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Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall vs Netgate pfSense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
581
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
Arista Edge Threat Manageme...
Ranking in Firewalls
40th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Netgate pfSense
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
220
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.7%, down from 20.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 9.3%, down from 15.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Fortinet FortiGate18.7%
Netgate pfSense9.3%
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall0.2%
Other71.8%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service
I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.
reviewer2785293 - PeerSpot reviewer
systems engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Perimeter security has reduced botnet attacks and now needs better interface and logging
The best features Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall offers are its ability to push a lot of traffic along with bandwidth management and traffic policy. Bandwidth management and traffic policy help my organization by keeping our internet subscription low. Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has positively impacted my organization by reducing botnet attacks. Immediately after I installed the firewall, it stopped a few botnet attacks.
MC
Chief information security officer at Center for Information Management, Inc.
Provides visibility that enables users to make data-driven decisions
pfSense flexibility overall is pretty good. They are making some really big improvements. That said, they're a long way from enterprise. They advertise things that they don't have. I've worked for probably 30% of the Corporate 100, and they won't tolerate the high availability and it being as buggy as it is. The fact that if you configure it incorrectly without any visual indications that it's not done in the way Netscape does, then it will not only break the firewall, it will break both firewalls. The only way you can even try to recover is by getting new images from Netgate. You have to open up a tech support case, download the image for, then reimage the firewalls, and reapply your configuration. The fact that you can completely brick your firewalls just by having a configuration that they allow, and they don't even don't tell you there's a problem until they both go down. That's totally unacceptable in an enterprise. As a standalone firewall, they're excellent. As an enterprise, we're not touching it with a ten-foot pole. It’s difficult to configure and use add-on features. It's really easy to add them. On the website, they say “Oh, we do this, this, and this.” However, they do a lot through third-party add-ons. The problem is, if there's any problems at all, the very first thing they want you to do is disable those add-ons. So that's not really supporting anything. There are two ways that firewalls are viewed: talking to the firewall and talking through the firewall. If you're talking about “to the firewall,” then it's a very robust, very secure firewall. However, it doesn't have things that they claim helps with protecting data, most of it's third party. If you want to do all these things that are typically associated with enterprise-level firewalls, most of them are done by a third party. It's not actually cooked into their product. I like their OSPF. I wish it was more current. The only bugs that are in the OSPF are ones that have been known about for almost two years. Maybe they're they're victims of their own success. Their growth curve has outstripped their technical support and has outstripped their ability to develop. They're just growing so fast. They're trying to do everything. Updates from third parties can take too long. For example, if there's a problem with a package and no available update is available, you have to wait. Since it's via a third party, there's no definable schedule, as the update needs to come from a third-party open organization with no financial interest to make the process faster. Sometimes, there's more finger-pointing than resolution. In, OSPF, they give you lots of information. However, when it comes to hardcore troubleshooting of different routing zones or things like that, then you had to keep dropping down to the CLI in order to get it. And that's where your experience can change quite a bit. If you're running OSPF on Cumulus or some of the other big routing or switching solutions, then they're running much newer versions of it, which are all bug-patched and fixed. However, pfSense is running on an operating system that is not theirs. They don't necessarily have full control over it. When you get a real enterprise firewall, and when you hook up the redundancy, you expect redundancy to work and be predictable. And never ever will the redundancy crash your system. If you don't create the interfaces in the exact same order on both firewalls every single time, if so much as one interface is out of order, if the command line is different because of the way the operating system works, you will slowly corrupt your configuration to the point where it'll break.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The signature database and zero-day detection are Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a stable solution."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"The interface and other reports are all user-friendly."
"The most valuable feature is the VDOM, which allows the customer to have multiple firewalls in a single campus."
"We receive substantial help from Fortinet, which is very valuable as they assist us in choosing the right solutions. If we need configuration assistance, they can send specialists who help design the solution."
"FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is more realistic in application, allowing for more specific, customized security policies without the extensive work involved with static rules."
"The GUI configuration is its most valuable feature"
"The product's initial setup phase is easy."
"Phish Blocker is a valuable feature."
"Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall has positively impacted my organization by reducing botnet attacks."
"It has a very nice web interface, and it is very simple to use. The way policies are working is also good."
"The ability to utilize the features instead of having to pay a license fee for every single thing that you want to use on a firewall is valuable. A lot of other companies give you a firewall out of the box that has very basic functionality, whereas pfSense gives you all the good features, and if you want to have more advanced features, you can pay a fee."
"I like how affordable and flexible pfSense is. I can achieve the protection I need in a flexible manner. I enjoy using pfSense. It's effective and solid."
"It is very easy to use. The interface is quite understandable. There is a good community, and I can take over at any time I want. If there is anything wrong with it, I could just reinstall the whole thing and start all over again, and I'll be up again in less than a few minutes"
"The most valuable aspects of pfSense are the stability, hardware compatibility, and low cost."
"I like the VPN features. We use WireGuard, which is part of the pfSense package. That was easy to set up, so I could connect to other customer sites seamlessly."
"It is very flexible. I have not found a use case that I could not satisfy with the device."
"The open-source nature of pfSense, paired with the amount of support we receive, has been great."
 

