pfSense vs OPNsense – Best Open Source Firewall

In the home lab and open source community, there are two firewall solutions that seem to get everyone’s attention when it comes to running an enterprise-grade firewall that is free. That is pfSense and OPNsense. Both of these solutions are excellent for protecting your home network and even enterprise environments. Let’s take a look at pfSense vs OPNsense and see the pros and cons of each solution.

What is pfSense?

pfSense is a free and open-source firewall solution based on the free and open source operating system called FreeBSD. It offers a lot of features, including the following features:

• stateful firewall

• network address translation (NAT)

• virtual private network (VPN) support

• traffic shaping

• graphic user interface

The community of users running pfSense is quite large and the home lab community has definitely embraced it as well. You can view the official website for pfSense here:

• pfSense® – World’s Most Trusted Open Source Firewall

Features of pfSense

Note the following major features of the pfSense firewall solution:

1. Firewall: Control over network connections and efficient packet filtering.

2. QoS: set priorities on bandwidth, and manage network congestion.

3. Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP): Detect and block malicious network traffic

4. VPN: site-to-site connections with OpenVPN, IPsec, Wireguard, and L2TP protocols.

5. DHCP Server and DNS Resolver: Manage IP address assignments and domain name resolution within the network.

6. IPv6 Support: Comprehensive support for the new IPv6 addressing scheme.

7. Network Address Translation (NAT): Translate and route traffic between different IP address spaces.

8. Reporting and Monitoring: Gain insights into network performance, usage, and potential issues.

9. High Availability and Failover: hardware redundancy and configuration synchronization.

10. Extensibility: You can add capabilities through plugins, third-party packages, and APIs.

Cons of pfSense

Some users may find the interface (UI) less intuitive and slightly outdated than OPNsense and a bit more dated. Additionally, pfSense’s community-driven development model can lead to slower adoption of new features. OPNsense has a more structured release cycle that many like better than pfSense.

The pfSense platform may be a little more difficult to maintain. However, experienced network and firewall admins generally love pfSense. It does have a wealth of features, capabilities, “nerd knobs,” and other components.

What is OPNsense?

OPNsense is actually a fork of pfSense. The developers of pfSense had a disagreement over the product at the time and split. OPNsense was born. It is based on hardened BSD. OPNsense has a focus on code quality and security. Many find it a bit more user friendly than pfSense.

It has an active development community and a growing user base, especially among the home lab community. You can download OPNSense and learn more about its features from the official link here:

• OPNsense® a true open source security platform and more – OPNsense® is a true open source firewall and more

Features of OPNsense

Some of the key features of OPNsense include:

1. Stateful firewall: Like pfSense, OPNsense offers a stateful firewall

2. Network address translation (NAT): OPNsense supports NAT

3. VPN support: OPNsense supports various VPN protocols, including IPsec, OpenVPN, and L2TP eect

4. Intrusion detection and prevention: OPNsense includes an intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS)

5. Traffic shaping: OPNsense offers advanced capabilities, enabling users to prioritize bandwidth

6. Reporting and monitoring tools: OPNsense includes reporting and monitoring tools

7. Multi-language support: OPNsense supports multiple languages

Cons of OPNsense

One of the cons with OPNsense is its hardware compatibility. Many find it may be more limited than pfSense. It is said to have a less frequent releases for security updates, which some have compared to pfSense and its more aggressive security releases.

Comparing pfSense vs OPNsense

One major difference is their underlying operating systems. pfSense is built on FreeBSD and OPNsense uses HardenedBSD. This is a security-focused fork of FreeBSD.

Main Differences Between pfSense vs OPNsense

Comparing the user interface of pfSense vs OPNsense

The user interface is important to many. OPNsense has a clean, more modern interface than the interface of pfSense.

On the other hand, pfSense’s interface is more traditional, and some find it less intuitive.

Plugins

pfSense has a larger library of plugins and add-ons. Many like the fact they can find the solution they may be looking to add to their pfSense firewall with little effort.

However, this can also increase the changes of seeing security or code quality issues. Not all plugins have the same testing and support before being released.

On the other hand, OPNsense takes a more conservative approach to plugins. It prioritizes security and code quality over the number of available plugins. In the minds of many, it leads to a more stable and secure platform with fewer options to choose from.

pfSense vs OPNsense VPN capabilities

Both pfSense and OPNsense offer VPN support, including easy OpenVPN client setup, IPsec, and L2TP.

However, some users may find OPNsense’s VPN implementation to be more user-friendly and easier to configure.

Comparing more features between the two

Wrapping up

Both pfSense and OPNsense have great features. Either firewall can be a good solution for a firewall in your environment. Many like OPNsense better for the look and feel of the product. However, pfSense has great features like quick security releases and it has been around forever. Either way, you won’t go wrong with either pfSense or OPNSense to protect your network.