OPNsense Reviews

I'm using it as a proxy in several scenarios.  

There are a lot of features I like. One of the most valuable features is the network checking. Additionally, the firewall and web filtering functionalities are highly useful.

There are some add-ons that need enhancements to make management easier for users, especially the reporting features. Some reports don't show the level of detail I'm looking for, and I've had trouble installing certain add-ons, especially for Internet bandwidth shaping within my company. So, this is an area of improvement for me. 

I have been using OPNsense for more than six years. I currently use the latest version.

I would rate stability a seven out of ten. I've encountered some instability after a recent update.

It just doesn't respond, so I have to restart it over and over again to try to figure out what the problem is. I haven't been able to find the problem yet.

I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. There is room for improvement.

In my organization, there are 400 users, and OPNsense serves as our gateway and proxy for all of them. Therefore, all the users go through the gateway. 

The initial setup is very easy. The installation just takes minutes, but setting up everything may take a couple of hours.

It's reasonably priced. It's not expensive.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. I just want to say that it's the best open-source firewall. Strongly recommended.

We started working with a tier-four data center cloud service provider company, and we wish to develop our cloud instance/VM hosted.

We use OPNsense for content filtering, securing networks through DNSs and overcoming the challenges of ransomware, and securing different types of malware-virus attacks.

This is causing a lot of issues because we are focusing more and more on securing our customers' data.

It includes backup, recovery, archival, and now coming up with securing cloud instances/VMs. It is really essential for us.

Example: a firewall as a service can be provided to those who mainly work from home or Soho, Freelancers - clients.

OpNsense has given the most fundamental security service/support to our clients in an unstructured world like freelancers, consultants, soho users, etc. That is based on NIST guidelines, so, overall basic security postures are in place.

The most valuable features are content filtering, DNS level filtering and blocking unwanted Global IPs, built-in scanners and authentication capabilities, HA, etc.

I think that the most important aspect is a step-by-step run-book for its installation and deployment on small as well as on commodity hardware. Plus, clubbing the services into several (pre-configured) modules, detailing a BASIC, STANDARD, RATIONALIZED, and DYNAMIC (Enterprise ready) modules, and then custom configurable module, in that case even novice users can configure and start experiencing its benefits. On the same, documentation should be developed keeping the above five modules in mind.

The initial installation menu should clearly identify the existing IP class/subnet and suggest its challenges and benefits in configuration, and the respective error log should be shown on a screen on the same panel. They should also provide "modules" wise installation video links and their changes with previous versions for reference.

Our primary focus is to ensure the protection of customers' and consumers' data and critical IT/Dynamic infrastructure, for the same we have to do critical tunings, though, we practiced it in such a way that we have developed a habit of tuning things using a checklist based on clients "Mutual Value Discussions" (assessment session).

Added capabilities of add-ons/filters/extensions and its tunable help us detecting and alerting clients in sensitive environments when a malicious URL is detected in the traffic (e.g. messaging services/emails and/or other communications on the fly). This additional layer of protection helps in further safeguarding user data and preventing potentially damaging malware from being transmitted within the LAN environment.

We started using OPNsense in the last three or four years. Now they are pretty mature.

When we demonstrated this software and the firewall, the main thing is the customer's confidence.

If I remember correctly, it was 19.x version.

We have been operating here in our lab for several months, and everything appears to be extremely stable.

We also attempted a different method of providing the load factor, adjusting the various parameters, cross-checking the network jitters, detected security threats or not by other third-party software/hardware equivalents. It appears to be rather reliable, though, with the stated data points above, it is not yet ready for the enterprise yet.

Most of the BSD/FreeBAS or Linux-based software-defined firewalls support vertical and horizontal scaling 'scaling out and scaling up'(this all depends on how it has been architecture) based on the requirements.

Keeping Technology and Architecture governance with the leading practice of security, availability, and scalability as critical elements in mind. Few stated features make these products scalable and highly available, though, based on load and constant monitoring would require tuning from time to time.

To date, we managed to support clients ourselves and whenever we received feedback we come to know that support cost is very high, it is not as local as we are, for small soho, WFH, freelancers, and young startups they prefer locally available partners and hence they are not even interested in talking on those factors.

Neutral

A few years back, cybersecurity was not a problem for small and micro businesses, but since 2019 or so, that has seen a massive uphill, then, we were using built-in features of different types of OS-level firewalls with basic filtering, blocking the ports, orchestrating based on local FQDN based filtering, NATing, few BIND/DNS based filtering, implementing proxy's like Squid, etc. Best since these techniques are not good for business, we have to find other methodologies to protect clients' environments. Till recently, we also tried using Hardware firewalls, which most of our clients did not like because of known/unknown reasons.

