We performed a comparison between OPNsense and Sophos XGS based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."We can detect any attack of viruses or malware at the first point of contact."
"The IPS is good. It protect my network from attackers."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The reporting you receive out of this appliance is excellent. You will not need an external management system."
"The flexibility and ease of configuration are the most valuable features."
"It's inexpensive compared to some of the other technology out there."
"FortiGate's web and URL filtering are unlike any other firewall I've used. The functionality of URL filtering in those solutions is problematic because everything is encrypted, and firewalls can't break that encryption protocol. Fortinet has an SSL proxy, so the encryption is done before the packet ever leaves the FortiGate. The URL filter is definitely one of the most helpful features."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is Quota."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"The initial implementation process is simple."
"The solution is good for a basic firewall for a small business or for home use."
"The initial setup is easy. It only takes 15-30 minutes to deploy."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free."
"It has an open license. It works very well, and there is an update every month."
"It's very easy to manage this solution."
"The solution is stable."
"Web filtering and intrusion detection are essential features. As system integrators, we also like the dashboard because it's easier to configure all the features."
"The most valuable features of Sophos XGS are the ease of use and powerful interface."
"It's easy to use and user-friendly."
"The solution is cost-effective and easy to manage."
"We are happy and satisfied with all the features."
"Sophos XGS has contributed to the reduction of the overall security costs of our company's customers."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"A couple of things I've seen that need improvement, especially in terms of a hard coding. The driver-level active moment really is out-of-the-box and we have to have contact the customer support and sometimes it is difficult to resolve."
"FortiGate is really good. We have been using it for quite some time. Initially, when we started off, we had around 70 plus devices of FortiGate, but then Check Point and Palo Alto took over the place. From the product perspective, there are no issues, but from the account perspective, we have had issues. Fortinet's presence in our company is very less. I don't see any Fortinet account managers talking to us, and that presence has diluted in the last two and a half or three years. We have close to 1,500 firewalls. Out of these, 60% of firewalls are from Palo Alto, and a few firewalls are from Check Point. FortiGate firewalls are very less now. It is not because of the product; it is because of the relationship. I don't think they had a good relationship with us, and there was some kind of disconnect for a very long time. The relationship between their accounts team and my leadership team seems to be the reason for phasing out FortiGate."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"The pricing could be a bit better, especially when you consider how they have the most basic offering priced."
"We had some issues in the beginning while setting it up, but after doing the firmware update, it is working fine."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
"The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"I think the most important thing is that it should be easily accessible, but currently, that doesn't seem to be the case. We need a hardware platform that's based on common standards and open computing principles, which would be like a commodity and benefit us greatly."
"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the Insight or the NetFlow analysis part. It would be good to have the possibility to dig down on the Insight platform. Right now, we can easily do only a few analyses. If this page becomes more powerful, it surely will be a well-adopted platform."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"The logging could improve in OPNsense."
"It has recently started to suddenly block and crash."
"There are issues with some designs being able to work on high availability."
"The configurations can be a bit complex."
"The price of Sophos XGS could improve, it is high."
"Reporting could be improved. The structure could be better because most of the reports aren't detailed."
"There are some bugs relating to the product that allow VPN users to bypass the firewall."
"Sophos XGS could improve by having better integration with Active Directory."
"In my view, Sophos operates effectively in a reactive mode, focusing on static detection and forwarding traffic. However, Fortinet takes a more proactive approach, blocking both connection and route connections. While Sophos forwards any connection in both inbound and outbound traffic, I believe this is a positive aspect, especially in a country with various sizing considerations. This is my perspective, emphasizing the significance of Sophos XGS in software work."
OPNsense is ranked 3rd in Firewalls with 36 reviews while Sophos XGS is ranked 17th in Firewalls with 62 reviews. OPNsense is rated 8.4, while Sophos XGS is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of OPNsense writes "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". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sophos XGS writes "Easy to use, simple to learn, and offers great reporting". OPNsense is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, Untangle NG Firewall, Sophos UTM and SonicWall TZ, whereas Sophos XGS is most compared with Sophos XG, Netgate pfSense, WatchGuard Firebox, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Meraki MX. See our OPNsense vs. Sophos XGS report.
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