Hillstone E-Series vs Netgate pfSense comparison

Hillstone Networks and Netgate are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Hillstone Networks is ranked #35 with an average rating of 8.0, while Netgate is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.8. Hillstone Networks holds a 0.4% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Netgate’s 12.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Hillstone Networks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Netgate users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Netgate pfSense and Hillstone E-Series are both well-regarded in the network security market. Hillstone E-Series is seen as superior due to its advanced features, making it worth the additional investment.

Features: Netgate pfSense is commended for its robust firewall capabilities, comprehensive VPN support, traffic shaping, and load balancing. Hillstone E-Series offers advanced threat intelligence, zero-trust architecture, and enhanced hardware performance.

Room for Improvement: Users suggest that Netgate pfSense could benefit from better documentation and technical support. Hillstone E-Series users highlight the need for enhanced reporting tools and a more intuitive configuration process.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Netgate pfSense is generally seen as straightforward to deploy but requires a steep learning curve for optimal use. Its customer service receives mixed reviews. Hillstone E-Series is noted for its smoother deployment process and more responsive customer support.

Pricing and ROI: Netgate pfSense is favored for its affordable setup costs and perceived good ROI. Hillstone E-Series has higher initial costs but users feel the superior security features justify the investment, resulting in a satisfactory ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fortinet FortiGate

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 20.8%, up from 17.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Hillstone E-Series is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 12.0%, down from 21.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Vasu Gala

Manager, Information Technology Operation/Presales at TechMonarch

A stable solution with an intuitive interface and quick customer service

I have been working with Fortinet FortiGate, WatchGuard, Sophos, and SonicWall. I'm not as comfortable with SonicWall because of their UI and limitations. I prefer Fortinet above all other options. When it comes to configuration, I am confident in my ability to handle various tasks, including creating policies such as firewall rules, web policies, and application policies. Additionally, I can configure VPNs and implement load balancing, among other tasks. Overall, I feel much more comfortable working with Fortinet. Fortinet has made significant improvements by integrating AI with firewalls for threat analysis and prevention. In the past 2-3 years, they have launched FortiSASE and SIEM, and they also provide SOC services. Both Palo Alto and Fortinet FortiGate are excellent. While Fortinet FortiGate comes at higher prices, the functionality and support justify the cost. They promptly resolve firmware issues and inform all support providers about configuration changes.

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TahirMahmood

IT Manager at Zubair Feeds

Offers good features like URL filtering, IPS, and IDS to users

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the firewall, where too much memory was consumed, and the firewall was hanging a lot. When we updated the tool's features, everything became okay. The tool only had some memory-related problems. It took the tool a month to fix the issues.

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Jean-Pierre DAREYS

Director, Latin America at Bradmark Technologies, Inc.

Easy to use, configurable, flexible, excellent user group support

I'm not knowledgeable enough to suggest new features. The use has been very straightforward. Whatever questions I've had, I've found videos to help me on YouTube, or I've been able to ask the forums. I've also reached out to technical support and I've received help although there could be more videos or tutorials from Netgate, in addition to third parties who have already implemented it, which is great. I have suffered a lot of problems over time but I don't think the problems are related to the hardware or the software. I am convinced that the problems have been related to hacking during configuration. During the setup process, while experimenting, the device would stop working or the password would suddenly not allow access, requiring re-installation and re-configuration, it was very slow going until I moved to the cloud. The dashboard is a little bit slow and the reporting isn't always current or immediate but acceptable. I'm not sure I can make data-driven decisions due to insufficient volume. I would need enhanced reporting, statistics, playback. I haven't looked at the reports a lot since because you have to access the log files, time is an issue, I use it in a home office environment.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."

"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."

"Their interface is very easy to use, it is without bugs."

"The GUI is very simple, and what is very good is that every product, regardless of size, has the same interface."

"Reliability is the best feature. We faced some issues when we were setting it up, but the service, portal, and administration are good."

"FortiGate is on the cheaper end, and it offers good value."

