Compare OPNsense vs. Sophos UTM
OPNsense is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 6 reviews while Sophos UTM is ranked 1st in Unified Threat Management (UTM) with 25 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.8, while Sophos UTM is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of OPNsense writes "Has good performance but I want to see a friendlier user interface". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos UTM writes "Has a solid state hard drive and can boot in less than sixty seconds". OPNsense is most compared with pfSense, Untangle NG Firewall and Sophos UTM, whereas Sophos UTM is most compared with pfSense, Fortinet FortiGate and Sophos XG. See our OPNsense vs. Sophos UTM report.
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 Find out what your peers are saying about OPNsense vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: March 2020. 406,312 professionals have used our research since 2012. | ||||||
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros | ||
Unfortunately in Cisco, only the hardware was good. For us, the most valuable features are the IPX and the Sourcefire Defense Center module. That gives us visibility into the traffic coming in and going out, and gives us the heads-up if there is a potential outbreak or potential malicious user who is trying to access the site. It also helps us see traffic generated by an end device trying to reach out to the world. The information coming from Talos does a good job... I like the fact that Cisco is working with them and getting the information from them and updating the firewall. The firepower sensors have been great; they do a good job of dropping unwanted traffic. The most important point is the detection engine which is now part of the next-generation firewalls and which is supported by Cisco Talos. The most valuable feature of this solution is AMP (Advanced Malware Protection), as this is really needed to protect against cyber threats. I like the Cisco ASDM (Adaptive Security Device Manager), which is the configuration interface for the Cisco firewall. The technical team is always available when we have problems. | The solution is good for a basic firewall for a small business or for home use. The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use. The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy. The feature I find most valuable, is that the program helped me to realize all the requested functionality that was needed. I find the solution to be user-friendly. It has a lot of reports and easy settings. We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience. | We find all of the features valuable because together they fit the needs of our customers. It allows me to easily connect with more than forty-five remote sites and more than fifty remote users between IPsec and SSL VPN, applying the web filter and application filter to ensure a secure connection. Configuration troubleshooting is eased by the use of the color-coded, live firewall log. The features that I've known to be most valuable are both the web security features as well as the web firewall capabilities. As a partner of Sophos firewall, we have some clients and they are using Sophos firewall UTM and we are using it as well. Sophos UTM has improved the porting section. It has improved security by seeing the gaps. For example, when you discover that an entry has been using a certain application, with Sophos UTM acting as a Layer 7 firewall, you can block the application, not the port. The most valuable feature is the IPS. It also protects us from malware. UTM 9 brings along IPSec as well as iPhone and iPad support. This seems small but it’s useful. The isolation of infected machines is a big feature. Also, the ability to detect external sources that change files on a file server is really big. |
Cons | ||
In NGFW, Cisco should be aligned with the new technology and inspection intelligence because Cisco is far behind in this pipeline. We were also not too thrilled when Cisco announced that in the upcoming new-gen ASA, iOS was not going to be supported, or if you install them, they will not be able to be managed through the Sourcefire. However, it seems like Cisco is moving away from the ASA iOS to the Sourcefire FireSIGHT firmware for the ASA. We haven't had a chance to test it out. Our latest experience with a code upgrade included a number of bugs and issues that we ran into. So more testing with their code, before it hits us, would help. The software was very buggy, to the point it had to be removed. Most users do not have awareness of this product's functionality and features. Cisco should do something to make them aware of them. That would be quite excellent and useful to organizations that are still using legacy data-center-security products. I have found that Cisco reporting capabilities are not as rich as other products, so the reporting could be improved. The Sandbox and the Web Censoring in this solution need to be improved. It will be nice if they had what you traditionally would use a web application scanner for. If the solution could take a deeper look into HTTP and HTTPS traffic, that would be nice. | The solution would not be suitable for anything large-scale. The ability to set the VPN IP address would be a welcome addition. On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option. OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server. | We would like to have unique viewable IDs for rules and in the packet filter logfile, for easier debugging of old log files. I would like to see the SD-WAN feature improved. Support for IKEv2 is needed in this solution. The only time we face a problem or issues is when we place a ticket. We have found that response is very slow. With Sophos UTM, there is a general rule in the firewall when the country blocking can block some countries from accessing your data. In the current version, you still need to add it by putting in the IP range. This feature would be helpful for administrators and it gives them the advantage to block stuff in less time. The solution could be improved by adding cloud soundboxing. We didn’t find any issues but I know there have been some in the last few years. It does have built-in policies, which enable you to disable USB devices, etc. It would be nice if they had more policies because there are not that many of them. |
