The Best Network Firewall Software in 2026
We researched network firewall software through official vendor websites, including pricing pages, plan tables, and product documentation. Products are ranked on the category’s core job, value for money, and verified features, helping buyers compare policy control, traffic inspection, threat prevention, deployment options, and network protection.
Our top picks
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Top ranked
9.4/10An enterprise firewall family combining application control, threat prevention and centralized management.
Pricing on request
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Runner-up
FortiGate#2 of 369.3/10A broad hybrid firewall platform for enterprises that need integrated network security and automation.
Pricing on request · 30-day trial
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Top-ranked free plan
Arista NG Firewall#8 of 369.0/10A flexible NGFW with a free tier and broad controls for small and midsize organizations.
Free plan · 30-day trial
Advertiser disclosure: iTechGuides is reader-supported. Vendors can pay for top positions in our rankings and for a place on other products' pages, and we may earn a commission when you click some links. Bought places stand at the number bought; this page and our disclosure say so. Paying vendors may get a fuller, more detailed review from our editors, and that review can change their score. How we rank.
The full ranking 36 tools, best first
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Best forEnterprises needing advanced threat prevention
An enterprise firewall family combining application control, threat prevention and centralized management.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.4/10★★★★★Visit site -
Best forHybrid enterprises needing broad security integration
A broad hybrid firewall platform for enterprises that need integrated network security and automation.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
Pricing on request · 30-day trial Our FortiGate verdict → Visit FortiGateFor vendors Sponsor this spot · #2 · $99/mo →9.3/10★★★★★Visit FortiGate -
Best forMature enterprises needing clustered firewalls
A broad network security platform for enterprises that need clustered, policy-driven gateways.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.2/10★★★★★Visit Check Point -
Best forDistributed teams using cloud-managed appliances
A broad hybrid firewall family for distributed teams that need centralized cloud management.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.1/10★★★★★Visit WatchGuard -
Best forHybrid networks needing SD-WAN and sandboxing
A broad firewall platform for hybrid networks that need SD-WAN, VPN, and sandboxing.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit Barracuda -
Best forHybrid enterprises needing SD-WAN and sandboxing
A hybrid NGFW for enterprises that need SD-WAN, inspection, VPN, and sandboxing.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit Forcepoint -
Best forCloud-first teams needing secure internet access
A cloud-native firewall for distributed teams that need centralized inspection and policy control.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit Zscaler -
Best forBudget-conscious teams needing a full NGFW
A flexible NGFW with a free tier and broad controls for small and midsize organizations.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit site -
Best forOrganizations wanting a free, extensible firewall
A free, extensible firewall with VPN, IPS, high availability, and centralized management.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit OPNsense -
Best forFree firewalling with broad VPN options
A free, open-source firewall with routing, three VPN technologies, and optional IPS packages.
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit pfSense -
Best forAWS-native network security at elastic scale
A cloud-managed firewall for inspecting and filtering traffic across Amazon VPC environments.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit AWS Firewall -
Best forAzure environments needing premium inspection
Premium Azure inspection with TLS filtering, IPS, and centralized management.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
9.0/10★★★★☆Visit Azure Firewall -
Best forHybrid networks needing HA and SD-WAN
A broad hybrid firewall platform for segmented networks, VPN, SD-WAN, and high availability.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit Stormshield -
Best forCloud-native L3/L4 perimeter filtering
A focused cloud firewall for global L3/L4 filtering, automation, and analytics.
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit Cloudflare -
Best forTeams managing Juniper firewall policies centrally
A centralized policy and operations layer for teams managing Juniper SRX firewalls.
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit Juniper -
Best forEnterprises needing deep traffic inspection and response
Deep inspection and centralized response for distributed enterprise networks.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit Forcepoint -
Best forOrganizations standardizing Sophos firewall operations
A centralized control plane for organizations managing multiple Sophos Firewall devices.
8.9/10★★★★☆Visit Sophos -
Best forOpen-source self-hosted firewall deployments
A free, self-hosted firewall with VPN, IPS, segmentation, proxy, and monitoring tools.
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit IPFire -
Best forDIY embedded-router firewall deployments
A flexible DIY router platform with firewall, NAT, and VPN capabilities.
- Site-to-site VPN
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit OpenWrt -
Best forEnterprises seeking an integrated cloud SASE service
A cloud-delivered SASE service combining branch connectivity, network security, and access controls.
8.8/10★★★★☆Visit Cato Networks -
Best forSecurity teams wanting AI-assisted NGFW protection
Broad enterprise firewall protection with AI-assisted inspection and centralized management.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
8.7/10★★★★☆Visit Sangfor -
Best forMid-market and enterprise AWS deployments
AWS-focused cloud firewall with deep inspection and an optional VPN add-on.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
8.6/10★★★★☆Visit Versa Networks -
Best forAlibaba Cloud-centered enterprise networks
Broad cloud-boundary protection for enterprises built around Alibaba Cloud.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
8.6/10★★★★☆Visit Alibaba Cloud -
Best forHuawei Cloud network perimeter protection
A Huawei Cloud perimeter firewall with inter-VPC controls and intrusion prevention.
- Intrusion prevention
8.5/10★★★★☆Visit Huawei Cloud -
Best forAppliance buyers wanting integrated SD-WAN security
A business firewall appliance range pairing SD-WAN options with layered security features.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
8.5/10★★★★☆Visit Zyxel -
Best forTencent Cloud users needing boundary firewall controls
Cloud firewall controls for internet, NAT, and VPC traffic, with tier-dependent IPS.
