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NGINX API Gateway vs OPNsense comparison

 

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

NGINX API Gateway
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
API Monitoring Software (2nd)
OPNsense
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Firewalls (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

NGINX API Gateway and OPNsense aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. NGINX API Gateway is designed for API Monitoring Software and holds a mindshare of 14.8%, up 12.2% compared to last year.
OPNsense, on the other hand, focuses on Firewalls, holds 8.9% mindshare, down 10.9% since last year.
API Monitoring Software Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
NGINX API Gateway14.8%
Postman Enterprise35.4%
AlertSite18.0%
Other31.799999999999997%
API Monitoring Software
Firewalls Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OPNsense8.9%
Fortinet FortiGate16.0%
Netgate pfSense8.3%
Other66.8%
Firewalls
 

Featured Reviews

M.A. Faisal - PeerSpot reviewer
General Manager at bKash Limited
A scalable and affordable solution that performs well and provides excellent technical support
If we publish API or GET requests, sometimes someone can do a POST request of the API. Such security violations are not visible in the product. Other solutions provide such security features. The product does not provide visibility into the security loopholes in the authentication and authorization mechanism. The product must improve its security features. It has protection capabilities, but it must provide better visibility on the dashboard. The dashboard must be improved a lot.
Moutaz Sheikh Alard - PeerSpot reviewer
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Has helped simulate enterprise security setups and strengthens network segmentation practices
For my capstone, I use OPNsense for my project and its broader benefits for enterprise and cybersecurity context. OPNsense is an open source based firewall and routing platform. It offers enterprise-grade features such as intrusion detection and prevention system, VPN support, traffic shaping, and web filtering, all without license cost. This platform has a modular design, a clean web-based GUI, and frequent updates that prioritize security and usability. It competes with commercial firewalls such as Cisco ASA, FortiGate, and Palo Alto, but stands out because it's community-driven, cost-effective, and transparent. I find OPNsense's feature of acting as a central firewall and gateway most valuable, providing robust point segmentation between the internal network and DMZs in my capstone project, intrusion detection to monitor malicious traffic, VPN services for secure remote access, and logging and monitoring for compliance and auditing. This allows me to simulate a real-world enterprise environment on a smaller scale, demonstrating both security hardening and network efficiency. OPNsense impacts my projects and home network positively because its cost-effectiveness is perfect for lab and enterprise setup without expensive licensing. The flexibility, easy VLAN and DMZ configuration supports different zones such as web servers, mail servers, and log servers. The security-first design for IDS/IPS integration helps me showcase modern defense-in-depth strategies. The user-friendly management through the web GUI makes it possible to manage complex firewall rules clearly, which is critical when documenting and presenting a capstone. Scalability is also an advantage. Although my project is lab-based, OPNsense can scale into production deployments in SMBs and enterprise.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"API routing is the most valuable feature."
"We do not face any lags."
"We use it for container deployment, mostly for Kubernetes, and sometimes we also use it for testing purposes as I am using it for my own personal learning purposes."
"It's easy to install, and the performance is good."
"The system in general is quite flexible."
"The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
"I find everything valuable in OPNsense; the configuration and reporting aspects are what we require, reporting on user access and data consumed is fascinating in OPNsense, and the configuration offers a clear idea of everything that I have configured in DHCP."
"The interface and the dashboard are the most valuable features of this solution."
"I find the solution to be user-friendly, with a lot of reports and easy settings."
"It has an open license, it works very well, and there is an update every month."
"I have found the solution has some great features overall, such as guest access capabilities, dashboards, and ease of use. There is plenty of documentation and support and it has the plugins that I needed."
"OPNsense can be deployed in the cloud and on-premises, and I have used OPNsense in many different types of companies, such as financial and metropolitan."
 

Cons

"The UI could be more attractive."
"It could be more secure because security is always a problem."
"The product must improve its security features."
"It could be more secure because security is always a problem."
"OPNsense showed me some problems when using it in different environments. The problem is integration with a virtual server."
"Pricing in my opinion is just too expensive. It makes no sense. It moves in the direction of a monopoly."
"Its interface should be a little bit better."
"In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
"The user interface could be improved, and the DNS section should be more intuitive."
"OPNsense could improve by making the configuration more web-based rather than shell or command-line-based."
"There are issues with stability and reliability."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We are using the open source version, so there is no cost involved."
"We are using the open-source version."
"OPNsense is an open-source solution and it is free to use."
"I would rate the pricing a nine out of ten, especially considering the availability of a free community edition."
"Its pricing is unbeatable in comparison to other firewalls. You can have a small instance that could be €80 a month with the hardware underneath. Azure Firewall and FortiGate are out of the question at this price. If you are on a public cloud, you need the underlying infrastructure. Other than that, there is no additional cost. If you have it on-prem, you have to buy the server or the appliance. The hardware cost is replaced with the infrastructure cost in the cloud. You also have costs for the public IPs and underlying VMs, but that's not related to OPNsense. It would be the same for a FortiGate deployment on Azure. You need a FortiGate license, and you need the underlying infrastructure that scales up depending on your needs."
"I'm using the free version of OPNsense. I didn't check the pricing for the solution because I still need to test it before getting the approval to purchase OPNsense, and it isn't easy to get approval from the higher-ups."
"I would rate the pricing three out of ten."
"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."
"OPNsense is a well known open-source tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
17%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise8
 

Questions from the Community

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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 do you like most about OPNsense?
What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control.
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 ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
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 Postman, F5, SmartBear and others in API Monitoring Software. Updated: April 2026.
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