I'm using OPNsense as an open VPN and a firewall to control the traffic.
Associate consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
It helps control the bandwidth, is scalable, easy to set up, and has a lot of data available on how to set it up
Pros and Cons
- "What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it. I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted."
- "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."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
OPNsense improved my organization in terms of controlling the bandwidth. Limiting the bandwidth is the primary purpose of the solution in the organization.
What is most valuable?
What I like best about OPNsense is that, as a firewall, it's pretty good. I'm quite impressed with it.
I had an excellent experience with OPNsense, which helped me achieve the targets I wanted.
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement in OPNsense is the hardware, which needs to be updated more frequently.
An additional feature I want to see in OPNsense is a transparent proxy.
DNS blocking is another good feature I want to be added to the solution, as that helps make processes faster.
pfSense has a peer-blocking feature that I also want to see in OPNsense.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using OPNsense for more than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
OPNsense is a stable solution. Stability-wise, it's seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
OPNsense is a scalable solution, and I find it very good, but it still depends on your requirement and what you want to achieve from OPNsense.
How are customer service and support?
I didn't use OPNsense technical support because I resolved any issues myself.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used pfSense before using OPNsense, and OPNsense covered most of my environment's needs. My organization uses only one firewall, and that's OPNsense.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up OPNsense was easy for me. Even if you don't have experience, there is so much data available that you can follow so that the setup can be done easily.
The initial setup for OPNsense is an eight out of ten, especially if you know what you want to do and achieve from the solution. You also must try blocking methods based on what and how you want to block.
It took me two weeks to implement OPNsense completely. I set up the network and made a lab before using OPNsense in a production environment.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented OPNsense in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
I'm using two products, OPNsense and pfSense.
I upgraded to the latest version of OPNsense.
My organization is planning to move OPNsense to the cloud, in particular, hybrid cloud, but right now, it's deployed on-premises. Cloud deployment will be much more efficient than the current on-premises deployment, but I still need to test it before getting approval from the higher-ups.
Within my organization, fifty people use OPNsense because one department is trying it out. Still, when the solution is fully deployed, there could be from five thousand to six thousand users of OPNsense.
Ten to twelve people help maintain the solution yearly for the whole campus.
I advise anyone who wants to implement OPNsense to look into the suppliers and pick the right one because having the right supplier helps you achieve what you want from the solution.
My rating for OPNsense is eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Security Consultant at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Simple initial setup, reliable, and open source
Pros and Cons
- "OPNsense is highly stable."
- "The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little."
What is our primary use case?
OPNsense can be deployed in the cloud and on-premises.
I have used OPNsense in many different types of companies, such as financial and metropolitan.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using OPNsense for approximately six years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
OPNsense is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of OPNsense is very good.
I have approximately 15 customer companies using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
The support for OPNsense is good because we have documents available on the internet. The support could improve a little.
I rate the support from OPNsense a four out of five.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of OPNsense is straightforward. It took us a while to deploy the solution.
I rate the initial setup of OPNsense a nine out often.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation of OPNsense in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
OPNsense is an open-source solution and it does not require a license.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this solution to others because in my country we have a limitation for buying any firewall.
I rate OPNsense a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Buyer's Guide
OPNsense
December 2025
Learn what your peers think about OPNsense. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
879,853 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Network Architect at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Cost-effective with good reporting and firewall capabilities, but the SD-WAN needs to be enhanced
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities."
- "I would like to see better SD-WAN performance."
What is our primary use case?
I am currently working with OPNsense to see if I can learn it. This product is used in small to medium-sized businesses for security, UTM, and other similar operations. We are a solution provider and this is one of the security solutions that we implement for our clients.
How has it helped my organization?
Offering this solution has provided some of our clients with firewall protection and UTM, which basically just protects them from the internet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are reporting, the Sensei plugin, and firewall capabilities.
What needs improvement?
The vendor should offer compatibility-approved boxes, or at least stock one with OPNsense already installed. This would make it a one-stop-shop, and people would not have to worry about sourcing the hardware separately.
I would like to see better SD-WAN performance. I think that could be a very good bonus because SD-WAN is all the rage these days. That is probably the big thing that people need to improve upon, in terms of combining two, three, or four links.
The interface should continue to improve, which would make things a bit easier. For me, it was already easy, but nonetheless, it is quicker to install a FortiGate firewall.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with OPNsense for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a very stable product and I've had no issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This product is very scalable. I always buy hardware that can handle a lot of connections and a lot of users. So, in terms of scalability, all you have to do is upgrade your hardware. Or, it is especially scalable if you use the VM version because you only have to provision more resources.
