The best firewall for a small UK business (2026): an honest guide
Updated August 2026 · Written by the Firewall Buddy team — an authorised UK Netgate partner
How to actually choose (it's simpler than vendors make it)
Ignore the buzzwords. For a small business, firewall choice comes down to four things: how fast your internet is, how many people connect remotely, whether you have multiple sites, and whether anyone in-house will manage it. Everything else — VLANs, guest Wi-Fi separation, content filtering — every model below does as standard.
We sell Netgate appliances running pfSense Plus. One honest reason to consider them over big-brand alternatives: there are no recurring per-user or per-feature licences. The software, VPN, and security packages are included, and updates are free for the life of the device.
Our picks by business size
| Your situation | Our pick | Price inc. VAT |
|---|---|---|
| Home office / micro business (1–5 people) | Netgate 1100 — palm-sized, silent, ~4W | £234.00 |
| Most small businesses (5–50 staff, standard fibre) | Netgate 2100 — the UK small-business workhorse | from £318.00 |
| Multi-gig FTTP, multiple offices, heavier VPN | Netgate 4200 MAX — 2.5GbE ports, 3.2 Gbps IPsec | £546.00 |
| 10-gig fibre, larger office, heavy IDS/IPS | Netgate 6100 — 10GbE SFP+ uplinks | from £806.40 |
Prices correct at time of writing and include 20% VAT — live prices in our shop. Comparing models? See our 4200 vs 6100 deep-dive.
What about the router your ISP gave you?
ISP routers do NAT and not much else. They rarely offer proper VPN for home workers, no intrusion detection, no VLAN separation for guest Wi-Fi or card machines, and firmware updates arrive on the ISP's schedule, not yours. If your business handles customer data, takes card payments, or has anyone working remotely, a dedicated firewall is the single biggest network-security upgrade you can make — and it starts at £234.00.
Nobody technical in-house? That's fine
This is exactly what our services exist for. We'll pre-configure your firewall before it ships or set it up remotely — fixed-price setup from £149 inc. VAT including firewall rules, guest network, DHCP/DNS and a plain-English handover. Moving from an existing SonicWall, DrayTek, WatchGuard or FortiGate? Our migration service (from £399) re-creates every rule and VPN and cuts over out-of-hours with a rollback plan. And if you'd rather never think about it again, monthly management starts at £49.
Two-minute quiz, or email us a quick description of your network and we'll give you an honest recommendation — even if it's the cheaper model.