pfSense is the most widely deployed open-source firewall and router platform, developed by Netgate, running stateful firewalling, VPN termination, and routing on commodity or appliance hardware. Intrusion detection, web filtering, and other capabilities are added through packages such as Suricata and Squid rather than bundled as a next-gen suite. The Community Edition is free; Netgate sells appliances, the Plus edition, and support. It suits network teams and labs that want full-control perimeter security without licensing costs.
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Overview
- Founded
- 2004
- Pricing tier
- Low
- Startup-friendly
- Yes
- Enterprise-ready
- No
Network firewall & SASE
- Next-gen firewall
- No
- SASE
- No
- Secure web gateway (SWG)
- No
- CASB
- No
- ZTNA included
- No
- SD-WAN
- No
- Cloud-delivered
- No
- Free tier
- Yes: Community Edition fully free; Netgate appliances/Plus edition paid.