Software Alternatives & Reviews

pfSense VS SonicWall

Compare pfSense VS SonicWall and see what are their differences

pfSense logo pfSense

pfSense is a free and open source firewall and router that also features unified threat management, load balancing, multi WAN, and more

SonicWall logo SonicWall

SonicWall security solutions protects your network, systems, users and data from cyber threats.
  • pfSense Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-20
  • SonicWall Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-22

pfSense videos

pfsense Firewall Setup and Features in Depth Version 2.4

More videos:

  • Review - Pfsense: 5 Reasons to Use It
  • Review - Netgate SG-3100 Teardown / Speedtest / Review of this powerful pfsense packet pusher!

SonicWall videos

SonicWall SOHO 250 & TZ350 Review: An Overview of Features, Benefits & Specs

More videos:

  • Review - SonicWall NSa 2650 Review: An Overview of Features, Benefits, & Specs
  • Tutorial - Dell SonicWall TZ400 nsa Small Business ssl VPN Firewall - How to sonicwall tutorial setup

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to pfSense and SonicWall)
Cyber Security
73 73%
27% 27
Monitoring Tools
57 57%
43% 43
Firewall
0 0%
100% 100
Perimeter Security And Firewalls

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare pfSense and SonicWall

pfSense Reviews

Best pfSense Software Alternatives and Competitors
pfSense Software firewall is a robust, open-source security solution that is compatible with any hardware and can be tailored to meet your specific needs. It is a widely used technology, and many individuals seek dependable, popular software solutions with multi-device support, multiple concurrent connections, and protocol selections. Despite its usefulness, pfSense has...
The Best Open Source Router OS Software for Large or Small Networks
pfSense is a free and open-source router and firewall operating system based on the FreeBSD operating system. It is designed to be used on standard x86 hardware and can be deployed as a virtual machine or on dedicated hardware. pfSense offers advanced features and capabilities that are typically found in commercial routers and firewalls, making it an ideal solution for small...
Best free Linux router and firewall distributions of 2023
pfSense is one of the most popular operating systems today. It's a BSD-based system, similar to OPNSense, but with a longer history. pfSense started in 2004, and since then, it has grown to be the most well-known open-source platform in the industry. Although it gradually loses users to OPNsense, it's still an excellent system for new users because it has the most extensive...
Source: teklager.se
11 Best pfsense Alternatives To Secure Your Network
Unlike those of other available pfSense competitors, its capabilities allow it to be compared to commercial firewalls. You can also customize the pfSense firewall to match your needs based on the level of security and protection you want, as well as your specialist knowledge.
Top 7 pfSense Alternatives
Wait, I said alternatives to pfSense so what is this doing on the list? pfSense Plus recently forked away from pfSense community edition (CE). Over time pfSense Plus and pfSense CE will continue to diverge. pfSense Plus is expected to have more features.

SonicWall Reviews

We have no reviews of SonicWall yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, pfSense should be more popular than SonicWall. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

pfSense mentions (10)

  • Need some help on setting up home network
    Https://pfsense.org (netgate hardware is used in businesses). Source: about 1 year ago
  • Is pfsense.org down, or is it just me?
    I am having trouble seeing available packages, updating pkg, or getting a response from pfsense.org. Is anyone else seeing this or am I going to spend the rest of my day chasing bugs? Source: over 1 year ago
  • Help with VLAN
    From the PIA Client to pfsense.org PING pfsense.org (208.123.73.69) from 10.6.112.128: 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=0 ttl=49 time=49.455 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=1 ttl=49 time=51.927 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=2 ttl=49 time=49.333 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=3 ttl=49 time=49.133 ms 64 bytes from 208.123.73.69: icmp_seq=4 ttl=49 time=49.027 ms ... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Can Surveillance Station record offsite cameras ?
    The above setup is critical to a reliable system. I'd use enterprise quality routers for a store and home connection. I personally use https://pfsense.org but there are many to choose from and several open source. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Exposing Synology to web: best/practical practices?
    What I would do is put that thing in DMZ and install a good router behind it like https://www.pfsense.org. No affiliation, just been my router for many years. There's also it's sibling https://opnsense.org. There are many, just get a enterprise quality router. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

SonicWall mentions (2)

  • firmware updates
    Are there any way to download firmware updates from sonicwall.com without having registered equipment on your account? I am able to find the product > firmware I am looking for but the buttons are grayed out. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Is Sonicwall doing somethign fishy with CFS?
    It sounds like since the user can't hit sonicwall.com for a reply the request is failing and not passing traffic and redirecting to walmart.com. Source: over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing pfSense and SonicWall, you can also consider the following products

MikroTik RouterOS - The main product of MikroTik is a Linux-based operating system known as MikroTik RouterOS.

Comodo Firewall - Comodo Firewall Pro - Secure your system against internal attacks such as Trojan viruses /...

OPNsense - OPNsense® you next open source firewall. Free Download. High-end Security Made Easy™. Offers Intrusion Prevention, Captive Portal, Traffic Shaping and more.

Emsisoft Online Armor Firewall - Emsisoft Online Armor Firewall is a freemium online firewall protection system by the Emsisoft that is based on the own independent protection technology of the Emsisoft.

OpenWrt - OpenWrt is an open-source firmware based on Linux for wireless routers

WatchGuard - Award-winning solutions that are easy to deploy and manage, making enterprise-grade security accessible to any organization regardless of size or expertise.