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 most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"This version is stable. I don't have any issues with this solution, in our environment, it works well."
"FortiGate has a strong security topic which allows all of the Fortinet devices to communicate and share information which makes their security more powerful."
"Its user interface is good, and it is always working fine."
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"The solution can scale well."
"The documentation is very good."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"My technicians find the pfSense's web interface very useful. It is very easy to use. pfSense is very reliable and stable. We like the OpenVPN clients that can be deployed using pfSense very much."
"I am happy with the EPLS, the radius, and I am happy with the captive portal."
"The initial setup is easy."
"The product’s documentation is good."
"The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice. It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall."
"It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application."
"The product helps improve our security."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"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."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"A lack of integration between our data centers."
"Some of the features in the graphical user interface do not work, which requires that we used the command-line-interface."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"It needs to improve its ISP load balancing."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"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."
"For the third-party packages, I'd rather have it built-in, like a core feature of pfSense, part of the core model."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"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."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"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."
"I've never tried it in large environments. All my clients are small businesses with a handful of employees, so I am not sure how it works in large environments. I keep up with recent versions, and there's nothing I'm waiting for, and nothing breaks when I get a new version."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
"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."
"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."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
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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