We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks PA-Series 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."Fortinet FortiGate has many valuable features, such as IDS, and intrusion detection. It has security features that are in part with the technologies that are available in the market."
"The initial setup of Fortinet FortiGate was straightforward."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications."
"Web filtering and two-factor authentication are great features."
"It's very easy to set up, it's very easy to make policies and, for an organization, that means you don't need IT expert in firewalls. You just need to have somebody who knows a little bit of IT, and that's it. With other products, you need someone with a "Masters" degree in firewalls."
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"It is a very good solution. I like the dashboard. I can see what is going on and manage it as I like it."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
"I have found the solution has some great features overall, such as guest access capabilities, dashboards, and ease of use. There is plenty of documentation and support and it has the plugins that I needed."
"The technical support is very good."
"The cloud-based aspect helps significantly. It integrates seamlessly with other Palo products like Prisma Cloud, offers robust VPN protection, and it's all in one convenient package."
"It is stable when you set up something and put it into production. Once it works, you don't have other tasks or actions to perform."
"Palo Alto blocks the new threats better than other tools."
"I like the tool's security and web filtering features."
"It is a scalable solution."
"The tool's most valuable feature is WildFire."
"The solution has a three-layer architecture, and it helps customers to deploy the solution quickly."
"The solution is robust."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"I would like some automated custom reporting."
"I haven't had a single issue since using Fortinet."
"The reports are very basic."
"They need faster serviceability and more security features."
"The feedback that I have received is that the performance could be better, and the user experience is not as good compared to a previous solution we used. It could be more user-friendly. Of course, it still works fine for our operations."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"The reporting part could be better."
"We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much."
"I think the most important thing is that it should be easily accessible, but currently, that doesn't seem to be the case. We need a hardware platform that's based on common standards and open computing principles, which would be like a commodity and benefit us greatly."
"The SD-WAN feature of Palo Alto Networks is not good compared to FortiGate."
"As we migrate fully into the cloud, additional features like capacity upgrading and improvements to hardware resources will be necessary, especially since our equipment consists of older-generation switches and routers."
"I encountered a slight issue with the application portal, which was not functioning correctly."
"In future releases, maybe Palo Alto can enhance and enlarge their portfolio with SIEM solutions. They already have an endpoint protection solution, SOAR solution, that's fine. But when it comes to standalone IDS/IPS solution or email security solution, for example, we don't have any product in that category for Palo Alto."
"The support provided by the solution is not that good."
"There are constant updates for the operating system. It is a nice thing also, but it has its own disadvantages. Continuous updates are there. The users face issues like, how often do I need to update that? Within a period of five months, I'm updating it two or three times. It gives them a feeling that they are not confident about their product and have to update it so frequently."
"Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is complicated to configure compared to one of its competitors."
"The web interface is slow."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is ranked 16th in Firewalls with 28 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is rated 8.6. 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 Palo Alto Networks PA-Series writes "Offers trained customer support, stability and ease of use ". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and IPFire, whereas Palo Alto Networks PA-Series is most compared with SonicWall NSa, Juniper SRX Series Firewall, Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense and WatchGuard Firebox. See our OPNsense vs. Palo Alto Networks PA-Series report.
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