OPNsense vs Smoothwall Firewall comparison

OPNsense and Smoothwall are both solutions in the Firewalls category. OPNsense is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.2, while Smoothwall is ranked #41. OPNsense holds a 10.3% mindshare in Firewalls, compared to Smoothwall’s 0.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of OPNsense 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 OPNsense and Smoothwall Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

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

To learn more, read our detailed Firewalls Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

March 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 March 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate is 18.3%, down from 21.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OPNsense is 10.3%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Smoothwall Firewall is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Fortinet FortiGate	18.3%
OPNsense	10.3%
Smoothwall Firewall	0.3%
Other	71.1%

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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Moutaz Sheikh Alard

ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

Has helped simulate enterprise security setups and strengthens network segmentation practices

For my capstone, I use OPNsense for my project and its broader benefits for enterprise and cybersecurity context. OPNsense is an open source based firewall and routing platform. It offers enterprise-grade features such as intrusion detection and prevention system, VPN support, traffic shaping, and web filtering, all without license cost. This platform has a modular design, a clean web-based GUI, and frequent updates that prioritize security and usability. It competes with commercial firewalls such as Cisco ASA, FortiGate, and Palo Alto, but stands out because it's community-driven, cost-effective, and transparent. I find OPNsense's feature of acting as a central firewall and gateway most valuable, providing robust point segmentation between the internal network and DMZs in my capstone project, intrusion detection to monitor malicious traffic, VPN services for secure remote access, and logging and monitoring for compliance and auditing. This allows me to simulate a real-world enterprise environment on a smaller scale, demonstrating both security hardening and network efficiency. OPNsense impacts my projects and home network positively because its cost-effectiveness is perfect for lab and enterprise setup without expensive licensing. The flexibility, easy VLAN and DMZ configuration supports different zones such as web servers, mail servers, and log servers. The security-first design for IDS/IPS integration helps me showcase modern defense-in-depth strategies. The user-friendly management through the web GUI makes it possible to manage complex firewall rules clearly, which is critical when documenting and presenting a capstone. Scalability is also an advantage. Although my project is lab-based, OPNsense can scale into production deployments in SMBs and enterprise.

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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

"The pricing on offer is excellent."

"It is a very user-friendly solution. Moreover, Foritgate offers good performance."

"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."

"It is easy to use. We chose this product for the possibility to have virtual domains (VDOMs). We are building another company in the group, and we would like to split the firewalling rules and policies between these two companies. Each company would be able to manage its own policies and security rules, which is an advantage of Fortinet FortiGate. We can define VDOMs, and every company can manage its own VDOM as if it has its own physical firewall, but in fact, we would be using the same physical appliance because we are also using the same internet lines. So, it allows us to reuse the existing resources without the disadvantage of having to compromise on policies and security. Each company can choose its own way of working."

"Fortinet FortiGate is a security device. It can optimize security on the networks of a company. It actually protects the company from attacks from outside. With FortiGate, you can categorize the users. You can create a group of users that can access all of the websites for their work. You can limit other users' access."

"The detection is great."

"We are very happy with the general bandwidth agility we have seen from one website to another website."

"We like FortiGate's website change feature."

More Fortinet FortiGate pros

"We can open a new VPN connection easily. It's much easier than with Fortinet in our experience."

"The IDS and IPS features are valuable. From the usability perspective, there is a lot of good documentation. As IT professionals, we found it very easy to configure the firewall. It was easy to configure and use."

"It is a very good solution. I like the dashboard. I can see what is going on and manage it as I like it."

"The system in general is quite flexible."

"OPNsense definitely gives me peace of mind and helps my workflow because of the network isolation, as I can have multiple subnets without having to worry about one affecting the other."

"The graphic user interface is very good and it is user-friendly which makes the product easy-to-use."

"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."

"I mostly rely on the solution's network intrusion detection and prevention system, along with other systems, CMs, and log management."

More OPNsense pros

"It was easy to initially deploy it."

Cons

"FortiGate IPS is somewhat pricey compared to other solutions. There is also room for improvement in terms of the radio signals. The FortiGate WiFi has a relatively short range. I've found there is a lag in its zero-day malware response that could be better, and FortiGate could integrate better with other brands of equipment or identity management solutions."

"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."

"The built-in logging and reporting is limited without FortiAnalyzer."

"The way everything is set up could be easier. Currently, people need a lot of experience and knowledge to administer it and to link it to devices."

"The solution could be improved by addressing limited local reporting. It requires obtaining the FortiAnalyzer for proper visibility because you can't do much from a reporting perspective with just the firewall alone."

"The solution could improve by having some additional features, such as IBS and better cloud administration."

"The Web-filter in this solution is not very good."

"The solution needs to improve its support."

More Fortinet FortiGate cons

"pfSense has better performance and quicker updates."

"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."

"The solution could be more secure."

"The logging could improve in OPNsense."

"You will need additional training before you can actually start to use it."

"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."

"The IPS solution could be more reliable."

