I am using it for personal use.
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Wide set of features with easy disaster recovery
What do you like best about the product?
For us the pfsense makes the maintenance work of our external enpoints very easy to comprehend. We sadly had a crashing pfsens hardware but luckely we had a recent backup, we restored the backup to the new hardware and just like that we where up and running again. We where in contact with support to get a new firmware for another one and the support is fast and very informative.
What do you dislike about the product?
It can sometimes be hard to fine tune settings for very specific needs, but that most likely lack of competence on our side.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
A competent loadbalancer for http traffic and wireguard VPN.
Great experience and great hardware
What do you like best about the product?
The first upside of using pfSense is of course the ease of use, and the great interface. It may not be as complete as what Palo Alto offers for example but realistically, the price range is not the same.
What do you dislike about the product?
I have to say, I don't really like the firewall logs, I think there is room for improvements like for example pagination on live monitoring.
It would be awesome to see an application based firewall, even if it comes with a specific version of pfSense.
It would be awesome to see an application based firewall, even if it comes with a specific version of pfSense.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
pfSense permits me to have a VPN connection to my home network while I'm elsewhere and I need to get a specific file, or just want to browse the internet without ads. It also gives me the ability to open ports (for example for game servers with friends) and to do strict firewall rules.
Enterprise & Small Business ready
What do you like best about the product?
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.
What do you dislike about the product?
A few lacking "features" to make administration on mass is a niggle, nothing major
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Multi Tenant buildings with fail over, CE+ secure networks for CNI and List X solutions
Best and only firewall used for our business and our clients
What do you like best about the product?
Simplicity yet powerful tools to configure the Firewall. Intuitive.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometime the Firmware updates tend to brick the device
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The range of harware to fit the size of the buinsess.
Easy to setup and understand. Lots of features.
What do you like best about the product?
It has ALOT of the capabilities I am looking to deploy all in a single box.
What do you dislike about the product?
I am still having issues with multiple wireguard tunnels. Reverted to openvpn.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Multiple egress routes based on rules.
Vpn using MFA and certificates.
Vpn using MFA and certificates.
Great alternative to edge firewalls / routers
What do you like best about the product?
pfSense has great documentation and even better support. Even TAC Lite users get to enjoy pretty much immediate professional support with staff based in Texas!
Setup is quite simple. Very sensible defaults out of the box. Uptime is pretty much determined by the frequenc of updates. It's rock stable and solid!
Setup is quite simple. Very sensible defaults out of the box. Uptime is pretty much determined by the frequenc of updates. It's rock stable and solid!
What do you dislike about the product?
Prices of their lower end appliances perhaps.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Netgate appliance with pfSense+ as my Edge firewall.
Full featured Layer 3 Solution for SME Networks
What do you like best about the product?
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.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing. Even the smallest pfSense+ deployments require a yearly fee. pfSense CE is available for those who want a fee-free solution.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Switched to pfSense+ primarily for full-featured v6 support: GUAs + ULAs, interface-based firewall rules that enable firewall rules to track dynamic GUAs. Was previously using another vendors integrated L2+L3 solution. pfSense makes it simple to combine its powerful L3 features with other vendors L2 solutions.
Good performance, reliable, and open source
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It is quite easy to manage firewall rules and policies in pfSense. It is not the most user-friendly, but it gets us there. We have to be sure of all the things that we are activating, but it is easy. It is alright.
What is most valuable?
Open source and support are valuable. I have community support.
Its performance is good. It is reliable. I would rate it a solid nine out of ten for performance.
What needs improvement?
There are several levels of firewall configuration such as beginner, advanced, and expert configurations. At each level, it becomes more complex and more tricky to set up the firewall. For example, if you want to install the firewall on your computer system, it would be a lot easier if it just tells you that this is the internet NIC and this is the Wi-Fi NIC.
It would also be interesting if we could add an interface for DNS versions. It will be a multisystem to make all the blocks of the DNS. I know that firewalls are different from DNS, but if we could take advantage of everything in a single system, that would be lovely.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using pfSense for half a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. I would rate it a nine out of ten in terms of stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe it is scalable. If I need more computers with more NICs, it is scalable, but it is not something related to pfSense.
How are customer service and support?
The support that I have is community support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use WatchGuard Firebox. It is different from pfSense. I have Firebox on a rack mount server on a cabinet, whereas pfSense is on my computer, so it is quite different because I can use any kind of hardware to implement the firewall.
Firebox can make an open-source version, but that is not the target of the company. pfSense is doing a great job because they have covered both situations. They have an open-source version with community support, and if we purchase the license for hardware, we can also get support from their side. In the long run, pfSense has more advantages.
If I go to a company and they ask me to implement something, I would most definitely go with pfSense. Its price is lower. I have a great knowledge of pfSense. I can very easily find support in the community, and if the company buys a license, I can get support directly from pfSense. I believe it is a win-win for pfSense and for the customers.
How was the initial setup?
I am implementing it in two phases. In the first phase, it was implemented directly on hardware on an old computer with five NICs, and everything went smoothly. The second stage is virtualizing this machine into a Proxmox server, which is a bit more tricky. It is quite difficult to make it work on the NIC hardware system.
The first phase is very easy. It is almost plug-and-play. We just have to install it and activate the NICs. Everything will go smoothly. The second phase is not easy because I have to make double configurations on Proxmox and on pfSense. I would rate it an eight out of ten in terms of the ease of setup.
In terms of our environment, I have one computer connected directly to the Internet's router, and then all the information is passed through and managed, so I can filter everything by MAC address in my network. I have it on one computer, but my whole network is using it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use the free version.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it. For personal use, it is a great way to start. For companies, it is a great add-on. Companies can get support by buying the license.
I would rate pfSense a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Great pleasure to work with Netgate
What do you like best about the product?
We start with community products (pfSense virtual machine) and now with hardware products.
With two products, even with free version, we have lot a features, easy support and great fiablilty.
We has some issues but support come back quickly to us.
With two products, even with free version, we have lot a features, easy support and great fiablilty.
We has some issues but support come back quickly to us.
What do you dislike about the product?
Some issues with update (hardware don't restart after update) or update was not detected by products...
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Great firewall with a lot of features (NAT, GeoIP, IP Reputation, ...)
VPN support compatible with Fortinet VPN
VPN support compatible with Fortinet VPN
Using pfsense for more then 10 years
What do you like best about the product?
Open source, stable, has everything you need or may need
What do you dislike about the product?
Not being used lot by business also no image for raspberry pi
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Firewall, vpn for users,site to site vpn, and many more.
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