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Hillstone CloudEdge vs OPNsense comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Hillstone CloudEdge
Ranking in Firewalls
44th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.8
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
OPNsense
Ranking in Firewalls
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Firewalls category, the mindshare of Hillstone CloudEdge is 0.5%, up from 0.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OPNsense is 7.2%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OPNsense7.2%
Hillstone CloudEdge0.5%
Other92.3%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

Albert-Wang - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Consultant at SiS Technologies
Comprehensive cloud security with robust threat protection and VPN capabilities
Hillstone CloudEdge is compatible with all the mainstream public cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud. This solution has a unified OS system for security products, ensuring that the virtual firewall has similar features to the on-premise solutions. Important features include a VPN, VTech VPN, SSL VPN, QoS, antivirus, threat protection, and sandbox capabilities.
PM
IT Manager at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Open-source firewall has provided affordable real-time protection and secure remote access
In my opinion, OPNsense could improve by incorporating either an open side of wireless management or a way that you can also manage your interconnected devices. You could easily have SNMP, Simple Network Management Protocol, incorporated in it so that you can easily manage the devices and easily get the information about the devices that you are managing. Additionally, the inclusion of Pi-hole would allow you to create an ad-free network instead of adding it on a separate device. I would prefer that incorporated into OPNsense, or if it is there, I would appreciate guidance on how to use it.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Hillstone CloudEdge is compatible with all the mainstream public cloud providers, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Alibaba Cloud."
"I'd rate the solution nine out of ten."
"The solution is very easy to download and configure. The initial setup was very easy. The technical support is very good."
"I would recommend this product to any business that wants to protect its cloud environment, cloud server, or on-premises virtual servers."
"The solution is user-friendly and easy to configure."
"URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me."
"What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
"One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful."
"Offering this solution has provided some of our clients with firewall protection and UTM, which basically just protects them from the internet."
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
"The tool's integration is more like a button press."
 

Cons

"There is room for improvement in AI features, particularly for zero-day attacks and providing maintenance guidance."
"The solution needs more granular level reporting on system usage."
"The only thing that I would like to see improved is the Insight or the NetFlow analysis part. It would be good to have the possibility to dig down on the Insight platform. Right now, we can easily do only a few analyses. If this page becomes more powerful, it surely will be a well-adopted platform."
"OPNsense struggles to handle large volumes of voice traffic, indicating scalability issues in that specific use case."
"On the customer-side, because I'm a small business, I need a cheaper or free solution option."
"An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently. DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution. pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense."
"OPNsense can be improved by making it more user-friendly, as its current UI is not that user-friendly when compared to paid software such as Sophos."
"I think the most important thing is that it should be easily accessible, but currently, that doesn't seem to be the case. We need a hardware platform that's based on common standards and open computing principles, which would be like a commodity and benefit us greatly."
"The solution could be more secure."
"The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is not an expensive product. Basically, I deployed it because it was the fastest solution to satisfy our needs in open source."
"The price of OPNsense is good."
"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, especially considering the availability of a free community edition."
"OPNsense is a well known open-source tool."
"The solution is not expensive."
"OPNsense is an open-source solution and it is free to use."
"It is a free solution, and when you compare it to alternatives like FortiGate, which is quite powerful but also costly, the value becomes evident."
"I've used the free version. My computer with two network cards at home allows me to try as many different software options as I want. I did pay for the license, but it was for the Zenarmor license, which is the packet inspection tool. They use AI for packet inspection, which integrates with OPNsense and pfSense."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
18%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business32
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Hillstone CloudEdge?
There is room for improvement in AI features, particularly for zero-day attacks and providing maintenance guidance. More AI features would be beneficial.
What is your primary use case for Hillstone CloudEdge?
Our primary use case is to provide cloud-based security solutions for customers using public cloud platforms. We distribute Hillstone CloudEdge and work with its various solutions to ensure securit...
What is the difference between PfSense and OPNsense?
Two of the most common and well recognized firewalls, PfSense and OPNsense both support site-to-site IPsec VPN and client, Open VPN and client, and PPTP client. Both also have intrusion detection a...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for OPNsense?
Setup cost is almost zero as one can simulate the whole environment using open source version. Pricing seems fair enough. Open source license allows a beginner to have a complete firewall solution ...
What needs improvement with OPNsense?
When I talk about VPN, I am not completely satisfied with the VPN functions of OPNsense. What I have received so far is that sometimes the VPN route caches for some time and sometimes I want to cha...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

LinkTime
1. Deciso B.V. 2. iXsystems, Inc.  3. EuroBSDCon  4. Netgate  5. Claranet  6. Voleatech  7. Open Systems AG  8. Securebit AG  9. Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH  10. AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH  Additional customers include: T-Systems International GmbH, Deutsche Telekom AG, Vodafone GmbH, 1&1 IONOS SE, OVHcloud, Hetzner Online GmbH, Strato AG, PlusServer GmbH, Host Europe GmbH, United Internet AG, 1&1 Versatel Deutschland GmbH, QSC AG, Bechtle AG, Cancom SE, Computacenter AG & Co. oHG, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH, Atos SE, Capgemini SE, Accenture plc, IBM Corporation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, Cisco Systems, Inc.
Find out what your peers are saying about Hillstone CloudEdge vs. OPNsense and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.