opnsense.org Reviews

OPNsense is an open-source, easy-to-use, and easy-to-build FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform. It includes most of the features available in expensive commercial firewalls and more in many cases. It brings the rich feature set of commercial offerings with the benefits of open and verifiable sources. OPNsense started as a fork of pfSense® and m0n0wall in 2014, with its first official release in January 2015. The project has evolved very quickly while still retaining familiar aspects of both m0n0wall and pfSense. A strong focus on security and code quality drives the development of the project. OPNsense offers weekly security updates with small increments to react to new emerging threats within a fashionable time. A fixed release cycle of two major releases each year offers businesses the opportunity to plan upgrades ahead. For each major release, a roadmap is put in place to guide development and set out clear goals. Mission Statement: The mission is to make OPNsense the most widely used open-source security platform. It aims to provide users, developers, and businesses with a friendly, stable, and transparent environment. The project’s name is derived from open and sense and stands for: ‘Open (source) makes sense.’ Core Features: OPNsense’s core features include traffic shaper, two-factor authentication throughout the system, captive portal, forward caching proxy (transparent) with blacklist support, virtual private network (site to site & road warrior, IPsec, OpenVPN & legacy PPTP support), high availability & hardware failover (with configuration synchronization & synchronized state tables), intrusion detection and prevention, built-in reporting and monitoring tools including RRD graphs, netflow exporter, network flow monitoring, support for plugins, DNS server & DNS forwarder, DHCP server and relay, dynamic DNS, encrypted configuration backup to Google Drive, stateful inspection firewall, granular control over state table, 802.1Q VLAN support, and more. Features: The feature set of OPNsense includes high-end features such as traffic shaping, intrusion detection, and easy OpenVPN client setup. The latest release is based upon FreeBSD for long-term support and uses a newly developed MVC-framework based on Phalcon. The robust and reliable update mechanism gives OPNsense the ability to provide important security updates in a timely fashion. Team: OPNsense is developed by a professional core team and a large group of community members. The international core team currently consists of three people. The core team determines the project roadmap, its technical foundation, and coding guidelines. Core Team Members: Franco Fichtner, an experienced software architect with avid interest in operating systems and firewalls. Ad Schellevis, a consultant, developer, and engineer with a focus on quality. First time right. Jos Schellevis, a creative thinker with over 15 years of experience in networking and telecommunications. License: OPNsense is licensed under an open-source initiative approved license. It is and will be available with the simple 2-clause BSD license. The project is founded by Deciso B.V., a company with a long history in providing networking solutions using open-source software. The support and history of Deciso give the OPNsense project a stable environment. Other companies and parties are encouraged to join the effort and create a thriving community to make OPNsense as successful as it can be.”

the reasons behind this review :
Open-source, easy-to-use, and easy-to-build FreeBSD-based firewall and routing platform. Includes most features available in expensive commercial firewalls and more. Started as a fork of pfSense® and m0n0wall in 2014. Strong focus on security and code quality. Offers weekly security updates and a fixed release cycle of two major releases each year. Mission is to make OPNsense the most widely used open-source security platform. Core features include traffic shaper, two-factor authentication, captive portal, virtual private network, high availability & hardware failover, intrusion detection and prevention, reporting and monitoring tools, support for plugins, and more. Developed by a professional core team and a large group of community members. Licensed under an open-source initiative approved license. Founded by Deciso B.V., a company with a long history in providing networking solutions using open-source software.