Pricing and Cost Advice | ||
Always consider what you might need to reduce your wasted time and invest it in other solutions. Pricing varies on the model and the features we are using. It could be anywhere from $600 to $1000 to up to $7,000 per year, depending on what model and what feature sets are available to us. We used Check Point and the two are comparable. Cost was really what put us onto the ASAs... the price tag for Check Point was exorbitantly more than what it is for the ASA solution. We are in the process of renewing our three-year license, which costs approximately $24,000 USD for the thirty-six months. The pricing for Cisco products is higher than others, but Cisco is a very good, strong, and stable technology. The program is very expensive. The cost of this solution is high. Some of our customers would be more likely to standardize on Cisco equipment if the cost was lower because a lot of people install cheap equipment. | OPNsense is open source software so at this time it is free for us to use. There are no licensing costs for OPNsence. It costs about $1000. We are not paying any licensing fees. OPNsense is completely free for us. | This solution is less expensive than FortiGate. The biggest issue with Sophos is the pricing. It's definitely more expensive. As I said, we looked at Webroot, which is a big alternative, and Sophos was almost three times the price of Webroot. That's a pretty big difference. We purchased the appliance with five years onsite support and licenses. Pricing for the upgrade was very competitive as Sophos wanted to retain existing customers. Sometimes more is less, meaning if you want more than three features, take the FullGuard licence. The pricing and licensing are both good and better than Sophos's competitors. This is why we went with the product. The AWS Marketplace product should be a better fit, but it is a little pricier. Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace is pretty straightforward. Because were entirely on AWS and don't have anything anywhere else. It made the most sense for us as a one stop shop. |
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Top Comparisons | ||
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Also Known As | ||
| Cisco ASA, Adaptive Security Appliance, ASA, Cisco Sourcefire Firewalls | Astaro | |
Learn | ||
| Cisco | OPNsense Video Not Available | Sophos |
Overview  | ||
Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is Cisco's end-to-end software solution and core operating system that powers the Cisco ASA product series. This software solution provides enterprise-level firewall capabilities for all types of ASA products, including blades, standalone appliances and virtual devices. Adaptive Security Appliance provides protection to organizations of all sizes, and allows end-users to access information securely anywhere, at any time, and through any device. Adaptive Security Appliance is also fully compatible with other key security technologies, and so provides organizations with an all-encompassing security solution. Block more threats and quickly mitigate those that do breach your defenses with the industry’s first threat-focused NGFW. | OPNsense is an open source, easy-to-use and easy-to-build FreeBSD based firewall and routing platform. OPNsense includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls, and more in many cases. It brings the rich feature set of commercial offerings with the benefits of open and verifiable sources. | The global network of highly skilled researchers and analysts, protecting businesses from known and emerging malware - viruses, rootkits and spyware. |
Offer | ||
Learn more about Cisco ASA NGFW | Learn more about OPNsense | Learn more about Sophos UTM |
Sample Customers | ||
| There are more than one million Adaptive Security Appliances deployed globally. Top customers include First American Financial Corp., Genzyme, Frankfurt Airport, Hansgrohe SE, Rio Olympics, The French Laundry, Rackspace, and City of Tomorrow. | Information Not Available | One Housing Group |
Top Industries | ||
Financial Services Firm19% Manufacturing Company10% Comms Service Provider9% University6% Software R&D Company28% Comms Service Provider19% Media Company7% Construction Company5% | Software R&D Company25% Comms Service Provider20% Media Company10% Retailer8% | Comms Service Provider11% Healthcare Company11% Financial Services Firm11% Software R&D Company6% Comms Service Provider23% Software R&D Company21% Media Company9% Government6% |
Company Size | ||
Small Business35% Midsize Enterprise25% Large Enterprise40% Small Business39% Midsize Enterprise20% Large Enterprise41% | No Data Available | Small Business62% Midsize Enterprise18% Large Enterprise20% Small Business61% Midsize Enterprise15% Large Enterprise24% |
Find out what your peers are saying about OPNsense vs. Sophos UTM and other solutions. Updated: March 2020.
406,312 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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