Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG) vs Aruba (HPE) 9004 Gateway: Specs & Price Comparison

Ubiquiti Enterprise Fortress Gateway (EFG)

★ 4.9 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 23.5 Gbps (routing, iPerf3, DHCP WAN)
Threat Prevention Throughput: 12.5 Gbps (IDS/IPS)
IPsec VPN Throughput: 580 Mbps (site-to-site, single tunnel)
Max Sessions: 1,000,000 concurrent
New Sessions/sec: 71,000 (listed under general capacity; not specific to VPN or IPsec)
Interfaces: 2x 2.5GbE RJ45, 2x 25G SFP28, 2x 10G SFP+ (some listings show 2x RJ45 + 4x SFP28; verify against the Ubiquiti datasheet)
Form Factor: 1U rack-mount, dual hot-swappable PSUs
SSL/TLS Inspection Concurrent Sessions: 10,000 (5,000 recommended under heavy traffic)
CPU / Memory: 18-core ARM v8.2 @ 2 GHz, 16 GB DDR4
UniFi Capacity: 500+ UniFi devices, 5,000+ clients

✔ Pros: 25G SFP28 and 10G SFP+ uplinks at a gateway price point; 23.5 Gbps routing throughput; 1 million concurrent sessions; 18-core ARM CPU with 16 GB RAM; hot-swappable redundant PSUs; supports 500+ UniFi devices and 5,000+ clients; manages through UniFi Network controller with a single pane of glass
✘ Cons: IPsec VPN throughput of 580 Mbps is low for a gateway at this price; IDS/IPS throughput of 12.5 Gbps halves routing performance when threat inspection is enabled; SSL/TLS inspection is limited to about 10,000 concurrent sessions; port configuration differs across listings and should be verified; frequently out of stock at major US retailers, with a $170 memory surcharge at some resellers; no built-in Wi-Fi, so it depends on separate UniFi APs and switches; reviewers cite a steeper learning curve than consumer-grade routers
Est. Price: $1,999 - $2,892

Aruba (HPE) 9004 Gateway

★ 4.0 Value Score

Firewall Throughput: 2 Gbps (datasheet, mobility controller mode); some retailer listings show 4 Gbps and marketing text cites up to 6 Gbps. Conflicting across sources; verify against the SKU's current datasheet
Threat Prevention Throughput: Not published in the sources reviewed
IPsec VPN Throughput: Not clearly published; 4 Gbps wired bridged throughput and 2 Gbps AES-CCM encrypted throughput listed in some datasheet versions
Max Sessions: 32,426 active firewall sessions (older datasheet); 64K (later datasheet); 128K datapath/firewall sessions (HPE 9000 Series sheet). Conflicting across versions
New Sessions/sec: 130,000 session creation rate (HPE 9000 Series sheet); not confirmed in other versions
Interfaces: 4 x 1GbE RJ45 (GbE copper)
Form Factor: Compact desktop/appliance with optional rack mount kit
Max Concurrent Clients: 2,048
Max Supported APs: 32
Concurrent IPsec Sessions: 2,048
Concurrent SSL VPN Sessions: 2,048
GRE Tunnels: 544

✔ Pros: Compact, low-cost branch gateway for small and remote sites; Supports up to 2,048 clients and 32 APs from one unit; Integrated Aruba controller/gateway functions with 2,048 IPsec and SSL VPN sessions; Four GbE ports cover typical branch WAN and LAN uplinks; Regional SKUs (US, EG, IL, JP, RW) and a TAA-compliant variant are available for compliance needs
✘ Cons: Published firewall throughput figures conflict across datasheets and retailers (2, 4 and 6 Gbps); Threat prevention throughput and new sessions/sec are not clearly published; Only four GbE ports and no multi-gig or SFP uplink options; Throughput is modest for higher-bandwidth branch or data-center use; Superseded by newer HPE Aruba Networking gateway platforms; Reseller prices vary and are not a manufacturer list price
Est. Price: $1,511 - $1,831

PACKETPERF