The world of IT accessories is full of choices that sometimes you can only do the best by trial and error. However, it is always a good solution to use the experiences of others. When it comes to the mere matter of network equipment, reviewers have a lot to assert and discuss; some people think it is better to go by Mikrotik; unconvinced others maintain that pfsense is a better choice, having been around more so consequently, there are more documentation and the like. These products have great flexibility and power that are always improving. But even though one is a commercial product, the other is considered an open-source one.
Let's see what features each one has.
Mikrotik—Pros and cons
One of the best points that Mikrotik Manufacturer routers have is that they are diverse, and from home use to enterprise use, this brand offers choices, active in IT and its hardware. This Latvian company was founded in 1996 and is considered one of the giants of the ISP systems market and the routers required by the modern IT world.
- The chief product of the brand is a dual-band 2.4/5 GHz base station powered by a powerful built-in sector receiver, PoE support, Gigabit Ethernet and SFP.
The main features of the product include:
- Configuration,
- Firewall,
- Routing,
- MPLS,
- VPN,
- Wireless,
- DHCP,
- Hotspot,
- Quality of Service,
- Proxy.
Overall, it is proved that Mikrotik provides customers with all the features needed for network administrators to establish online safety and hardware immunity and monitor the networks. This suits companies of various sizes, from small to town-like ones like Meta! The solution is ideal for dishing out Wi-Fi hotspots, connecting multiple servers, setting up firewalls and VPNs, and distributing bandwidth. Some of the features the thing has are as follows:
- Stateful packet inspection;
- Layer-7 protocol detection;
- Peer-to-peer protocols filtering.
Considering all the above, it is appropriate that you include this Latvian option among your shopping priorities. Providing this part is one of the services that will not be challenging for us at a modest price.
- The software of this widely used piece works under Linux, which is based on the Linux kernel.
As a final point, at odds with all the advantages, it has its drawback: when there is high traffic of users, it may trouble you and be insufficient. However, the good user experience it provides may be an unrivalled advantage, at least until further notice.
Seamlessly integrate with various Linux-based applications and enjoy the flexibility to scale resources as required. Take advantage of the opportunity to buy a Linux VPS from 1gbits and unlock a world of possibilities for your online presence.
Pfsense—Pros and Cons
pfSense is a kind of firewall and load management digital product, available on the open source pfSense community edition; likewise, there is a licensed edition, pfSense Plus—known as pfSense Enterprise in retrospect. The product provides a combined firewall, VPN, router functionality etc.
pfSense Plus product can also be configured to function as an anti-virus proxy using the HAVP package.
- Antivirus proxies do like traditional web proxies, except when they scan all content passing by through the proxy for virus or malware signatures.
That this product is free and available to everyone, you might think it does not compete with commercial and paid products. Your assumption is wrong. It is an ideal home-based product, replacing older, expensive options. The popularity of this product among all users looking for such a solution among other competitors has been reported at about 52%. This multipurpose firewall can be economical for medium, large, and small businesses.
One reason it is the current choice; it offers several VPN features: IPsec, OpenVPN, WireGuard and L2TP. This section helps with an overview of a VPN option that best fits a categorical environment.
One potential disadvantage of using PfSense is that it can be complicated to be configured, crucially if you're unfamiliar with firewall architecture. Moreover, although PfSense offers a wide range of options, some users may find the User Interface and the experience of doing with that too overwhelming or disturbing.
Our personal experience says that PFSense can always be a part of the solution, while many of the options we have had to use for years have themselves become part of the problem.
The main difference between Mikrotik and pfsense
Both Mikrotik and pfsense, have good packet filtering aptitudes. Although, RouterOS for Mikrotik are significantly based on packet filtering, which requires developers to adhere to and consumes a lot of time, perspiration and resources to its packet filtering operation to make it more effective than the packet filtering provided by ordinary pfsense routers.
Furthermore, some experts say that pfsense is more of a Security appliance that runs additional security options at the top of the Firewall like IPS/IDS, AMP, etc. Mikrotik is bigger than a Networking stack workaround from Switches, APs, PtP and PtMP wireless links and Routers with a custom kernel and includes third-party free software packages for additional functionality.
On the other side, MikroTik RouterOS has an empowered firewall operation with features, including stateful packet inspection—layer-7 protocol detection. Peer-to-peer protocols filtering.
As a final point, MikroTik offers more granular flexibility at the cost of usability, while pfsense offers a smoother yet rough user interface.
And at the end, reviewers decided to do business with pfsense at the end of the day. They felt that pfSense obviates the needs of their business better than other products.
Final Words
Here, we've covered a lot of things in this short content, so you know what to choose for your home or workplace regarding Mikrotik or pfsense. What you should choose is not something we can decide upon without knowing the specific needs of your workplace or home office. You can contact our experts for more. Also, we offer service packages that you should be sure to consider.
People also read:
