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OPNsense vs Sophos Cyberoam UTM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
Fortinet FortiGate offers cost-effective, robust security, reducing expenses, enhancing efficiency, easy implementation, quick ROI, and improved network management.
Sentiment score
3.8
OPNsense offers quick ROI, annual savings, improved network protection, efficiency, but faces challenges like market disruptions and cyber threats.
Sentiment score
6.9
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers cost-effective management, reducing expenses and supporting efficient remote issue resolution for small to medium businesses.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
BDM Fortinet & BDM Teamlead at Exclusive Networks
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Staff Infrastructure & Security Engineer at Mozn Systems
The network attacks reduced by approximately 60% after using that, even without customizing the custom configuration yet.
Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
For a very little investment, I was able to increase the security of my network.
Administrator at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.6
Fortinet FortiGate's customer service is generally praised for responsiveness, though some users experience delays in critical situations.
Sentiment score
4.9
Users often solve issues using online resources, valuing community help, but suggest OPNsense centralize and improve support options.
Sentiment score
7.3
Sophos Cyberoam UTM's support is generally reliable, with responsive assistance, but experiences mixed feedback due to occasional delays.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
IT Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch
Compared to some open-source projects with weak support, OPNsense stands out for having both a strong community and commercial backing options.
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
I mainly rely on community support since the solution is open source.
Senior Client Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
If you say you do not have one, it is finished. This is where the monopoly starts.
Senior Solutions Engineer at a educational organization with 201-500 employees
They resolve issues timely once connected.
IT Manager at Jord International Pty Ltd
Technical support is effective and responsive.
Managing Consultant at Affordable IT
I would rate their technical support a solid nine out of ten.
Global IT Manager at Express KItchen
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Fortinet FortiGate is scalable and popular for SMEs but requires careful design and may incur scaling costs and licensing constraints.
Sentiment score
6.6
OPNsense is scalable and adaptable, supporting small to large deployments with flexibility in hardware upgrades and virtual machines.
Sentiment score
8.1
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers scalable solutions for medium-sized businesses, though some upgrades may require hardware changes.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
IT Manager at Daltons Limited
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
Cewa Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
General Surgery Specialist at Helwan University Cairo
OPNsense is an extremely scalable solution.
Owner at Networks srl
I use Zenarmor, pinning it to one core for packet inspection, and the CPU performance seems very good.
Senior Client Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
OPNsense's scalability is excellent; I just need to resize my hardware and upgrade the server, and voilà, I am good to go.
Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Fortinet FortiGate is praised for its stability, with effective long-term performance and improvements in newer firmware versions.
Sentiment score
7.5
OPNsense is highly stable and reliable, excelling in security and usability, but occasionally faces VPN and update issues.
Sentiment score
8.8
Sophos Cyberoam UTM is highly stable with minimal issues, appreciated for reliability, and improved since Sophos acquisition.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
Manager, Information Technology at a consumer goods company with 11-50 employees
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
NAC Support at Rah Infotech Pvt Ltd
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
CISO at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
For home and small network use, OPNsense is also reliable, providing enterprise-grade security at no cost.
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
OPNsense is the same, but it does have a way of installing the Realtek drivers, which gives you a lot more stability overall on the system.
Network and Programming Specialist at Twentytwo Integration
The only challenge faced was its inadequacy to manage large voice traffic effectively, even with dedicated hardware.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Fortinet FortiGate needs enhanced UI, simplified licensing, improved performance, reporting, third-party integration, and expanded automation features.
OPNsense's challenges include interface usability, integration issues, and the need for improved VPN, analytics, and virtualization support.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM struggles with performance, outdated architecture, high costs, and demands better usability, support, and feature enhancements.
When considering Sophos XG, which we also use, the logging and reporting functionality is notably more efficient.
Senior IT specialist at SAUDIA ALIRLINES
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
Managing Director at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
Senior Systems Engineer at Caribbean Development Company
I would like the APIs to be more mature and more developed and have more options to automate threat hunting.
Owner at Networks srl
Enhancing its performance for significant amounts of data traffic would make it closer to a perfect solution.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
It would be beneficial if they could create some videos on how to set it up themselves.
Administrator at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
It would be beneficial if phone calls or SMS for two-factor authentication were available.
IT Manager at Jord International Pty Ltd
Sophos Cyberoam UTM should move in the direction of AI capabilities, as the world is moving toward AI.
Global IT Manager at Express KItchen
 

Setup Cost

Enterprise buyers find Fortinet FortiGate costly initially, but cheaper overall, despite some high renewal and setup costs.
OPNsense is a cost-effective, open-source firewall solution offering affordability compared to commercial firewalls, appealing to enterprises.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM pricing varies with flexibility, offering competitive yet potentially high costs, depending on enterprise size and needs.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
Network & System Admin at Invoke Studios
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
IT Infrastructure Architect at Apotek 1
It is about 20% cheaper.
Network Security Engineer at TD SYNNEX
It is free.
Technical support engineer at ADVANT računalniški inženiring, komunikacije, svetovanje in distribucija d.o.o.
They use AI for packet inspection, which integrates with OPNsense and pfSense.
Network and Programming Specialist at Twentytwo Integration
I consider the pricing of OPNsense to be high when compared with other market products.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
The price is appropriate, but if you want the real truth, it's actually quite expensive.
Managing Consultant at Affordable IT
 

