We performed a comparison between FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) 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."The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"It blocks the vulnerabilities that can negatively impact us."
"Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"The technical support is great."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
"We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"It is a scalable solution."
"User identification and application identification are valuable features."
"The solution’s interface is pretty user-friendly."
"Overall, I am satisfied with the product."
"The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall can be described as the most complete solution."
"I like the common administration and the possibility of adding Fortinet defense systems."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The flexibility of adding new kinds of services without spending any money can't be beaten."
"At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections."
"What I found most valuable is the cost of the platform, the flexibility of the platform, and the fact that the ongoing fees are not there as they are with the competitor. Some people may think you're taking a risk with using Opensource. I think it just provides the end user, specifically for us small, medium business providers of services, the flexibility we need at the right cost to provide them a higher end, almost enterprise type service."
"The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"The gain in performance and security from configuring the VPN connections was significant."
"A free firewall that is a good network security appliance."
"A very stable product that lasts over time, easy to understand, and administer."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future."
"It should have a better pricing plan. It is too expensive. It should also have a more granular view of the attack. I don't have FortiAnalyzer, and it is difficult for me to have a complete view when there is an attack on my server."
"Fortinet needs to overhaul its documentation."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"There are some problems that support cannot give you a logical reason as to why it happened. For example, I had a case where I was dealing with a WhatsApp application that was giving issues. Technical support gave more than one reason it could be giving issues, but none of them solved the problem. Eventually I solved the problem, but it was far from the solutions that support had given."
"Performance and technical support are the main issues with this solution."
"There is one big configuration file with no separations for the unique VDOMs. Maybe they could separate individual VDOM configuration files with the root VDOM configuration file referencing the individual VDOM config files."
"Its technical support could be better."
"Someone without certification and experience with other firewalls might find it a bit more challenging to grasp the FortiGate format and its platform layout."
"The solution needs to improve its support."
"The pricing of the solution is expensive, so it could be cheaper."
"There is room for improvement in pricing."
"There's a limitation wherein you can only have about 30 virtual or secondary IPs on a particular interface."
"Technical support is not helpful."
"The inability to change passwords when using FortiGate firewall and relying on a local FortiGate database for account creation can be problematic, particularly in non-Active Directory setups."
"The usage reports can be better."
"The solution’s interface must be improved."
"Web interface could be enhanced and more user friendly."
"As an open-source solution, there are so many loopholes happening within the product. By design, no one is taking ownership of it, and that is worrisome to me."
"The integration could be improved."
"I have been using WireGuard VPN because it is a lot faster and more secure than an open VPN. However, in the latest version of pfSense, they have removed this feature, which is one of the main features that I need. They should include this feature."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"The security could be improved."
More FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) Pricing and Cost Advice →
FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is ranked 14th in Firewalls with 37 reviews while Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews. FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is rated 8.4, while Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) writes "Easy to set up but needs better pricing and more helpful support". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Netgate pfSense writes "User-friendly, easy to manage the firewall, rule-wise and interface-wise". FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is most compared with OPNsense, Tailscale, Twingate, Fortinet FortiGate-VM and Google Cloud Platform Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, whereas Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense report.
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