We performed a comparison between OPNsense and WatchGuard Firebox 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 customization potential is quite impressive."
"The FortiGate controls the user's activities and maximizes my bandwidth use overall."
"I think that the UTM features are the most value, as it truly protects my infrastructure."
"The security features are about the best that I've seen anywhere."
"The most valuable feature is the web filter."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"It enables our organization to become more productive. Also, it protects our NEtWare from viruses and malware."
"Initial setup is easy to configure."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"It has firewall and VPN capabilities, which are very valuable features."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"The solution has high availability."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"I like that this product has very few issues."
"It's pretty simple to understand when you want to do any diagnostics on your network. If you want to go in and see what packages are having trouble getting through, what's being held, stalled, etc., it's very easy to use in that way."
"It saves us time in the respect that we now have the template built for it so we can get in and get it done. We've had much less problem supporting Voice over IP technologies from different companies. Because our client base has grown over the years, we're probably saving 20 to 30 man-hours a month now that we've got this on a good stable level."
"The most valuable features of the WatchGuard Firebox are all the security and updated features. You are able to configure the solution from the cloud platform and the application and web interface are very nice."
"Simple to move settings between WatchGuard boxes."
"The most valuables feature of WatchGuard Firebox are the VPNs, and web filtering where we can stop users from going to malicious sites."
"WatchGuard Firebox is easy to configure and has a nice user interface."
"It provides us with Layer 2 and Layer 3 security."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve the logging and reporting. Additionally, the next-generation application's policies should be improved. When they were released they had bugs."
"There are SD-WAN network monitoring, SD-WAN features, Industrial Databases, Internet of Things, Detection, etc., however, we do have not licenses for those features. We thought that if you bought a product, you should have all of the features it offers. Why should you need to make so many extra purchases to enable features? They should have one price for the entire offering."
"They should improve the interface to make it more user-friendly."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"I would like some automated custom reporting."
"Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."
"The visibility of the network can be better. The GUI can be improved for better visibility of the network flow. Other solutions have better GUI in terms of network visibility."
"Compared to some other products, the DLP is not at par for the moment."
"I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"The reporting part could be better."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"The solution could be more secure."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"Websense is an application that monitors and filters internet traffic. Websense was derived from WatchGuard. But when you go to WatchGuard to actually implement that particular feature, you have to use some type of additional feature and you have to pay for it, unfortunately. I think it should be free or free in the WatchGuard box itself, as an option. It would be nice if they didn't charge us for that."
"Setup of this solution is complex, it's not plug and play."
"I would like to see more training become available for us."
"The UI is not as user-friendly as the model that I had used before, which was from Check Point. The design of the Firebox UI is restricted and needs an experienced network guy to understand the format and settings."
"The pricing could be improved. It is definitely one of the more expensive products."
"The data loss protection works well, but it could be easier to configure. The complexity of data loss protection makes it a more difficult feature to fully leverage. Better integration with third-party, two-factor authentication would be advantageous."
"There's always room for improvement, especially if the threats are getting more sophisticated and the IT department cannot sufficiently meet this kind of sophistication with their own knowledge and experience. Knowing that this solution can get up to the level of addressing a lot of these threats is something that everybody wishes for. If we look at the dark web and the lawful web, they are two opposites, and if these two good and bad collide in the world of the internet, you want the best possible product—especially if you cannot get to that point of knowledge. I am just an individual and end user, with limited knowledge of usage. That's why I say there's always room for improvement, from their side and also from mine, because by knowing exactly what they can achieve and the knowledge that they can get on an everyday basis, and the portion that is understandable to me, it's an improvement for them as well."
"The product's technical support services need improvement."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 79 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while WatchGuard Firebox is rated 8.4. 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 WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, SonicWall TZ, Meraki MX and Cisco Secure Firewall. See our OPNsense vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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