P
PFortinet (FortiGate) vs Netgate pfSense
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
F
Choose Fortinet (FortiGate) if…
- you're in its core audience: enterprise it and security teams, small and midsize businesses
N
Choose Netgate pfSense if…
- you need an API to build on
- you want to trial it before paying
- you work on Self-hosted
- you're in its core audience: home and pro-home users, small and medium businesses
Side by side
Feature Fortinet (FortiGate) Netgate pfSense
Pricing modelContact for pricingFree trial
Starting price—$10.75/mo
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
PlatformsWebWeb, Self-hosted
CompanyFortinetRubicon Communications LLC (Netgate)
Full feature lists
F Fortinet (FortiGate)
- FortiGate next-generation firewall appliances, virtual and cloud firewalls
- FortiOS operating system across products
- Secure SD-WAN and unified SASE with universal ZTNA
- FortiGuard subscriptions: IPS, antivirus, URL and DNS filtering
- SIEM, SOAR, NDR and SOC-as-a-Service
- Cloud security including CNAPP and WAF
- Ruggedized products and OT security services
- Centralized management and GenAI for NOC
N Netgate pfSense
- Stateful firewall with rule-based traffic filtering
- Routing with traffic prioritization and dual WAN failover
- Site-to-site and remote-access VPN, including IPsec
- High availability with CARP
- Add-on packages for IDS/IPS, block lists and content filtering
- Web GUI management
- Deploy on appliances, bare metal, VMs, AWS or Azure
- TNSR router scaling to 100 Gbps with RESTCONF API
Their home pages
What each vendor shows first: the pitch, the plans and the sign-up.
Fortinet (FortiGate) · fortinet.com
What you'd pay
The cheapest plan that fits, per month, billed yearly where the plan offers it.
Fortinet (FortiGate)
Contact for pricing. Plan details aren't published.
Netgate pfSense
Software (3rd-party hardware)$129/yr
Cloud (AWS/Azure)$0.08/hr–$0.40/hr
Netgate ApplianceFrom $189
TNSRContact sales
Strengths and limitations
Fortinet (FortiGate)
- Wide portfolio covering firewall, SD-WAN, SASE, cloud and SOC
- Firewalls offered as appliance, virtual, cloud or as-a-service
- Named a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Hybrid Mesh Firewall
- Free training and on-demand labs offered
- No public pricing; quotes come through sales or resellers
- Aimed at organizations rather than individual users
Netgate pfSense
- No feature or throughput upcharges on pfSense Plus
- Software licence starts at $129/yr for third-party hardware
- pfSense Plus is included free with Netgate appliances, which start at $189
- Free 30-day trial on cloud marketplaces
- TNSR pricing is only available through sales
- TNSR has no web GUI and is managed through a CLI or the RESTCONF API
- Phone and priority support require paid TAC subscriptions
More comparisons
Other options to consider
PP
Contact
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Enterprise network, cloud, identity and SOC security platforms with AI
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C
CGlobal network for CDN, DDoS protection, Zero Trust and serverless compute
Free, from $5/mo
C
Free, from $5/mo
C
Global network for CDN, DDoS protection, Zero Trust and serverless compute
DDoS protection & WAFFree plan
Facts from each vendor's public pages, prices checked Nov 13, 2026. Editorial policy