Cisco 1000 Series Integrated Services Routers (ISR 1000) vs. pfSense

This is effective for businesses who need a network solution that works more or less out of the box, without having to coordinate multiple additional devices in the configuration process. Correspondingly, users with needs for more advanced functionality or configurability, or modification may benefit from a different model or different product line.

Incentivized

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

• Seem to be well made and quality hardware and software
• Setup is simple and has a great wizard for initial config
• Well priced for a product in its category

Incentivized

• 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

• Right now in the ASR nine twenties, we're having an issue with its shooting out power adapter errors when there really isn't any. And we're not really sure we're working with Cisco Tex to see if it's a bug and if there's a bug fix.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

Based on the Cisco brand reliability and outstanding support

Incentivized

I would rate these routers useability as 9/10 - I've designed and deployed Cisco solutions for the last 20 or so years, so, therefore, know what I am buying and try to get an understanding of the capabilities before deploying. The Cisco 1000 series Integrated Service Router is a rock-solid investment with great throughput "out of the box".

Incentivized

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

We found it always available with limited to no downtime

Incentivized

Excellent performance, no reported issue by the users

Incentivized

With any Cisco product, you are very well supported by the Technical Assistance Centre (TAC). This is one of the major plus points when selecting Cisco networking products - working in IT for the last 20years you soon appreciate that it is impossible to know everything and that there are people within Cisco you can lean-on when you need assistance.

Incentivized

pfSense+ basic provides "As Available" email support. pfSense+ Pro offers 24 hr turn around email support. pfSense+ Enterprise offers 24/7 phone support.

Incentivized

It was very helpful

Incentivized

The implementation basically works, you configure it and it's easy to use, the problem with implementation using this kind of products is the fact that complex things require very complex configurations and the troubleshooting is too complicated due to a missing web interface or missing integrations that simplify that part. troubleshooting consist only in debugging via CLI.

Incentivized

These devices are still supported unlike most ISR800's, faster and cheaper than ISR 4000's. They are a true all in one box solutions. The IR1800 and IR1100 are great for DC power solutions, but are costly if environmentally hardened devices are not required. Coupled with a low cost, what is not to love.

Incentivized

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.

Very Fair

Incentivized

We found it reliable and on par with what we expected

Incentivized

• Once they are installed they just work. Even when a device enters EOL/EOS they keep chugging along.
• Good lifetime - they don't retire models so often that you can't keep up.
• Good extended support, this allows us to keep them in place as long as possible (or practical) and increases our ROI.

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized