We primarily use the solution to help our customers with firewall integration.
Managing Director at GCET
Excellent technical support of a stable and easy to use solution
Pros and Cons
- "Technical support is perfect, excellent."
- "The integration should be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
I like the solution's stability and ease of use.
What needs improvement?
There is a need to increase the technology on the area of WAF, the web application firewall. I would like to be more knowledgeable about the firewall, so I may best use it to solve customer problems.
The integration should be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using pfSense for around six years.
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March 2025

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is perfect, excellent.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to install for one who properly understands the nitty gritty of the firewall and network.
It is my engineers who are responsible for the installation, not I, so I cannot comment on its duration, although I know that it does not take them long.
What about the implementation team?
We don't buy the PS from Sophos, because we have in-house training and in-house trained engineers who always handle the implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Our customers must pay for an annual license.
What other advice do I have?
The solution can be deployed both on-cloud and on-premises.
When it comes to Sophos, we have around 18 to 20 customers making use of it.
I would recommend the solution to others.
I rate pfSense as an eight out of ten. It is good.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

NOC Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Robust, secure, and fairly priced but the monitoring needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The concurrent users are perfect for us."
- "The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall."
What is our primary use case?
We use pfSense to protect our customers using IPS and IDS.
We are a government agency and we manage the government network.
We complete the setup and we are protecting our customers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that it's robust.
In terms of resources, utilization assets, CPU utilization, and a lot of memory, it's very good.
The concurrent users are perfect for us.
What needs improvement?
The router monitoring needs improvement when compared with Sonicwall.
I would like an API that can sync to SolarWinds because we use SolarWinds for our monitoring platform. It would be great to be able to do all of the monitoring from SolarWinds instead of logging into the application to monitor it. It would be a nice feature to have.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using pfSense for less than two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In the last two weeks, we moved a few resources to the pfSense and it's been stable.
When compared to SonicWall there were some issues but it could be that SonicWall was doing too much. It was doing almost everything. It was doing IDS, IPS, and contextual training. It may be that it was overwhelmed.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We were using the software base, and then we bought the hardware device. We moved 12 users onto it and we are monitoring it.
Based on the documentation it would not require much to scale up or upgrade. There is no doubt that it is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Most of the support is online.
We do a lot of reading, and if there is any support or suggestions we quickly do it.
We have not contacted them directly.
They have a lot of resources available on the internet that will guide you in finding your way around.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use a few different firewalls. We use SonicWall and Huawei firewall along with pfSense.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy.
What about the implementation team?
We did not use an integrator. I completed it with one of my colleagues.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Looking at what it does, I think that it is fairly priced.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When we compare to SonicWall, we feel that we are getting the best with pfSense.
What other advice do I have?
Depending on what they want their firewall to do for them. If it is for intrusion detection, and intrusion prevention I would recommend this solution.
In summary, this product is good but I would like to see resources utilization (cpu, hard disk) directly on SolarWinds. A one stop shop for monitoring on SolarWinds. It would be great!
I would rate pfSense a six out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Netgate pfSense
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Netgate pfSense. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Gérant chez
Easy backup restore, independent platform not linked to a commercial vendor.
What is most valuable?
We use the open source version and we chose the hardware platform.
For pfSense the valuable features are:
- High availability
- VPN (openVPN)
- Easy administration
- Extensibility (by modules)
- Easy backup/restore, independent platform not linked to a commercial vendor
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution since version 2.1, which was three years ago.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We did not encounter any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not encounter any issues with scalability. It depends on the hardware, not the software.
How are customer service and technical support?
I can't say. We provide our own support to our customers, as we are Linux, FreeBSD and IP specialists.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Watchguard and Endian, but pfSense is the most complete for layer 3 firewalls. We split the roles. We use pfSense only for the layer 3 and other products for proxy and reverse proxy (Diladele, Nginx) so we are not dependent of a constructor and easily update each part.
How was the initial setup?
Setup is easy and done in a few steps.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You pay only the support and the price depends on the hardware not the functionalities.
What other advice do I have?
The pfSense product is very powerful in layer 3 but you must add some products to match a viable commercial product which generally has all the functions integrated in one hardware system (proxy, antivirus, etc.).
For us pfSense is better for layer 3. We use MailCleaner for the mail relay, and Diladele for the web proxy. We like to split the functionalities for security reasons.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Responsable IT & RMQ at a comms service provider with 51-200 employees
Having a customizable, large dashboard would be good, however, it is very straightforward for a beginner to set up.
What is most valuable?
- Load balancing multi-WAN (High latency)
- Queues with CBQ algorithm
- Traffic shaper (limiter)
- Aliases for grouping anything
- VPN (OpenVPN)
- DHCP server (with ARP reservation)
- DNS forwarder
- Firewall
- Graphs for monitoring
- NAT
How has it helped my organization?
Before using pfSense:
- I always had problems with internet connection for users
- I had no idea what users were downloading and, therefore, what was killing the internet connection
- I did not have not statistics on the quality and stability of the internet
- To get a VPN I had use a pay software that offered lower performance than I have now
What needs improvement?
I always need to open different graphs on different windows of the web browser to have an overview, Therefore, it would be good, if it is possible, to have a customizable, large dashboard. At the moment though, the others options are good because I am a beginner with the pfSense.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for six months.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There was an issue with the Layer 7 filters on an old PC.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No previous solution was used.
