OPNsense

OPNsense is an open source firewall and routing platform based on FreeBSD. It is built for network security at home and in businesses.

OPNsense provides a stateful firewall with IPv4 and IPv6 support and live views of blocked and passed traffic. It supports multi WAN setups with load balancing and failover, and it includes VPN support for IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard. Intrusion prevention uses Suricata with rule sets, and reports and graphs show traffic patterns over time. Hardware failover with state synchronisation is available for setups that cannot afford downtime. Administration happens through a web interface, and the project publishes regular releases with security fixes.

• Stateful firewall for IPv4 and IPv6
• Multi WAN with failover
• IPsec, OpenVPN and WireGuard support
• Intrusion prevention with Suricata
• Reporting and traffic graphs

Home lab users, small businesses and network engineers who want a capable firewall without licence fees. It suits people comfortable with network configuration and firewall rules.

OPNsense is open source under a two-clause BSD licence. Optional paid threat feeds and subscriptions are available for stronger intrusion protection. Hardware is the main cost, and the platform can run on suitable hardware or in a virtual machine. Hardware failover needs matching devices and careful setup, so test it before relying on it in production.