"Fortinet FortiGate has SD-WAN, FortiView, antivirus, sandbox, and IPS, which are generally well-known features."

"The CLI and GUI do a good job of putting a lot at your fingertips."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ransomware protection that the tool offers."

"Very reliable solution with good scalability and straightforward implementation."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness."

"Working with the Hillstone E-Series has, from a remote perspective, allowed me to give my clients a secure connectivity."

"The initial setup was straightforward. It only took a few hours to deploy."

"Five out of five ROI."

"The most valuable features of the Hillstone E-Series are its hardware capacity, innovation, and the throughput that the hardware can take."

More Hillstone E-Series pros

"It is a stable solution. It is also easy to install and can be deployed and maintained by one team member."

"The most valuable aspect of pfSense is the community. If you have a question, you can post it on the forum."

"A very stable product that lasts over time, easy to understand, and administer."

"It has a good web cache. I used to use a DHCP server and DNS server. For my company, I use pfSense as a load balancing application."

"I appreciate the depth of what you can do with pfSense and the simplicity of the initial setup. One thing we've done is create an image, and when we get a new customer who needs a device, we can put that image on there. The image gets them up to 90 percent of what we need them to have, and we only have to customize the remaining 10 percent."

"Improved service performance and availability through redundancy."

"Support is very good."

"The support is excellent quality."

More Netgate pfSense pros

Cons

"Lacks training for new features."

"The cloud features and integration could be improved."

"We have an issue with hotel guest vouchers."

"The renewal cost is much higher than other firewalls. It is not reasonable."

"I would suggest that Fortinet add sandboxing to their solution."

"There were quite a few problems with the stability of the system."

"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."

"We called them for a geolocation issue and we didn't get any proper assistance."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"Support from Hillstone E-Series has a shortcoming that needs improvement."

"The solution doesn't have a web proxy built into the system like Sophos. This is something they should work to change."

"I am not sure if this solution offers active directory integration. Adding that feature will definitely be an advantage."

"The tool only had some memory-related problems."

"SSL VPN license cost is not cheap."

"The tool needs to improve its price."

"The current usage reporting is very basic."

"Having frequent live webinars on a monthly basis would really help."

More Hillstone E-Series cons

"Ultimately, we'd like something stronger, and something that can handle threats better in real-time."

"We appreciate the flexibility of the Netgate pfSense solution, but we have waited approximately two years for new updates to the Community Edition. We are now moving to OPNsense."

"Lacks instructional videos."

"It’s difficult to configure and use add-on features."

"pfSense has some limitations in detecting site sessions. We want to control internet usage based on sites and their content, and pfSense doesn't perform this function."

"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."

"A malware blocker should be included. I do not know if it is included yet. However, until now, we have not experienced a large malware invasion."

"It would be very useful if we could place pfSense appliances in customer environments and remotely manage them."

More Netgate pfSense cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have the full license that included all of the features and support."

"For the price, I'd rate it a ten because it's very cost-effective."

"The price of FortiGate support is too expensive."

"The price is really low. It's cheap in comparison to the cost of Cisco or CheckPoint, for example."

"The price could be lower."

"Pricing and licensing is a little bit complicated in FortiGate. They are always on the higher side. This is one issue that we always raise with the company that they should reduce the price according to Indian market requirements. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"The price is highly competitive when compared to other brands that offer similar functionality."

"Fortinet is competitive price-wise."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The cost per year for licensing, and hardware, is approximately $850 for the basic plan."

"Hillstone's pricing is economical and neither very high nor very low."

"The licensing model is very complex with many subcategories of licenses you can purchase. They could make it more simplified for customers to understand."

"The tool's pricing is reasonable. It depends on the model. The product's pricing is around 600 USD. You need to buy a software license to activate the features. You need to pay around 150 USD for that."

"It works quite well for an open source product."

"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."

"PfSense's pricing is reasonable. However, support is relatively expensive for smaller customers, and you need to pay per device to get it. So if Customer A is having an issue, I have to get support, and then I have to get support for Customer B, and so on. It would be nice as a managed services provider to get support for my company rather than individual devices."