How was the initial setup?
It's very straightforward, even for beginners. There is documentation and different tutorials and videos available in different languages.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The only cost to set up is the hardware for a standard PC and any ethernet card extensions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No, as I asked a friend they told me to get pfSense without doing other research.
What other advice do I have?
Don't install pfSense on a machine with only the minimal recommended hardware configuration, but on a better machine.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Sr. Network Administrator at ACMC
Stable, scalable, and effective traffic blocking
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of pfSense are the reports, monitoring, filtration, and blocking incoming and outgoing traffic."
- "The usage reports can be better."
What is our primary use case?
I am using pfSense as a secondary firewall and network management.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of pfSense are the reports, monitoring, filtration, and blocking incoming and outgoing traffic.
What needs improvement?
The usage reports can be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using pfSense for approximately six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I had 20 to 30 users using the solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Sophos and Cyberoam solutions.
How was the initial setup?
The installation is very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation of the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I am using the free version of pfSense.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I have been 100% satisfied with the solution.
I rate pfSense an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
IT Infrastructure Analyst at ADRA Peru
An open source firewall solution with a useful Packet Manager feature
Pros and Cons
- "pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home."
- "The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection."
What is our primary use case?
We use pfSense for the firewall, VPN server, client-server, and internal network.
How has it helped my organization?
pfSense helped us during COVID-19 because we used OpenVPN to connect from home.
What is most valuable?
I like the Package Manager feature.
What needs improvement?
The main problem with pfSense is that it lacks adequate ransomware protection. I would also like pfSense to be more robust like Cisco or Fortinet.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using pfSense for two or three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is very good. We didn't have to slow down, and we worked with it for months.
How are customer service and technical support?
The pfSense page, community support, and YouTube tutorials are good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial set up is complex and took two days to deploy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
pfSense is open-source.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I like Fortinet and Sophos as they have more tools to prevent ransomware attacks. Sophos has a client-server, and pfSense doesn't have that. Fortinet and Sophos are under a paid license, and pfSense is open-source and free. This is the main difference.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend pfSense to potential users. I would tell them to just read the tutorials because they're very useful.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give pfSense a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Owner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
We have good firewall protection and use this as our gateway device
Pros and Cons
- "Good basic firewall features."
- "Layer 7 advanced firewall features are not included in the solution."
What is our primary use case?
We have a hosted platform with our client. We've built a VPN site and the solution is deployed as a VM. The client connects to it and it protects anything that's behind it like a regular firewall. Everything we have there is hosted in a data center, all our servers and things that clients connect to. So we're using it as our gateway device. We are customers of pfSense and I'm the owner of our company.
What is most valuable?
I like the site-to-site VPN and the basic firewall features.
What needs improvement?
Right now we have to use a lot of third party plugins with other providers that have their own built-in features so I'd like to see layer 7 advanced firewall features included in the solution. It would definitely improve the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used pfSense over the past three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is very good, it's just that it's not as easy to use as SonicWall. There are limits as to who we can put to work on the solution, a limited number of our engineers work with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. We don't sell pfSense to the end users, we use it ourselves. Our clients have SonicWall but the whole company benefits from the firewall.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've never used technical support but we're looking into it now and I think it's very comparable to SonicWall.
How was the initial setup?
It's harder to set up pfSense than SonicWall. Only a couple of people in our company can do that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are currently using the open source solution so it's free.
What other advice do I have?
There's a learning curve to this solution, it's not as simple to use as some of the other GUI based firewalls. You need to play around with it a bit.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Owner at Networks srl
A firewall or router computer software distribution solution with a useful VPN feature
Pros and Cons
- "I especially like the VPN part. It works like a charm."
- "I tried pfSense, and it has a big issue with file system consistency, and this is what drove me to OPNsense. The file system stability is quite a big issue for us. We have a lot of outages related to power issues, and OPNsense is much more stable on this side."
What is our primary use case?
I tested it for firewall, networks, and network stability and as a VPN access point.
What is most valuable?
I especially like the VPN part. It works like a charm.
What needs improvement?
I tried pfSense, and it has a big issue with file system consistency, and this is what drove me to OPNsense. The file system stability is quite a big issue for us. We have a lot of outages related to power issues, and OPNsense is much more stable on this side.
I would like it to be more stable on the file system part. It also has an issue with the ARP publishing, but it's common to BSD, and some providers experience issues with Layer 2 connectivity.
For how long have I used the solution?
I tested pfSense for six months, but it had quite a lot of networking issues related to latency and ARP publishing. So, I immediately switched to OPNsense.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'd like to see its stability improved. I know the BSD Kernel is more capable than what pfSense provides at this time.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. It implements specific protocols for scalability.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It took me about ten to 15 minutes to install it and maybe half an hour for configuration.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented this solution.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution if there are no power issues. It's stable and performs well, even on older hardware.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give pfSense a nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner

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