"Given that OPNsense plays a pivotal role as a firewall, safeguarding against various threats, having a reliable backup ensures uninterrupted protection even if unforeseen events impact the primary virtual machine."

More OPNsense 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

"The licensing costs are very low."

"Pricing for Fortinet FortiGate SWG is more suitable for enterprise or large-sized organizations because they are the ones who can afford it versus small and medium-sized organizations."

"The price is relatively expensive compared to other solutions which are providing similar features."

"I rate FortiGate Next Generation Firewall a five out of ten for pricing."

"The pricing for this solution is good."

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

"The pricing is based on a licensing model for each IPS in your environment."

"On a scale of one being cheap and ten being expensive, I rate the tool's price as an eight."

More Fortinet FortiGate pricing and cost advice

"The price of OPNsense is good."

"We are not paying any licensing fees. OPNsense is completely free for us."

"As an appliance, it's in the medium price range."

"There are no licensing costs for OPNsence."

"It is not an expensive product. Basically, I deployed it because it was the fastest solution to satisfy our needs in open source."

"The solution is not expensive."

"It costs about $1000."

"Its pricing is unbeatable in comparison to other firewalls. You can have a small instance that could be €80 a month with the hardware underneath. Azure Firewall and FortiGate are out of the question at this price. If you are on a public cloud, you need the underlying infrastructure. Other than that, there is no additional cost. If you have it on-prem, you have to buy the server or the appliance. The hardware cost is replaced with the infrastructure cost in the cloud. You also have costs for the public IPs and underlying VMs, but that's not related to OPNsense. It would be the same for a FortiGate deployment on Azure. You need a FortiGate license, and you need the underlying infrastructure that scales up depending on your needs."

More OPNsense pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

10%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Comms Service Provider

18%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

University

Comms Service Provider

15%

University

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Educational Organization

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	360
Midsize Enterprise	135
Large Enterprise	190

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	31
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	8

No data available

Questions from the Community

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When you compare these firewalls you can identify them with different features, advantages, practices and usage a...

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What is the biggest difference between Sophos XG and FortiGate?

From my experience regarding both the Sophos and FortiGate firewalls, I personally would rather use FortiGate. I know...

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What are the biggest technical differences between Sophos UTM and Fortinet FortiGate?

As a solution, Sophos UTM offers a lot of functionality, it scales well, and the stability and performance are quite ...

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What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?

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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What do you like most about OPNsense?

What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?

Setup cost is almost zero as one can simulate the whole environment using open source version. Pricing seems fair eno...

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Comparisons

Sophos Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 19% of the time

Cisco Secure Firewall vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 13% of the time

Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 4% of the time

Check Point Quantum Force (NGFW) vs Fortinet FortiGate

Compared 3% of the time

More Fortinet FortiGate Competitors

Netgate pfSense vs OPNsense

Compared 52% of the time

IPFire vs OPNsense

Compared 8% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs OPNsense

Compared 7% of the time

Sophos UTM vs OPNsense

Compared 3% of the time

Untangle NG Firewall vs OPNsense

Compared 2% of the time

More OPNsense Competitors

IPFire vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 23% of the time

Netgate pfSense vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 20% of the time

Sophos Firewall vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 9% of the time

WatchGuard Firebox vs Smoothwall Firewall

Compared 6% of the time

More Smoothwall Firewall Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fortinet FortiGate

March 2026

Download Fortinet FortiGate product report

Buyer's Guide

OPNsense

March 2026

Download OPNsense product report

Buyer's Guide

Firewalls

March 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

OPNsense is an adaptable open-source firewall and routing platform appreciated for its flexibility, scalability, and user-friendly interface. It is equipped with robust security features and offers excellent reporting and visibility, essential for small businesses and home setups.

OPNsense stands out for its modular design, allowing cost-effective customization. This system supports VPNs and various firewall capabilities, making it suitable for securing networks from malicious traffic. Its frequent updates and extensive documentation, combined with a supportive online community, enhance user experience. However, there is room for improvement in integration with virtual servers and Azure. Scalability and hardware updates are important for large-scale environments, and users desire more reliable VPN solutions and enhanced threat intelligence tools.

What are OPNsense's most important features?

Flexibility: Easily customizable due to its open-source nature.
Robust Security: Advanced security features for network protection.
User-Friendly Interface: Simplified management and configuration.
Frequent Updates: Regular improvements and new features.
Dense Documentation: Extensive resources and community support.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Cost-Effectiveness: Open-source design reduces costs.
Scalability: Ability to grow with business needs.
Customizability: Tailored solutions for different requirements.
Community Support: Access to a strong network of resources and peers.

OPNsense is implemented in industries requiring VPN and firewall functions, supporting site-to-site connections, protecting servers, and managing commercial network traffic. Companies apply it for security, UTM, SD-WAN, content filtering, intrusion detection, and prevention, utilizing its open-source nature and effectiveness as a next-generation firewall.

OPNsense

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

1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc. 3. EuroBSDCon 4. Netgate 5. Claranet 6. Voleatech 7. Open Systems AG 8. Securebit AG 9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH 10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Information Not Available

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

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