NexusSec.For a small office, a home lab or a branch with a tight budget, a free firewall can be a sensible choice. The good ones are mature, widely used and well documented. The risk is not the software. It is treating a free firewall as something that runs itself.
The usual options
- pfSense CE from Netgate, free and open source. Netgate's commercial version is pfSense Plus.
- OPNsense from Deciso, free and open source, with a paid Business Edition.
- IPFire, an open-source Linux firewall distribution.
- Free home editions of commercial firewalls, such as Sophos Firewall Home Edition, which is free for home, non-commercial use within hardware limits. Read the licence before using one at work.
We deploy and compare the two most common ones in pfSense vs OPNsense and pfSense and OPNsense deployment.
What to check before you rely on one
- Security updates. How often releases ship, how quickly security advisories are fixed, and how you will hear about them. A firewall that is never updated is the most exposed device you own.
- Licence terms. Open-source projects generally allow business use. Free editions of commercial products often do not. Check before it becomes the office firewall.
- Hardware. Supported network cards, a processor with AES-NI if you will run VPNs, enough memory for the packages you add, and at least two network ports.
- Features you actually need. VPN, intrusion prevention (both pfSense and OPNsense offer Suricata), web filtering, high availability with a second box, and log export.
- Support. Community forums are good but are not a service. Decide whether you need paid support or a partner who will answer the phone.
- Recovery. Export the configuration after every change and keep it off the device. Know how long it would take to rebuild on new hardware.
Where free editions fit, and where they do not
| Usually a good fit | Think twice |
|---|---|
| Home labs and learning | Sites with compliance obligations that need vendor support evidence |
| Small offices with someone who will maintain it | Businesses with no one to apply updates |
| Branches with simple needs, centrally managed | Networks needing commercial threat intelligence and sandboxing |
Paying for time instead of a licence
The honest comparison is not free against paid. It is the cost of a licence against the cost of the hours someone spends updating, monitoring and fixing the free option. For a business without that person, a commercial firewall with support, or a managed service, often works out cheaper. For a business that has the skills, a free firewall run with discipline is a perfectly good firewall.
A note on NXSgate Community Edition
NXSgate, the firewall NexusSec is building, plans a free Community Edition for home labs, learning and small networks, alongside paid plans. It has not been released yet; the checks above will apply to it as much as to anything else.
