Netgate pfSense vs Smoothwall Firewall comparison

Netgate and Smoothwall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. Netgate is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.8, while Smoothwall is ranked #42. Netgate holds a 8.0% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Smoothwall’s 0.4% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of Netgate users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Smoothwall users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Netgate pfSense and Smoothwall Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls.

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Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

May 2026

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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 June 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 15.1%, down from 21.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Netgate pfSense is 8.0%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smoothwall Firewall is 0.4%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	15.1%
Netgate pfSense	8.0%
Smoothwall Firewall	0.4%
Other	76.5%

Firewalls

Featured Reviews

Mageshwaran S

Solution Architect at airtel

Enables customers to manage security effortlessly with intuitive features and easy integration

In terms of improvements for Fortinet FortiGate, they could offer evaluation licenses, as compared to Meraki, which provides a 90-day evaluation. In Fortinet FortiGate, they do not provide standard evaluation licenses; instead, we need to request them from the OEM through the account manager for POCs. If we want to conduct a demo, we need to work with real hardware. In comparison to Cisco, we have DCloud, which helps with providing demos to customers, but in Meraki, I need to reach out to them, book a lab, and they need to provide all the hardware. I need remote access and L3 engineers to program it; only then can I offer a real-time demo to the customer.

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Juan-Arias

Principal Cloud Architect - Software Engineer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Rapid VPN setup has connected offices in minutes and brings live insights for proactive issue control

What I appreciate the most about Netgate pfSense is the ease and straightforward nature of the platform. I can set up a new office in less than 10 minutes. The benefits of using Netgate pfSense are that I can set up VPNs in less than two to three minutes, and then just deploy the file across my networks, where everybody would be connected in less than an hour. The dashboards of Netgate pfSense bring all the necessary information that I need at a glance, and it is actually a live update every three to five seconds. It is spotless, and I have been able to catch issues before they hit operations.

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Himanshu-Sharma

Senior Engineer at Qualic

Offers good scalability and monitoring features

There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages. For example, if we're creating a rule, we should be able to do everything on the same page. Just a drop-down thing or something. This would improve productivity.

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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

"It is easy to use and performs very well."

"The security features are valuable, particularly the ransomware attack protection features. Fortinet FortiGate provides excellent security against ransomware attacks."

"FortiGate is easier to deploy than Juniper."

"These devices allowed my organization to connect a network of gas stations and convenience stores nationwide."

"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."

"The most valuable features are the enterprise modeling and the simple interface."

"The firewall is stable and that's important."

"The solution is user-friendly."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"Given the fact that it's open-source, relatively easy to use, and it seems to do the job quite well, I would rate pfSense a ten out of ten."

"I have found the most valuable features to be antivirus and malware protection."

"It is much simpler than other solutions such as Fortinet."

"It is a very good solution for enterprises that need a VPN for their employees. It is the best way to provide a remote work facility to employees at a very low cost. Other solutions that I have had in the past were very expensive. Enterprises don't always have that kind of money to invest."

"It's open-source, it's flexible, and has a strong community."

"pfSense is a nice product, and I find that there's a lot of information out there. There are some good tutorials on YouTube and other websites with helpful information."

"If you want to protect your home network, and don't want to invest in a firewall, pfSense will do the job."

"There is good documentation with a fantastic community and enterprise support."

More Netgate pfSense pros

"It was easy to initially deploy it."

Cons

"Fortinet currently has many products bundled with FortiGate including the basic firewall and load balancer, and I think that that they need to have separate product portfolios for each of these specialized services."

"Another issue is how deduplication services don't work reliably after enabling deduplication on Fortinet."

"They can probably improve the reporting feature. Reporting and report alerting are the main key features of this solution. They can always find ways to improve these."

"There can be more security in hybrid implementations. When a customer has a hybrid environment where some parts are in the cloud, we need a consistent security solution for such scenarios."

"The solution should allow more user-friendly integrations or deployment"

"When we cluster the two Fortinet FortiGate boxes together we have some issues."

"I found that the memory usage for the Fortigate firewall are relatively higher than other firewall brand when compared to same traffic volume."

"FortiGate can only retain logs for 24 hours or 7 days. I'm not sure if it holds them for a longer period, such as for a month. It will be useful for assessing our strategy and monitoring our environment without investing in FortiGate Analyzer. It would be beneficial if Fortinet could enhance the FortiGate by providing more statistical and monitoring views for a longer timeframe, rather than requiring access to FortiGate Analyzer."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"I am unsure if it's feasible, but I have previously utilized a web VPN interface with Cisco Firewalls that allows VPN connections through a website, eliminating the installation of VPN software."

"I found the technical support of the solution to be not very good at all."

"The initial approach is very complex because of the multiple functions, but after a short learning curve it is able to handle the standard functions."

"They could make it easier to configure packages."

"The user interface could be improved, it's a bit clumsy and clunky."

"Configuring the interface can be a bit hard."

"We are at the moment looking to use it as a proxy service so that we can limit what websites people go and view and that sort of thing. That's an area I've struggled with a little bit at the moment and it could be a bit easier to set up."

"Sometimes there are issues with package deployment and one must refer to the forums for support."

