We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Sophos Cyberoam UTM 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 features that we have found most valuable are the SSL VPN and the User Portal."
"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."
"Customers want to load balance more than eight lines or six internet lines. FortiGate is the only solution that can accomplish this."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"What's most important is the ease of use."
"A strong point of FortiGate is that the graphical interface is complete and easy to use, especially if we think there is a list of operations that we are able to perform inside."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"It performs very well."
"The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary."
"I especially like the VPN part. It works like a charm."
"The ability to create a VPN allows me to monitor branch offices from a central location."
"One of the advantages of pfSense is that it is very easy to work with. It is a very good open-source solution, and it works really well. pfSense provides a complete package. For some features, it could be the first solution in the world. It is a very good alternative in the market for a firewall solution. You don't need to go to Cisco or other brands with expensive firewalls. pfSense also allows us to offer some support services."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"A valuable feature is that the solution is open source."
"The most valuable feature, for instance, is the ease of migrating configurations between different Netgate devices housed in the same box."
"We've found the stability to be very good overall."
"The most valuable feature is the IPSec forwarding."
"User and network policies to be managed on a single screen with powerful filtering and search options."
"The product is worth the investment."
"The most valuable feature of this product is the threat protection."
"All in one UTM appliance."
"The port forwarding is good."
"We are using it as a security shield. It does not allow access before that in case we have restricted a few things from users, so it helps me in that."
"The solution's interface is user-friendly, and the web protection is good. The tool is highly stable. The product is scalable. The technical support is good. We chose Sophos Cyberoam UTM because their focus on security research is higher compared to other brands. It's an all-in-one solution with antivirus, EDR, wireless protection, and web protection integrated into one box. The initial setup was straightforward."
"Cisco Meraki products are rising very quickly in the cloud and the connected era. Meraki products offer much better ROI, upgradability, and manageability."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"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."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"The web-cache feature which was previously on the FortiGate device, but was deleted with the recent upgrade should be returned. It was a very valuable feature for us."
"The license renewal process, annual renewal price, and the web application firewall features should be improved."
"At first glance, the interface for the device is very confusing."
"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."
"Ease of use is a problem for a user who is unfamiliar with this product because, in the interface, everything has to be set manually."
"The interface is not very shiny and attractive."
"ClamAV AntiVirus can cause some crashes. That service should be improved."
"We would like to see ready-made profiles to cover most users' needs."
"User interface is a little clumsy."
"I've never tried it in large environments. All my clients are small businesses with a handful of employees, so I am not sure how it works in large environments. I keep up with recent versions, and there's nothing I'm waiting for, and nothing breaks when I get a new version."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"It should have better VPN protection. Some of the VPN applications are not blocked by this firewall. Some VPNs are able to get through this firewall, which is why I am planning to replace this firewall with a good one in the near future."
"The product had a hang issue. We needed to reboot, recreate the image, and reconfigure the previous image because the product hanged frequently."
"Technical support could be faster."
"Sometimes, users are timed out intermittently."
"The product strategy of the manufacturer is strange. I don't understand what they are doing in that regard."
"In my experience the solution can be easier to configure with more documentation, we need more training."
"When it comes to web filtering and application filtering, it does not contain enough signatures to determine all of the sites that need to be blocked."
"The VPN is an area that can be improved."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Sophos Cyberoam UTM is ranked 7th in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 81 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Sophos Cyberoam UTM 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 Cyberoam UTM writes "Stable and has a straightforward setup; reporting is fast and easy". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Sophos Cyberoam UTM is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Sophos UTM, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Sophos XG and Untangle NG Firewall. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM report.
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