Netgate pfSense Reviews & Product Details

pfSense is very light weight and simple to deploy. It meets the needs for nearly all firewall needs. Community support is very deep and if there has been a question previously asked the Community usually has already answered it. If you are concerned about its open source roots in a production environment you can rest assured that you always have TAC support. TAC support is very knowledgeable and they have the answers. They don't guess or use trial and error methods to solve your problems. The integrations with pfBlocker, OpenVPN and HAProxy make the firewall much more useful without additional costs. Our company install pfSense nearly everywhere because it’s easy to use and it works. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I haven't found a significant dislike to pfSense. I suppose the biggest hurdle when deploying pfSense firewalls is dispelling the myth that all open source software is somehow inferior to commercial alternatives. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Stable routing and firewall solution, supporting HA, IPv4+6, boot environments, multiple routing alternatives, DoH and DoT, Wireguard and other VPN solutions. Firewall supports interface-based rules in addition to address-based ones, which is essential when WAN addresses or GUAs are dynamic. Freedom in selecting hardware platform, either Netgate's or third-party. Boot environment support makes it simple to switch between releases and configurations. Well-documented with a helpful community in addition to paid support. Integrates easily with Layer 2 switching and AP solutions from other vendors. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Nothing. Even the smallest pfSense+ deployments require a yearly fee. pfSense CE is available for those who want a fee-free solution. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

For us the pfsense makes the maintenance work of our external endpoints very easy to comprehend. We sadly had a crashing pfsense hardware but luckily we had a recent backup, we restored the backup to the new hardware and just like that we were up and running again. We were in contact with support to get a new firmware for another one and the support is fast and very informative. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It can sometimes be hard to fine-tune settings for very specific needs, but that is most likely a lack of competence on our side. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have deployed 6100's in secure facilities and small businesses a like and im constantly impressed with the robustness not only of the software, but also the support model. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

A few lacking "features" to make administration on mass is a niggle, nothing major Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The fact that the product has been in production for a long time and its origins are in open source. I used it in its infancy when it was called m0n0wall. Then the product grew and transformed into pfSense, and now with the appliances, it is the best option for enterprises. The ability to add packages and the ongoing maintenance show improvements version by version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I only see one issue with pfSense. This is the lack of MFA to administer the GUI. We have the radius that works well in user validation for VPN and WiFi; but still no MFA for the admin. You can have your admin network and limit where the administrators log in, but it is still missing. The big issue is that some Cyber insurance companies are requesting that as a must in any appliance, and the fact that there is nothing makes the system non-compliant. This is not complex to deploy on pfSense. Every day I see more and more companies asking for it, and there is basically no good response on this matter. I really would like this to be included in the product in the next release. Right now, over the EU and North America, we have a lot of companies pushing for this on their devices. This is something that I believe should be addressed with a high level of importance. I have customers close to changing platforms because something so basic for them is not there. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is an open source based piece of hardware which is high performance and easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There is a fairly steep learning curve before you can use it most effectively. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Ease of use, Sense of security, and lots of add-on's to grow into later on. Configuration is relatively easy once you learn what its about and have some hands on experience. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Updates happen about 3x per year and Im not sure if that is enough in todays environment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

PfSense has helped me and the companies I've worked with in many ways as general firewall solution as specific requirements. From complex datacenter applications to simple on-premises firewalls at branch offices. It always works and is simply the best bang for the buck. Ready to use PfSense+ appliances have gotten better and better over the years and are my preferred choice over de community edition. Community edition is still a good choice for specific needs or low budget requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There are no specific functions I dislike, but there is always room for improvement :) I can't really point out anything specific at this point. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Easy to install and use. Reliable. I have 4 sites set up for NAT, DHCP, and Site-to-Site IPSec tunnels, and they work great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Needs Wireguard support integrated as a first-party feature, not an add-on. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

1) The software is open-source, so I could learn/play with how it works first. I could then decide if I wanted to move forward in using it.

2) It was easy to use.

3) There was tons of good documentation and even youtube videos on every feature I was interested in.

4) The support is awesome, I got a reply in 30 mins, on a Sunday on a long weekend to a ticket I submitted. The reply was from someone who actually read the ticket! (so rare on a ticket system's first response). The back and forth was precise and knowledgeable, I understood my problem and the solution straight away. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I've had a version upgrade that remotely fails, so kept working, just didn't upgrade, and needs an onsite visit to manually backup the configs, connected a USB stick with the latest firmware, and a console cable to wipe and install the new version. Not ideal as I have a fair number of remote customers. However, I'm hoping this is a one-off situation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.