OPNsense is a FreeBSD-based open-source firewall and routing platform, forked from pfSense. It provides a web-based interface for stateful firewall rules, VPN (WireGuard, OpenVPN, IPsec), traffic shaping, intrusion detection via Suricata, and a plugin system.
OPNsense
Official website opnsense.org
Our take
OPNsense took a clean-slate approach after forking from pfSense: weekly security releases (rather than lumped updates), a proper MVC architecture, and a REST API throughout make it the more actively maintained option for most users today. The feature set covers everything from a home edge router to multi-WAN enterprise setups with hardware failover. The honest catch is the hardware requirement - OPNsense runs on dedicated x86 hardware or a VM, not on consumer routers, so entry cost is higher than a firmware flash. For anyone willing to dedicate a box to it, OPNsense is one of the most capable network security platforms available at no cost.
GitHub at a glance
opnsense/core
Stars
4,488
+ 2 this week
Last commit
1d ago
healthy
License
BSD-2-Clause
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OPNsense alternatives
OPNsense license, in plain English
BSD-2-Clause Permissive
A short permissive license: use and modify freely as long as the copyright notice stays intact.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
Requires
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Permissive licensing lets anyone reuse this, including inside closed products. That is freedom to build on, but no guarantee that downstream copies stay open.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.