"While pfSense hardware from Netgate might have a higher upfront cost, I've had very little trouble with it. Plus, buying from them directly helps fund the software's development, making it a worthwhile investment in my eyes."

"The price of pfSense seems reasonable. I pay around a hundred dollars a year for pfSense Plus, which is inexpensive for such a complex product. It's also good that they can still release a community edition. If it started to get extremely expensive to the point where it was more of an enterprise-only product that costs thousands of dollars a year or something like that, I might consider stepping down to the community edition or looking elsewhere."

"I like the fact that it is open-source."

"It is about €1,000. It is a one-time payment. I do not have a monthly or yearly subscription. I don't subscribe to any subscription because I hate cloud services. There are no additional costs."

"When it comes to Netgate pfSense, I use the basic TAC Lite license, which comes for about 100 USD."

More Netgate pfSense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Non Profit

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

16%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Educational Organization

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Hillstone E-Series?

The most valuable feature of the Hillstone E-Series is its user-friendliness.

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What needs improvement with Hillstone E-Series?

We received an update for the tool in July. The update was provided for the tool as there was a problem with the fire...

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What is your primary use case for Hillstone E-Series?

I use the solution in my company for site-to-site VPN, SSL VPNs, URL filtering, IPS, IDS and all the other features w...

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Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and cl...

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Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Meraki MX vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

SonicWall TZ vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

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OpenVPN Access Server Enterprise vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 19% of the time

Hillstone A-Series vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 14% of the time

Sophos XG vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 8% of the time

Sangfor SSL VPN vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 6% of the time

A10 Networks Thunder CFW vs Hillstone E-Series

Compared 5% of the time

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OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 36% of the time

Sophos XG vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 8% of the time

KerioControl vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 2% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

August 2025

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

August 2025

Download Hillstone E-Series product report

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense

August 2025

Download Netgate pfSense product report

Also Known As

FortiGate 60b, FortiGate 60c, FortiGate 80c, FortiGate 50b, FortiGate 200b, FortiGate 110c, FortiGate, Fortinet Firewall

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Overview

Fortinet FortiGate offers comprehensive network security and firewall protection across multiple locations. It effectively manages data traffic and secures environments with features like VPN, intrusion prevention, and UTM controls.

Organizations rely on Fortinet FortiGate for its robust integration with advanced security policies, ensuring significant protection for enterprises, cloud environments, and educational sectors. It facilitates network segmentation, application-level security, and authentication management, securing communication within and between locations such as branches and data centers. Its efficient SD-WAN and UTM features enable streamlined data management and enhanced threat protection capabilities. Users appreciate its centralized management, facilitating seamless operations across diverse environments.

What are the key features of Fortinet FortiGate?

VPN Capabilities: Ensure secure remote access for users and seamless site-to-site connections.
Intrusion Prevention System (IPS): Detect and prevent security threats and vulnerabilities.
Advanced Firewall: Offers robust firewalling with application control and web filtering.
SD-WAN: Optimizes application performance and enhances bandwidth management.
SSL VPN: Provides reliable and secure access for remote workers.

What benefits should users expect from Fortinet FortiGate?

High-performance Security: Delivers effective threat mitigation with high availability.
Centralized Management: Simplifies network operations with cloud-based management tools.
Detailed Analytics: Provides comprehensive insights into network activity and security threats.
Load Balancing: Ensures optimal resource distribution and traffic management.

Fortinet FortiGate is crucial in sectors like education, offering robust networks for secure data flow between campuses and facilitating remote learning. In enterprise environments, it allows efficient management of application traffic and security across multiple branches, while in the cloud, it seamlessly integrates with diverse platforms to enhance security infrastructure.

Fortinet

Hillstone E-Series is a comprehensive network security solution designed to protect organizations from advanced threats. It offers a range of features including a firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), virtual private network (VPN), and application control.

With its advanced threat intelligence capabilities, E-Series can detect and prevent sophisticated attacks, ensuring the security of critical data and systems. It also provides granular control over applications, allowing organizations to enforce policies and optimize network performance.

