Netgate pfSense Reviews

We use pfSense as our firewall. 

We install it for clients that don't have a network available or the network is not ready for phone deployments. We're a phone company. We use pfSense to connect to the router and normally we connect clients to client VPNs, and then from there, we can have access to the internal network so that we can see all of the files.

We generally use it because it's cheap. When we need something more robust we use Barracuda and Sony Wireless Routers. For certain clients, we use pfSense because it's compatible with the VoIP platform.

I would like to see SD1 integration into the software. That would be fantastic.

The solution is pretty stable, that's why we use it. There aren't any problems.

The scalability is fine. If you need to have a bigger client or something like that, it's simple. You do a backup and then you restore into a new appliance and go from there. 

We provide technical support for our clients so we don't use a third party company for the support, we do the support in-house.

We also use MikroTik, Barracuda, and StoneWall.

The initial setup is fairly simple, not complex. We can get the deployment done in around half an hour. 

We deploy pfSense for our clients. We have one technician maintaining the whole thing.

Our return on investment is fast. We see a return on investment from day one, it's a fairly cheap router.

Any network engineer will understand how this solution works. It's not so complex to understand and be familiar with. It will require a certain level of networking knowledge to use it but we're at an enterprise level and we're a small-medium business and it works.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

We use the product as a perimeter firewall.

We can run it on any hardware.

The product must provide integration with other solutions.

We have been using the solution for ten years.

The tool is stable.

The tool is not very scalable. That is why we are planning to switch to a different product. The solution is used by one administrator and 75 end users in our organization.

I have used SonicWall, Sophos, FortiGate, and Cisco Meraki. The choice of product depends on the context. Netgate pfSense is suitable for small businesses and homes. It is not the best solution for large deployments or branch offices. Sophos and FortiGate would be suitable for large companies.

It is easy to install the tool. We need two weeks to deploy it. One person can deploy the solution. It is also easy to maintain. One person can maintain the solution.

It is an open-source solution.

Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

I use pfSense as a proxy and a firewall to monitor all the traffic to my network. It allows me to shape the traffic and eliminate bottlenecks that cause the network to slow down. You can use pfSense to catch some websites or make the network faster because we have applications connected remotely all over the country. We need to have a network with a reliable speed and no hiccups on the way because all our applications are on-premise, and the entire country goes to the same data center to get information.

I like pfSense's reports and how I can control access to the policies on the firewall.

The user interface can be improved to make it easier to add more features. And pfSense could be better integrated with other solutions, like antivirus. For example, pfSense could add templates with firewall policies that a user can customize. I haven't tried to integrate pfSense with Microsoft Active Directory, but in Mozambique, we use many Kaspersky antivirus solutions. If pfSense integrated with these antivirus solutions, everything would be much more stable because most of the companies here have a different kind of security solution. Within a single company, you might find two or three different antivirus suites. So, for example, there could be an open-source solution that you get for free, but you can pay for the support if you want it. So for solutions like that, it would be great.

Companies in Africa have issues with budgeting for IT. An open-source solution like pfSense gives us stability and provides us with good reports. It's amazing. It makes the solution reliable.

I haven't tried yet scaling up pfSense. But my setup is Windows based, and I have some Windows-based applications, so I want it to integrate with the Microsoft Active Directory. I haven't done it yet, but I think it would be good to have that integration.

I contacted pfSense support only once when I was installing it and had only configured one network tab. I had to get in touch with them, and the support was terrific. I was impressed. I can't complain about their support.

I have some experience with Linux distributions, so setting up pfSense was a bit easier for me, and I have been working with security for quite some time. It was fast for me, but part of my team is not used to a Linux environment, so it was tricky for them to implement add-ons to the appliance.

I rate pfSense eight out of 10. I would recommend it for a small business or a startup as a starting point. It's also good for companies that are on a tight budget.

We primarily use pfSense as a firewall. It's a DHCP server.

The most valuable aspect of the solution is the way it can browse packages on the internet.

The initial setup is very easy.

We've found the stability to be very good overall.

The product can scale if you need it to.

The access control aspect of the product could be improved. There should be more control over everything that the user is doing. It should be able to log and report on everything users are doing. 

The product no longer complies with new rules in Brazil. Therefore, we need to move off the solution.

I have about five years of experience with the solution. It's been a while since we started using it at our organization.

The stability of the product is very good. We haven't had any issues. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

We've found the solution to have good scalability. If a company needs to expand, it can do so. That shouldn't be a problem.

We have about 10,000 people using the solution. There is a network manager and about ten people that work directly with the solution.

We won't be increasing usage, however. The Brazilian government recently changed some laws and this product is no longer in compliance. That is one of the reasons we are looking at Palo Alto. We are likely moving away from this solution.

While the websites and forums are excellent, we don't have any dealings directly with technical support. Therefore, we can't speak to how they are in terms of their responsiveness or knowledgability. 

A long time ago, the company did use a different solution. They switched to pfSense. However, now they are moving away from it as well. 

We're also using Palo Alto, however, right now, it's just in the demo phase. The solution seems to be better at centralization, which is a big selling point. We have three school campuses and we'd like to configure a solution from one central location that would work for all three campuses. With Palo Alto, it looks like we can achieve this.

On top of that, with Palo Alto, there are more user control products. You can log everything that you are doing on the internet with it.

