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Netgate pfSense vs Untangle NG Firewall 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)
Netgate pfSense
Ranking in Firewalls
1st
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
206
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Untangle NG Firewall
Ranking in Firewalls
25th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (8th)
 

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 Netgate pfSense is 19.5%, down from 23.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Untangle NG Firewall is 1.2%, down from 1.8% 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…
Vincent Hamm - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 1, 2024
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.
Josh Evans - PeerSpot reviewer
Mar 21, 2022
Its simplicity, variety of features, and low pricing have enabled us to improve the security for our small business clients at a price that they are happy to pay for
I've heard other people saying that other firewalls have better detection rates, so better security. If they can improve the security of the device, I'm always for that, but at the moment, we've been happy with the service that we're getting out of them. It does have multi-factor authentication in some areas, but I would love to see a more widely implemented version of that on the devices themselves. It could use some improvement for Azure Active Directory Connections. It does exist, and it is available, but it needs work to be able to fully authenticate. I know there are some advanced features that other firewalls have that aren't present in Untangle, but we've never noticed any feature that we need but isn't there. I also know a lot of people have complained about the cost per device because they license by device counts. So, once you get over a certain number of devices, it is not really a cost-effective solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access."
"The web filtering facility and application control are the most valuable features from the point of view of our clients. The VPN feature is also quite popular amongst our clients. Two-factor authentication is one of the good features in Fortinet. These features are important for the current scenario of security. Security has become a necessity nowadays. With cyber-attacks becoming more common, protecting an organization's data is one of the major tasks. It is also very stable and scalable, and it is very straightforward to configure. Their technical support is also good."
"Whenever I need something, Fortinet improves and updates the software for me."
"Initial setup is easy to configure."
"The product offers very good security."
"A strong point of FortiGate is the graphical interface is complete and easy to use."
"The solution is easy to configure and maintain remotely."
"Anti-Spam web content filterinG."
"Open source and support are valuable. I have community support."
"Content protection, content inspection, and the application level firewall."
"My favorite thing about pfSense is its overall stability of the product. It's rock solid and low maintenance. I like that aspect. It doesn't cost much, and it's feature-rich, including mobile VPN, pfBlocker, and IPS."
"The solution's most valuable features are its ease of use and versatility."
"It is a very good solution for enterprises that need a VPN for their employees. It is the best way to provide a remote work facility to employees at a very low cost. Other solutions that I have had in the past were very expensive. Enterprises don't always have that kind of money to invest."
"There is good documentation with a fantastic community and enterprise support."
"The initial setup was straightforward, therefore I wanted to continue using the product."
"Users can manage everything under one single pane of glass."
"The web blocking for my clients and the application control are valuable."
"​It is very easy to deploy and monitor. ​"
"None of my clients has had a ransom or breach using Untangle."
"They have a command center that makes it easy to log into and see all of your appliances nationwide."
"NG Firewalls allow us to permit or deny applications we don't want to run. We also use content filtering, SSL inspection, and all the other things we run on the firewall to keep our clients protected and ensure they're not going where they shouldn't. It's a great firewall that works as intended."
"All features are useful. We are using premium features such as bandwidth sharing, failover, web filters, SSL controls, antivirus, and VPN. We use these features to the fullest. These features are available in the paid firewall license, not the free one."
"Application Control and filtering features are valuable."
"The product is easy to implement."
 