- SSL inspection
- Intrusion prevention
8.4/10★★★★☆Visit Tencent Cloud -
Best forHigh-performance routing and firewall specialists
A routing-focused firewall platform for demanding encrypted-traffic environments.
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
7.9/10★★★★☆Visit Netgate -
Best forAll-in-one UTM deployments
An all-in-one UTM gateway combining network protection, VPN, filtering, and visibility.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
7.9/10★★★★☆Visit Endian -
Best forOpen-source teams needing modern UTM features
A capable open-source UTM with broad networking, VPN and intrusion-prevention features.
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
7.8/10★★★★☆Visit NethSecurity -
Best forSmall networks wanting simple hardware firewalling
A straightforward appliance platform for firewalling, monitoring, VPN, and segmentation.
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
7.7/10★★★★☆Visit Firewalla -
Best forMac users controlling application connections
Detailed application connection controls for privacy-conscious Mac users.
7.6/10★★★★☆Visit Little Snitch -
Best forTeams that need secrets, not network firewalls
A strong secrets manager, but not a network firewall.
7.4/10★★★★☆Visit Google Cloud -
Best forOCI teams needing free secret management
A capable free secret-management service, but not a network firewall.
7.3/10★★★★☆Visit Oracle Cloud -
Best forTeams needing DNS rather than network firewalling
A managed DNS service for traffic steering and failover, not network firewall protection.
7.2/10★★★★☆Visit Oracle -
Best forSmall offices needing an integrated security appliance
An integrated firewall appliance family for small offices and branch networks.
- SSL inspection
- Site-to-site VPN
- Intrusion prevention
7.1/10★★★★☆Visit Check Point -
Best forCisco teams automating network infrastructure
Centralized Cisco network management with automation, assurance, and broad API support.
5.0/10★★☆☆☆Visit Cisco
No tools match those filters.
Compare at a glance
| # | Tool | Free plan | Paid from | Deployment model | Intrusion prevention | SSL inspection | Site-to-site VPN | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.4 | ||
| 2 | FortiGate | No | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.3 | |
| 3 | Check Point Quantum Security Gateway | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.2 | ||
| 4 | WatchGuard Firebox | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.1 | ||
| 5 | Barracuda CloudGen Firewall | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.0 | ||
| 6 | Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.0 | ||
| 7 | Zscaler Cloud Firewall | Cloud | Yes | Yes | 9.0 | |||
| 8 | Arista NG Firewall | Yes | $270/yr | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.0 |
| 9 | OPNsense | Yes | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.0 | |
| 10 | pfSense | Yes | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | 9.0 | ||
| 11 | AWS Network Firewall | No | $0.07/GB usage-based | Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | 9.0 |
| 12 | Azure Firewall Premium | No | Cloud | Yes | Yes | No | 9.0 | |
| 13 | Stormshield Network Security | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8.9 | ||
| 14 | Cloudflare Magic Firewall | No | Cloud | 8.9 | ||||
| 15 | Juniper Security Director | Hybrid | 8.9 | |||||
| 16 | Forcepoint Network Security Platform | No | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | 8.9 | ||
| 17 | Sophos Central Firewall Management | No | Cloud | 8.9 | ||||
| 18 | IPFire | Yes | Free | Hybrid | Yes | No | Yes | 8.8 |
| 19 | OpenWrt | Free | Hybrid | Yes | 8.8 | |||
| 20 | Cato SASE Platform | 8.8 | ||||||
| 21 | Sangfor Athena NGFW | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8.7 | ||
| 22 | Versa Cloud NGFW | No | Cloud | Yes | Yes | 8.6 | ||
| 23 | Alibaba Cloud Cloud Firewall | No | $420/mo | Cloud | Yes | Yes | 8.6 | |
| 24 | Huawei Cloud Firewall | No | Cloud | Yes | No | No | 8.5 | |
| 25 | Zyxel SD-WAN | No | Appliance | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8.5 | |
| 26 | Tencent Cloud Firewall | No | Cloud | Yes | Yes | 8.4 | ||
| 27 | Netgate TNSR | No | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | 7.9 | ||
| 28 | Endian UTM | No | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7.9 | |
| 29 | NethSecurity | Yes | Hybrid | Yes | Yes | 7.8 | ||
| 30 | Firewalla | No | Hybrid | Yes | No | Yes | 7.7 | |
| 31 | Little Snitch | No | €59 one-time | 7.6 | ||||
| 32 | Google Cloud Secret Manager | Yes | $0.03/unit/mo | Cloud | 7.4 | |||
| 33 | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Secret Management | Yes | Free | Cloud | 7.3 | |||
| 34 | Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DNS | No | 7.2 | |||||
| 35 | Check Point Quantum Spark | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | 7.1 | ||
| 36 | Cisco Catalyst Center | Hybrid | 5.0 |
Head-to-head All 28 comparisons →
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs FortiGate
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs Check Point Quantum Security Gateway
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs WatchGuard Firebox
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs Forcepoint Next Generation Firewall
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs Zscaler Cloud Firewall
- Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall vs Arista NG Firewall
- FortiGate vs Check Point Quantum Security Gateway
- FortiGate vs WatchGuard Firebox
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How we rank network firewall software
Every tool on this page was researched by iTechGuides Editors from its official website — pricing pages, plan tables and product documentation. We rank on how well each one does this category's core job, what the free or entry plan includes, and where it falls short. Where we have enough verified facts, the score out of 10 is a rubric — job fit, value and how much we could verify — shown with its breakdown on every tool's page; a tool we have not verified enough to score yet shows its rank without a number. Scores are re-checked when a product changes its plans. Read the full editorial policy, or submit a tool we missed.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Last updated · How we research and update