Cisco Meraki Go vs. pfSense

One of the better times Meraki Go has proven useful was when the Fresno Grizzlies have baseball games, and many people come to our brewery to watch it on our televisions or stream it on their phones. The quick internet service allows us to attract more patrons and also improves their day. Half of the time, people are coming into our bar just to use the internet and end up buying a few drinks! The business had shot up thanks to our switch from when the pandemic started in 2020.

pfSense is incredibly budget friendly and capable for organizations of all sizes. My specific scenario, working for a non-profit organization, requires budget consciences decisions without compromising security and function. pfSense has helped tremendously in accomplishing this. It specifically tackles advanced routing, static routing, remote access, intrusion prevention, in a single platform, mostly available for free.

Incentivized

• Cheap and fast hotspot supporting multiple simultaneous clients.
• Guest control through a Captive portal.
• They work with the 802.11ac Wave 2 protocol.
• They direct the WiFi signal directly to the client that is accessing the internet and increase the quality of the signal.
• Managed in the cloud and accessed via the web

Incentivized

• Easy to use. Good user interface design! Easy to understand and easy to set up.
• Lower hardware requirement. 3 years ago, we used an old PC to run it. Now, we have changed to a router device with Celeron CPU and 8GB RAM. It runs smoothly with a 1000G commercial broadband.

Incentivized

• For big companies, use cases may be limited.
• When distance is increased, there may be a slight glitch in connectivity
• Can be a quite expensive for a growing business

Incentivized

• There is no API for making changes. This can be a hindrance in environments where auto-deploying something needs firewall rules or HAProxy configs updated. Since all settings are stored in an XML file and then configs are generated from that, even manually updating config files cannot be done.
• Beware that some network cards can have issues. pfSense is based on FreeBSD, so it's best to look on their compatibility list before deploying.

Incentivized

It's just as easy to use as Meraki but a perfect fit for home and SMB. It's a no-brainer.

Incentivized

pfSense can be a very elementary firewall but can also be as comples as you want, according your needs. I'd always reccomend a HA solution when used in a company and, for bigger companies, commercial license is recommended. It's also very adptable to everyone's needs.

Incentivized

It's good, it can be better, but it's good. We had problems with Outlook 365 disconnecting and their support wasn't able to help us. We spent a few hours on the phone and finally, one of our NOC guys decided to change the MTU. I'm sure their support is good, I just think that this time we didn't find the right person.

Incentivized

pfSense+ basic provides "As Available" email support. pfSense+ Pro offers 24 hr turn around email support. pfSense+ Enterprise offers 24/7 phone support.

Incentivized

I would use Cisco Meraki Go for small business needs. I would rather use the full Cisco Meraki system for anything more than five people. Cisco Meraki Go is cheaper but regular Meraki is far more robust.

Incentivized

PFSense is not a fully featured and supported enterprise-grade solution; however, it does offer a lot of similar functionality at a fraction of the cost for more minor requirements.

The ease of deployment can be moved from one site to another easily. There is no need for any source or managing controller and hence it can be easily moved with the same configuration. This type of solution is best for teams who work together and are on the move from one location to another and who rely on high performance and good security for their wifi network.

Incentivized

• Meraki has improved our business and our sales by a lot.
• Customers are always happy to enter our brewery and have a drink, even more, when their internet works to near perfection.
• I even catch myself watching an episode or two on netflix during my lunch break, considering the internet can support my 4k streaming.

• pfSense has only had positive impacts on our company. We are not a huge company so not having to buy licenses to get all these features have been excellent.
• I was not around when our current sysadmin decided to use pfSense, but I am assuming from day one it was probably a 100% return on investment since it does everything we need it to and it was open source software.

Incentivized