Google Cloud Firewall Policies vs Gufw

Google Cloud Firewall Policies provide hierarchical firewall rules for organizations that need to apply controls across an organization or selected folders. Rules can allow or deny connections, or pass evaluation onward to lower-level policies or VPC firewall rules. A hierarchical policy becomes active only when associated with an organization or folder; it cannot be assigned directly to a project. Rules can target VPC networks and VM service accounts, but not instance tags. When configured with a security profile group, matching traffic can be sent through a firewall endpoint for Layer 7 inspection, including URL filtering and intrusion detection and prevention. Administrators can manage policies in the Google Cloud console or with gcloud CLI; Google also documents Terraform support for rules with logging enabled. Logs are available in Cloud Logging and can be exported to its supported destinations. Identity and Access Management roles govern policy permissions. Essentials rules based on standard network attributes are free; hierarchical policy charges are listed per covered VM and depend on rule-attribute count.

Gufw is a free, GPL-3.0 graphical interface for Ubuntu’s Uncomplicated Firewall, or UFW. It lets users configure TCP and UDP port rules with Allow, Deny, Reject and Limit actions. Enabling the firewall sets incoming traffic to Deny and outgoing traffic to Allow by default, while UFW’s preconfigured programs and services simplify rule creation. Gufw is Linux software and an on-premises tool described by Ubuntu documentation as suitable for beginners. Installation uses the gufw package from the Universe repository. Gufw 14.10 or later can show a Routed option for forwarding rules when IP forwarding is configured. Version 13.10.2 or later supports remote use through an exported X display. The Ubuntu guide warns that enabling the firewall over SSH before adding an SSH rule can close the connection. No paid plans or usage limits are stated, and no multi-vendor support is listed.