Netgate pfSense Reviews

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.

We primarily use the solution basically for the firewall, UTM content versioning, bandwidth shaping, routing, and IPS.

The solution is an open-source product, which makes it very cost-effective.

Overall, it covers all of the requirements our organization has at this time. 

The initial setup is easy.

As an open-source solution, there are so many loopholes happening within the product. By design, no one is taking ownership of it, and that is worrisome to me.  

Integration with other products could be improved. It needs log research integrated within it to make it more useful for our purposes.

I've been using the solution for three years.

The stability is questionable. There are glitches. Since no one is really managing the solution, and no one takes ownership of it, there aren't many fixes that happen on it.

We have about 500 people who are taking advantage of the solution within our organization.

The solution is quite scalable. We looked into scaling and found it would be easy enough to achieve if we decided to go ahead and do so in the future.

We've never contacted technical support int he time that we have used the product. I can't speak to any level or service they provide.

We did previously use a different solution before switching to pfSense. We originally switched to this solution due to the fact that it was so cost-effective.

The initial setup of the solution is not complex at all. It's quite straightforward. It's also not our primary firewall. We have another solution for that. This operates as our secondary firewall, and we were able to add it rather easily into our security network.

Deployment is very quick. It only took us an hour or so to set up.

Our provider handled the maintenance for us as needed. We don't handle that in house.

We had a few consultants and a list of vendors that assisted us in the process of procurement and implementation.

The solution is open-source and therefore the solution is very cost-effective.

We're just using this solution; we don't have a relationship with the vendor.

In terms of the version of pfSense we are using, we have that basic boss, 1.0 however, that is behind the firewall. The firewall which we were using is UTM1240B.

While we are satisfied with the netting features and the bandwidth controlling and routing, we find cannot expose our entire network to pfSense as there's no underlying ownership fo the product itself. We prefer a hardened firewall.

Due to the fact that it is an open-source solution, no one at an enterprise-level would ever think of putting pfSense at the gateway level or even at the main level. I would definitely recommend pfSense as the second lane of action, just not on a workload.

I'd rate the solution six out of ten.

I have used it in town halls with a number of employees ranging between 40 and 60. I have also used it in educational institutions.

The use and results may vary according to the objectives of the institutions. 

In the case of city councils, I have taken the maximum advantage, taking into account that they were small institutions for which the tools provided by pfSense were sufficient according to the requirements of those institutions. 

However, in educational institutions, it was more difficult. Sometimes, the tools have fallen short.

• The part of the firewall and aliases
• The content filter in non-transparent mode and transparent mode with Squid and SquidGuard
• The possibility of adding packages to perform network analysis
• Creation of certificates
• The facility to administer services

The product is good in many of its departments, but this should make HTTPS filtering more efficient since Squid falls short when using man in the middle. It works, but it is not 100% efficient. It requires more attention to provide a better alternative for open source to small government or educational institutions with reduced budgets in terms of technology.

Two particular features stand out to me:

1. The WAN load balancing feature
2. The product offers many additional functions such as router, WLC, and traffic analysis etc.

It has enhanced our organization because of its versatility. It doesn't need expensive hardware to build a robust firewall, therefore, providing a saving on cost. Also, its reliability is quite remarkable which allows IT to focus on other tasks, and how efficiently it manages our WAN traffic.

I think the dashboard/interface could be improved and the ability to manage it from a mobile platform.

I have used this solution for the past two years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

I have never had to use customer service.

I've never used it, but their technical knowledge base, and via online documents and forums, is quite good, but not excellent.

We didn't have a previous solution.

It wasn't straightforward but at the same time not complex. The only issue was identifying relevant static routes to move traffic in and out our network.

I implemented it myself.

The setup cost was practically zero because we had servers in stock. Also, there is no real day-to-day cost attached with it either.

No evaluation took place, we just looked at the initial cost to implement a solution using the hardware we have, and how fast it could be rolled out

Plan, research and test certain features and configurations in a lab environment first.

We are a small business and we use pfSense as our interface for the WAN. We use it for a Firewall and to ensure that all devices are operating. It provides our basic network routing needs, reporting on usage, such as IDS, and for managing individuals on network devices for controlling bandwidth and destinations.

Our security in our organization was previously provided by our ISP and since we have been using pfSense it has provided me more abilities to manage my network in a secure way. We have much better controls and security.

The solution has good customization abilities and plenty of features.

As an IT leader, it would be a benefit to have a mobile application to have certain features, such as mobile application notifications when a new device is added, or the ability to turn off or on firewall policies. Having these simple features would be very convenient and reduce the need to have to log into the console. I can use a web browser on my phone to access the pfSense site but I would prefer to have an application where I can toggle things, such as the policies. Some simple features within a mobile application would be valuable to me. I have evaluated other solutions and have determined this feature does not currently exist. However, Untangle has an application but it was not enough to compel me to change at this point.

