pfSense Reviews

Hardened out of the box. Easy to configure. Based on open source instead of a proprietary OS.

I have had software updates brick the firewall to the point I had to completely reload and restore from backup. A lot of the more robust features have to be installed through additional packages.

It allows me to provide a robust firewall option to my clients without breaking the bank.

- pfBlocker with advanced firewall features

- DNS resolver with Unbound

- advanced network segmentation (sorry, but we need something in addition for that)

- certificate management with LetsEncrypt and acme

- advanced HAproxy capabilities (we need secure access, right?)

- advanced IDP/IDS features, like suricata (although some argue about it usefulness, but better to try it first personally and then judge).

- squid. Everyone loves Squid.

- exceptional technical support

traffic balancing and automated failover.

It's not that I don't like it, but I wish the installation was a little easier, let's take UDM pro as an example.

Tech infrastructure is no longer “not our business.” Needless to say, the cornerstone of any infrastructure is the gateway, preferably an enterprise-grade one. And "enterprise grade" doesn't mean we have to break the bank to get Aruba or Cisco for our home lab. Netgate with pfSense+ is an affordable enterprise alternative that allows you to experience most of the features required by demanding customers, asking for enhanced protection of their OCP/K8s clusters

It's a very efficient firewall and network management platform. I much better protected with this than with my ISP's router. Give me a lot more flexibility on how I want to segment my network. The TAC Lite support that comes with the appliance is great, the team is very fast to respond and resolve issues almost always on the first email.

It's a bit complicated to setup but with some good research it's easy to find answers. There is a great community supporting it.

Achieve proper security with the increasing number of smart wifi devices on networks. I want to keep my personal devices secure and make sure my smart home doesn't turn on me ;)

Customer support and the product information in website

Some packages are tough to run on 1 GB devices. Maybe some lighter version of package need to be developed.

I am using 1100, for a 50 number of user it is managing my network effeciently

Fast, reliable hardware with always up-to-date feature rich software.

not widely promoted or available in my region (to be specific in Malaysia/South East Asia).

Over the years I have used various open source softwares with PC and Server hardware but was disappointed with difficult to learn software, not enough community support, lack of features and updates. Until I discovered Netgate pfsense by watching Tom's videos on Youtube (Lawrence Systems). I was influenced by Tom and how he reviewed the product, so I searched and found a local vendor selling the product.

I replaced my old hardware and software with Netgate 6100 appliance, I use it in a multi WAN enviornment supporting about 30+ users on LAN.

Netgate always provides timely updates and support is top notch.

As MSP, we rely on pfSense and Netgate in many scenarios. Of all the pfSense deployments we have, we are maybe 50-50 on the Netgate Hardware vs. our own phisical/virtual appliances. It is just so versatile and we can deploy it easily in any oocasion, on demand. Software and its capabilities is no doubt one of the biggest reasons we stick with it but Netgate's amazing support is definitely the reason we keep coming back. I don't think I had a ticket wait more than one hour for a response even for devices without valid support contracts. I also rarely need to exchange messages with the support more than twice per incident. I am truly amazed by their knowledge of the product(s) they are supporting.

Centralized management and high availability could get tricky at times.

Remote access. site to site connectivity

So far I have not found a feature that is missing. Jan helped me realize many new functions.

It is very intuitively managed.

I don't have antivirus features.

It is a pity that there are no new versions for 32 bit machines.

---

I can't send a dashboard screenshot.

This feature does not work.

He provided us with stable work and VPN tunnels for remote work during the pandemic.

Easy to operate and manage. Not expert knowledge is required. A lot of addons avaiable. High stability. easy to deployment and extend security. easy monitoring in cluded.

Sometimes when somethins is wrong deep troubleshooting is needed. There is lack of cleaning procedure, of failure services, to easiest reinstall services, and addons

Trustfull gateway, remote access by vpn. anti-virus scan improve feeling that we did what we could to protect us. Last time, blocking Geo-IP from dangerous regions.

The best thing about pfSense is the support team. I am a small business and manage my own tech, and the willingness of the support team to communicate with and educate someone in my postion is noteworthy.

I have not experienced any downside.It may seem overwhelming to a non tech end user but that is my fault not the product.

There were three instances I can remember that Netgate customer service solved for me.

1.There were mulitple power outages and the multiple cylces stopped my 3100 from working and requried a highly technical work around that customer service walked me through and solved.

2. The unit was dropped and the plastic cover was damaged and I was shippped a new cover no charge.

3. I was setting up a port forward so that I could view my surveillence NVR on the road. My ISP was blocking all traffic and even though there were no issues with the 3100 Netgate support helped me find a work around.

We're able to feel confident about the security and performance of our network. We know pfSense defaults to secure configuration and know exactly what we've configured.

There is no central management at this time. While not a big lift for our team, we do have to deploy changes to 11 locations individually.

The lack of layer 7 filtering sometimes makes it challenging to block unwanted traffic, but PfBlocker does most of what we need.

We're able to connect our locations securely and in a high performing fashion. We use Netgate pfSense as our firewall, router and DHCP server.