pfSense vs OPNsense: Choosing a Firewall for Your Home Lab

Once your home lab grows past a couple of devices, your ISP's consumer router starts holding you back. You want VLANs to segment your network. You want proper firewall rules. You want a VPN to access your lab remotely. You want DNS filtering, traffic monitoring, and the ability to see what's actually happening on your network.

That's when you start looking at pfSense and OPNsense — the two dominant open-source firewall/router platforms. Both are based on FreeBSD, both run on commodity hardware, and both can replace your consumer router entirely. They share a common ancestor (OPNsense forked from pfSense in 2015), but they've diverged significantly.

Here's an honest comparison to help you choose.

Background

pfSense was created in 2004 as a fork of m0n0wall. It's developed by Netgate, a Texas-based company that sells official pfSense hardware appliances. The Community Edition (CE) is open source and free. pfSense Plus is Netgate's commercial version, available on Netgate hardware and through their cloud offering.

OPNsense was created in 2015 by Deciso, a Dutch networking company, as a fork of pfSense. The fork happened due to disagreements about code licensing, development direction, and governance. OPNsense is fully open source under a BSD license.

Both have active development teams, commercial backers, and large user communities.

Feature Comparison

Hardware Requirements

Both platforms are lightweight and run on modest hardware. The minimum and recommended specs are nearly identical:

Minimum (basic routing, < 100 Mbps)

• CPU: 64-bit, 500 MHz+
• RAM: 1 GB
• Storage: 8 GB SSD/CF
• NICs: 2 (WAN + LAN)

Recommended (gigabit routing, VPN, IDS)

• CPU: 4-core, 1.5 GHz+ (AES-NI required for pfSense CE)
• RAM: 4-8 GB
• Storage: 32+ GB SSD
• NICs: 2+ Intel NICs

Popular Hardware Choices

Dedicated appliances (easiest):

• Protectli Vault FW4B/FW6D: Fanless mini PCs designed for firewall use. 4-6 Intel NICs, $200-400. Just install and go.
• Netgate appliances: Official pfSense hardware. Pre-installed. $200-600+.
• Deciso appliances: Official OPNsense hardware. Pre-installed. $300-800+.

Repurposed mini PCs (budget):

• Dell Optiplex Micro + USB Ethernet adapter: Works but USB NICs can be flaky.
• HP T620/T630 Thin Client: Cheap ($30-50), low power, add a PCIe NIC. Community favorite.
• Lenovo ThinkCentre M720q/M920q: Mini PC with PCIe slot for a quad-port NIC.

Virtual machine (if you already have a hypervisor):

• Run pfSense/OPNsense as a VM on Proxmox or ESXi. Pass through physical NICs for best performance. This works well but means your firewall depends on your hypervisor being up.

AES-NI note: pfSense CE requires AES-NI support in the CPU. Most CPUs from 2013+ have it, but some budget Celeron/Atom chips from that era don't. OPNsense does not require AES-NI. Check your CPU before choosing pfSense.

The Web Interface

This is where the two platforms diverge most visibly.

pfSense UI

pfSense's web interface is functional but dated. It's a traditional PHP-based UI that hasn't had a significant visual overhaul in years. The layout is logical — everything is where you'd expect it — but it feels like a product from 2010.

That said, there's a huge advantage to the pfSense UI: nearly every guide, tutorial, and YouTube video from the past 15 years references it. When you Google "pfSense port forwarding," you'll find dozens of walkthroughs with screenshots that match exactly what you see.

OPNsense UI

OPNsense rebuilt their web interface using a modern MVC framework. It's cleaner, more responsive, and better organized. The dashboard is customizable with widgets, the search functionality works across the entire interface, and it generally feels more polished.

The trade-off is that OPNsense tutorials sometimes reference menu locations or options that have moved between versions, since the UI evolves more frequently.

For day-to-day use, both interfaces get the job done. OPNsense looks better; pfSense has more third-party documentation.

VPN Support

Both platforms support OpenVPN, IPsec, and WireGuard. WireGuard is the modern choice for most home lab VPN needs — it's faster, simpler, and uses less battery on mobile devices.

pfSense: WireGuard support has had a rocky history. It was added, then removed due to code quality concerns, then re-added using a different implementation. It works now, but the turbulence left some users uneasy.

OPNsense: WireGuard support was added through the kernel module and has been stable. The setup wizard in the web UI makes configuration straightforward.