We regularly have between 20 and 50 users, although sometimes it is as little as 5 or 10.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not been in contact with technical support. So far, everything has been good because I just use Google to find all of the answers and all of my solutions.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I primarily work with FortiGate, but I am currently dabbling in OPNSense to see if I can learn it. I've also installed Cisco in the past, as well as Sophos.
FortiGate is a better firewall but that is commercial software that you have to buy a license for. OPNsense is suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. FortiGate is definitely quicker to install because you just buy the appliance. It's also more user-friendly.
If you dabble a bit with OPNsense, it can do about 90% of what FortiGate can do, but FortiGate is more user-friendly. Of course, with OPNsense being open-source, it will always beat FortiGate on price.
I think that with FortiGate, it is easier to log a support call. I haven't really needed technical support for OPNsense, but I know that FortiGate has the score logging facility, whereby you can just quickly log a call. There's also support in South Africa and I know company people that I can just call for help with FortiGate. But with OPNsense, I haven't really had a complicated setup, so for me, it has been okay and it hasn't been an issue.
The SD-WAN is also better on FortiGate. I think that they are heavily focused on security, so they might have better application profiles and other things, such as application threat detections.
Although about 80% of our clients ask for FortiGate, some of our clients ask for Sophos instead. For example, there are some banks and commercial institutions that ask for Sophos.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward and quite simplified. I work in a Linux environment so for me, it will be a bit easier.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
OPNsense is an open-source solution and it is free to use. You need only purchase the hardware.
What other advice do I have?
The suitability of this product often depends on the size of the company, although sometimes there are clients that just want FortiGate and they're not open for negotiation. Personally, I like open-source and it's always a bonus if I can get stuff for free.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
OT/ICS Information Security Specialist at a aerospace/defense firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
A solution that detects and blocks malicious content with good reporting and visibility, but the reliability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility."
- "There are issues with stability and reliability."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is to detect and block malicious traffic, malicious files, and malicious links to protect the internal network from any external malicious website that may contain a virus or malware.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features in OPNsense are reporting and visibility.
The visibility is awesome. With the visibility, you can see the data source, data destination, the source port, destination port, protocols, the most used, the malicious files that have been detected and blocked, the countries the customer has visited, and the IPs based on Suricata.
OPNsense also has ClamAV, which is a great tool.
What needs improvement?
I have some issues with OPNsense. I have created a virtual machine that I've lost connection at times and I am not able to connect to the gateway or ping the internet. When I started with OPNsense, it worked right away. It may be an issue with the virtual machine itself. I am currently setting up the protection on all of the virtual machines so they will connect to OPNsense and the internet, or anywhere they need to access.
I have tried to download some malicious files or a virus and it should dump the files and prevent the download, but I don't seem to get any notification or warnings.
It may be an issue with the configuration but I am not sure.
I would like to see improvements made to connectivity and alerting.
I wanted to deploy this solution in our organization and some of the workstations from remote sites but it's not reliable enough to do that yet.
In the next release, I would like to see real traffic monitoring and more visibility. Also, for the antivirus, I would like to see the files protected by ClamAV.
I would like to see intelligence in OPNsense and have the option to apply it or not.
They need a threat intelligence tool similar to the one they would find with Cisco. It will show you the file hashes, all of the IFCs, the niches, the address information, and more. With all of this information, you can be proactive and block the malicious file hashes, all of the malicious IP addresses, and the public IP addresses. It should help you be proactive.
It would be helpful to have OPNsense be one of the plugins, and they should include traffic capturing. With Palo Alto, you can monitor and specify which interface you want to monitor, the source IP, or you can specify the network and see the traffic that is coming from the VLAN, the destination, and any files being transferred over the network.
If you apply security profiles you can see the signatures.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using OPNsense for five months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There are issues with stability and reliability.
I set up two different virtual machines. I used a virtual box, I installed it and configured higher visibility for both. One was a master and the other a standby.
I had a virtual machine installed on Windows 10 and put the gateway for it as OPNsense, which was the master.
I tested and shut down the first one, which is the master. When I check to see if the second one would take over, it failed.
I couldn't connect to the internet or any destination.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not explored the scalability. We are only a small lab with two to three workstations.
I have a colleague working with me, together. We meet weekly to share the progress we have.
I use the enterprise version daily. It's scalable, stable, they have proper documentation and support. We get daily updates from the vendor.
OPNsense is a great tool but it lacks information that you need before deploying it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have reached out to the community for support, but they haven't seen anything like the issues that I am experiencing.
I have not contacted OPNsense directly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward and easy.
It took 30 to 45 minutes to set up and deploy OPNsense.
What about the implementation team?
I did not use a vendor to implement this solution, I did it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
OPNsense is a well known open-source tool.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I am currently evaluating and searching for open-source enterprise firewalls and doing a comparison of the features between all of them. I am assessing the pros and cons of vendors.
