Comparison conclusions:
pfSense offers paid options for additional support and features (pfSense Plus), a wider range of features and a larger community, but might have a steeper learning curve.
OPNsense provides a clean interface and built-in security features, but its community and documentation are smaller
The summary above is based on 40 interviews we conducted with pfSense and OPNsense users. To access the review's full transcripts, download our report.
"Their reliability and their policy of pre-shipping replacements when a unit has failed."
"It is a safe product."
"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."
"The solution is scalable."
"The most important feature, normally for small business customers, is link load balancing."
"Security solution with a straightforward and quick setup. It's a stable and scalable product."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"Fortinet FortiGate protects against internet-based threats, both internal and external. It is scalable, stable, easy to use, and easy to install."
"The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features."
"The initial setup was simple and fast."
"The most valuable features of pfSense are security, user-friendliness, and helpful online management."
"pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
"Centralized administration with multiple services, which allows for execution in several important functionalities of information security."
"The plugins or add-ons are most valuable. Sometimes, they are free of charge, and sometimes, you have to pay for them, but you can purchase or download very valuable plugins or add-ons to perform internal testing of your network and simulate a denial-of-service attack or whichever attack you want to simulate. You can also remote and monitor your network and see where the gap is. Did you forget a printer port? Most attacks at the moment are happening through printers, and they can tell you immediately that you forgot to close the port of the printer. There are more than one million printers that are in danger, and everybody knows that hackers are using them to enter the network. So, you can download plugins to protect your network."
"I have found the firewall portion for the blocking most valuable."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"The DNS-level filtering is impressive for thwarting time scanners."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable."
"The solution has high availability."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"The solution lacks multi-language support."
"The solution could be more user friendly."
"They should make the rule sets more understandable for the end user. When you're trying to explain to somebody how a computer network is secured, sometimes it's difficult for an end user or customer to understand. If there was a way to make the terminology more accessible to the end user, the set up could be easier. They should translate the technical jargon to an easily relatable and understandable conversation for the end user, the customer, that would be brilliant. Particularly in an environment where the IT structure is audited regularly, there's always pressure from the auditor to up the standards and up the security and you get your USCERT's that come out and there's a warning about this and the customer will want to lock out so much and when you apply it they run into issue where they can't search the internet or print to their remote office. Of course they can't print to your remote office, they just locked it up. They should make the language more understandable for the customer. If there's a product out there that made the jargon understandable to John Q. Public, I would buy that."
"I haven't had a single issue since using Fortinet."
"You do need some IT knowledge in order to effectively work with the solution."
"I need user-behavior analytics, to find threat scenarios from inside the organization, insider attacks. That would be very helpful for us. In addition, I would like next-generation features for small and medium businesses. These businesses require UTM, all in one product. Fortinet must include it."
"Sometimes you do need to know some CLI commands, so it's a bit harder for technicians or new people that don't know it."
"There are some license issues. Not every feature must have a separate license. There must be some of kind synergy between the license so we don't have to pay for every individual license that we would like to have."
"The product must provide integration with other solutions."
"If you want to take advantage of all of the solution's options, you need to have a bit of a technical background. It's not for a layperson."
"Their support could be better in terms of the response time."
"I would like to see multiple DNS servers running on individual interfaces."
"My only observation is about the quality of the IPSec logs, which are difficult to interpret and are poor in filters."
"The solution could always work at being more secure. It's a good idea to continue to work on security features and capabilities in order to ensure they can keep clients safe."
"The usage reports can be better."
"This product needs improvements with respect to reporting and auditing."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"There are a few weaknesses. For example, there is a lack of some features that I have in certain commercial products."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"The IPS solution could be more reliable."
"The reporting part could be better."
"While they do have paid options that actually gives better features, for most of the clients, if they tend to take a paid option will instead opt for Fortinet."
"The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly."
Netgate pfSense is ranked 1st in Firewalls with 128 reviews while OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews. Netgate pfSense is rated 8.6, while OPNsense 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 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". Netgate pfSense is most compared with Sophos XG, KerioControl, Sophos UTM, Cisco Secure Firewall and WatchGuard Firebox, whereas OPNsense is most compared with Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM, IPFire and WatchGuard Firebox. See our Netgate pfSense vs. OPNsense report.
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