpoint protection tools."
"Do not even consider NetExtender - probably one of the most horrific, nightmare grade Java-based VPN clients. We have but all given up trying to make it work reliably."
"SonicWall needs to work on SD-WAN."
"We're not particularly fond of the way it generally performs. We are finding ourselves rebooting often. There are freeze-ups and that kind of thing. The stability needs to improve exponentially."
"It doesn't require much improvement. The only improvement area is that cloud reporting, assessment reporting, and other reporting features should be available with the subscription. They should provide reporting features with the subscription base, which is currently not there. We bought the reporting tool, but there are some complications. They have made some changes to the application, and now the reporting management is completely on the cloud."
"I would like to have a built-in vulnerability scanner in the firewall. It would be great to have such functionality. Its price could also be better. It would also be good to have a local warehouse. It doesn't get damaged a lot, but if a customer needs a replacement, currently, it has to come from Miami or Mexico, which can take a few days. It would be better if they have a local warehouse from where we can just pick replacements and quickly solve a client's needs in terms of replacing equipment. It would be great to have it locally instead of waiting for it from Mexico or the USA."
"It only has a single power interface, which has limitations in terms of high availability."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 80 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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 NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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