The initial setup of the solution is very easy. It's straightforward. There isn't any complexity. A company shouldn't have any troubles with the setup.

We are using a free version of the solution. We don't need to pay any licensing fees.

We are just customers. We don't have a business relationship with the company.

I would recommend the solution to small companies. If you are a small company, you can use pfSense without any issues due to the fact that it's a free solution.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten.

Typically, we implement this solution on an enterprise-level for our clients and set it up for them as required.

The solution offers good value.

The captive portal on the product is excellent.

The solution has a very nice load balancer.

It's a good solution for end-users. It's pretty easy to work with. 

The user interface is very nice. It's easy to navigate around the solution.

Technical support is very helpful.

The solution could use better reporting. They need to offer more of it in general. Right now, the graphics aren't the best. If you need to provide a report to a manager, for example, it doesn't look great. They need to make it easier to understand and give users the ability to customize them.

I've been working with the solution for enterprise-level organizations for four or five years at this point.

Our clients use the solution across 100-200 computers. Some of the implementations are sizeable.

I've dealt with technical support in the past and have found them to be helpful and responsive. we have been satisfied so far with the level of support provided. They are easy to work with.

We implement the solution for our clients, so we have a good sense of what is expected.

As an implementer, our company can handle the initial setup for our clients.

We implement the solution for our clients. I've personally implemented the solution on five projects so far.

We work with the latest version of the solution, typically.

Our companies are typically mid-level enterprises. 

This product is the very best. Overall, I would give it a rating of ten out of ten.

We have internet limitations here in Sudan. The financial institutions that I am working with do not have a lot of services on the internet.

It is difficult but at the same time, we are safer and are not faced with any kind of compromised data.

This solution is suitable for small businesses and charity organizations. Security is not just about the firewall, you need policies and procedures in place.

The developers of pfSense follow the principles of open-source.

They keep it simple. It's simple and good.

The problem with open-source is that no one can take responsibility.

It needs to be more secure. Security needs improvement.

It's always better to have an agreement, an SLA regarding security. You should outsource your security to another company.

I have been using pfSense in my home environment since 2010. I have a small lab, a small environment.

We have also deployed it in my workplace.

It's a stable solution.

pfSense is scalable.

At our peak time, we have reached more than 5,000 concurrent connections.

I do not have experience with technical support.

I am also using IPFire. It's also open-source.

It's very stable, and it meets my business needs.

The initial setup is straightforward.

If you have solid knowledge and experience in IP tables, then it will be easy for you to deal with this product or any firewall. For example, Palo Alto or Fortinet. It's the same concept.

Depending on your activities, it can take a long time to deploy if you are new to this solution. For me, it takes less than one hour.

You have to understand the network technology and you have to understand what you are going to protect, and what service are you looking to protect. If you address these questions correctly, the installation is just a matter of a couple of clicks.

I completed the implementation myself.

We are using the open-source version, not the commercial one. 

It's very affordable.

I would continue to use pfSense if the decision was mine, but it is out of my area. It depends on the CIO.

I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.

pfSense will not cost you any money.

It depends on your business needs. You have to address your business needs correctly.

I would say to go with pfSense. If you feel that it is not compatible, you have other purchase options such as Palo Alto.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

• Firewalling
• Routing
• DHCP
• Transparent proxy
• DNS cache
• VPN, etc.

• Outstanding support
• Great packages to expand the solution to your needs
• The same config can easily be migrated to better hardware when you need it.

• Super easy to manage. Anyone who has been working with firewalls can handle it.
• There is good documentation with a fantastic community and enterprise support.
• The strongSwan IPSec is a great implementation.
• Proxy features are excellent (except MITM).

• The central point of management, like the long-rumored pfCenter.
• Better parsing of logs: At the moment, you have to use an external server for this if you want a deeper analysis. 
  

Our appliance is under constant heavy load by several services, and it's rock solid stable.

I had stability issues only with a GUI that used to hang. It didn't affect any services, but it was a little annoying that we needed to restart the PHP often.

pfSense scales well.

They are just fantastic. They usually respond super fast, and usually with a solution if you describe the problem correctly. In more complex situations, they will set up a personal lab environment based on the customer's case.

We used to use a lot of different solutions.

After comparing a lot of solutions, the choice was Netgate pfSense.

It is very straightforward and much easier than the previous Clavister FW. Config is easy. 

99 percent in-house implementation and 1 percent Netgate implementation. Netgate has the highest level of expertise you can get.

This solution was about $150,000 cheaper than the closest competitor over a three year period. 

All costs are low compared to other solutions. The hardware is stable and cheap.

There is no licensing fee except for the enterprise support, if you want it.

We evaluated Cisco, Fortinet, and Sophos.

If you don't have a policy that says "only proprietary software" in your company, there is no reason not to go for pfSense. If you are still in doubt, take the cheap (and excellent) Netgate academy course. It's only for two days, and you will learn how to manage pfSense at a comprehensive level.

I use the product to test firewalls and VPN solutions.

We could use the solution to connect with the firewalls remotely for security.

The VPN features are the most valuable. The product’s documentation is good.

The solution’s interface must be improved.

I have been using the solution for one year. I am using the latest version of the solution.

I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.

I rate the tool’s scalability a ten out of ten.

The initial installation is easy.

The product is cheap.

Initially, the product was difficult. It gets easier with use. It was a good investment. I would recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.