Cons

"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."
"The security of Fortinet FortiGate could improve."
"The scalability could be better."
"Scalability is one of the disadvantages. When it comes to scalability, you have to actually change the box. If you want to upgrade it, you need to actually change the existing box and probably you take the system off to other sites."
"The solution's framework needs to be frequently updated in order to have a stable solution."
"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."
"The cloud features and integration could be improved."
"I think there could be more QoS features"
"​Improve analysis of logs and dashboards (control panel) with improved alert functionality."
"More documentation would be great, especially on new features because sometimes, when new features come out, you don't get to understand them right off the bat. You have to really spend a lot of time understanding them. So, more documentation would be awesome."
"The configuration of the solution is a bit difficult."
"A way to clean squid cache from the GUI."
"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."
"There must be a more easy-to-use GUI."
"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."
"I would like to see a subscription-based tech support option."
"We have a minor issue when assigning IP addresses in the ARP tables. You should be able to go into the ARP tables, look at the IP address and say, "Nope, they need to be on this side on this IP address." The ability to set a DHP reservation from the ARP tables would be great. It's no big deal, but it would be nice to have."
"The ability to setup a DDNS for each WAN independently would be a very handy feature."
"The web content filtering needs improvement."
"The biggest challenge that we have with this solution is local support. The local support is a problem in our area."
"The management console for partners is a bit tricky (buggy)."
"The hardware can be improved."
"There is room for improvement in the logs. Like with Cisco, I can do almost everything and know almost anything about what's running. Untangle works very much out of the box. It's very user-friendly, but it's not engineer-friendly. So, it's good for a home user. For something fairly easy, but at the same time, with good technology to have at home, because at home, I'm not a millionaire or anything like that. So it's not like I'm worried to get hacked. I didn't want something like a Cisco firewall; it would be a bit overkill to have at home. So that's why I went for Untangle. But it lacks a few features. It's just a tick-box kind of thing. So they have apps and turn on and off the apps. The VPN's configuration is all very ticked. They have a few custom configurations, but it's not that much."
"The product should improve reporting."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We purchased a five-year bundle package, which worked out cheaper than competing solutions."
"FortiGate's pricing falls within the mid-range when compared to other leading firewall solutions."
"Fortinet bundles FortiGate with other products and because of this, the price is a little expensive to some SMB enterprises."
"It's expensive, but compared to the competition it's okay."
"Other firewalls are more expensive than Fortinet FortiGate, such as the Azure firewall."
"Easy to understand licensing requirements."
"We are on an annual license to use Fortinet FortiGate."
"Their licensing costs are annual. The UTM feature license along with their support is called FortiCare. We include that as a part of the annual maintenance cost. Palo Alto or Juniper also have an annual subscription charge for UTM. Price, of course, can always be more competitive, but it is not the most expensive product. The price-performance ratio is quite high for FortiGate."
"It is an open source solution. Therefore, the price is good."
"I am using the community version of the solution which is free."
"It's open-source and it's free. Anything for free is good."
"When it comes to Netgate pfSense, I use the basic TAC Lite license, which comes for about 100 USD."
"There is an open-source community version that is available."
"I think Netgate should charge something nominal like $50 a year for the community edition to deter people from using it for everything."
"Compared to other business routers, pfSense's pricing is reasonable."
"pfSense is open-source, but the support is something that the customer pays for."
"The solution is fairly priced."
"It is the most cost-effective to use."
"This is not an expensive product. It is affordable and there are different packages available depending on the features that you need, or the sector that you are in."
"Usually, it's about $350 a year for 12 users, and it's about $600 for 50 users. It's very reasonable as compared to the others. One of the reasons is that they're all open-source. You just buy their appliance and put it in until it dies. Because it's run under open platforms, mine seems to always work on older equipment. I've taken old equipment and put a new hard disk in it. I have taken about nine-year-old computers and put their operating system on them, and ran them like a champ. The only thing that changed was the hard drive because I don't trust a hard drive that's more than three to four years old."
"The pricing model is better than with SonicWall."
"We pay $350 USD per year for the solution. There are no additional costs. As long as you're not using a physical appliance, that's all you need."
"It is not expensive. It is cheaper than Fortinet."
"For the home use, it's cheap."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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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 Untangle NG Firewall?
The product helps small and medium enterprises secure their networks from intrusions. It also has features like DNS b...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Untangle NG Firewall?
On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Untangle NG Firewall?
I would recommend getting 2FA with an SSL VPN type of setup without having to go through a lot of hoops. The solution...
 

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate
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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
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
North American Stamping Group, Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey (CPNJ), Brown County Schools, IN, City of Bridgeton, MO, Lancaster County, SC, Vision Charter School, Clay County Sheriff’s Department, NC, Breakwater School, Boys & Girls Club of Manchester, NH, Admiral Farragut Academy, Flow Companies, No Ordinary Hotel, KECdesign,
Find out what your peers are saying about Netgate pfSense vs. Untangle NG Firewall and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
815,854 professionals have used our research since 2012.