More Netgate pfSense cons

"There is room for improvement in the UI. They can improve it by making it so that everything is in one place, so we don't have to jump around to different pages."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In the Asian economy in which we operate, FortiGate is expensive."

"It scales well if you know what to buy from a physical box standpoint. They seem to offer something for every level."

"There is no challenge in Fortinet FortiGate pricing."

"It's a year based license."

"The price of FortiGate is average and I would say that based on the top five products available on the market, it is in the affordable range."

"If you purchase a one-year subscription with the hardware and then you want to renew for the second year, it is very costly."

"The pricing is perfect."

"I give the pricing a nine out of ten."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"Netgate pfSense stands out as a cost-effective option that delivers excellent value."

"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."

"It is on the higher side. If you want to purchase pfSense Plus alone, the cost is roughly $150 a year, but the value provided justifies the expense. However, a lower-end tier option, around $100, would be beneficial."

"I buy the appliance and accept whatever comes with it, but I am not bought into paid support. When it comes to the pricing of the appliances, they are pretty competitive. The price is pretty competitive."

"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."

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

"The licensing model needs improvement, especially for home users. There should be more flexibility to change licenses with hardware changes. The pricing model could be more accessible for home users."

"The solution's pricing is comparable to other products."

More Netgate pfSense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

12%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

University

16%

Comms Service Provider

15%

Computer Software Company

10%

Educational Organization

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	370
Midsize Enterprise	138
Large Enterprise	195

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	171
Midsize Enterprise	33
Large Enterprise	29

No data available

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 16% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 5% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

OPNsense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

OPNsense vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 55% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 3% of the time

Sophos UTM vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 2% of the time

KerioControl vs Netgate pfSense

Compared 2% of the time

More Netgate pfSense Competitors

OPNsense vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 33% of the time

IPFire vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 15% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 11% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 8% of the time

More Smoothwall Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

June 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

Netgate pfSense

June 2026

Download Netgate pfSense product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

May 2026

Download Smoothwall Firewall product report

Also Known As

Fortinet FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall

No data available

Overview

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?

VPN: Ensures secure remote connections.
Firewall: Protects against unauthorized access.
Web Filtering: Blocks malicious sites and content.
Application Control: Manages and controls applications.
Intrusion Prevention: Detects and prevents vulnerabilities.
SSL Inspection: Enhances security by inspecting encrypted traffic.

What benefits should be considered when evaluating Fortinet FortiGate?

Affordability: Offers cost-effective security solutions.
Reliability: Known for consistent and stable performance.
Integration: Seamlessly integrates with other Fortinet products.
Comprehensive Protection: Provides broad threat protection capabilities.

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.

Fortinet

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?

Scalability: Suits any network size from small home setups to large enterprises.
Open-source: Offers transparency and flexibility, allowing for community-driven development.
Firewall Capabilities: Provides robust protection against unauthorized access.
VPN Options: Supports secure remote connectivity with various VPN protocols.
Customizable Packages: Allows users to personalize functionalities to fit network needs.
High Availability: Ensures continuous network operations with redundancy features.
Load Balancing: Distributes traffic efficiently across multiple paths or connections.
Traffic Shaping: Manages bandwidth allocation to optimize network performance.

What benefits should users consider in reviews?

Cost-effectiveness: Significant savings due to low operational costs and open-source nature.
Performance: Reliable service delivery with minimal hardware demands.
User-friendly Interface: Intuitive design that simplifies complex network management.
Community Support: Access to extensive community resources for troubleshooting and advice.
Comprehensive Documentation: Detailed guides and tutorials to facilitate installation and configuration.

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.

Netgate

Smoothwall Firewall ensures network safety and compliance through robust content filtering, safeguarding educational institutions by providing appropriate online access and effective threat protection.

Smoothwall Firewall focuses on content filtering and network security for educational institutions, ensuring students access appropriate online resources while protecting against cyber threats. It offers detailed internet usage reports and helps maintain seamless network performance. Users find its ease of management and advanced threat protection beneficial, although some note complexities in setup and reporting features.

What are the key features of Smoothwall Firewall?

Content Filtering: Exceptional capabilities to ensure safe and appropriate online access.
Real-Time Monitoring: Keeps constant vigilance over network usage and threats.
Robust Security: Offers advanced threat protection to safeguard network environments.
Ease of Use: Simplifies management with an intuitive interface and responsive customer support.
Comprehensive Reporting: Provides detailed reports on internet usage and security threats.
Customizable Filtering: Tailors security measures to meet specific requirements.

What benefits and ROI can users expect from Smoothwall Firewall?

Enhanced Safety: Protects against cyber threats and ensures safe online access.
Compliance: Helps institutions adhere to internet usage policies efficiently.
Ease of Management: Simplifies the administration of network security.
Detailed Insights: Provides comprehensive reports on network and internet usage.
Customizability: Offers tailored security settings to meet specific needs.

Smoothwall Firewall is widely used in educational sectors to enhance network security and manage internet usage. Its content filtering and monitoring capabilities ensure a protected and compliant online environment. Though implementation can be complex, its robust security and comprehensive support make it a valuable choice for institutions focusing on safeguarding their networks.

Smoothwall

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

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

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Find out what your peers are saying about Fortinet, Netgate, Sophos and others in Firewalls. Updated: May 2026.

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