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Check Point NGFW vs OPNsense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Ranking in Firewalls
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
316
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
Check Point NGFW
Ranking in Firewalls
6th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
307
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
OPNsense
Ranking in Firewalls
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
38
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 19.8%, up from 17.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Check Point NGFW is 3.2%, down from 3.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OPNsense is 15.6%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 25, 2024
Effective threat prevention with responsive customer support
We are using Fortinet FortiGate as a firewall Fortinet FortiGate has been invaluable. It has helped save costs due to its various features, reliable performance, very good UI, low latency, and stability. The Threat Intel engine in Fortinet FortiGate is highly rated for its effectiveness in…
Pratik-Savla - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 22, 2024
Filters internet access and controls applications
Before choosing Check Point NGFW, we used Palo Alto Networks. We switched because of issues with Palo Alto. Their customer support wasn't very responsive. Some policies weren't working right, letting things through that should've been blocked. We compared different pricing options and features before deciding on Check Point NGFW. The main differences between Palo Alto and Check Point NGFW were mostly in how they worked for us. They both offer good next-gen firewalls, but we had some problems with Palo Alto. Sometimes it wouldn't notify us quickly when something got through. Its prevention wasn't always as strong as we wanted. We felt Palo Alto's traffic inspection was only partial, not checking everything thoroughly. Check Point NGFW seemed to offer better inspection. Check Point NGFW also had better threat intel and application control. With Palo Alto, we couldn't see all our applications, only some of them. This caused shadow IT problems. Cost was also a factor in our decision.
Akram Zaki Hussein - PeerSpot reviewer
Sep 22, 2023
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
The interface is user-friendly, but there's room for improvement in terms of intuitiveness. The bundle management aspect requires additional attention to make it more intuitive, especially for inspecting high-level traffic. This is crucial, especially for larger companies where the existing features might not be the most optimal choice, given limitations like printer constraints. For high availability, it's crucial to have a method in place where a designated component oversees the entire process. Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine. It would be beneficial if OPNsense supported additional virtualization platforms like Hyper-V from Microsoft and VMware, similar to how Kaspersky has integrated them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's very easy to configure."
"You can purchase switches and you don't need to do anything with them. You just put in the firewall and the switches get all the policies and rules that you already have in the firewall. With Fortinet, you just connect the FortiSwitch to the Fortinet and that's it."
"The interface is very user-friendly and I like it very much."
"The initial installation is very straightforward."
"The SD-WAN function is very developed. It has SD-WAN functionality with security features in one device. We can manage from one single console SD-WAN and the security policy."
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"FortiGate Secure SD-WAN includes best-of-breed next-generation firewall (NGFW) security, SD-WAN, advanced routing, and WAN optimization capabilities, delivering a security-driven networking WAN edge transformation in a unified offering."
"The pricing is excellent. It's much less expensive than Cisco."
"The initial setup was very straightforward. You can customize it and change it as you need."
"The most valuable feature of the firewall is the packet inspection. That is an amazing feature from Check Point."
"One of the most valuable features is performance improvement, wherewith ClusterXL and CoreXL, you can improve performance."
"The edge security posture has dramatically improved as we can now detect and prevent threats from the public internet."
"The Threat Management feature makes it very easy to detect the vulnerabilities and other factors. We can make new policy according to it. Policy creation is very simple in Check Point. Because the logs are very good in Check Point Firewall, this reduces our work with the reports that we are getting from the Threat Management. It is very convenient for us to use the reports to make new policies for security and other things."
"From the logs, you can trace back to the rule with a click, which makes it easy to investigate cases."
"What gives me the most value is undoubtedly the security that the anti-bot and anti-virus blades provide."
"In the four years I have worked on the five firewalls we have not had any downtime caused by stability issues."
"The most valuable features of OPNsense are the GUI and frequent updates."
"It's open source."
"We have found pretty much all the features of the solution to be valuable."
"I mostly rely on the solution's network intrusion detection and prevention system, along with other systems, CMs, and log management."
"The solution is good for a basic firewall for a small business or for home use."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"It's more secure and more reliable."
"OPNsense is highly stable."
 

Cons

"There's always something new that can be added or fixed."
"Palo Alto has a feature called WildFire Analysis that is unavailable in FortiGate. WildFire is better than a sandbox because it can address zero-day threats and vulnerabilities. It can immediately identify zero-day threats from the cloud."
"For the migration, everyone has a firewall in use and I am selling Fortinet. Typically, I am replacing another firewall. Previously, there was a tool available to convert configurations from one firewall, such as Palo Alto, to Fortinet, but this tool is no longer free. If it could be made free again, it would be very beneficial."
