pfSense vs. Sophos Firewall

pfSense

pfSense

72 Reviews and Ratings

Sophos Firewall

Sophos Firewall

37 Reviews and Ratings

Overview
Product	Rating	Most Used By	Product Summary	Starting Price
pfSense	Score 9.9 out of 10	N/A	pfSense is a firewall and load management product available through the open source pfSense Community Edition, as well as a the licensed edition, pfSense Plus (formerly known as pfSense Enterprise). The solution provides combined firewall, VPN, and router functionality, and can be deployed through the cloud (AWS or Azure), or on-premises with a Netgate appliance. It as scalable capacities, with functionality for SMBs. As a firewall, pfSense offers Stateful packet inspection, concurrent…	$179 per appliance
Sophos Firewall	Score 9.6 out of 10	N/A	Sophos XG Firewall provides comprehensive next-generation firewall protection powered by deep learning and Synchronized Security. Sophos Firewall supplies insights and exposes hidden user, application, and threat risks on the network, and say the product is differentiated by its ability to respond automatically to security incidents by isolating compromised systems, with Security Heartbeat™.	N/A

Pricing

pfSense

Sophos Firewall

Editions & Modules

SG-1100: $179
per appliance
SG-2100: $229
per appliance
SG-3100: $399
per appliance
SG-5100: $699
per appliance
XG-7100-DT: $899
per appliance
XG-7100-1U: $999
per appliance
XG-1537: $1,949
per appliance
XG-1541: $2,649
per appliance

No answers on this topic

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Free Trial
No	Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No	No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No	No

