We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Zscaler Internet Access 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's ease of management is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are it is one of the most mature firewalls in the UTM bundle."
"I really like the captive portal feature for our guest network. It has nice VLAN features in terms of separating our network. The anti-virus is also good."
"I only deal with it from a security analyst's point of view. I don't really get into the features of the actual FortiGate. From the security point of view, it works, and it does its job."
"Web filtering and two-factor authentication are great features."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"The solution can scale well."
"The features that I have found most valuable are that it is good to use, and most importantly, the pricing. The customer especially likes the discount when they trade up or something like that."
"Sophos Intercept X is scalable. Currently, we have almost 30 people using it in our company."
"Easy to deploy and easy to use."
"Content protection, content inspection, and the application level firewall."
"The main features of this solution are customization and ease to use."
"Its scalability is a strong point."
"Firewall system for small, medium, and large data networks. It allows you to provide security to your environment: DMZ networks, LAN, WAN, etc."
"What I like about pfSense is that it works well and runs on an inexpensive appliance."
"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."
"Zscaler Web Security protects our users in remote locations from internet threats - even if they are not connected to our network."
"Zscaler Internet Access's best feature is the granular policy controls."
"Overall, we're very happy with our product."
"Zscaler excels in security protection and the cloud is always up-to-date. It does not matter if you are a small or big organisation, you will receive the same security quality."
"The solution is stable and reliable."
"The most valuable feature is bandwidth control."
"The solution is stable."
"There is no lag in service when accessing the internet."
"The support is the main thing that needs to be improved."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by having more storage in the hardware for log data."
"The sniffing packets or packet captures, can be simplified and improved because it's a little confusing."
"The pricing could be reduced or include the first year warranty."
"The stability could be a bit better."
"It should come integrated or have its own type of network monitor tool in a module. There should just be one package, and you are good to go."
"Technical support could be better. You don't always get the level of help you need right away."
"Tunnel flapping was one of the major things I had seen wherein your internet link remains but your VPN tunnel is down. However, since I got a fix from the TAC team, I have not noticed it, but the customer complained a few times that they couldn't access the internet because of this problem."
"When I checked other packages, it seems they use different tools that are installed on the PSS for functionality. They rely on third-party tools, unlike Fortinet, for example, which has its own tools. In comparison, we also use third-party tools on pfSense. For example, we had a situation where we needed a tool to identify authorized users, and when I searched for a solution, I found a third-party tool. However, using such tools may come with additional costs."
"I'd like to find something in pfSense that is more specific to URL filtering. We have customers who would like to filter their web traffic. They would like to be able to say to their employees, "You can surf the web, but you cannot get access to Facebook or other social media," or "You can surf the web, but you're not allowed to gamble or watch porn on the web." My technicians say that doing this kind of stuff with pfSense nowadays is not easy. They can implement some filters using IP addresses but not by using the names of the domains and categories. So, we are not able to exclude some categories from the allowed traffic, such as porn, gambling, etc. To do that, we have to use another product and another web filter that uses DNS. I know that there are some third-party products that could work with pfSense, but I'd like the native pfSense solution to do that."
"The interface is not very shiny and attractive."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The stability could be improved."
"pfSense has some limitations in detecting site sessions. We want to control internet usage based on sites and their content, and pfSense doesn't perform this function."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"They can improve the dynamic of the input of IPs from outside."
"They could provide more time for the onboarding the training of an IT person."
"Zscaler should continue to make the user interface better. They should also improve the backup network and continue to expand it so that it can handle larger numbers of customers."
"In every cloud service in the world, you have multiple upstream internet providers to create diversity so that if one of your providers fails, your network just continues. In South Africa, there is only one upstream provider, and that's not right. That that's a problem."
"One thing that they could improve is the ability to import rules from other platforms."
"The solution is expensive. They recently revised the pricing and packaging. Some of our existing customers have been asking for alternate solutions for a lower price."
"Technical support could be better."
"In terms of user experience, it could be better."
"What could be improved in Zscaler Internet Access is its price. It could be cheaper."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while Zscaler Internet Access is ranked 2nd in Secure Web Gateways (SWG) with 46 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while Zscaler Internet Access is rated 8.2. 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 Internet Access writes "Provides integrated CASB and file sandboxing but could be less expensive ". Netgate pfSense is most compared with OPNsense, Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM and Cisco Secure Firewall, whereas Zscaler Internet Access is most compared with Cisco Umbrella, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Netskope , Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks and Appgate SDP. See our Netgate pfSense vs. Zscaler Internet Access report.
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