We performed a comparison between pfSense and Untangle NG Firewall based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Both products received high marks from reviewers, but Untangle NG Firewall ultimately won out in this comparison. It is easy to set up, user-friendly and secure. In addition it has excellent customer support and is fairly priced.
"Layer-3 firewall and routing are the most valuable features."
"The GUI is good."
"The multi-tenancy feature is most valuable. It integrates very well with FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"One of the nice things about FortiGate is that it can be deployed on the cloud or on-premises. You can actually do both. That's the biggest reason why I stick with this solution as opposed to something like Cisco Meraki. Another nice thing is that I can log directly into a FortiGate or get to it through their FortiCloud access products. They're pretty reliable and consistent. One of the reasons why I started using the product was their single pane of management. I can deploy their line of firewalls in conjunction with their switching and access points, and I can manage the entire network from one interface. I don't have to log into one interface for the firewall, another one for the access points, and another one for the switches. These firewalls have access point controller functionality built right into the system, so I don't even have to purchase additional devices to manage them."
"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."
"I like that you are able to manage FortiGate from the FortiManager to create a more centralized environment."
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product."
"The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets."
"Some of the terminologies were more familiar to me than it was when I first encountered Cisco."
"It is a good firewall with good performance."
"An incomparable stability is achieved with other firewall systems."
"The GUI is easy to understand."
"The intrusion detection feature is the most valuable. It is an open-source firewall, so there is a lot of material on it. I also find the open VPN capability very nice. It is pretty customizable. The clustering and the high availability are the two biggest things to be able to get out of a firewall."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"A free firewall that is a good network security appliance."
"The web blocking for my clients and the application control are valuable."
"The interface is very good."
"The majority of our clients are very small businesses, and Untangle devices have been fantastic for these small clients. We've basically standardized our stack to just simply use Untangle. We include the hardware and the service option, which makes it very easy and affordable for us to just simply push that into the monthly per-user costing that we provide as a managed services provider. It's really a no-brainer. They're easy to use, and they're easy to set up and configure. Support is generally good about resolving any issues that we have. We haven't had any real complaints."
"It is very easy to deploy and monitor. "
"Web filtering is very reliable."
"Application Control and filtering features are valuable."
"The product’s most valuable features are endpoint protection management, load balancing, and connectivity with Active Directory."
"Easy to set up and easy to integrate."
"The command line is complicated, and the interface could be better."
"FortiOS is not simple."
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."
"In some cases, its initial setup could be hard for customers."
"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."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"The configuration of the solution is a bit difficult."
"Many people have problems setting up the web cache for the web system."
"It was difficult to configure our web printer through the solution. This process could be easier. Additionally, integration with SD-WAN solution."
"It could use a little bit of improvement in the reporting."
"It's just not listed as FIPS compliant for where we're at now in government, which is an issue."
"It needs better parsing of logs. At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis."
"A malware blocker should be included. I do not know if it is included yet. However, until now, we have not experienced a large malware invasion."
"They could improve their commercial stance and be more agile when it comes to the commercial pricing of enterprise deals."
"The web content filtering needs improvement."
"The pricing should be reduced because it is expensive."
"Web-filtering policies could be improved."
"They don't have any feature that allows you to drop the session."
"The pricing is not as good as it was some time ago. They've since skipped offering a lot of individual features."
"The ability to setup a DDNS for each WAN independently would be a very handy feature."
"The biggest challenge that we have with this solution is local support. The local support is a problem in our area."
"It does have multi-factor authentication in some areas, but I would love to see a more widely implemented version of that on the devices themselves."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Untangle NG Firewall is ranked 24th in Firewalls with 22 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Untangle NG Firewall is rated 8.6. 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 Untangle NG Firewall writes "Its simplicity, variety of features, and low pricing have enabled us to improve the security for our small business clients at a price that they are happy to pay for". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Untangle NG Firewall is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, SonicWall TZ and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Untangle NG Firewall report.
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