Entry-level Setup Fee

No setup fee

No setup fee

Additional Details

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—

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Considered Both Products	pfSense Pablo Mojica Systems Administrator Chose pfSense 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. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense Fortigate offers an extensive set of features including the Unified Threat Management and a lot of FortiGuard services . pfSense is extremely modular, probably because of its open source "flavour"m but relies on community support. Fortinet ROI depends on the reduced … Incentivized Helpful? AB Ansley Barnes Lead Network Engineer Chose pfSense PfSense beats all other solutions at its price point, hands-down. You can get more features with far less performance, or same performance for much higher cost. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense pfSense does almost all what the other brands do and the CE Edition is free even if complete. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense Meraki has a unified management login for all devices, which is nice. It also has decent content filtering, both areas where pfSense is weaker. Where pfSense far ouclasses Meraki is in the ease of use and the other width of features. These include features such as better VPN … Incentivized Helpful? Mario Matinelli Director Chose pfSense Overall, pfSense is the most complete solution in terms of features included even though it currently lack of a centralised management interface.The Ubiquiti firewall offering is often appealing being well integrated within the Ubiquiti dashboard and it is often a solution of … Incentivized Helpful? Pretty Varughese IT Executive Chose pfSense We were using Sophos XG Firewall in our environment before but we need a product that is customizable & provides low cost high security features. pfSense provided us high security features with customizable options as it's kernel is based on freeBSD. Incentivized Helpful? Chirag Deol Chief Marketing Officer Chose pfSense We were using Sophos XG firewall in our environment but when it comes to cost it's more expensive with limited features. After using [pfSense] we are getting more security features at less cost. After pfSense provides a bundle of security features such as anti-spamming, … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense pfSense offers more options and scales very easily. Incentivized Helpful? James Freeman IT Consultant Chose pfSense pfSense is just a more flexible, lower-cost solution—it can be installed (if you wish) on just about any x86 hardware or even virtual machines - the community edition is free and so enables rapid prototyping and low-cost prototyping and lab build out—something that isn't … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense pfSense is a lot cheaper and has higher firewall throughput per dollar than "enterprise" network appliances. It's also significantly easier to configure and learn. It may not have some of the "enterprise" features or the support level that someone like Cisco has, but for small … Incentivized Helpful? Christian Shaheen Owner Chose pfSense pfSense itself is free and can be installed on just about any hardware so from a hardware cost perspective it can beat out anybody. In terms of features it's above many pro-sumer/small business solutions like Ubiquiti. It can't really stand against high-end gear like Cisco but … Incentivized Helpful? Allan Leung IT & T Manager Chose pfSense First of all, I don't need to be a Cisco professional to manage VPN, load balance, multiple WAN/LAN, Firewall and etc. pfSense has an easy-to-use web interface and I can do everything and add packaged add-on services. Moreover, for Small & Medium Enterprise, IT budget is … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose pfSense Pfsense seemed to always be cheaper and just as good as its competitors. Incentivized Helpful? Jay Moore CIO Chose pfSense I have not seen a single thing that these other products do that pfSense does not. In fact, the performance/throughput of pfSense is better in my opinion. Incentivized Helpful? Aaron Smith Information Technology Manager Chose pfSense While you can get the performance out of other products, pfSense offers the unique ability to put other services on the same device. Products such as Untagle's NG Firewall and SonicWall's TZ series offer cost effective options for firewall and VPN services, having incoming load … Incentivized Helpful? germary zambrano jefe del departamento de informatica Chose pfSense pfSense is a new and innovative platform that has learned from the errors of older systems, which helps it cover the needs that aren't covered by Smoothwall. Incentivized Helpful? Jim Rubenstein Chief Technology Officer Chose pfSense Before pfSense we were using consumer and small business rated network appliances from Linksys, Cisco, Buffalo and Netgear. We were replacing them on average of every 6-12 months because they'd fail or would offer poor wifi availability. Switching to pfSense allowed us to use … Incentivized Helpful? Victor Arana IT Manager Chose pfSense It's an open source solution can support from 50 to 700 user without sweating and with the half of the standard bundle investment that will take to deploy a Fortigate UTM, or a Cisco ASA, also a Sophos UTM that are quite remarkable units but to pFSense saves you money and will … Incentivized Helpful? Paolo Daniele Senior Network Engineer Chose pfSense Real competition was between Pfsense and OpnSense that integrates first the bootstrap Twitter framework. But with OpSense there are configurations that create some problems with a specific client (we've experienced that by creating an IPSec tunnel both with OpSense and … Incentivized Helpful? Rikia Kosaka Senior Systems Engineer Chose pfSense I've used a number of routers like Cisco, Sonicwall, Juniper, Home based routers, etc. pfSense is like most routers but with the benefit of load balancing and multi-wan. Well many support multi-wan but load balancing is usually a separate device like an BIGiP F5 or Cisco CSS. Incentivized Helpful? Jim Nitterauer Senior Systems Administrator Chose pfSense Neither of the Cisco devices are designed to compete. pfSense does tons more. Incentivized Helpful? Richard Kiernan CTO and co founder Chose pfSense pfSense was chosen due to its excellent community support and forums Incentivized Helpful? LG Luiz Eduardo Garcia System Administrator Chose pfSense Both products listed above, are very great solutions, but payed ones. If you are looking for open source firewall solution, pfSense is the one. Based on FreeBSD, it has strong security features and is very easy to deploy, configure and manage. pfSense also plays network simple … Incentivized Helpful? JR Jerry Riggin President Chose pfSense Cisco is too complex to configure unless you are a security guru. Seme with Fortinet Incentivized Helpful?	Sophos Firewall Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Firewall Since we already utilize the Sophos Endpoint and its tight integration into their firewall, it was a no brainer to go with it. Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Firewall Very simple to manage, several features, and a report included. Incentivized Helpful? BB Baladas Bhoir Warehouse Executive Chose Sophos Firewall We decided to use Sophos XG Firewall because it is a reliable and reputed cybersecurity product. Incentivized Helpful? AB ABDUL HUSSAIN BAPUJI Network Engineer Chose Sophos Firewall We selected the Sophos Firewall because of its comprehensive security, ease of use, Scalability and increase the productivity. Incentivized Helpful? AC Aland Coons Service Manager Chose Sophos Firewall Very similar and I don't have to compete with Dell Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Sophos Firewall We have been a Sophos customer for the most part but i have seen some other offerings from SonicWall, Barracuda, and Cisco. While they all offer nice products, we've always been content with our Sophos XG firewalls, especially as they release more and more features/etc. Incentivized Helpful? RV Rahul Verma Network Consultant Chose Sophos Firewall I was a big fan of Cisco ASA products, but when I saw all of the security feature differences between both firewalls, I moved to Sophos devices. Its sandbox, IPS, and many more features are really advanced. Cisco does not provide features like this. Incentivized Helpful? BG Basant Gupta Executive System Admin Chose Sophos Firewall Cisco ASA is not [a] true next generation firewall if you want to protect from 7 layers and malware attacks then you need firepower services but this service is very costly. In Sophos all the advanced security features are [less] cost[ly]. Incentivized Helpful? PV Pretty Varughese IT Executive Chose Sophos Firewall Sophos XG Firewall provides easy integration with Active directory & LDAP Servers so that we can implement single sign on (SSO) for users. Also the content filtering & inspection feature protect us from bad actors. Incentivized Helpful? MG Mike Goularte IT Technician Chose Sophos Firewall The firewall that was in use at the first location before expanding was a cheaply made open source box that couldn't do much even as a basic firewall. We had looked at various companies but came to the conclusion that Sophos was the right fit for us and it has been that way for … Incentivized Helpful? NK nawas khan Network Engineer Chose Sophos Firewall It is to very little surprise that we selected Sophos UTM at our first use. Then, we upgraded to XG Firewall and the operation is very smoothly done. Incentivized Helpful?

