pfSense vs. Untangle NG Firewall

pfSense

pfSense

72 Reviews and Ratings

Untangle NG Firewall

Untangle NG Firewall

19 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
Untangle NG Firewall	Score 9.3 out of 10	N/A	Untangle NG Firewall is an open-source firewall and gateway security platform. It offers a free core firewall platform with paid add-ons, and a cloud-based management platform with a variety of deployment options for smaller teams.	$0 free under the GNU General Public License (GPL)

Pricing

pfSense

Untangle NG 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

Open Source Firewall: $0.00
free under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
NG Firewall Complete: $25.00
per month
z4 appliance: $299
one-time purchase
z4w appliance: $329
one-time purchase
z4 Plus appliance: $399.00
one-time purchase
z6 appliance: $1199.00
one-time purchase
z12 appliance: $1999.00
one-time purchase
z20 appliance: $3499.00
one-time purchase

Offerings

Pricing Offerings
pfSense	Untangle NG 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

—

—

More Pricing Information

Community Pulse
	pfSense	Untangle NG 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?	Untangle NG Firewall Verified User Anonymous Chose Untangle NG Firewall Untangle is easier to use and a bit more reliable. Plus the support is very good. Incentivized Helpful? Bryce Holland IT Director Chose Untangle NG Firewall I could never come close with these two products to the level of functionality and security I have with Untangle. Simply put, there is absolutely no contest. In addition, the cost of these other solutions was many thousands more than the academic cost for Untangle. Many times … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Untangle NG Firewall pfSense and Fortinet FortiGate Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Untangle NG Firewall Simple GUI interface and can run on your hardware a.k.a. old servers with 2 or more NIC's. Incentivized Helpful? Matthew Ingram Owner Chose Untangle NG Firewall Untangle NG Firewall has a partnership with third parties to provide an amazing suite of applications. You pay for those. With free software, you have to wait for it to be updated. With Unifi, the hardware was too underpowered to do anything meaningful. I don't mind the monthly … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Untangle NG Firewall NG Firewall was much more friendly in terms of layout and ease of use, the apps section is familiar to anyone and the config while in a sort of odd order is very clearly laid out. I also appreciate Untangle's endless educational videos and the support can't be beat. Overall … Incentivized Helpful? Verified User Anonymous Chose Untangle NG Firewall We selected untangle NG due to the flexibility, and the rack based architecture. Period. Incentivized Helpful? Ken Thomas Systems Technician Chose Untangle NG Firewall The Untangle NG Firewall is way more intuitive but the last barracuda I used was almost 8 years ago. Incentivized Helpful? Gary Lamontagne Network and Systems Administrator Chose Untangle NG Firewall We looked at Sonicwall Web Content Filtering Services that can be added to our SonicWall firewall by purchasing a license. Untangle offered more functionality that solved a few of our problems at a cheaper price. Untangle offers a non-profit discount for 501c3 organizations … Incentivized Helpful?

