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."I have found Fortinet FortiGate to be scalable."
"The solution is stable."
"Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
"It has improved our security capabilities."
"We have found it to be very reliable and that's why our teams and various users in our company use it as our main firewall every day."
"The security features that they have are quite good. On top of that, their licensing model is quite nice where they don't charge you anything for the SD-WAN functionality for the firewall."
"This product is definitely scalable."
"Fortigate represents a really scalable way of delivering perimeter network security, some level of layer 7 security, WAF, and also a way to create a meshed ADVPN solution."
"We like the fact that the product is open-source. It's free to use. There are no costs associated with it."
"I like the connectivity to the open VPN. It's very smooth."
"Is good at blocking IP addresses."
"For everyday tasks, we just get alerts. It's anything that's suspicious, including from our Netgate. So, it's part of how we maintain cybersecurity in our school. This is working alongside our endpoint security solution."
"The documentation is very good."
"Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company."
"It works. I put pfSense in, and it works. I can't think of any trouble I ever had with it. It runs on heat-sensitive appliances. They don't need a fan, so they don't overheat. It is affordable, fast, and very high-speed. It is built on BSD Unix, and it pretty much runs on any Intel processor."
"The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use."
"The threat management system and VPN are most valuable."
"Easy to set up firewall product, that's also easy to manage and scale."
"The policies are the greatest feature. They allow us to configure granular control over our network traffic."
"The most valuable feature of Sophos XGS is its ease of use."
"One of the main advantages of Sophos XGS is the processor. You don't have to wait a long time for when you are managing the firewall and the traffic is faster now."
"The solution is stable."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features in Sophos XGS are identity and VPN. It is a very good solution that is able to detect and prevent a lot of malicious activity."
"The solution can have more features in a single box that can be multi-applied to integrate everything."
"While FortiGate is cheaper than most other solutions, we're seeing increased license renewal costs. Most of our clients are asking for more significant discounts because the price is going up."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"It's my understanding that more of the current generation features could be brought in. There could be more integration with EDRs, for example."
"The performance and speed are aspects of the solution that could always be improved upon."
"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."
"It would be good if they had fewer updates."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"Also, simplifying the rules for the GeoIP. Making it simpler to understand would be an improvement."
"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."
"It is not centrally managed, where you log into the website and can see all your services there. We would like to be able to see is all the configurations from a central interface on all our pfSenses."
"I would like to see different graphs available in the reporting."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"Other solutions provide more scope for growth. For instance, we can have only 10 to 20 employees on VPN, but other solutions can support more users. We also have more capabilities to increase the performance of the solution."
"If a user doesn't have a large amount of experience in Linux systems, they will have problems using this solution. Users need to be highly skilled in troubleshooting competency. Users who do not have such skills will find the product difficult to use."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"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 price of Sophos XGS could improve, it is high."
"There can be lag time when updating an operating policy."
"I rate Sophos' support five out of 10. It's sometimes difficult to contact them, and finding a solution is not easy."
"The first time a person sets it up, they will need training."
"It would be useful if Sophos XGS included DDNS-based features."
"Sophos XGS could improve the price."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 60 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. 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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