MikroTik Routers and Switches vs. pfSense

MikroTik routers and switches are a reliable low cost products. due to their low cost they are very well suited for small businesses and medium businesses. In some cases even large enterprises are using these products because they provide lots of features at very low cost. However they are not suited to handle large amounts of traffic like at ISP core level.

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

• When you are creating a firewall filter rule on a router, the amount of options you have is incredible. For example, most other firewalls or routers will not give you the option to select a connection state, a packet size, specify the packet content etc.
• You can use the routers in transparent mode, when your router is placed in front of a customer firewall or customer router, allowing only the allocated public IP address to communicate with the Internet and allowing you to allocate a certain bandwidth or speed.
• The lowest end model routers have the same operating system, features as the more expensive ones making simple for us to test configuration on cheap equipment before commit to buy the more expensive one. The licensing model is very simple as well and easy to understand.
• The cheapest routers also come with one SFP port, which is great as it is allowing us to connect fiber straight into it. No extra PoE injectors and converter are needed, reducing the number of points of failure.

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

• Not every aspect of functionality is well described and that would be a point for improvement.
• There could be a tool for firewall testing.
• Open VPN should be more intuitive.

Incentivized

• There is no API for making changes. This can be a hindrance in environments where auto-deploying something needs firewall rules or HAProxy configs updated. Since all settings are stored in an XML file and then configs are generated from that, even manually updating config files cannot be done.
• Beware that some network cards can have issues. pfSense is based on FreeBSD, so it's best to look on their compatibility list before deploying.

Incentivized

Almost perfect, despite some issue that need to be addressed by the manufacturer. If this issue has been addressed, a full 10 mark will be given.

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

There is no SOC, NOC, where you can contact to try to resolve any difficulties. The problems that these devices have are solved largely through the community, with workaround alternatives, or if the support team responds to a request, the response times are too high for the current needs of technological communications.

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

Despite having a high cost, the possibility of using a low-end equipment with the operating system RouterOS to support the management of the MikroTik allowed this to prevail as an option like most of the solutions offered in the market, in addition to the possibilities presented for the support and the community information of the same they play important factors in the implementation and the taking of decisions.

Incentivized

PFSense is not a fully featured and supported enterprise-grade solution; however, it does offer a lot of similar functionality at a fraction of the cost for more minor requirements.

• Affordable, this really save budget a lot.
• Long lasting hardware, hardly no issue with the hardware even in 5 years in service.
• Flexible scripting enables more value added service can be offered.
• Mediocre Wi-Fi performance compared to competitors. For most scenario it's enough but for complex high-density scenario, it quite suffers.

Incentivized

• pfSense has only had positive impacts on our company. We are not a huge company so not having to buy licenses to get all these features have been excellent.
• I was not around when our current sysadmin decided to use pfSense, but I am assuming from day one it was probably a 100% return on investment since it does everything we need it to and it was open source software.

Incentivized