IPFire vs Netgate pfSense comparison

IPFire Project and Netgate are both solutions in the Firewalls category. IPFire Project is ranked #37 with an average rating of 8.0, while Netgate is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. IPFire Project holds a 1.4% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Netgate’s 16.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IPFire Project users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Netgate users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IPFire and Netgate pfSense based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls.

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

February 2025

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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

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.7%, up from 17.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IPFire is 1.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 16.0%, down from 22.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

EhabAli

Sr. Cybersecurity Solutions Architect at BMB

Efficient, user-friendly, and affordable

In the past, NSS Labs was utilized to test files and verify the numbers and datasheets. It would be beneficial to have an organization or testing lab that can verify the numbers in our datasheets since changes are frequently made, which can be inconvenient for review. For instance, when comparing different competitors such as Forcepoint, Palo Alto, and Check Point, the throughput or numbers in the datasheet may be lower than the actual numbers. Conversely, Fortinet typically reports very high numbers, but they cannot be replicated in the real world. Therefore, it would be advantageous for them to partner with a neutral testing organization such as NSS Labs to validate these numbers, thus providing more credibility and comfort to everyone regarding the accuracy of the datasheets. 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. This tool shows a lot of promise and is very good. Making it free would help many companies deliver their products in a more efficient and integrated way. It would also be more valuable to include the tool with the firewall package or license instead of having to pay extra for it. Paying extra puts more pressure on small companies to deliver the firewall and complete the configuration, especially if they have hundreds or thousands of policies. It's very painful to move through these policies line by line. The stability has room for improvement. When it comes to Secure SD-WAN, everything is fine. They are going the right way. SD-WAN is very promising. They can provide the SD-WAN solution separately, but they will not take this approach because even the smallest firewall can support the features, so there is no need to have a separate service or appliance. They are following the right steps, and there is nothing to be improved. Feature-wise, I'm really satisfied with the new release, and the features they have added. For now, it's fine.

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Amr Fouad

Vice President of Technology Development at SCADA Innovations

Prevented any kind of hacking and enables us to comply with customer requirements

We use the solution for firewall, intrusion prevention and detection. We installed it in order to comply with customers requirements IPFire has prevented any kind of hacking and enables us to comply with customer requirements. Accessing the internet was a bit complicated. We opted for this…

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Vincent Hamm

CIO and President at Aim High! Inc.

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 next-gen features, the unified threat management capabilities are something that just about everybody is interested in at this point."

"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."

"It has very easy management and an amazing ETM configuration."

"The simplicity of the product is great. It's very easy to use, which is a compliment we get all the time in terms of feedback."

"Fortinet FortiGate's most valuable features are ease of use, flexibility, and most of the configuration we can be done using the GUI. When we compare Fortinet FortiGate with other solutions the firewall policy are very easy to understand."

"Unified Threat Management (UTM) features."

"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"IPFire has prevented any kind of hacking and enables us to comply with customer requirements."

"The automated backup is great."

"Its scalability is a strong point."

"The interface is straightforward and easy to use."

"PfSense is fairly simple to configure and has a good administration interface."

"Content protection, content inspection, and the application level firewall."

"Centralized administration with multiple services, which allows for execution in several important functionalities of information security."

"The visibility in pfSense helps you to optimize performance."

"pfSense stands out for its full features and adherence to industry standards."

More Netgate pfSense pros

Cons

"In the future, I would like to see improvements made to cloud-based management."

"I would like Fortinet to add more automation to FortiGate."

"The stability of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."

"The monitor and the visibility, in this proxy, is very weak."

"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."

"Some of the web policy reports could be improved."

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"We would like to see a better training platform implemented."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Accessing the internet was a bit complicated."

"I've never tried it in large environments. All my clients are small businesses with a handful of employees, so I am not sure how it works in large environments. I keep up with recent versions, and there's nothing I'm waiting for, and nothing breaks when I get a new version."

"Lacks instructional videos."

"The VPN feature of the solution could improve by adding better functionality and providing easier configure ability."

"One thing that stuck out to me was the move to use plastic chassis on the Netgate devices or products. They are moving away from using metal chassis, and I find that the plastic seems to get hotter than the metal."

"The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."

"The main feature that I could see them adding would be a management interface that lets me manage multiple pfSense instances."

"The Netgate forums and community don’t provide extensive discussions and topics related to every pfSense service."

"The integration could be improved."

More Netgate pfSense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."

"The licensing costs are very low."

"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."

"It was probably about $2,500 per firewall. It was all included. It included support, services, threat management software, and 24/7 FortiCare on it. Cisco products are more expensive."