TrustRadius Insights
	pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Highlights	Research Team Insight Published October 13, 2020 pfSense, from Netgate and Sophos XG Firewall serve as entry level firewalls or options for small and midsize businesses. The Sophos XG Firewall is a full-featured firewall bundling Sophos’ security software and appliances. pfSense is an open source software solution based on the FreeBSD OS. It can run on Netgate’s own SG & XG appliances, as well as deploy virtually on AWS or Azure or on commodity computers, transforming the machine into a small or home office firewall, for an almost no-cost solution. Sophos XG Firewall appears most in the middle-market, while pfSense appears most in budget constrained small businesses. They are competing solutions, however it is possible to use the Sophos XG Firewall for security with pfSense for other features like VPN, load balancing, etc. Sophos XG Firewall has a free “home” edition which may be useful for single branch businesses or home offices as a basic firewall on commodity hardware; this option presents a direct alternative to the open source pfSense. Features There are some advantages to using pfSense and Sophos XG Firewall. It is pfSense’s ease of use for ancillary firewall features where the solution shines. It has an effective and reliable VPN, and presents great NAT functionality. Its traffic control and load balancing are also excellent for the price point. For the middle market Sophos XG Firewalls present little downside. They are easy to set up with antivirus to lockdown malware. The UI is attractive, clear, and easy to navigate. Product users describe Sophos as a security leader that frequently updates and supports its products well. These updates make the Sophos XG Firewall an easy to use solution. Limitations pfSense and Sophos XG Firewall might not be the right choice for a network, as these are both mid-tier or entry level solutions. Additionally, pfSense is almost DIY, which can leave the administrator struggling to configure the security product as needed. There is little support aside from the open source community, and without enterprise grade support users are stuck with trial and error for complex set up and tasks. A sophisticated, patient user is a requirement to get the most out of pfSense. In contrast, Sophos XG Firewalls have complex licensing varying by feature and region, which may be difficult to track, but it may help keep overall costs down. Sophos XG Firewall users surface more specific complaints in complex use cases and deployments. For instance, reviewers cite lack of clear diagnostics, confusing configuration workflows, inadequate bandwidth throttling, and other general breakdown of administrator confidence. There may be a network complexity ceiling beyond which the Sophos XG Firewall is not ideal. Pricing pfSense is open source and doesn’t cost anything on its own. The only related costs are from associated hardware, or paying a little extra to find a sophisticated admin to get it to do what is required. Sophos provides pricing on request but their XG Firewalls are available from VARs and online resellers, and can run a small business about $300. Most models through the 200 and 300 product lines vary in cost from about $2k to $3k, while the high end XG 750 with 3-year fully featured UTM license (3-year) can be started now for about $90k. A license of some kind is required for NGFW features. Sophos’ associated EnterpriseGuard Plus license can be started for under $2000 (3-year license, XG135), to $21.5k (3-year, for the XG-430). For a home office, Sophos XG Firewall software can be installed on an Intel-compatible machine at no cost (it will overwrite any existing Operating System). This may be an option for small, single branch locations that want to set up basic firewall capabilities on commodity hardware, and provides a free trial to familiarize users with the product.

