pfSense CE
Mature FreeBSD-based firewall and router with stateful packet filtering, VPN capabilities, and an extensive community.
About pfSense CE
pfSense is one of the most widely deployed open-source firewall and router platforms. It provides stateful packet filtering, NAT, VPN (IPsec, OpenVPN, WireGuard), captive portal, traffic shaping, DNS/DHCP services, and multi-WAN load balancing through a comprehensive web interface.
The Community Edition (CE) is licensed under Apache 2.0 and is free for all use. pfSense Plus adds enterprise features including a boot environment manager, IPsec enhancements, and Netgate hardware support. pfSense served as the foundation from which OPNsense forked in 2015, and both remain active, widely-used projects.
Key Features
- Stateful packet filtering, NAT, multi-WAN load balancing, and failover
- VPN support: IPsec, OpenVPN, WireGuard, L2TP, and IKEv2
- Captive portal, DNS/DHCP services, and traffic shaping
- Extensive documentation and active community support
Self-Hosting Notes
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