A few years back when we first began using it, we were unable to find a proper document detailing different network scenarios for IP allocations for 2NIC cards. We went through aggressive discussion, reading blogs, and setting-up labs we started getting the knack for all possible configurable elements and started running several tests, packet forwarding, bombarding networks in the most ethical way possible, and verifying results. e.g. We created two separate networks, with WAN and LAN networks assigned to different classes. The menu-driven setup process is relatively easy, but you must know which IP address to define in the router, WAN section, and LAN sections. If this is clearly explained, the basic and fundamental aspects of your network will be in place, allowing you to set it up quickly.

Then we recommend clients purchase easily available commodity hardware-based motherboards with two NIC/Ethernet cards built-in, it simplified our tasks and so on.

We took some help from our old industry connections, and systems integrators, and later our lab practices and tests started solving most of the issues.

It is now organic, and growing (hope to improve better - though accidents do happen, e.g, COVID, Share market / Financial institution meltdown, the war between nations, and now CyberWarFare picked up!) these are the few key factors which disturb the business one way or other.

The best is to read through the terms and conditions, and fine-prints, and to spend time identifying support and operational cost, most of these elements are covered on the website, etc.

We made an attempt, but it appears that forming a partnership would not be done as the other party is requesting a significant amount of money, which we find to be very expensive to start with.

We are exploring the possibility of locating a domestic partner who has a partnership with either PfSense or OPNsense to partner with.

Subsequently, if we are successful in finding a suitable domestic partner, they would be able to offer these services to us.

While this software is certainly capable of getting used by masses, it is important to have the pragmatic knowledge to support and operate the system effectively and keep key parameters monitored for new cyber challenges.

It is crucial to have a clear understanding of exactly what you are looking to accomplish and to have access to the necessary data in order to effectively configure and use the system.

pfsense - Software-defined firewalls have been around for a while. Whereas, OPNsense came later into business.

I would rate OPNsense a seven out of ten.

We are using it for intrusion detection and prevention. The firewall comes with a lot of third-party modules, and we also use proxy functionalities.

In our company, we are using it as an appliance, but we are bringing companies to the cloud. We ourselves do not have an Azure layer, but we have got a contract from a customer to bring them to the cloud. So, we are installing it there and monitoring it, but it is not owned by our company. OPNsense is available on appliances, but we have made a special integration with Azure. There is a special mechanism in Azure to deploy firewalls, and we have installed three or four of them.

We always have the latest version on the firewalls. One should run the updates very frequently.

We are onboarding cloud solutions for customers. We are on Azure. Especially on Azure, when the customers start, they always have small environments. We were looking for the best firewall solution for small environments, not big environments. We needed a small firewall, and we came across OPNsense. For small customers, we will use OPNsense in the future due to cost reasons. These are small installations, and Azure Firewall is very expensive.

The IDS and IPS features are valuable. From the usability perspective, there is a lot of good documentation. As IT professionals, we found it very easy to configure the firewall. It was easy to configure and use. 

The difficult part was the integration with Azure because OPNsense, in most cases, is not used on public clouds. It is on appliances that run on-prem. 

We did not like the fact that you have to configure everything with the graphic user interface. We have used other firewalls, such as FortiGate, that you can configure via code. OPNsense is not easy to integrate. When you are deploying via GitHub or another source repository, this is not possible. That's one thing we didn't like much. 

Within our own company, we have been using it for three or four years as an appliance, and on Azure, we have been using it for three months.

We have run it for three months in production, and we haven't had any problems in three months. 

We run it as an NVA cluster with Azure, and it has good scalability, but when we have bigger deployments, we would use another firewall. I'm not sure if it makes sense to scale up. OPNsense has a very good niche market in comparison to FortiGate, Azure Firewall, or other firewalls. If a customer is starting in the cloud and has 100 or 200 users, I would always recommend OPNsense, but if you have a big installation, and you have a good DevOps team that deploys via source code and things like this, then I would not recommend it. So, the software itself may be scalable, but I wouldn't call it an enterprise-scale firewall.

In terms of people working with this solution, I'm an architect, and we've got two people for monitoring and setup. Its usage is increasing. It has not been that long since we started using OPNsense, and it fills a gap. Not everybody needs a full-scaled enterprise firewall. So, it will be a part of our business. We've found a niche there.

We were in touch with Microsoft support for special networking considerations. The firewall itself was easy for us, and we had no need to reach out to tech support of OPNsense. The heavy part was the Azure part, and we are specialists there.

OPNsense deploys it on the Azure marketplace. So, you can download it directly via the Azure marketplace. You do not have to be a partner. From our perspective, it's easy to configure and it's intuitive. We have a background with a lot of firewalls, and we were just looking for a small one.

We found that not many people have used it on Azure. The firewall itself is not bad, but the support around Azure in terms of documentation and the required infrastructure is not so good, but because we are Azure specialists, we found a very good solution. We would not recommend it for a beginner in Azure.

In terms of the implementation strategy, there is a cloud adaptation framework. There is a white paper from Microsoft containing best practices for deploying firewalls on Azure, and we had to provide a setup for this, which took some time because it was not easy. It took at least two weeks, but it was only a one-time job. After that, for each firewall, you only have to adapt the rules, which takes two days, but it also depends on the complexity of the infrastructure. If a customer has hundreds of endpoints, it takes longer for sure.