TrustRadius Insights
	pfSense	Untangle NG Firewall
Highlights	Research Team Insight Published April 24, 2020 PfSense and Untangle NG are competing firewall solutions with options for SMBs, remote workers and home offices, as well as larger campuses, designed to help users manage and protect their networks against attacks (e.g. phishing, malware). PfSense software is available through an open source Community Edition, or the pfSense Plus licensed edition. These can be bundled with relatively low priced Netgate pfSense security gateway appliances, priced and oriented around the needs of small to medium sized businesses and branch offices. Untangle, also catering to small businesses, offers a collection of NG Firewall Apps to give users custom, a la carte protection, that provides the user just what his small businesses needs, without undue cost and bloat. Untangle also offers their z series appliances that come pre-loaded with NG Firewall, packaged and ready for small businesses. There is also a higher tier edition for corporate campuses and data centers. Features PfSense and Untangle NG Firewall support core network security features such as spam or GeoIP blocking, VPN functionality, WAN balancing, etc. but users describe a few standout features that distinguish them from each other, though bear in mind these are similar entry level network security options, equally well regarded. PfSense has a strong and helpful open-source community, with plenty of documentation and expertise available online to get users started. The open-source Community Edition of the product is serviceable, and with it companies with niche security needs can customize a solution to fit their distinct requirements at little cost, low resource usage, and on commodity hardware if desired. PfSense has libraries of free and purchasable add-ons that add new features and extend on basic functionality. Its VPN and load balancing are favored. Untangle NG Firewall apps share a UI that is easy to work with, and notably Untangle apps also work well with the user’s choice of hardware, from commodity to enterprise (e.g. Cisco) appliances, or Untangle’s own budget friendly z series. Implementing Untangle is easy. Particularly, Untangle NG Firewall’s web filtering feature is very well regarded, and allows administrators to selectively block portions of a website without blocking the entire site. Users report helpful, responsive support from Untangle’s customer assistance team. Limitations PfSense and Untangle NG Firewall have much in common as full featured open source firewall solutions with free options and are highly rated, but they have limitations to consider before choosing one over the other. PfSense’s wide array of open-source add-ons can be a strength and a weakness. Administrators using PfSense add-ons must continually check for updates to maintain their system. Since add-on developers are under no obligation to continue development, critical add-ons may be deprecated without warning and with no guarantee that others will continue development. Some users find PfSense’s UI dated, hard to navigate, and difficult to learn for new users. Implementing PfSense as a free solution may require more technical knowledge than some users have, removing the free option for businesses without the expertise. Untangle NG Firewall offers limited documentation in comparison to PfSense, and a few have said Untangle apps can be resource-intensive. Finally, Untangle NG Firewall hasn’t offered a wide variety of VPN features in the past. However, recent updates to the software have added new, streamlined VPN options and improved existing VPN functionality to give users faster, more stable VPN connections. While available at lower cost than strictly enterprise-focused security options, Untangle pricing can increase steeply for the user on a budget. Pricing PfSense is open-source and available for free download. The vendor also offers a wide variety of pre-configured hardware, ranging from $179.00 to $5,298.00. Additionally, PfSense is available in a cloud-based service, starting at $0.08 per hour. Cloud-based pricing varies depending on whether you use AWS or Microsoft Azure. Contact the vendor for a customized quote. Untangle NG Firewall offers a free 14-day trial. Their Complete package starts at $25.00 per month and includes all of the product’s features and functionality for up to 12 licensed devices. Pricing for the Complete package varies depending on the number of licensed devices. The z series appliances are available from $299 for the branch office z4, and range to z20 campus edition, coming in at $3499.

Features

pfSense

Untangle NG Firewall

Firewall

Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
	pfSense 7.6 Ratings 13% below category average	Untangle NG Firewall 8.2 Ratings 5% below category average
Identification Technologies	5.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Visualization Tools	7.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
Content Inspection	4.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Policy-based Controls	10.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP	7.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Firewall Management Console	9.50 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Reporting and Logging	8.00 Ratings	7.00 Ratings
VPN	10.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
High Availability	10.00 Ratings	9.00 Ratings
Stateful Inspection	7.00 Ratings	8.00 Ratings
Proxy Server	6.10 Ratings	8.00 Ratings

Best Alternatives
	pfSense	Untangle NG 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	Untangle NG Firewall
Likelihood to Recommend	9.6 (0 ratings)	9.0 (0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew	- (0 ratings)	10.0 (0 ratings)
Usability	10.0 (0 ratings)	- (0 ratings)
Support Rating	- (0 ratings)	7.7 (0 ratings)

User Testimonials
	pfSense	Untangle NG 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	Midsized business is where I have used it. Have used it to connect to other Untangle boxes across town and in other countries with NO issues and works with MS Domains across these VPN connections. Probably less appropriate for small home networks or large businesses. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous 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	The firewall is easy to set up and manage. The open VPN while not as feature rich as some other options is rock solid and consistently needs nothing The web filter app is great, it's easy to block broad categories or specific things as well as white list whatever is needed. Support is responsive and accurate. 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	The UI could be a little flashier. Getting your license file moved from one firewall to another can be tough at times... but support is great if you need it. Ability to upload reports to a portal versus getting them emailed would be best (some reports can get 100+ Mb depending on all the bells and whistles). Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
Likelihood to Renew	No answers on this topic	Service renewal is in Feb 2021. We will be renewing! Verified User Anonymous 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	Generally works well but seeing more and more bugs with the OpenVPN app. Incentivized 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	The phone support reps are highly competent and native-English speakers. big plus vs some other vendors with difficult to understand or less knowledgable support engineers. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous 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 could never come close with these two products to the level of functionality and security I have with Untangle. Simply put, there is absolutely no contest. In addition, the cost of these other solutions was many thousands more than the academic cost for Untangle. Many times have I experienced threats and inappropriate content passing through these other products. All of that was stopped the moment I implemented Untangle, even before I started to customize the settings. Incentivized Bryce Holland IT Director 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	Easy setup and implementation made ROI easy to achieve. An Untangle HA solution is 1/2-1/3 the cost of a comparable Cisco/Checkpoint/Palo Alto solution. non-business internet usage has nearly ground to a halt. SD-WAN integration made it easy to connect branch offices quickly without complicated IPSEC configuration. Incentivized Verified User Anonymous Read full review
ScreenShots