# WireGuard on either platform typically looks like:
# 1. Install WireGuard (package/plugin)
# 2. Create tunnel interface
# 3. Generate keys
# 4. Add peers
# 5. Create firewall rules for WireGuard traffic
# 6. Assign the tunnel interface

For most home lab users, WireGuard on either platform works well. OPNsense's implementation has been more consistent.

Intrusion Detection (IDS/IPS)

Running an IDS/IPS on your firewall lets you detect and block malicious traffic patterns.

pfSense offers Snort and Suricata as installable packages. Both work but feel bolted on — configuration happens through the pfSense package interface, which can be clunky.

OPNsense includes Suricata as a first-class feature with a dedicated, well-designed UI. Rule management, alerting, and log viewing are integrated into the main interface. It's noticeably easier to set up and manage.

OPNsense also offers ZenArmor (formerly Sensei), a deep packet inspection plugin that provides application-level visibility and control. It has free and paid tiers. pfSense has no equivalent.

Plugin Ecosystem

OPNsense has a larger plugin repository with community contributions. Plugins install from the web UI and include things like:

• WireGuard
• HAProxy (load balancer)
• ZenArmor (DPI)
• Crowdsec (collaborative IDS)
• Nginx reverse proxy
• Various monitoring tools

pfSense has a smaller but stable set of packages. The Netgate team is more conservative about what gets included, which means fewer options but generally more tested packages.

API and Automation

OPNsense has a comprehensive REST API that covers nearly every configuration option. You can automate firewall rules, DHCP leases, VPN configurations, and more through HTTP requests. This is valuable if you want to integrate your firewall with Ansible, Terraform, or custom scripts.

# OPNsense API example — list firewall aliases
curl -k -u "api_key:api_secret" \
  https://192.168.1.1/api/firewall/alias/searchItem

pfSense uses xmlrpc, which is more limited and less intuitive. There's also a community-maintained REST API package (pfSense API), but it's not an official feature.

Community and Support

pfSense has a larger overall user base due to its longer history. The Netgate forums are active, and the sheer volume of online tutorials, blog posts, and YouTube videos is unmatched. If you're stuck, odds are good someone has written about your exact issue.

OPNsense has a growing community with active forums, a Discourse-based discussion platform, and solid documentation. The OPNsense docs are generally considered better organized than pfSense's, though pfSense has more third-party content.

Both have active subreddits (r/PFSENSE, r/OPNsenseFirewall) where you can get help.

Update Philosophy

pfSense CE releases major versions less frequently and maintains support for older versions longer. Updates tend to be bigger but less frequent. The transition from pfSense 2.x to newer versions has sometimes been bumpy.

OPNsense follows a more aggressive release cadence with major updates roughly twice a year and minor updates every few weeks. This means you get new features faster, but you also need to keep up with updates. The upgrade process is generally smooth.

Which Should You Pick?

Choose pfSense if:

• You value documentation: The volume of pfSense tutorials, guides, and community knowledge is massive. If you're new to firewalls, this matters.
• You want stability over features: pfSense's slower release cycle means less change to keep up with.
• Your workplace uses pfSense: Hands-on experience with the same platform you'll manage professionally is valuable.
• You're buying a Netgate appliance: pfSense Plus on Netgate hardware is a turnkey solution.

Choose OPNsense if:

• You want a modern UI: OPNsense's interface is cleaner, more responsive, and better organized.
• You need a REST API: For automation, scripting, or Infrastructure-as-Code workflows, OPNsense's API is significantly better.
• You want built-in IDS/IPS: Suricata integration in OPNsense is smoother and better supported.
• You prefer frequent updates: OPNsense gets new features and security patches faster.
• You value open governance: OPNsense's development is more transparent and community-driven.
• Your CPU lacks AES-NI: OPNsense doesn't require it; pfSense CE does.

The Honest Answer

For a new home lab in 2026, OPNsense is the slightly better choice for most people. The UI is more pleasant to use daily, the plugin ecosystem is richer, the API enables automation, and Suricata integration is smoother. The Broadcom-adjacent concerns that pushed people away from VMware ESXi have similarly nudged some users from pfSense toward OPNsense, though Netgate and Broadcom are entirely different situations.

That said, pfSense is a proven, battle-tested platform that millions of people run successfully. If you've already invested time in learning pfSense, there's no compelling reason to switch. Both platforms will protect your network, handle VLANs, run a VPN, and do everything else a home lab firewall needs to do.

Pick one, install it, and start learning. The skills transfer between them easily — the concepts are identical, and only the UI and some configuration details differ.