E-Series is easy to deploy and manage, with a user-friendly interface and centralized management console. It offers high-performance throughput and scalability, making it suitable for small businesses to large enterprises. With its robust security features and ease of use, Hillstone E-Series is an ideal choice for organizations looking to enhance their network security posture.

Hillstone Networks

Netgate pfSense is widely leveraged by organizations for its comprehensive capabilities in firewalls, VPN servers, and bandwidth management. It suits LAN, WAN, and DMZ networks, offering secure, scalable, and efficient networking solutions.

Netgate pfSense stands out in diverse environments with its enterprise-grade features and cost-effective operations compared to competitors like Cisco. Deployed as an edge device, it optimizes routing, ad-blocking, content filtering, and traffic shaping. Users benefit from its versatile configurations, robust firewall protection, VPN functionality, and ISP load balancing. The open-source nature allows for extensive customization, integrating plugins like Snort and pfBlockerNG, and compatibility with third-party tools enhances its utility. The intuitive GUI combined with detailed logging and centralized management fortifies network security.

What features define Netgate pfSense?

Firewall: Provides robust network security through advanced filtering and stateful packet inspections.
VPN: Ensures secure remote access with high-performing VPN capabilities.
Load Balancing: Efficiently distributes traffic across multiple ISPs, ensuring uptime and performance.
Customization: Supports various plugins for enhanced functionality, tailor-made to specific needs.
Scalability: Adapts easily to varying network demands, providing high availability and flexibility.

What benefits should be considered for ROI?

Cost-Effectiveness: Delivers premium features at a fraction of the cost of traditional network appliances.
Flexibility: Offers a customizable solution that integrates well with existing infrastructure.
Community Support: Backed by a strong user community offering insights and troubleshooting resources.
Security: Supports VLAN segmentation, enhancing protection and management of network traffic.

Organizations in industries such as finance, healthcare, and education find Netgate pfSense integral due to its advanced security features and cost benefits. Its scalable architecture and strong VPN support are crucial for industries requiring stringent data protection and reliable remote access. The adaptability of pfSense makes it suitable for dynamic environments seeking comprehensive, secure networking solutions.

Netgate

Sample Customers

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, Dell, HP, Oracle, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Vodafone, Orange, BT Group, Telstra, Deutsche Telekom, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink, NTT Communications, Tata Communications, SoftBank, China Mobile, Singtel, Telus, Rogers Communications, Bell Canada, Telkom Indonesia, Telkom South Africa, Telmex, Telia Company, Telkom Kenya

Bank of China Macao, Instituto Tecnológico Bolivariano, Ministry of Labor in San Salvador, FEDCO

Nerds On Site Inc., RKC Development Inc., Expertech, Fisher's Technology, Ncisive, Consulting, CPURX, Vaughn's Computer House Calls, Imeretech LLC, Digital Crisis, Carolina Digital Phone, Technigogo Technology Services, The Simple Solution, SwiftecITInc, Rocky Mountain Tech Team, Free Range Geeks, Alaska Computer Geeks, Lark Information Technology, Renaissance Systems Inc., Cutting Edge Computers, Caretech LLC, GoVanguard, Network Touch Ltd, P.C. Solutions.Net, Vision Voice and Data Systems LLC, Montgomery Technologies, Techforce, Concero Networks, ASONInc, CPS Electronics and Consulting, Darkwire.net LLC, IT Specialists, MBS-Net Inc., VOICE1 LLC, Advantage Networking Inc., Powerhouse Systems, Doxa Multimedia Inc., Pro Computer Service, Virtual IT Services, A&J Computers Inc., Envision IT LLC, CommunicaONE Inc., Bone Computer Inc., Amax Engineering Corporation, QPG Ltd. Co., IT 101 Inc., Perfect Cloud Solutions, Applied Technology Group Inc., The Digital Sun Group LLC, Firespring

Buyer's Guide

Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense

July 2025

Free Report: Hillstone E-Series vs. Netgate pfSense

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