#2 of 18 firewall and router platforms · Updated October 2026
OPNsense review 2026
OPNsense (Deciso, Community and Business editions) · Dependable builder
OPNsense ranks #2 of 18 firewall and router platforms in the Firewall and Router Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 64.6 out of 100. OPNsense ships two majors a year on dates fixed since 2015, keeps every feature free and carries no CISA KEV entry, while ARM and central management stay thin.
Scores
Source: Firewall and Router Ledger 2026, edition 2026-10-16. How each score works: methodology.
Pros
- VPN and remote access4/5
- Network services4/5
Cons
No domain scores 2.5 or lower out of 5. Check the lock-in and buying notes below.
What the Ledger says
OPNsense earns its credibility score the plain way: eleven years of majors on the dates the roadmap named, with every feature in the free edition and a point release whenever a fix is ready. Capability sits in the solid band across the board because the project keeps rebuilding its own pages onto the API rather than adding enterprise layers, so central management, VRFs, TLS inspection and ARM are missing while VPN, DHCP and firewall basics are complete. The commercial and lock-in scores are among the lowest in the Ledger because nothing is gated and the configuration is one XML file. A buyer should check how the six-month series change fits their change window, since the previous series stops receiving fixes as soon as the next one ships.
OPNsense has no AI in its threat engine, no assistant in the console and no AI announcements; Suricata signatures and third-party rulesets do the detection. Its REST API is broad enough for agents to drive, which is why community MCP servers appeared in 2025 without any Deciso involvement.
Capability by area
Buying, lock-in and release record
Buying and licence (commercial risk)(lower is better)
- Price and licence volatility0.5
- BSD licence unchanged; Business Edition listed at 149 EUR per year on 2026-10-15; no earlier price captured, no licence change found since 2023
- Purchase constraints0.5
- Community Edition free with every feature; Business Edition per installation in any quantity; a cluster needs two subscriptions
- Channel and access1
- Open download and open security fixes for everyone; Business repository lags the Community Edition by design; partner terms unpublished
- Owner stability1
- Small private Dutch company, founder-led, no acquisition found; size is the dependency
- Cost of staying supported1.5
- Updates are free, but staying patched means moving to a new series every six months; no LTS to stay on
Technical lock-in(lower is better)
- Formats1
- One XML configuration file (config.xml) with documented backup and restore; plugins push backups to Git, Nextcloud, Google Drive and SFTP
- Export path1.5
- No converter to or from other firewalls; pfSense XML is not directly compatible; rules rebuilt by hand or through the API
- Stack coupling0
- Any storage, any switch; nothing beyond the host
- Hardware / cloud coupling0.5
- Any x86-64 machine or hypervisor, fully offline; no ARM build
- Skills and tooling coupling1
- FreeBSD and pf skills, less common than Linux; open REST API
Release credibility
- Cadence5
- Two majors a year on fixed dates since 15.1 (2015-01-05); the roadmap table shows every major delivered on its date; point releases every one to three weeks
- Roadmap transparency4
- Public roadmap page with planned items per release, open GitHub repositories and issue tracker; no support windows or end-of-life dates published
- Say-do4
- Roadmap items for 23.1 to 26.7 shipped in the named release; OpenVPN DCO stayed experimental from 24.7 with no GA found; 27.1 items pending
- Velocity3.5
- Each release rewrites several pages onto the MVC API and brings one or two capabilities (Kea HA, Suricata 8 inline, Dnsmasq DHCP); fewer new features than migrations
- Lifecycle stability3
- Six-month cycle with in-place upgrades and clean deprecation notices; the previous series stops receiving fixes at once; PPTP, L2TP and IKEv1 removal planned for 27.1
Partners and services
- Partner programme openness2.5
- Resellers exist (Thomas-Krenn and others) and Deciso sells direct; partner programme terms not found on opnsense.org or deciso.com
- Multi-tenancy and self-service2
- OPNcentral in the Business Edition manages several firewalls; no tenancy, quotas or portal
- API and infrastructure-as-code3
- MVC REST API covers most objects by 26.7; Terraform providers and Ansible collections are community-maintained
- Skills and certification2.5
- Large community documentation and forum; Deciso training exists, no certification track verified
Alternatives to OPNsense
Questions about OPNsense
Is OPNsense any good?
OPNsense ranks #2 of 18 firewall and router platforms in the Firewall and Router Ledger 2026, with a Ledger Index of 64.6 out of 100. Its strongest areas are vpn and remote access, network services.
What are the best alternatives to OPNsense?
The closest by Ledger Index are VM-Series (63.4), FortiGate-VM (66.4), Check Point CloudGuard (62), Cisco Threat Defense Virtual (60.8).
How is OPNsense licensed and sold?
BSD licence unchanged; Business Edition listed at 149 EUR per year on 2026-10-15; no earlier price captured, no licence change found since 2023.
How much lock-in does OPNsense bring?
OPNsense scores 4 out of 25 on technical lock-in (lower is better). Export path: No converter to or from other firewalls; pfSense XML is not directly compatible; rules rebuilt by hand or through the API.
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