Features

pfSense

Sophos Firewall

Firewall

Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
	pfSense 7.6 Ratings 13% below category average	Sophos Firewall 9.5 Ratings 10% above category average
Identification Technologies	5.00 Ratings	9.50 Ratings
Visualization Tools	7.00 Ratings	9.60 Ratings
Content Inspection	4.00 Ratings	9.50 Ratings
Policy-based Controls	10.00 Ratings	9.70 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP	7.00 Ratings	9.60 Ratings
Firewall Management Console	9.50 Ratings	9.70 Ratings
Reporting and Logging	8.00 Ratings	9.60 Ratings
VPN	10.00 Ratings	9.70 Ratings
High Availability	10.00 Ratings	9.70 Ratings
Stateful Inspection	7.00 Ratings	9.60 Ratings
Proxy Server	6.10 Ratings	8.00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Small Businesses	Sophos UTM Score 8.1 out of 10	pfSense Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies	Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways Score 9.6 out of 10	Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises	Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series Score 10.0 out of 10	Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series Score 10.0 out of 10
All Alternatives	View all alternatives	View all alternatives

User Ratings
	pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend	9.6 (0 ratings)	9.5 (0 ratings)
Usability	10.0 (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Support Rating	- (0 ratings)	9.1 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	pfSense	Sophos Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend	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 Verified User Anonymous Read full review	It is well-suited for small, medium, and large organizations looking for comprehensive cybersecurity protection. It will not only safeguard their network from cyberattacks but also provide them with many advanced features like deep packet inspection, centralized management, web filtering, application control, etc. in one place. It will help them optimize bandwidth and ensure continued connectivity. Incentivized BB Baladas Bhoir Warehouse Executive Read full review
Pros	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 Allan Leung IT & T Manager Read full review	Web filtering. This allows us to monitor web usage and block certain categories from being access at the perimeter. Application Control. With application control we can block certain applications that get categorized from working accessing the Internet. Synchronized Security. When utilizing the Sophos Endpoint product you can use Synchronized Security to minimize Lateral Movement in a network. If a machine is shows a Red status you can auto-isolate it and it is unable to communicate with anything else on the network. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Cons	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 Aaron Smith Information Technology Manager Read full review	If using Endpoint security and the Firewall it would be nice to have an easier back and forth between the portals rather than have two separate tabs open. Especially if using more than one in multiple locations. If dealing with different revisions options are moved around and sometimes in places that doesn't normally seem like they should be there. Incentivized MG Mike Goularte IT Technician Read full review
Usability	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 Verified User Anonymous Read full review	Because this is a user-friendly interface, and anyone can use it there are multiple articles and guidelines available, it has advanced-level security features. they provide VPN solutions all the features are very practical, SSID MAC-based authentications web control, Firewall rules segregation of the rules and policies, On-premises Active directory single sign-on feature is also available. Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Support Rating	pfSense+ basic provides "As Available" email support. pfSense+ Pro offers 24 hr turn around email support. pfSense+ Enterprise offers 24/7 phone support. Incentivized Jerry Riggin President Read full review	As we are all addicted to graphics-oriented interfaces for all our life products. Easy to manage and access as a good way of using anything nawas khan Network Engineer Read full review
Alternatives Considered	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. Pablo Mojica Systems Administrator Read full review	I was a big fan of Cisco ASA products, but when I saw all of the security feature differences between both firewalls, I moved to Sophos devices. Its sandbox, IPS, and many more features are really advanced. Cisco does not provide features like this. Incentivized Rahul Verma Network Consultant Read full review
Return on Investment	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 Charles R. Coggins III Technical Support Specialist Read full review	True UTM device. Very Active customer help for any help. Easy license and cost effective. Should [do] more work on logging and reporting. Basant Gupta Executive System Admin Read full review
ScreenShots		Sophos Firewall Screenshots