We performed a comparison between OPNsense 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."This solution made it very easy to manage our bandwidth."
"The security fabric is excellent."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"The integration with Active Directory is one of the good features. Most of the customers are now looking for the Single Sign-on feature. So, being able to integrate Active Directory with the firewall is useful. It is also easy."
"The wireless control is helpful."
"We are using the FortiGate 100D series. VPN, firewall, anti-malware, OTM, and intrusion prevention are useful features."
"The license management is very valuable. You can get a new license each year, or you can enroll every two to four years. You can get the logs, and you will get the information on the risk in your network and the entire organization. With this information, you can take action on your actives, computers, or devices. You can bring your own device as an SSE."
"The user interface (UI) is very, very good."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"It is a very good solution. I like the dashboard. I can see what is going on and manage it as I like it."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings."
"The most valuable feature is the Dual WAN in OPNSense, which offers advanced capabilities."
"I like that SonicWall NSa is a stable product. It's also a scalable product."
"Overall SonicWall NSa is a good solution for our use case."
"The most valuable features are that it is reasonably-priced and works well."
"The most valuable feature I've found is VPN and web protection, particularly with navigation assessment. We use the application control feature to create rules controlling specific application navigation."
"It allows us to block applications, i.e., websites by application type category. It is far more capable than content filtering alone."
"SonicWall has all the usual functions, like LAN configurations, security features, word filters, etc., but it also has the CFS agent, which isn't available in any other firewall. Reporting port support is also there."
"We like the features, but the main thing is from a commercial and cost perspective it is very good."
"The technical support is very good."
"The support from Fortinet FortiGate could improve. They are not easily accessible when we need them. They could improve their response time."
"Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services."
"The process of configuring firewall rules appears excessively complex."
"Fortinet FortiGate should improve the VPN tokens."
"There are some tiny bugs that sometimes affect the operations. In the past revision of it, there was a bug. Because of the bug, we had to downgrade the version. It happened only with the last revision."
"Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why."
"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."
"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
"The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"You will need additional training before you can actually start to use it."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"When using the solution at the beginning was difficult. There was a steep learning curve."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"It would be useful to have an application firewall that prevents the outside world from seeing your private IPs. You don't need to publicize your private IPs to the outside world, and you can create a barrier, like a proxy server."
"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."
"The cost could be lower. There could also be more flexibility for smaller companies."
"It's very hard to manage this box. You really need a lot of skills to operate the SonicWall. There is training and the like, but it's just hard to manage. Even if you have the knowledge, there are too many options. The menus are not very clear, where you should find the information."
"Vendor support needs improvement. The frequency of time and support should be increased."
"In terms of improvement, features like App Control do not work properly"
"We also need to increase the throughput because the other devices are slower. The throughput will become slow. Since we're using VoIP, it tends to affect the voice quality. Even if you're using a quality service, it tends to decrease."
"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."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while SonicWall NSa is ranked 19th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while SonicWall NSa is rated 7.8. 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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSa writes "Great performance and security with reasonable pricing". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and IPFire, whereas SonicWall NSa is most compared with SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX, Sophos XG, Cisco Secure Firewall and Check Point NGFW. See our OPNsense vs. SonicWall NSa report.
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