Why I am Not Using OPNSense

I love how you tell why you do or don't do things and not try to force your opinions upon others! Keep up the great work.

Tech can be worse than religion at times.

I'm sure the most recent comments at you are a direct result of Netgate dropping CE downloads from the website, which probably would have gone over fairly well if they didn't double down posting 'CE users are not customers' on Reddit.

I think there's real demand for high quality OPNSense videos on Youtube, and when people like the videos you make, they want to see you make high quality videos about the topics they want. I think the issue is that they don't notice that this channel is mostly in depth videos about the software Tom uses professionally, and occasionally a video about comparable products, but nothing in depth. One of the best things about VMWare imploding was the influx of videos doing a survey of lots of different solutions. As varied, interesting, and niche IT solutions can be, this is not the channel for lots of videos about lots of different software.

Everyone is free to make their own decision. For me the stuff pfsense did at the start to try to interfere with opnsense left a very sour taste in my mouth. I can't support them again.

Been on OPN for years since retirering the last Soekris box running PF years ago. OPN never let me down and I'm pretty sure PF wouldn't have either. Just recently replaced a Juniper SRX as our data center edge router with an OPN and it has been performing great.

That is fair video, I'm an OPNsense user, but reasons why you're using pfSense are reasonable

The reason I don't use pfSense is because the pfSense team appears to behave like children. Look at the way they initially tested OpnSense. And then the way they handled the licensing recently seems to back that up. Maybe we need a third option, I don't know. I also don't like the pfSense interface. I'd feel a lot better if all the children on pfSense left. Just my $0.02.

pfSense requiring signup to download the ISO just made me switch to OPNSense... this is just a dumb move...

Used pfSense for at least 10 years. Wanted to give OPNSense a go. Still running it 2 years later. For my use case at home...the router OS doesn't matter as long as it's at least pf/OPN based.

I feel that Netgate has an adversarial view of their own users, and it will be their downfall. Just look at VMware....

I appreciate you making this video Tom. I’ve watched your other videos with the detailed comparisons, heard about the “controversy” between PFSense and OPNSense and had decided to stick with OPNSense on that alone. But your argument to support the product that benefits the community more is enough reason for me to consider trying PFSense and see where I land after giving them both a fair shot. Thanks again and may I also say, I love your content!

Used pfSense for 10 years, but recently switched to OPNsense. The main impulses were packages (Xen guest tools, Zerotier) and many automation features (like in Wireguard - when you define allowed networks, it automatically creates the routes unlike in pfSense; or HAProxy integration and config). So overall it is the automation and packages that make the difference for me.

Thanks, Tom! Especially as an OPNsense user, that's exactly what interests me. It's not a religion, it's just facts and here are some facts I didn't know and I'm grateful for that.

I picked OPNsense because it has better driver support for all my devices.

Lawrence I just have to say I appreciate you take the time to create and upload these videos. Even myself as an MSP Network/Systems Engineer (I mostly do commercial hardware like Watchguards, Ciscos etc...) it is very nice to have a reliable unbiased knowledgeable person such as yourself on the OpenSource community. I learned a lot about OpenSource from you and even implemented some at my own home to continue my education on the platforms. Thank you and keep up the good work!

When I was deciding between opnsense and pfsense, I ended up choosing opnsense because of what I had read about really bad behaviour from the people behind pfsense. So no technical reason, just that I would not support such behaviour. Pure and simple.

Great video Tom, thanks

been using pfsense 2 years now as both edge fw and another internal fw for my homelab... its been great so far. had to chance to help a friend of mine spinning up their opn instance and had no issues with it, felt pretty similar to pfsense.. personally i think both are great and solid, ill stick with pfsense for the time being for one of the reasons mentioned in your video! thx for sharing your experience!

I switched from PF to OPN a few months back, mostly on a whim because my homelab FW got corrupted somehow and needed to be rebuilt, so I gave OPN a shot. To me it feels like mostly the same functionality behind a slightly redesigned UI. I like the fact that it has a REST API for common stuff, which I use for monitoring DHCP leases and a few other simple things. In PFsense I had to build my own API backend in order to get data in and out, whereas in OPNsense I just wrote a trivial script to consume the API and feed into my dashboard. People have been asking for REST functionality in PFsense for many, many years, and Netgate's answer was always "soon", but then TNSR happened and any hope of a PFsense API completely evaporated.