I am looking for something that will give me a report on the comparison of features, capabilities, the different vendors, and the different open-source solutions that are available.
I am also doing a comparison on Palo Alto, Cisco Firepower, and Fortinet Fortigate.
What other advice do I have?
I don't have any information on the bandwidth and what it can handle, or how many workstations can work with it. This information is very important, but I can't find any resources for this information.
The reporting is amazing. You can export reports, you can set the parameters, and export reports based on your needs.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT infrastructure manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Has an excellent dashboard and provides good security
Pros and Cons
- "What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control."
- "In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced."
What is our primary use case?
I use OPNsense for network security.
What is most valuable?
What I like the most about OPNsense is that it offers an easy-to-use dashboard for device management and control. It also provides good security.
What needs improvement?
In terms of improvement, the performance could be enhanced.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using OPNsense for a year.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate OPNsense as a ten out of ten. I would recommend it to others.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Network Engineer at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Free to use, easy to manage, and offers good security options
Pros and Cons
- "The initial implementation process is simple."
- "While they do have paid options that actually gives better features, for most of the clients, if they tend to take a paid option will instead opt for Fortinet."
What is our primary use case?
We just use the solution normally for its basic firewall functionality. OPNsense with WireGuard and CrowdSec bouncers handles all our requirements.
How has it helped my organization?
This is a free and secure solution that is easy to use.
What is most valuable?
The normal security options are great.
It's light and easy to manage.
The solution is very stable.
The initial implementation process is simple.
The solution offers a free version.
What needs improvement?
While they do have paid options that actually give better features, for most of the clients, if they tend to take a paid option will instead opt for Fortinet.
They should make it so that it's easier to reverse proxy integration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is quite stable and the performance is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can easily scale the solution if we need to. It's not difficult.
How are customer service and support?
I've only used the free version of the solution. I just have to dig into the forums to find everything I need. There isn't a central place you can reach out to. I've found all the answers I've needed so far via the forums. There's a lot of information there.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We're a customer and an end-user.
We are using the telemetry-free version of the solution.
Overall, the solution is quite affordable.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I'm aware of Fortinet as well.
It depends on price versus performance. If you're willing to pay, Fortinet's great. If you don't have the budget, OPNsense is more affordable.
What other advice do I have?
We do supply the solution and we do use it for ourselves.
I'd advise users to get the Geo functionality. It's a nice add-on, which we make use of a lot. It allows which countries are allowed to access your instances, which is very helpful.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Head of IT and Automation department at a renewables & environment company with 51-200 employees
A multi-platform operating system with an easy setup
Pros and Cons
- "The technical support is very good."
- "They should improve IPEs for security in the future."
How has it helped my organization?
OPNsense it's a multi-platform operating system. So we can install it on PC platforms and do not need dedicated hardware.
What is most valuable?
The WireGuard VPN is the most valuable feature.
What needs improvement?
They should improve IPEs for security in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for about three years and are using the latest version. It is deployed on-premises.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. We have 20 connections between sites, and about 100 users use the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before using OPNsense, we used Cisco Fortinet. Other solutions are more expensive than OPNsense.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was easy. There are no issues with performance.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution a nine out of ten and recommend it to others.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Cloud and Infrastrcture manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Easy to scale, easy to setup, and reasonably priced
Pros and Cons
- "OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware."
- "The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We upgrade our clients when they are ready for the newer versions of OPNsense.
We are one of the local cloud providers in Indonesia. We implement OPNsense for the VPN and IPSec. We also collaborate with Zerotier to provide SD-WAN.
Our customers have solutions that integrate between on-premises and our cloud.
We provide this solution for several clients, in multi-location offices. We have several retail customers in the city and we provide OPNsense with plug-in remote access.
We also use OPNsense for remote access, and IPSec gives them access to a cloud environment as well as on-premises.
What is most valuable?
OPNsense is easy to scale when running on the hardware.
What needs improvement?
The interface needs to be simplified. It is not user-friendly.
The bandwidth management is easy to use, but very hard to implement. The multi-provider internet is protected by OPNsence but the features are limited, and not stable.
The high availability feature is not feasible when the hardware fails.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with OPNsense since 2008.
Internally we are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of OPNsense needs improvement.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
OPNsense is commonly used in large enterprise companies.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have not yet contacted technical support. All of the technical issues are resolved within our company.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also using pfSense.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It's an easy process.
It takes one hour to deploy.
We provide maintenance for our clients at a cost, however, 90% of our clients are familiar with the product and able to maintain the solution themselves.
What about the implementation team?
We are implementors, and we provide this solution for our clients.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As an appliance, it's in the medium price range.
What other advice do I have?
OPNsense is suitable for Small to Medium-sized companies.
I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it.
I would rate OPNsense an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
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