Valuable Features

Fortinet FortiGate provides robust, flexible security solutions with key features like web filtering, SSL VPN, SD-WAN, and centralized management.
OPNsense is user-friendly and cost-effective, offering extensive VPN, firewall features, and easy scalability with strong community support.
Sophos Cyberoam UTM offers robust security with advanced features and user-friendly management, enhancing enterprise productivity and network efficiency.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
Head IT at Burraq Cyber Security Solutions
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
General Manager Group IT at DART GLOBAL LOGISTICS PTE. LTD.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
Owner at Mindware Computer Solutions
The most valuable features include the basic firewall functionality and the GeoIP location services.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
I can have a Wi-Fi VLAN and feel secure that the server network or the VM network that I have on a different VLAN are isolated, and they cannot talk to one another, which adds a great level of security.
Administrator at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
It offers enterprise-grade features such as intrusion detection and prevention system, VPN support, traffic shaping, and web filtering, all without license cost.
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
It provides bandwidth management, category management of websites, blocking certain elements, IPS blocking, DDoS protection, and VPN management between sites and clients.
IT Manager at Jord International Pty Ltd
I assess the benefit of Sophos Cyberoam UTM's centralized management for multi-appliance handling as a welcome feature because you can manage all the devices at one location, giving you notifications of downtime and updates without necessarily logging into each appliance, so that central management is a very genius move.
Global IT Manager at Express KItchen
The way the rule sets are configured makes it an easily understandable way to manage.
Managing Consultant at Affordable IT
 

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate
Sponsored
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
580
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (2nd), Firewalls (1st), Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (1st), Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) Solutions (1st), WAN Edge (1st), ZTNA (1st), Unified Threat Management (UTM) (1st)
OPNsense
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (3rd)
Sophos Cyberoam UTM
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
Unified Threat Management (UTM) (6th)
 

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.
Moutaz Sheikh Alard - PeerSpot reviewer
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Has helped simulate enterprise security setups and strengthens network segmentation practices
For my capstone, I use OPNsense for my project and its broader benefits for enterprise and cybersecurity context. OPNsense is an open source based firewall and routing platform. It offers enterprise-grade features such as intrusion detection and prevention system, VPN support, traffic shaping, and web filtering, all without license cost. This platform has a modular design, a clean web-based GUI, and frequent updates that prioritize security and usability. It competes with commercial firewalls such as Cisco ASA, FortiGate, and Palo Alto, but stands out because it's community-driven, cost-effective, and transparent. I find OPNsense's feature of acting as a central firewall and gateway most valuable, providing robust point segmentation between the internal network and DMZs in my capstone project, intrusion detection to monitor malicious traffic, VPN services for secure remote access, and logging and monitoring for compliance and auditing. This allows me to simulate a real-world enterprise environment on a smaller scale, demonstrating both security hardening and network efficiency. OPNsense impacts my projects and home network positively because its cost-effectiveness is perfect for lab and enterprise setup without expensive licensing. The flexibility, easy VLAN and DMZ configuration supports different zones such as web servers, mail servers, and log servers. The security-first design for IDS/IPS integration helps me showcase modern defense-in-depth strategies. The user-friendly management through the web GUI makes it possible to manage complex firewall rules clearly, which is critical when documenting and presenting a capstone. Scalability is also an advantage. Although my project is lab-based, OPNsense can scale into production deployments in SMBs and enterprise.
Stu Harris - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Consultant at Affordable IT
Reliable security features have effectively protected against breaches and promote scalable network management
The methodology of the rule sets is perhaps one of the plus points. I think everybody else does it, but the way the rule sets are configured makes it an easily understandable way to manage. One of my presentations demonstrates appropriate and affordable, comprehensive threat protection with centralized management and improved network security. This describes how firewall and VPN functionalities of this product benefit my organization. Protection and identity based security are probably the major selling points, with logging and centralized management. It allows you to identify issues first, and the reporting facilities are there and can be automated. You've got automated reporting that you can set appropriate levels of reporting to management and to the operational team, so they are alerted to what's going on. This describes how Sophos Cyberoam UTM's reporting capability helps in managing our network effectively.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
14%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Comms Service Provider
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
6%
University
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Performing Arts
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business357
Midsize Enterprise132
Large Enterprise188
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise29
Large Enterprise17
 

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 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?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that since OPNsense is free, the licensing and setup was eas...
What do you like most about Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
The solution works perfectly without any users.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
The price is appropriate, but if you want the real truth, it's actually quite expensive. The annual software licensin...
What needs improvement with Sophos Cyberoam UTM?
As for areas where Sophos Cyberoam UTM can be improved, it's hard to say; I have not at the moment seen anything that...
 

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
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.
Gulf Corporation for Technology, Maridive & Oil Services, Fidelity Bank, Petra University, Capital FM Kenya, Safari Park Hotel and Casino, Mayfair Casino, Pacific International Lines, Mozambique Ministry of Education, University of Namibia, Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, University of Hawai, New Delhi Municipal Council
Find out what your peers are saying about OPNsense vs. Sophos Cyberoam UTM and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
879,310 professionals have used our research since 2012.