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Netgate pfSense pros and cons

Vendor: Netgate
4.3 out of 5
Badge Ranked 1
12K followers
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Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Netgate pfSense is easy to deploy and use, offering significant flexibility to expand basic firewall features.
It enhances security and performance through features like VPN connectivity, redundancy, and load balancing.
Being open-source, Netgate pfSense is cost-effective while providing extensive customization and comprehensive support from a strong community.
The platform is highly reliable and stable, with commendable scalability, making it suitable for small to medium businesses.
Netgate pfSense excels in network security with tools for intrusion detection, content protection, and traffic monitoring.

CONS

Netgate pfSense documentation is often not clear and lacks basic guidance, making initial setup and configuration challenging.
The system lacks adequate ransomware protection and Layer 7 advanced firewall features, leaving users potentially vulnerable to advanced threats.
Netgate pfSense lacks centralized management, making it difficult to manage multiple devices from a single interface.
VPN configuration is cumbersome, and the removal of WireGuard VPN is a significant drawback for users seeking efficient and secure VPN solutions.
Reporting and real-time monitoring need improvement, as current features do not meet the standards of competitors like Sophos.
 

Netgate pfSense Pros review quotes

TP
Jun 27, 2024
Being able to configure VLANs on such a small device is one of the key unique features that made it attractive to me.
DR
Jul 11, 2024
I can have an enterprise-grade VPN for the business without spending too much.
Christos Adamidis - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 26, 2024
The whole layout of the application is pretty decent...The product's initial setup phase is fairly straightforward.
Learn what your peers think about Netgate pfSense. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2510328 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 2, 2024
It is a resilient product with a very easy-to-use interface.
JM
Jun 27, 2024
I like that there's a community edition that I can install on my own virtual machines or hardware. I can test things without messing with them in production, which is incredibly useful. If you have a Juniper or Cisco, you can typically only afford one. You're forced to make changes in production and hope they don't break anything because there's no easy way to have a testing environment. The free version of pfSense offers load balancing or failover WAN, which is also helpful. Most commercial firewalls don't have that in the cheapest iteration of the hardware.
reviewer2510595 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 3, 2024
The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an open-source tool and is available at a very low cost.
MC
Jul 8, 2024
If you have full logging turned on you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of traffic is going in from where to where.
UO
Jun 26, 2024
The solution's most valuable feature is that it is a highly configurable tool.
Shawn Lambert - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 18, 2024
They're very affordable for what they offer.
JS
Jul 4, 2024
The solution's most valuable feature is that I really like the third-party add-ons, as they give the firewall a ton of flexibility and extra functionalities...The product's initial setup phase was extremely straightforward.
 

Netgate pfSense Cons review quotes

TP
Jun 27, 2024
pfSense is very flexible, but my only drawback in terms of flexibility is that it is web GUI-driven.
DR
Jul 11, 2024
I would like to see a subscription-based tech support option.
Christos Adamidis - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 26, 2024
I think if you have paid for a year of service, it shouldn't matter how many times you need to request to rekey the license as long as it is not every other day.
Learn what your peers think about Netgate pfSense. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer2510328 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 2, 2024
Strategy and vision of the product are the areas with shortcomings where improvements can be made so that Netgate pfSense can figure out where the product should go in the future.
JM
Jun 27, 2024
Snort or Suricata don't block things they should out of the box. It's always been a pain point of pfSense. If you turn on Snort or Suricata for IPS or IDS, no setting is effectively set and forget. Turning any commercial firewall to the lowest setting will provide you with a decent amount of security with almost zero false positives, but pfSense is not that way. You've got a babysit Snort and Suricata to the point where sometimes you turn it off.
reviewer2510595 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 3, 2024
I saw there was a list of features at the bottom of product page, so I had to select the features I wanted, but I couldn't have all the features at the same time, and the website would prevent me from adding extra features, which actually was the cause for the order to fail.
MC
Jul 8, 2024
It’s difficult to configure and use add-on features.
UO
Jun 26, 2024
Maybe Netgate needs to see if a medium-level Netgate pfSense Plus can be created for smaller organizations.
Shawn Lambert - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 18, 2024
They should become more MSP-centric.
JS
Jul 4, 2024
The tool is just a little bit slow to release patches, so it is probably one of the things where the tool can improve.