"The price of Fortinet FortiGate is reasonable."

"Fortigate's pricing is competitive."

"Its price could be better."

"The pricing is fair."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

Information not available

"There is no license. You don't have to pay anything. It's completely free."

"It's highly cost-effective for both the average consumer and business users."

"Netgate pfSense stands out as a cost-effective option that delivers excellent value."

"The pricing seems fair overall, but I think they need more reasonably priced options for very small offices."

"When it comes to Netgate pfSense, I use the basic TAC Lite license, which comes for about 100 USD."

"PFSENSE turns out to be very economical, the license is free and for little money you get very good support"

"pfSense's pricing or licensing model is very affordable."

"It is an open source firewall."

More Netgate pfSense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

14%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

24%

Computer Software Company

14%

Government

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

15%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Government

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

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...

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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...

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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 ...

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What needs improvement with IPFire?

Accessing the internet was a bit complicated.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IPFire?

We use the solution for firewall, intrusion prevention and detection. We installed it in order to comply with custome...

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What advice do you have for others considering IPFire?

I recommend the solution. Overall, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.

See all answers

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...

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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...

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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...

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Comparisons

Sophos XG vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 23% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

OPNsense vs IPFire

Compared 75% of the time

Untangle NG Firewall vs IPFire

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos XGS vs IPFire

Compared 1% of the time

FortiGate Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) vs IPFire

Compared 1% of the time

Smoothwall Firewall vs IPFire

Compared 1% of the time

More IPFire Competitors

OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 41% of the time

Sophos XG vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 8% of the time

KerioControl vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 4% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 2% of the time

Stormshield Network Security vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 1% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

February 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

February 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense

February 2025

Download Netgate pfSense product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

No data available

Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

IPFire enhances network security and protects against cyber threats. It provides a secure firewall, secure remote access, and customizable options. Users praise its ease of use, flexibility, and reliability for network monitoring and traffic shaping. Its valuable features include efficient firewall capabilities, a user-friendly interface, and reliable network performance.

IPFire Project

Netgate pfSense is widely leveraged by organizations for its comprehensive capabilities in firewalls, VPN servers, and bandwidth management. It suits LAN, WAN, and DMZ networks, offering secure, scalable, and efficient networking solutions.

Netgate pfSense stands out in diverse environments with its enterprise-grade features and cost-effective operations compared to competitors like Cisco. Deployed as an edge device, it optimizes routing, ad-blocking, content filtering, and traffic shaping. Users benefit from its versatile configurations, robust firewall protection, VPN functionality, and ISP load balancing. The open-source nature allows for extensive customization, integrating plugins like Snort and pfBlockerNG, and compatibility with third-party tools enhances its utility. The intuitive GUI combined with detailed logging and centralized management fortifies network security.

What features define Netgate pfSense?

Firewall: Provides robust network security through advanced filtering and stateful packet inspections.
VPN: Ensures secure remote access with high-performing VPN capabilities.
Load Balancing: Efficiently distributes traffic across multiple ISPs, ensuring uptime and performance.
Customization: Supports various plugins for enhanced functionality, tailor-made to specific needs.
Scalability: Adapts easily to varying network demands, providing high availability and flexibility.

What benefits should be considered for ROI?

Cost-Effectiveness: Delivers premium features at a fraction of the cost of traditional network appliances.
Flexibility: Offers a customizable solution that integrates well with existing infrastructure.
Community Support: Backed by a strong user community offering insights and troubleshooting resources.
Security: Supports VLAN segmentation, enhancing protection and management of network traffic.

Organizations in industries such as finance, healthcare, and education find Netgate pfSense integral due to its advanced security features and cost benefits. Its scalable architecture and strong VPN support are crucial for industries requiring stringent data protection and reliable remote access. The adaptability of pfSense makes it suitable for dynamic environments seeking comprehensive, secure networking solutions.

Netgate

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

1. Siemens 2. IBM 3. Cisco 4. Dell 5. HP 6. Intel 7. Oracle 8. Google 9. Microsoft 10. Amazon 11. Apple 12. Facebook 13. Twitter 14. Netflix 15. Adobe 16. SAP 17. VMware 18. Juniper Networks 19. Ericsson 20. Nokia 21. AT&T 22. Verizon 23. T-Mobile 24. Vodafone 25. Orange 26. Deutsche Telekom 27. British Telecom 28. Comcast 29. Time Warner 30. Sony 31. Samsung 32. LG

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 Netgate, Fortinet, OPNsense and others in Firewalls. Updated: February 2025.

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