Cons

"It would be helpful to have a better tool for migrating all policy rules using an automatic script."
"They need to improve their technical support."
"The area that Fortinet may improve is customer support. When you have an incident, situation, or open a case, the support is not as good as Cisco or other platforms I have tested."
"I often ask for help from the local provider. I haven't found the required efficient help."
"The learning curve is a bit higher."
"Technical support is not helpful."
"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."
"The solution is expensive."
"Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall can be improved, particularly the user interface, which is not very good, and also the logs, which are not very good."
"The documentation is not clear."
"The product has a lot to improve in the area of policy implementation."
"This solution is good for small businesses but it is not as stable as other competitors such as Fortinet."
"Something that we would really love to see is a real single pane of glass management for multiple clients."
"I would like them to have more security platforms. The pfBlocker is nice, but they don't have anything native for CrowdSec or Fail2Ban. I'm running CrowdSec on a web server instance on my server instead, but I'd like to move more of these services to the edge and put them in pfSense. I think that's something that's coming. I don't know if Failed2BAN is, but I'm sure CrowdSec is a popular platform, so it would be nice to have a package that's native to the platform."
"Ease of use is a problem for a user who is unfamiliar with this product because, in the interface, everything has to be set manually."
"They could make it easier to configure packages."
"The integration could be improved."
"I am unsure if it's feasible, but I have previously utilized a web VPN interface with Cisco Firewalls that allows VPN connections through a website, eliminating the installation of VPN software."
"I suffered a lot of problems over time and I don't think the problems are related to the hardware or the software. They were related to hacking that I was experimenting with, and the device would stop working."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Fortinet costs are 25% lower than the high-cost provider. There is an equipment cost and a recurring monthly cost for licenses and technical support."
"The price is really low. It's cheap in comparison to the cost of Cisco or CheckPoint, for example."
"The solution is very expensive so pricing is rated a one out of ten."
"The licensing costs are very competitive."
"The price is okay."
"At the time we bought them, I was satisfied with their pricing; I don't know how the new pricing will be."
"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."
"No comment."
"The tool is quite cheap."
"I consider it an averagely-priced tool."
"If you need to buy hardware onto which to install PfSense, go with their boxes on their website, they are great."
"I prefer the software licensing model."
"If you are a technical person, it is a pretty cheap solution because first of all, the Community Edition (CE) is free. I am in Australia, and my pfSense license is about 200 dollars. It is not bad because it is per year and not per month. It is cheap compared to other solutions."
"It is very suitable in terms of the price. If a client cannot acquire a Netgate appliance, I provide a custom-made appliance, and I install the Community edition of pfSense. It is a very good and affordable solution for enterprises. Some of the clients pay monthly but usually, it is annually."
"Hardware costs more than $500. The cloud version costs me $50 a month."
"I think Netgate pfSense's TAC or support is a little expensive, considering how inexpensive everything else is."
"The pricing seems fair overall, but I think they need more reasonably priced options for very small offices."
"Its price is pretty fair."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
No data available
Comms Service Provider
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Educational Organization
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise133
Large Enterprise189
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business168
Midsize Enterprise33
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?
From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...
What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?
As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
I consider it an averagely-priced tool. Adding additional features does not cost extra. My small company pays around ...
What needs improvement with Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall can be improved, particularly the user interface, which is not very good, a...
What advice do you have for others considering Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall?
My advice to others looking into using Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall is that it is effective and accompli...
Help me find the best open source router
You don't really specify what type of router you are looking for but if you are talking about a gateway router I reco...
How do I choose between Fortinet FortiGate and pfSense?
Fortinet’s Fortigate is a firewall solution we use and are very much satisfied with its performance. We find Fortigat...
What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?
Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and cl...
 

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall
No data available
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya
Information Not Available
Nerds On Site Inc., RKC Development Inc., Expertech, Fisher's Technology, Ncisive, Consulting, CPURX, Vaughn's Computer House Calls, Imeretech LLC, Digital Crisis, Carolina Digital Phone, Technigogo Technology Services, The Simple Solution, SwiftecITInc, Rocky Mountain Tech Team, Free Range Geeks, Alaska Computer Geeks, Lark Information Technology, Renaissance Systems Inc., Cutting Edge Computers, Caretech LLC, GoVanguard, Network Touch Ltd, P.C. Solutions.Net, Vision Voice and Data Systems LLC, Montgomery Technologies, Techforce, Concero Networks, ASONInc, CPS Electronics and Consulting, Darkwire.net LLC, IT Specialists, MBS-Net Inc., VOICE1 LLC, Advantage Networking Inc., Powerhouse Systems, Doxa Multimedia Inc., Pro Computer Service, Virtual IT Services, A&J Computers Inc., Envision IT LLC, CommunicaONE Inc., Bone Computer Inc., Amax Engineering Corporation, QPG Ltd. Co., IT 101 Inc., Perfect Cloud Solutions, Applied Technology Group Inc., The Digital Sun Group LLC, Firespring
Find out what your peers are saying about Arista Edge Threat Management NG Firewall vs. Netgate pfSense and other solutions. Updated: February 2026.
881,757 professionals have used our research since 2012.