In an upcoming release, the reporting could be more user-friendly. For example, the reporting in graphs and charts for the host can be cumbersome.

I have been using pfSense for approximately five years.

The stability of the solution is very good. My only complaint is when there is a power outage pfSense requires a manual reset.

The scalability of this solution is perfect.

I am the administrator of the solution and the rest of my organization are end-users.

I have not needed to contact technical support. I have not had any problems with pfSense.

The initial setup was straightforward. The whole process took approximately eight hours and one hour of that was in front of the computer using the keyboard.

We did the implementation of the solution ourselves.

I have evaluated Untangle.

My advice to the IT manager is to do your research, and make sure that pfSense meets your needs. If you are not technical enough, then looking at other solutions. pfSenseis needs a bit more tech-savvy IT manager to manage it. It is a very important business tool for me.

I rate pfSense an eight out of ten.

I rated pfSense an eight because it did everything I wanted it to do which makes it an awesome solution but not a ten because of a few minor shortcomings. However, I recognize it is open-source and it is not going to have everything.

We primarily use the solution for security. It's a firewall.

The solution is an excellent open-source product. It has a big community around it as well. Out of those few points, you'll come up to a situation whereby you can avoid the vendor lock-in. Since there is a big community, you can count on reliability. There are lots of installations and lots of people who understand how everything works. 

The solution offers excellent flexibility. You can either install pfSense just on a machine, on your local PC, or you can buy an appliance. You can even buy your own hardware and install it on your own. Of course, if you choose that route, you need to have a technical expert on your team. For us, as a software company, that's not a problem.

There are plugins you can add to the product if you want even more useability. You can even add more security functionality.

The initial setup is straightforward.

We did have a strange issue with an update at one point, however, that was resolved quickly.

If you want to take advantage of all of the solution's options, you need to have a bit of a technical background. It's not for a layperson.

You do get a good solution for free. However, the trade-off is you need to be technical to really take advantage of it.

The installation could potentially be faster.

I haven't been using the solution for very long at this point. It may be somewhere around three to five months. It hasn't been long.

The solution is very stable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's excellent.

The scalability is excellent. We don't have any issues as far as that is concerned.

Prior to pfSense, we used Cisco.

The implementation is not complex. It's very straightforward to initiate. A company should have no problems with the process.

As an open-source solution, it is free to use as you see fit.

I didn't evaluate the solution against other more expensive commercial tools.

We are just customers and end-users.

The solution is an open-source platform. We are a software company and we like open-source. Lots of people say open-source means that you need to install it on your own. They will see that as a limitation, however, we see that as the other way around. 

I'd recommend the solution to other organizations and users. It's open-source, it's flexible, and has a strong community. You can use it in many different ways, either in a small installation, laptop, PC, or on a machine, or you can buy an appliance or you can even buy your own hardware and configure it in a different way. The software as such is free and you have a lot of options as to how you want to use it.

I'd rate the solution at a ten out of ten. It's been very good for us

The solution is fairly scalable when it comes to integrating with other applications and data sets. They have a lot more customization compared to the competition.

They could improve their commercial stance and be more agile when it comes to the commercial pricing of enterprise deals.

For a feature update, they should increase the API integrations into decentralized identity platforms making it stronger.

I have been using the solution for two years.

In my experience, this solution is able to increase its scalability.

Technical support is very supportive. When we are in contact with them, there is no problem at all.

The setup was straightforward.

When doing deployments of the solution we generally average approximately six to eight weeks.

The pricing is lower than some of its competitors. However, If you do not have a strong technical team and are trying to get pfSense to do some of the same functions as some of the competitors such as Fortinet or Palo Alto, It will cost you a lot in professional services to do it. You then lose the low cost-benefit of this solution.

I have evaluated Fortinet, their pricing is reasonable for the SME market, but they are not enterprise players. The strongest solutions in this field are certainly SentinelOne and Carbon Black, they outperform everything else.

I would recommend the solution to others.

I rate pfSense an eight out of ten.

At a custom company with several locations.

It has improve my organization through the services that can be added, which makes it highly scalable, from graphic monitoring services to load balancing or captive portal.

It is very difficult to decide one, as they all complement each other, from the DHCP administration to the captive portal. in my case, I would say OpenVPN has helped me to interconnect the company network in a secure and manageable way.

ClamAV AntiVirus can cause some crashes. That service should be improved.

For two years.

I consider it very stable.

It is highly scalable. All services are free.

No, there was no firewall implemented.

The initial setup was simple and fast.

It is an open source firewall.

Yes, OPNsense. It is very similar and better than PfSense.

You should try it.