We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Zscaler Cloud Firewall 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."It increases security posture and is helpful for firewall reporting, intrusion protection, web filtering, and SD-WAN implementation."
"Fortinet FortiGate is user-friendly and affordable."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"Our security improved from being able to put in rules and close off unwanted traffic."
"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"The email protection and VPN features are the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"I like pfSense's security features."
"The solution is very easy to use and has a very nice GUI."
"I had some outages in the network and we provide services for our company. We sell mobile credits. The terminal gets access to our own server inside the network and if one internet fails, then the other one is still up and we have a back-up link on the devices."
"The interface is straightforward and easy to use."
"It is easy to use and has integrity with other systems, such as proxies and quality of service."
"It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application."
"The ability to perform packet captures on the command line and via the GUI is useful for diagnosing problems."
"This solution has increased the level of security, given us more control, provided a deep insight into network traffic, and is a great VPN solution."
"It helps a lot of companies to reduce their downtime. Also, It helps businesses in terms of being secured and protected from any threats."
"It provides in-depth visibility into your network, ensuring that traffic flowing into your organization, be it from offices or individual users, is effectively filtered and secured through multiple layers of protection."
"The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution."
"I like the ease of deployment and its flexibility. We don't need to deal with license, quotes, procurement, delivery, and installation. Everything is software-based, and it's very easy to operate."
"The visibility and log availability offered are highly valued for troubleshooting purposes, and this is a key factor driving customer interest in the firewall module."
"Once you have Zscaler running you have access to configure it however you want."
"The solution offers good sandboxing."
"The scalability is okay. We have around 2200 people using this solution."
"The support costs and licensing are sometimes so expensive."
"They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."
"I would like to see improvements made to the dashboard and UI, as well as to the reporting."
"A lack of integration between our data centers."
"We sometimes have issues with FortiGate's routing table in the latest firmware update. We had to downgrade the device because our customers complained about bugs."
"They are doing good, but they can improve the distributor assignment. The availability of the product and the timeline of delivery are the main things. The distribution should be swift, and the distributor should not reach out to end customers directly. They should work as a distributor. There should also be one more local distributor. Currently, there is only one distributor in Pakistan, and the rest of them are in UAE. It is difficult to work with only one distributor. Sometimes, you don't get along with the same distributor, and that's why they should have one more distributor. Their licensing should also be improved. The activation or renewal of the product should be done from the date of renewal, not from the date on which the license expired."
"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."
"There are some cloud-based features that could be much more flexible than they currently are."
"It would be great to add more to security."
"I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic."
"There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"The main problem with pfSense is that we have to use proxy solutions."
"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."
"Also, the GUI is helpful, but it's not user-friendly. It's complicated. It should be more intuitive for the average user and have an excellent graphical view. Of course, the user will typically know about network administration, but it still should be easy to understand."
"It would be nice to have some sort of a form factor, a physical form factor perhaps, or virtual machine that you could install on devices or on a cloud, and have some cloud computing."
"Zscaler Cloud Firewall should have a better understanding of all dynamic cloud applications."
"It would be better if they improved their policy, package visibility, and flexibility while we're creating rules for inspection. It could also be cheaper or more things could be included in the basic package. In the next release, I would like better coverage in the Asia Pacific region and better quality of service."
"The issue right now is probably that Zscaler is not providing web browser isolation. Another solution, Menlo, offers this. For one customer, we had to send traffic to Menlo to do the isolation for us. It was requested by the customer so that they could integrate any iframe. Zscaler needs to add this type of feature in their next release."
"The product could improve its integration with some legacy systems."
"Pricing is a challenge."
"We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee."
"When it comes to customer support, there is room for improvement in Zscaler's service."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is ranked 24th in Firewalls with 15 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is rated 8.4. 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 Zscaler Cloud Firewall writes "A highly stable and comprehensive cloud security and access solution". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, Sophos UTM, KerioControl and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Zscaler Cloud Firewall is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, OPNsense, Cisco Secure Firewall and Juniper vSRX. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall report.
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