We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos XGS 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 solution is scalable."
"It is very flexible to use."
"Its administrative panel is very intuitive and simple. It is simpler than the other solutions that we had. As an administrator, we are always looking for the easiest solution to manage network policies. We are able to filter everything on our network and also use the VPN feature, which is important these days when people are working remotely during COVID."
"The network security and cloud security are most valuable."
"The most valuable features are the policies, filtering, and configuration."
"We've found the solution to be pretty stable."
"This solution has solid UTM features combined with a nice GUI."
"The web tutor and automatic rules by schedule are good features."
"I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall."
"It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with."
"A valuable feature is that the solution is open source."
"Improved service performance and availability through redundancy."
"I like the connectivity to the open VPN. It's very smooth."
"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."
"It is a better firewall than others and it has better features."
"The solution is very robust."
"Sophos XGS's most valuable feature is content filtering."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use."
"Easy to set up firewall product, that's also easy to manage and scale."
"The solution is stable."
"The centralized security is very good."
"Spam filtering is what I love most about XGS."
"The feature that I find most valuable is the synchronized security option where the endpoint talks to the firewall."
"The product was easy for us to install."
"It could use better throughput on some of the smaller boxes for the branch offices."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"MTBF: Hardware failure is more common when compared to SonicWall or Cisco ASA."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"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."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"The pricing could always be better."
"I would like to have logs, monitoring, and reporting for a month without extra fees."
"I tried pfSense, and it has a big issue with file system consistency, and this is what drove me to OPNsense. The file system stability is quite a big issue for us. We have a lot of outages related to power issues, and OPNsense is much more stable on this side."
"In terms of areas of improvement, the interface seemed like it had a lot. The GUI interface that I had gotten into was rather elaborate. I don't know if they could zero in on some markets and potentially for small, medium businesses specifically, give them a stripped-down version of the GUI for pfSense."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"The solution could use better reporting. They need to offer more of it in general. Right now, the graphics aren't the best. If you need to provide a report to a manager, for example, it doesn't look great. They need to make it easier to understand and give users the ability to customize them."
"There's a bit of a learning curve during the initial implementation."
"It was difficult to configure our web printer through the solution. This process could be easier. Additionally, integration with SD-WAN solution."
"Perhaps the documentation is not clear and because it is supported in the community there is no basic documentation."
"In an upcoming release, the reporting could be more user-friendly. For example, the reporting in graphs and charts for the host can be cumbersome."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"Sophos XGS could improve the automation system. It could be better if there was some level of automation, attacks automation, meaning if this happens, then it automatically executes a particular process."
"There can be lag time when updating an operating policy."
"It would be nice to have features like the network access control (NAC) that Cisco has for Identity Services Engine. In the next release, I would also like to see an increase in the performance of the processing units."
"In future releases, this solution could have more graphical elements on the dashboard to make it easier to understand."
"I rate Sophos' support five out of 10. It's sometimes difficult to contact them, and finding a solution is not easy."
"I would like to see them in third-party evaluation reports like Gartner, Magic Quadrant, or Forrester to make it easier for us to show our customers that Sophos is a leader in the market."
"The first time a person sets it up, they will need training."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 58 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS 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 Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, OPNsense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos XGS report.
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