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FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs Netgate pfSense 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
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
317
Ranking in other categories
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st)
FortiGate Next Generation F...
Ranking in Firewalls
11th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
ZTNA (4th), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (9th)
Netgate pfSense
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
206
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.5%, up from 17.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) is 0.3%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 18.6%, down from 23.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

DineshKumar28 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
Anish Bheekoo - PeerSpot reviewer
Good support and highly scalable solution
In terms of support, they are very responsive. If you reach out to them, they will contact you within 15 minutes. Managing FortiGate is easy and simple compared to other products. It's not too complex. Even if we miss renewing our licenses, FortiGate provides a grace period of 90 days, which is exceptional. Most products only offer 30 days. That's the best part, in my opinion. The support is excellent. I've had very positive experiences with FortiGate's support team. They are friendly and always available. Their support is available 24/7 via phone, email, or chat. They even offer remote access if we need help with configuration or auditing logs. Their support is reliable both locally and internationally.
Vincent Hamm - PeerSpot reviewer
I appreciate the depth of what the solution can do and the simplicity of the initial setup
We do a lot of managed services and are currently trying to get people off of L2TP VPN. Apparently, we can download a mobile config file from a configured NetGate device, and we're primarily Apple. We've experimented with it on a device that's not a production device, and we can't seem to get the phase one IPSec set correctly so that the Apple config will accept it. We've tried looking at the documentation but haven't found anything. While it's not the highest priority, it is rather frustrating. We'd like to do this, and the feature is right there, but we can't get it configured. We certainly don't want to try it on a production machine because it will break the current VPN. I would like to download the Apple mobile config so that I can tell it to configure my VPN connection to do that. We have some cross-platform things. So there's also a Windows VPN. You can download a script or a PowerShell, put it on a Windows machine, and it can connect to the VPN. It would be nice if I could say I want Mac only, Windows only, or both. I wish it could configure the IPSec phase one and phase two, or at least give me solid instructions on how to configure that. It doesn't supply out-of-the-box visibility to drive decisions. You get 75 log lines, so if you're trying to troubleshoot something, you have to look at one log and then another. It integrates with SysLog systems, but our customers are not at the level where they want to pay for some third-party SysLog system. Usually, we can get things taken care of fairly quickly. I would like to have the ability to control all my devices from one place. With Ubiquiti, you can get a controller that allows you to control all of your Wi-Fi devices, switches, and routers. From one area, you can switch to that customer and see what's happening in their environment. That's not part of pfSense. I understand why it's not because pfSense is open source and community supported. That's something that someone in the community needs to pick up and run with. It's not something the pfSense can easily implement. If they could, that'd be great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The product is very stable, easy to troubleshoot, and configure, so it has reduced the time it takes for support."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"The Fortinet FortiGate local partners were good. I did not have direct contact with Fortinet support."
"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."
"We can use our devices to check all of the perimeters. It secures email websites."
"I'm pretty happy with its reliability. It is also very scalable."
"There are lots of features and most of them are deployed for internet security. Users are protected if they accidentally go to some malicious sites."
"The IPsec tunnels are very easily created, and quite interoperable with devices from other vendors."
"Overall, I am satisfied with the product."
"The solution's application control is very powerful."
"It is a very user-friendly solution. Moreover, Foritgate offers good performance."
"There are multiple features I have found to be valuable, such as encryption and integrated security features."
"FortiGate NGF is simple compared to other firewalls. It is easy to use and you don't need any training. Any person with basic firewall knowledge can use it."
"The FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall is always updating. For example, if there is a big attack, they fix it in their firmware. They release new firmware with the necessary patches to address the vulnerabilities."
"FortiGate is a rapidly growing vendor with a wide range of ready-to-use products. Their delivery time is remarkably quick, usually between two to four weeks."
"FortiGate's threat detection capability is excellent."
"The scalability is very good, where you can do an HA configuration and then bring in another box, if necessary."
"The solution is very easy to use and configure."
"PfSense is fairly simple to configure and has a good administration interface."
"Super easy to manage. Anyone who has been working with firewalls can handle it."
"The biggest benefit of pfSense is its ease of setup, especially for VPN — both the end-user VPN and site-to-site feed."
"I like how easy it is to access VPNs and stuff like that. It's so simple to set up a site-to-site VPN."
"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 redundancy and scalability ARE very nice."
 

Cons

"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"Web security solutions can be improved."
"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."
"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."
"To the best of my knowledge, Fortinet does not have a CASB solution and Fortinet does not have a Zero trust solution."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"This product needs to have an analysis feature, rather than having the analysis done through the integration of a different product."
"It would be good if they had fewer updates."
"One area for improvement is the IPS engine."
"The management consoles can be improved."
"I would like to have SD-WAN as a part of the Next Generation Firewall. It would enhance high availability."
"There is room for improvement in pricing."
"There is an area for improvement in vulnerability management."
"The product keeps hanging."
"The solution must improve the support provided for customers around the globe, considering the time differences in different places."
"When considering the policy of the vendors, they do not offer much of a discount policy, making the licensing model an area that needs improvement."
"I would like to see an additional wizard added to pfSense when you add some of their other packages. You can add a package from pfSense to do a particular task, but you need to be a product expert or willing to spend time on the Internet for hours and hours to figure out how to configure some of those features correctly."
"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."
"Could be simplified for new users."
"The technical support needs to be improved."
"​Improve analysis of logs and dashboards (control panel) with improved alert functionality."
"The GUI could use more “bells and whistles”. It's got plenty of info for a Sysadmin but some people like shiny things."
"Performance Optimization Documentation could use improvement. The base setup is great but with higher bandwidth, it is really hard to find good documentation on how to tweak the setup to get the most out of your connection."
"Maybe Netgate needs to see if a medium-level Netgate pfSense Plus can be created for smaller organizations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."
"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."
"It is affordable. Palo Alto is much more expensive than Fortinet."
"I think that the pricing is fair."
"It has been two years. I don't remember the actual price, but it was affordable. We buy the boxes and then use the license for three years."
"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is better than Cisco, Check Point, and Palo Alto. In terms of pricing, it's probably a better-priced firewall solution overall."
"The price, in comparison to other products is very cheap."
"Licensing is usually on a three-year period."
"The solution's price is average."
"The product is a little bit expensive."
"It's an expensive solution"
"The tool's pricing is neither cheap nor expensive. Overall, I find it to be competitive in the market."
"It is an expensive solution."
"The product is not very expensive."
"The pricing is better compared to other solutions like Check Point, Arista, or Cisco."
"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The pricing is reasonable."
"From Sonic Wall, their price is much higher, because for every feature that you want to add, you have to pay. I can do the same things with pfSense, but everything is included in one price."
"I would recommend it for a small business or a startup as a starting point. It's also good for companies that are on a tight budget."
"The price point is highly competitive."
"pfSense is open-source, but the support is something that the customer pays for."
"It's open source (and free - as in beer and speech), but also has commercial support."
"The solution is free. However, you need to pay for support."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
21%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
7%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
15%
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 ...
What do you like most about FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)?
The tool's most valuable feature is IPS. In my experience, I haven't encountered any issues with integration. It easi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)?
The price is very aggressive in India as India is a rapidly growing market, the original equipment manufacturer offer...
What needs improvement with FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW)?
I would like to see improvements in some of the hard drive features on FortiGate so that we can generate reporting wi...
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

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall
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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
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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 FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs. Netgate pfSense and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.
823,795 professionals have used our research since 2012.