We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Sophos XG based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Sophos XG’s single pane of glass makes it easy for users to manage the entire solution from anywhere. The solution is very light, stable, and provides excellent real-time control. Users feel OPNsense is not a good product for medium to large businesses, as it has some very limited features and needs better reporting and documentation.
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the different types of profiling. It has been the most effective for me. The WAF and the antivirus profile are the most effective in network protection."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"FortiGate is flexible and easy to use."
"We use the filtering feature the most. It has filtering and inbuilt securities. We can create customized rules to define which users can access a particular type of site. We can create policies inside the firewall."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"Overall security features and performance routing is good."
"Valuable features include the Web Application Firewall, and it even has DLP (data leak prevention)."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"The technical support is very good."
"The solution has high availability."
"The DNS-level filtering is impressive for thwarting time scanners."
"We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience."
"The VPN server feature is the most valuable. It is integrated with Radius and AAA for doing accounting and authentication. Insight view is also an important feature for me at this time. It allows me to assess our network traffic. I also like the firewall feature. The BSD kernel has a packet filter. It is one of the most solid frameworks for firewalls. Its user interface is one of the best interfaces I have used."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"The most valuable feature is the intrusion prevention system."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XG is the VBM."
"One feature of Sophos XG that I found incredibly beneficial for threat prevention is its endpoint protection."
"The feature that we find most valuable is the VPN, which ensures that people working remotely have a secure connection."
"Price-wise the solution offers acceptable rates. You can find cheaper solutions on the market but when you go cheaper you have fewer features. Today, based on iQuate market the price is very reasonable and affordable, and it's good if you get a good discount. Discounts can be offered by the vendor. If it's a competitive upgrade which means the customer is upgrading from another vendor, Sophos provides extra discount so they can win the deal. In general, it is a good price."
"The initial setup is pretty easy."
"This solution does everything and anything a firewall can do."
"The most useful aspect of the solution is the concept of integrated security."
"The pricing could always be better."
"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."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the protection, it did not prevent us from being attacked. Additionally, Fortinet FortiGate could provide more features for WAF devices. I should not have to purchase two solutions, it would be a benefit to combine these features into one solution."
"They sometimes hide some features and if you want to enable them, you have to go in the CLI, enable the feature and configure it through the CLI. Customers, typically, like everything to be done by the GUI."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
"The interface isn't so friendly user. But we have some technicians here who are quite confident with this tool. OPNSense could maybe add sets of rules so it's simpler to manage different groups with particular needs."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings."
"In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
"There is room for improvement in SSL inspection."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"The user interface could be better."
"In Sophos XG, the throughput for larger networks is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"The solution could offer a bit more integration with other systems, with other platforms - just to be able to extend the capability and to interface with other kinds of platforms or systems that I can find on the market as it gives the possibility to improve the level of integration."
"Scalability could be improved. It could be better."
"There's an IP address delivery for our VPN client and a limited range of IP addresses. So this is a problem in the latest firmware release, but rather than using homework scenarios, we need a lot of VPN clients."
"Lacking network access control, user profiling and analytics dashboards."
"For the moment, managing the Sophos interface is a little bit challenging."
"I would like the update process to be easier, to update the firmware of the boxes. I think it's much better automatically than having to do it manually: Download the file, do network discovery. I they can make the update process much more automatic that would help."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while Sophos XG is ranked 7th in Firewalls with 192 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Sophos XG is rated 8.2. 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 Sophos XG writes "Easy to use and deploy with an improved pricing structure in place". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas Sophos XG is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XGS, SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX and Sophos UTM. See our OPNsense vs. Sophos XG report.
See our list of best Firewalls vendors.
We monitor all Firewalls reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.