"We were not able to build a full-mesh VPN; however, I am not sure if this was the fault of Fortinet FortiGate."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"Fortigate's hardware capacities could be improved."
"One area for improvement is the performance on the bandwidth demands for smaller devices, as well as better web filtering."
"The solution could be more evenly structured."
"The main thing for a normal operations guy who is creating tools and firewalls, it is quite difficult to manage. It requires an expert level of knowledge in Check Point products to manage these scalable platform appliances and the virtual firewall that comes with it. We have to educate our guys and give them training on a regular basis to work on these products."
"While not being cheap, their pricing models are competitive. In the pricing structure, however, they need improvement."
"It could be easier to access the installation of the Hostfix for VSX solutions. The CLI commands help us understand how virtual firewalls behave in terms of processor, memory, and other aspects. More graphic visualizations of CPUSE commands would be a welcome improvement, and Check Point could expand scripts to run within the solution for multiple tasks."
"One of the main features that need improvement is the rule filter export."
"Check Point can scale but at times we have experienced some issues."
"I recommend developing a management console that can more efficiently handle multiple Check Point devices, as we have multiple appliances across different sites."
"One of my issues with Check Point is the stability. There have been too many bugs, over the years, when I compare them with other vendors. Their QA team should do better work before releasing their GA versions."
"There's a significant area for improvement when it comes to pricing."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"There should be more technical documentation."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much."
"The interface isn't so friendly user. But we have some technicians here who are quite confident with this tool. OPNSense could maybe add sets of rules so it's simpler to manage different groups with particular needs."
"I would like better documentation concerning the provided packages and their integration."
"They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is too expensive for us. My organization is very small, and we have a total of ten users. We have three internal users and seven external users. The FortiGate 100D series is too expensive for renewing the licenses."
"I would rate the pricing a five out of ten"
"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."
"Here in Brazil, we're going through difficult economic times and the tax on the dollar is high. All the solutions from minor competitors are growing in the market. The prices have come more competitive."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is the lowest in the market."
"Its pricing is good. It's average or normal as compared to Palo Alto and Check Point firewalls."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable for an SME."
"Compared to Palo Alto, which we have used in the past, pricing and licensing are okay."
"Its cost is a little higher than other products."
"One of the main reasons that we went with Check Point is that they provide a good solution for a firewall but at an affordable price. As a state agency, we can't afford Cisco Firepower. It's just out of our budget to be able to pay for something where licensing and hardware are so expensive. Check Point has really met our needs for a budget-friendly solution."
"The solution is expensive."
"They sell it in one box. In that one box, they sell Antivirus and Threat Prevention. They have everything, so we are not required to purchase additional IPS hardware for it."
"It's an expensive solution"
"When comparing the price of Check Point NGFW to other solutions it's difficult to compare because even though everything is included in the Fortinet price, there are large differences between the models. You need to go to a quite expensive Fortinet firewall to receive the same throughput and functionality as in a Check Point firewall. In the end, they are quite similar in price, Fortinet might be a bit cheaper."
"The cost of the pricing and licensing are okay. They are giving me a good product as far as I know. It is more expensive than Cisco, but cheaper than Palo Alto, which is fine. It has many good features, so it deserves a good price as well."
"The tool's price is reasonable in case you are not using it in a high-load environment."
"We are using the paid version."
"We are not paying any licensing fees. OPNsense is completely free for us."
"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, especially considering the availability of a free community edition."
"OPNsense is an open-source solution and it is free to use."
"It costs about $1000."
"There are no licensing costs for OPNsence."
"OPNsense is open source software so at this time it is free for us to use."
"It's not expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Government
4%
Computer Software Company
16%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better NGFW: Fortinet Fortigate or Cisco Firepower?
When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...
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 ...
How does Check Point NGFW compare with Fortinet Fortigate?
I have experience on both from Disti and channel experience. Please find below my comments (nothing new as such). -Ch...
Which would you recommend - Azure Firewall or Check Point NGFW?
Azure Firewall is easy to use and provides excellent support. Valuable features include integration into the overall ...
What do you like most about Check Point NGFW?
Check Point NGFW provides essential security, featuring no-obligation access for secure connections, strong intrusion...
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...
What do you like most about OPNsense?
What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?
I've used the free version. My computer with two network cards at home allows me to try as many different software op...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
Check Point NG Firewall, Check Point Next Generation Firewall
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
Control Southern, Optimal Media
1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc.  3. EuroBSDCon  4. Netgate  5. Claranet  6. Voleatech  7. Open Systems AG  8. Securebit AG  9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH  10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH  Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Check Point NGFW vs. OPNsense and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.