pfSense vs. Smoothwall UTM

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
pfSense
Score 9.2 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
Smoothwall UTM
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Smoothwall UTM is a firewall security suite for educational environments. It includes the standard firewall services, as well as load balancing, and has hardware and software deployment options.N/A
Pricing
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Editions & Modules
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
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
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
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Considered Both Products
pfSense

No answer on this topic

Smoothwall UTM
Chose Smoothwall UTM
Smoothwall is a system that is cheaper than just a free license due to being a Linux distribution. Simplewall is a bit more for robust equipment or large networks.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
pfSense
7.6
11 Ratings
11% below category average
Smoothwall UTM
9.3
1 Ratings
9% above category average
Identification Technologies5.110 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Visualization Tools7.08 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Content Inspection4.111 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Policy-based Controls10.011 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP7.09 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.510 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.011 Ratings9.01 Ratings
VPN10.011 Ratings10.01 Ratings
High Availability10.011 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Stateful Inspection7.011 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Proxy Server6.011 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Small Businesses
Sophos UTM
Sophos UTM
Score 8.9 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Likelihood to Recommend
9.7
(24 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
pfSenseSmoothwall UTM
Likelihood to Recommend
Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
Because pfSense is built around open source software, it is very convenient to be able to deploy in the event of hardware failure. We once had a client with a proprietary router that failed. While the router was under warranty, the expected time for the new router to arrive was about 2 weeks. We decided to implement pfSense for the client as a stop gap and ultimately ended up deploying the full enterprise appliance. Being able to get up and running using commodity hardware was a huge win for the client. We've also had a great amount of success deploying pfSense hardware at apartment complexes. The DNS resolver works great and we've had no issues handling multiple VLANs with various DHCP scopes on it. Finally, we've had clients that require having a failover cluster. Utilizing the built in CARP capabilities, we've been able to provide a very robust failover system that requires little maintenance and no downtime in the event of equipment failure.
Read full review
Smoothwall
After a year of using the Smoothwall UTM Firewall solution, we can say that it is a secure solution, it offers a graphical interface for configuration and access with easy understanding and usability, the security features and blocking of url and applications work very well and also protects against malware and ransomware. For small and even intermediate scenarios I recommend it, but not for very large scenarios. Licenses can be renewed and are priced very well compared to competitors.
Read full review
Pros
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.
Read full review
Smoothwall
  • easy to manage by its web platform that allows quick access to system functions
  • allows the administration of the company's network by creating IP navigation permissions to prevent access to unprotected pages
  • this system can be installed on computers with very few resources and even with old equipment just by adapting an additional network card. This is helpful for companies that are starting and do not have much capital to invest but need to protect their systems
Read full review
Cons
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.
Read full review
Smoothwall
  • Rare problems have been noticed when there are many connections at the same time.
Read full review
Usability
Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
The interface is simple, has sane defaults, and is consistent throughout.
Read full review
Smoothwall
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
While you can get the performance out of other products, pfSense offers the unique ability to put other services on the same device. Products such as Untagle's NG Firewall and SonicWall's TZ series offer cost effective options for firewall and VPN services, having incoming load balancing and connection proxies on the same device as the firewall offers extremely easy configuration and day to day management of network services
Read full review
Smoothwall
Smoothwall is a system that is cheaper than just a free license due to being a Linux distribution. Simplewall is a bit more for robust equipment or large networks.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Netgate (Rubicon Communications, LLC)
  • Using pfSense has allowed us to build a professional network in our small office without needing a lot of proprietary hardware, saving thousands of dollars in IT infrastructure investment.
  • The cost for using pfSense is free, so it's a great option for those who don't have a large IT budget
  • pfSense utilizes all of the industry standard services to provide all of it's functionality, so support for service-level issues is readily available
  • Because of how much work has been put into pfSense to make it rock solid and reliable, we're able to support our network with minimal IT staffing, saving us thousands of dollars/year in personnel alone.
Read full review
Smoothwall
  • Internal network security and intruder protection for a cost-effective solution.
  • The solution contributed and greatly reduced malware attacks and ddos ​​attacks.
  • Reports allowed more accurate analysis.
Read full review
ScreenShots