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.

We use it on-prem, and we can recommend it for a standard, typical IT engineer with a networking background. We have had a good experience with it. It is good in terms of functionality and resource usage. It is easy, and we would recommend it, but for implementing it on the Azure cloud, you need good knowledge of Azure. When it comes to public clouds, you do not have your own hardware, and you need deep knowledge of the public cloud on which you are deploying it. It is a good solution if your installation is not too big. We would recommend it for small customers or companies that are starting in the cloud. 

I would rate it a seven out of ten.

The primary use case of OPNsense for me is VPN and firewall rules.

URL blocking, Wireguard, Tail Scale, Engine Blocker, and VPN are the most valuable features for me.

There is room for improvement in SSL inspection because that's where OPNsense, the open-source firewall software, just doesn't work well. So, I really use it for inspection.

I have been using this solution for five years. I am using the latest version now.

It is a pretty much stable solution. I rate it an eight out of ten. I haven't experienced much complexity with stability. Mostly there are a lot of false positives when the firewall is on. The inspection may not be very good compared to CSP4 Fortinet. But other than that, it's okay because I really like the user interface for business purposes. We can do all things through GUI, and things come in line.

It's very flexible and scalable, and I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. It can adapt to changing needs easily. Around twenty customers are currently using OPNsense.

I haven't contacted customer support. I usually resolve any issues through online forums and the community web page.

I have experience with Cisco as well. I moved to OPNsense because it is free.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The deployment process took three to four hours. When I install OPNsense on the premises, I usually allow everything; after that, I go to one location. I work remotely on that firewall or VPN, so the first step is to put it online and remotely access the VPN server or firewall there. After that, I installed and configured it while working remotely.

I'm an integrator, so I mostly use OPNsense for VPN purposes and firewalls, and I use a couple of plugins for web blocking, and that's it. Only one person is required for deployment and maintenance; therefore, I handle all the deployment and maintenance.

I haven't used any licensed operations. But when companies get bigger, they'll probably need a license model. The old companies where I have worked with OPNsense were small.

I would suggest using OPNsense because there's no cost and a good interface. You don't need to use the command line to configure anything like on Cisco; sometimes, you don't need all the technical knowledge to operate OPNSense. Additionally, you have good community support.

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.

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.

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.

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.

I have been using OPNsense for five months.

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.

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.

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.

The initial setup was straightforward and easy.

It took 30 to 45 minutes to set up and deploy OPNsense.

I did not use a vendor to implement this solution, I did it myself.

OPNsense is a well known open-source tool.

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.

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.

We use OPNsense in our company to secure our servers.

To be honest with you, I feel that its valuable features are that it is simple and free.

The interface of the solution is an area with shortcomings. The interface of the solution could be made better.

The user experience when we create policies can be made easier. Also, maybe some features should be added to the cloud.

I have been using OPNsense for around six years. Also, I don't remember the version of the solution I am using.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

We have 25 users who are all technical people using OPNsense in my organization.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

As technical people, we have used many solutions previously for our company and customers. For customers, we have used Fortinet, Palo Alto, and others.

I didn't switch from Palo Alto to OPNsense. I use OPNsense because Palo Alto is used for enterprises. For me, I prefer open-source products. It's more flexible for us.

I believe the setup phase was a fusion of straightforwardness and complexity. It's not complicated, so it's fine.

It's deployed on-premises because we put it on our server, and it is hosted in Germany.

It's a free solution.

The solution requires no maintenance.

I would recommend OPNsense to others.

Overall, I rate the solution between seven to eight out of ten.

OPNsense is a firewall.

The solution has helped our organization because we are able to easily set up IPSec and VPN tunnels.

The most valuable features of OPNsense are the GUI and frequent updates.

When using the solution at the beginning was difficult. There was a steep learning curve.

In a feature release, it would be helpful to have some features that the new generation firewalls have, such as IPS.

I used OPNsense within the last 12 months.

I rate the stability of OPNsense a ten out of ten.

We have approximately two large customers using this solution.

I rate the scalability of OPNsense a seven out of ten.

I needed to use the support twice. They could improve the support.

I rate the support of OPNsense a seven out of ten.

Neutral

I use Fortinet before in another company.

The deployment took approximately two hours.

I rate the initial setup of OPNsense a seven out of ten.

We are using the free open-source version of the solution. There is a paid version that has additional features.

I rate the price of OPNsense a five out of ten.

I would recommend using this solution.

I rate OPNsense a nine out of ten.

The solution is being used for monitoring and as a firewall. 

The solution is user-friendly and easy to configure. 

You will need additional training before you can actually start to use it. You will need to gain some extensive knowledge. 

I have been using OPNsense for one year. 

It is a scalable solution. Approximately fifty people are using the solution. 

I have used FortiGate. For security reasons, we moved to OPNsense.

The initial setup is straightforward. The deployment took a couple of minutes. 

We are using the paid version. 

I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.