Appgate SDP vs. pfSense

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Appgate SDP
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
AppGate SDP (software-defined perimeter) from Cyxtera Technologies headquartered in Addison is a zero trust network security product.N/A
pfSense
Score 8.7 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
Pricing
Appgate SDPpfSense
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
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
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Appgate SDPpfSense
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Appgate SDPpfSense
Features
Appgate SDPpfSense
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Appgate SDP
-
Ratings
pfSense
8.8
17 Ratings
3% above category average
Identification Technologies00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Visualization Tools00 Ratings8.714 Ratings
Content Inspection00 Ratings9.116 Ratings
Policy-based Controls00 Ratings8.617 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP00 Ratings7.613 Ratings
Firewall Management Console00 Ratings9.516 Ratings
Reporting and Logging00 Ratings8.317 Ratings
VPN00 Ratings9.017 Ratings
High Availability00 Ratings9.416 Ratings
Stateful Inspection00 Ratings9.915 Ratings
Proxy Server00 Ratings8.215 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Appgate SDPpfSense
Small Businesses
ThreatLocker
ThreatLocker
Score 9.4 out of 10
Sophos UTM
Sophos UTM
Score 8.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Score 8.4 out of 10
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Quantum Firewalls and Security Gateways
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access
Score 8.4 out of 10
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Appgate SDPpfSense
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(2 ratings)
9.3
(30 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Appgate SDPpfSense
Likelihood to Recommend
Appgate
It is best suited for larger companies with lots of remote workers that need complex access management. We've barely scratched the surface on what Appgate can do via its API.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
I believe PFSense is well suited for both home lab environments as well as up to small to mid-size business environments on a tight budget. However, I would implore that anything in production requires the use of the authorized hardware that PFSense sells to receive support. However, in my experience, PFSense is a solid set-and-forget firewall solution.
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Pros
Appgate
  • Software-Defined perimeter
  • Hide resources to non-authorized/authenticated users.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
  • 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.
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Cons
Appgate
  • Live logging in the client. Currently you have to "download" the logs into a zip file and then open that zipfile to look at the logs. There's no logfile to tail or watch.
  • Load balancing between controllers could be better. Currently relies on round robin DNS and sometimes a browser will pick a different IP than previous and you'll get a big "LOST CONNECTION TO CONTROLLER" message.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
  • I did kind of mention a Con in the Pro section with OpenVPN.
  • When I create a config for an employee other employees are able to login to that config.
  • I could be doing something wrong when I am making it - I am not afraid to admit that as I am pretty new to all of this, but it seems like it builds a key and I would think the key would be unique in some way to each employee, but I could be wrong.
  • I actually do not have a lot of Con's for this software - I did not get to set this up on our work network so I am not sure of any downfalls when installing.
  • I installed this on my personal machine in a Hyper-V environment to get a feel for it before I started working on it at work and it seemed pretty smooth. I didn't run into any issues.
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Usability
Appgate
No answers on this topic
Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
The pfSense UI is easy to navigate and pretty go look at. It is much better than some high dollar firewalls that just throw menus you you. The pfSense UI is quick and responsive and makes sense 99% of the time. Changes are committed quickly and the hardware rarely requires a reboot. It just runs.
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Support Rating
Appgate
The company has been supportive overall of our needs and desired features. I have not personally called the support services, but I've heard no direct complaints either.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
pfSense+ basic provides "As Available" email support. pfSense+ Pro offers 24 hr turn around email support. pfSense+ Enterprise offers 24/7 phone support.
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Alternatives Considered
Appgate
The existing system was FortiGate. The management of the system was a hassle. Because IT personnel had to manually create VPN accounts, user passwords were known to who created them and the end user did not have a way to change them. This created a security issue in the event an IT engineer left the company.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
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 interoperability, non-subscription based pricing, auditability, not relying on the infrastructure of a third party, more transparency of what's actually going on, easier to deploy replacements if hardware fails. Additionally, the NAT management for pfSense seems to be a bit better, as you can NAT between any network segment and not just the LAN segments out the WAN interfaces.
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Return on Investment
Appgate
  • We are achieving our goals with this tool by hiding resources behind it.
  • It is a new model that requires a different thought process for many in network operations.
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Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
  • pfSense can be installed on commodity hardware with no licensing fees. With a simple less than 10 minute restore time, on most hardware, it's an extremely inexpensive way to achieve the same results that some of the more expensive vendors provide.
  • The easy to use interface has allowed configuration management to be preformed by lower level technicians with quick and easy training.
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ScreenShots