


Netgate pfSense and Huawei NGFW are robust firewall solutions. Users generally prefer the pricing and support of Netgate pfSense, but Huawei NGFW's advanced features make it a strong competitor.
Features: Netgate pfSense offers customizable firewall rules, VPN support, and strong community support. Huawei NGFW features integrated threat intelligence, application control, and advanced threat protection. Huawei's comprehensive features make it ideal for enterprises needing advanced security.
Room for Improvement: Netgate pfSense needs to enhance hardware compatibility and documentation. Huawei NGFW should simplify configuration and address its relatively high cost. Netgate pfSense's focus should be on user guidance, while Huawei NGFW should streamline setup and consider cost adjustments.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Netgate pfSense is easy to deploy with support from a helpful user community. Huawei NGFW, though complex to deploy, benefits from professional support services. Netgate pfSense is easier to deploy, but Huawei NGFW offers more robust customer service options.
Pricing and ROI: Netgate pfSense has low setup costs and a good ROI, appealing to budget-conscious users. Huawei NGFW, despite its higher cost, provides strong ROI with its comprehensive features and robust security, making it suitable for larger organizations requiring high-level security.
Clients are now comfortable and not wasting productive hours on IT support.
The automation part is giving us a cost benefit and speed; we can react faster.
It's a very useful tool to mitigate and protect your enterprise.
Since the memory leak fixes, it's been incredibly stable and requires minimal maintenance.
In four years of using it, that payment of 189 dollars per year has already paid off.
It's very favorable to have the inclusion of firewall, VPN, and router functionalities.
The quick resolution of issues with Fortinet FortiGate is due to the support of the company and the fact that the equipment is easy to work with.
I would rate the technical support for Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
As a solution provider, when I encounter problems, I connect directly with Fortinet support, and they provide solutions within a very short time.
When I provide detailed information about the problem, they've been able to reply quickly with a solution or go research the problem and get back to us quickly with a fix.
They are highly responsive.
I couldn't imagine having better support.
They scale up really well from smaller models like the FortiGate 40 and 50 to bigger sites with the FortiGate 100 for more throughput - up to enterprise datacenters.
The variation comes in terms of the interfaces and throughputs, but from a security perspective, you get the same benefit, irrespective of whether you have an entry-level unit or an enterprise.
We determine sizing based on multiple factors: number of users, available links, traffic types, server count, services in use, and whether services will be published.
If I put things into a certain context and say that we have a network that has around 100 people, then you don't put up a device that can manage 100 people. Instead, you need to get a device that can manage 150 to 200 people, and then you can create room for growth.
I don't think Netgate pfSense can offer much scalability for big enterprises.
Even with a jump from a 50 megabit to a 500 megabit internet connection and approximately 65 active VPN clients, our firewall operates smoothly without any strain.
We're experiencing 99.999% availability consistently.
I would rate the stability of Fortinet FortiGate a ten out of ten.
Currently, we are experiencing a general outage of one of the main internet service providers of the Dominican Republic, and we have not been impacted in our operations because with SD-WAN, we have another internet service provider and we are working with the second WAN connection without any disruption.
I rate the solution's stability a ten out of ten.
I've noticed a substantial improvement in stability and ease of use for upgrades and patching over the past year or two.
When I replace consumer routers with pfSense for small businesses with two or three employees, they are often amazed to discover the router can run for a year without a reboot.
These sessions should be around five to ten minutes long, allowing users and partners to quickly grasp the information without disrupting their daily tasks.
The solution should be able to implement machine learning and analytics of all the logs for threat detection and protection.
It would be better for customers to get immediate replacements even with a standard subscription.
If I need to go between different VLANs, I have VLAN 19.1 and VLAN 19.2, and I strictly use Netgate pfSense, but it doesn't route very efficiently and works quite slowly.
They should support the idea of configuration management as code from source code and provide a more robust API for managing the pfSense configuration.
Monitoring is crucial. The easier the monitoring and user interface, the simpler our team can work on and investigate issues.
Last year, I renewed the support for three years, which can sometimes be expensive but depends on the security benefits and how it helps us.
It offers cost savings as it is generally cheaper than the competition.
It is about 20% cheaper.
The product is free of cost.
Opting for twenty-four-seven support significantly increases the price, reaching around ten thousand to thirteen hundred dollars.
It is far cheaper than big brand names like FortiGate and Cisco while delivering a feature set that's nearly the same across the entire list.
These features help reduce our downtime, manage the ISPs, and deploy SLAs for all the website traffic.
The most valuable feature of FortiGate is FortiView which provides proactive monitoring.
We got a firewall and gave an SSL VPN to my client to connect to their servers, after which, such kind of activities involving ransomware attacks stopped.
We had downtime before pfSense. We've never gone down using the solution.
It is very stable, and it works very well.
With pfSense, network configurations adhere to standard practices, facilitating troubleshooting without the need for complex overlays or policies.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Fortinet FortiGate | 18.8% |
| Netgate pfSense | 9.9% |
| Huawei NGFW | 1.0% |
| Other | 70.3% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 357 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 133 |
| Large Enterprise | 188 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 10 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 6 |
| Large Enterprise | 7 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 168 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 33 |
| Large Enterprise | 29 |
Fortinet FortiGate is a versatile network security tool offering features like VPN, firewall, web filtering, intrusion prevention, and scalability. It is known for its performance and integration with other Fortinet products, making it a preferred choice for robust cybersecurity.
Fortinet FortiGate stands out as a comprehensive cybersecurity solution with strong performance and ease of configuration. It delivers unified threat management, integrating features such as dynamic routing, SD-WAN support, and centralized management. Despite its strengths, improvements in the web interface's stability, pricing structures, and reporting capabilities are needed. Users seek better integration with third-party tools and automation advancements to enhance the experience further. These enhancements, alongside improvements in bandwidth management and the reduction of licensing costs, are points of interest for users looking to capitalize on FortiGate's extensive capabilities.
What are Fortinet FortiGate's key features?Fortinet FortiGate is widely implemented across industries as a primary firewall system for securing internet gateways and safeguarding data centers. It supports businesses in achieving SD-WAN integration and enhances cybersecurity by providing essential features like antivirus, web filtering, and application control. Enterprises utilize FortiGate for securing remote connections and ensuring compliance with security standards, making it adaptable for different network sizes and industries.
Huawei's Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) is a cutting-edge security solution designed to protect networks from advanced threats. With its advanced threat detection and prevention capabilities, the Huawei NGFW ensures the highest level of network security.
The product offers comprehensive security features, including intrusion prevention, application control, and URL filtering, to safeguard against a wide range of cyber threats. The NGFW also provides deep packet inspection and advanced threat intelligence, enabling real-time threat detection and response.
With its high-performance architecture, the Huawei NGFW delivers fast and efficient security without compromising network performance. It is easy to deploy and manage, thanks to its intuitive user interface and centralized management platform.
The NGFW also supports flexible deployment options, including virtualization and cloud integration, making it suitable for various network environments.
Netgate pfSense is an open-source firewall and router software known for scalability, cost-effectiveness, and community support. It includes customizable packages for varied network management needs, offering solid performance and straightforward management for diverse setups.
Netgate pfSense provides an impressive range of functionalities including firewall capabilities, VPN options, and extensive customization through packages. Its low resource usage and high availability make it viable for businesses of all sizes, especially when dealing with tailored network demands. Despite its strengths, users suggest improvements in ease of use, mobile compatibility, and support for plug-ins. Enhanced centralized management, better documentation, and additional security features are frequent requests.
What are the key features of Netgate pfSense?In education and healthcare, Netgate pfSense is employed for secure connectivity and efficient traffic management, accommodating distinct demands of remote access and content filtering. Organizations in these sectors often utilize features such as load balancing and VPNs to maintain secure and reliable network operations while integrating with services like Active Directory for streamlined identity management. Small to medium-sized enterprises benefit from its affordability and robust functionality, making it a go-to choice for managed service environments requiring effective network security and control.
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